Time flies when you’re having fun… Or maybe when you’re just staying incredibly busy… However, it’s time for a GP Tech Conference 2018 recap!
GP Tech Conference 2018 Recap
August 20 through 22, 2018, some of the brightest minds in the GP community congregated at the (then sunny) GP headquarters in Fargo, ND. This was a 3-day dive-in to the technical side of Dynamics GP and discussing what’s next.
Needless to say… It was nerdy and super exciting!
Quick notes on what to expect on more of the techy-side of GP in the next few months…
GP 2018 R2 is coming and coming soon!
The GP Product Management & Marketing team has a great blog w/ the tag #FeatureOfTheDay that goes into detail of the things to expect with the new version of GP. Blog @ https://community.dynamics.com/gp/b/gpteamblog/.
A few things that excite me…
Expanded Password Capabilities from 15 to 21 (Woohoo!)
Hide Business Analyzer across the board
Transaction-posting can now post through!
Recurring batches can now be set to post “Last day of month”
Added workflow options (ex.) Only trigger when customer above credit limit)
It’s more known news at this point but the scheduled release date is 10/1/18. If your business is planning to upgrade, now is that time to be planning and getting that development environment prepared!
Intelligent Edge being available to Dynamics GP.
This is awesome news! Microsoft has provided features in the cloud (AI, Machine Learning, Analytics, etc.) that GP can now interact with. The is being termed “Intelligent Edge” and I’d be writing for days to cover it all but just know, Microsoft is committed to GP and its tens of thousands of customers across the globe. We are in exciting times!
Microsoft Power Platform is “THE THING” right now.
Microsoft Flow, Power BI, Power Apps. These are all HUGE tools offered by Microsoft in the cloud and are things that Dynamics GP can benefit tremendously with. The connection between these apps and your Dynamics GP environment is incredibly easy to setup and almost seamless.
Power BI provides some of the machine learning capabilities that GP has been missing for some time and more importantly provides a top-notch reporting tool.
Flow provides incredible workflow capabilities in and out of GP. The short time that it took Steve Endow to connect Dynamics GP with an external data-source still has me in awe. The potential time-savings are significant and the opportunities are limitless.
PowerApps. This might’ve taken the cake for me as it was “Love at first sight/presentation”. The ability to “customize” GP isn’t always fun. With PowerApps, it’s fun and it’s relatively easy. In a short period of time, we watched presenters duke it out in a PowerApps shootout where they were able to build Barcode scanning inventory count applications, customer summary apps, and intuitive reporting apps that can both push and pull data from GP. All of these apps can be used via mobile and desktop.
In short, all of this means that “tailoring” Dynamics GP more towards your business is going to get a whole lot easier. No longer the days will be that if you want to have a specific interface to GP, you have to go through a massive development process w/ some GP dexterity gurus. These tools are all available to the GP world and then right people (or the right training) can make them work for your business.
The GP partner, ISV network, and GP community is STRONG.
This didn’t come as a surprise but it’s something that I always notice and like to always bring to light. GP is a great solution and backed by a great company, there’s no denying that BUT it’s the community that takes it to the next level. When you have something that so many bright and dedicated people are involved with, that’s what brings it life and that’s what the partners, ISVs & the rest of the community does for GP. The tech conference brought out some of the best and makes you realize that there are few things that can’t be done with Dynamics GP and many many many things that are done better than other solutions in the marketplace.
That’s the quick scoop. I’ll be and Summit in Phoenix in a few short weeks. If you’ll be attending and have some free time, I’d love to meet up so let me know.
If you’re not going to Summit, definitely CHECK IT OUT! – https://www.gpugsummit.com/
If you’re a partner and interested in next year’s GP Tech conference, more info here – https://www.gptechconf.com/
That’s it everyone. If you have any questions on what’s new with GP or questions on the GP surrounding conferences, let me know!
