[Podcast] A Shot of Business Central and A Beer. Pilot Episode.
Updated: Aug 10, 2021
Welcome to the pilot podcast of A Shot of Business Central and A Beer! We've completely revamped our previous podcast to make this podcast more entertaining and informative for you the listener. New segments include a craft beer discussion, a shot of Business Central, a spotlight of a Business Central feature, and a featured app.
You can also listen to us at:
Show Notes
Intro
What's New in Business Central
Directions 2019
Dynamic users – 3.3 Million
Dynamic Customers – 223,000+
300+ Apps available in Appsource
Dynamics 365 growth 51% compared to 24% for all others
Rapid Start 2x faster in April release
The sandbox will soon allow you to have all data, extensions and add-ons included when created
In June we will receive the first draft of release notes for the October Business Central release
October release will only have modern client
The October release will work to improve performance and user proficiency (Desktop Productivity, Data Entry speed)
Certification exams to return in 2020
Heavy investments by Microsoft in the Power Platform (Power BI, Power Apps and Microsoft Flow)
Business Central Feature Spotlight
Featured Business Central App
What segments would you like to see added to the podcast? Do you have any beer recommendations for Ken and Michael? Let us know in the comments section below!
YouTube Transcript
00:28 like to start talking you about is that
00:30 we have some exciting new changes that
00:32 have happened with the podcast we've
00:35 completely revamped the podcast to make
00:37 it more entertaining and informative for
00:39 you the listener our new podcast name is
00:43 a shot at Business Central with a beer
00:45 and just as the title alludes to will be
00:48 discussing business central topics and
00:49 craft beers while enjoying a cold one
00:53 ourselves so this podcast not only has a
00:56 new name but it has a new format and a
00:58 new co-host as well and without further
01:02 ado I present to you the man who
01:04 actually brought the beer mr. Ken said
01:07 aha so Ken why don't you tell the people
01:10 a little bit about yourself and what it
01:12 is you brought for us today all right
01:13 thank you Michael I am super excited to
01:17 be here and loving being part of this
01:20 thank you for including me and taking
01:25 some of my suggestions so yeah so with
01:29 this new format what we're gonna be
01:31 doing is each podcast we're gonna focus
01:35 on one specific craft brew we're gonna
01:41 figure out we're going to talk a little
01:42 bit about the brewer where it's made and
01:46 a little bit some fun facts about the
01:48 beer maybe and then of course you know
01:52 we're gonna have to share our thoughts
01:54 on the beer with you as we go through
01:57 this so we're going to talk about beer
02:00 we're also going to talk about shots
02:02 except right not shots like what you're
02:06 thinking but shots of business central
02:10 so some news updates
02:13 feature spotlights and also some app
02:17 spotlights where we're gonna we're gonna
02:19 focus on some apps that are available an
02:21 app source talk about those a little bit
02:24 and so yeah so I'm drinking taking a
02:28 drink right now here and let's do a
02:30 little quick toast to right to our first
02:33 shot of business central with the beer
02:35 pot right first one and we're gonna get
02:37 it rolling here so right off the bed
02:41 it's a it's a very good beer what is it
02:47 yeah no Three Floyds yeah so what we're
02:51 drinking is a beer called zombie dust
02:53 hahaha
02:55 so zombie dust is probably the the most
02:58 well known of beers that are made by a
03:03 brewery called Three Floyds brewing
03:06 which is based in Munster Indiana this
03:10 is kind of a local yeah local to us here
03:13 in the Chicago area they're just right
03:15 across the Indiana border off of us just
03:18 south of i-80 interstate 80 not too bad
03:21 no so so they're right there they have a
03:23 tasting room founded by you know two two
03:26 brothers and their dad back in the late
03:29 1990s 1996 I think and relatively new
03:34 yeah so so they've been sent in 2000
03:38 they moved to a new facility in Munster
03:40 Indiana and and I think they're broke
03:43 their beers are available throughout I'm
03:45 not sure regionally or probably or
03:48 nationally I do know that in 2018 Three
03:54 Floyds says here a crap cracked the top
03:58 50 list of brewing companies by sales
04:02 volume so they're number 49 overall
04:06 brewery sales very nice
04:08 so I'm guessing they must be must be a
04:11 national brand but but this one here
04:14 zombie dust it's always hard it's always
04:18 been hard to get really
04:19 so I think they you know hoggle an area
04:21 you mean or
04:22 think everywhere I think you know it's
04:25 it's it's available year-round if you go
04:27 to their brewery and in Indiana but
04:32 trying to find it in a store has
04:34 historically been very difficult just
04:36 because of the demand so why did you
04:38 pick this beer this localized in Indiana
04:40 are you a Notre Dame fan well no as this
04:44 is our first segment I wanted to start
04:49 with the best haha so for me this is the
04:53 gold standard this is your gold fan this
04:55 is it yeah I'm a little biased I grew up
04:59 not far from Munster Indiana so I'm able
05:03 to frequent their brewery quite a bit in
05:06 my opinion this is one of the original
05:09 beers that started the whole craft
05:12 graduation scene and specifically Pale
05:15 Ales American Pale Ales IPAs or India
05:18 Pale Ales it's officially an American
05:21 pale ale or APA but it's it's that
05:26 fruity super hoppy a little bit sweet
05:30 mm-hmm beer it's made with like Citra
05:33 hops yeah definitely get the super hoppy
05:34 part you know 6.2 percent alcohol so
05:38 it's it's stronger than like a Miller
05:41 bud product yeah but it's not you don't
05:44 taste that alcohol right no no no that
05:47 alcohol like some of those 10 or 12%
05:49 beers yeah yeah you don't really enjoy
05:52 it as much you don't taste it so so I'm
05:54 gonna so I'll you know admit that in my
05:59 beer rating if you know on so on our
06:01 scale of 0 of 0 to 100 in rating a beer
06:05 for me
06:06 zombie dust I'm gonna put that right at
06:08 the top really at a hundred yeah
06:10 hahahaha so so now there's no we know
06:13 set on the bar as yeah we got to find
06:15 something better than going forward
06:16 right away right at least to match it
06:19 maybe maybe exceed it meter you know
06:21 what maybe I'm gonna go 9800 just leave
06:25 a little bit of room I'm gonna go
06:26 ninety-eight I want to give myself a
06:27 little bit of leeway in the future if
06:29 you happen to
06:29 across something that's that's even a
06:32 little bit better I want to leave some
06:34 room for there so how about yourself I'm
06:37 gonna put this at about I give it a
06:41 solid 94 it's a really good beer I tend
06:45 to prefer more Mexican beers so that's
06:48 why those those are gonna be more and
06:49 more of my top tier beers but just
06:52 because of it like a lager Pilsner yeah
06:55 exactly
06:56 Corona Corona Modelo Pacifico not bad
07:02 Tecate it's not too bad yeah I'm gonna
07:05 put it a good solid 94 it's a really
07:07 good beer hoppy I wouldn't say I would
07:12 crack it open on a hot summer day though
07:14 yeah have you yeah it's a little bit
07:16 more heavy then yeah I agree
07:19 hot summer day after I've been doing
07:21 something outside light like yeah I see
07:28 that yeah Corona Lite kind of comes to
07:30 mind for me yeah I'm sitting on a super
07:33 hot day yeah really thirsty all right
07:36 right yeah you're not gonna be lighter
07:38 you're probably not gonna drink a dozen
07:39 of these no all this is more sit back
07:41 and relax
07:42 you got a nice cigar or something Julia
07:45 exactly yeah so so that's our focused
07:50 beer we'll probably come back through as
07:51 we go throughout the rest of this
07:53 podcast and talk about it a little bit
07:56 more and ask some more questions of each
07:58 other and then yeah see how it gets as
08:01 it warms up yeah so I think in our next
08:06 that's about it here of our next segment
08:07 we're gonna be following this following
08:10 up this beer with a shot business not a
08:13 business central alright so we're gonna
08:15 talk a little bit about business central
08:18 it's been a while since our last podcast
08:20 so there's been many things that have
08:21 happened a lot of new features a lot of
08:25 developmental new features for that as
08:29 well so Ken what you got over there you
08:32 got anything to talk about for yeah I
08:34 think you know along with what you're
08:36 saying I think it's we should start with
08:38 a timeline recap
08:39 Piron so like what's been going on let's
08:42 go back to last fall so last fall around
08:45 October Microsoft came out with this new
08:50 product Microsoft Dynamics 365 business
08:55 central long name and you know really
09:01 what that was is is it's a new product
09:04 that's based on a previous previous
09:08 solution right Microsoft Dynamics NAV
09:10 right and what Microsoft did was
09:13 obviously kind of gave it a fresh name
09:15 Dynamics 365 business central but also
09:19 delivered it kind of as two separate
09:21 solution two different options two
09:23 different deployment solutions so you
09:26 you have the big the big major news was
09:30 that there's a Microsoft hosted version
09:32 right that's animal completely run on
09:36 Microsoft's cloud all you pay is a
09:38 monthly subscription fee per user and
09:42 Microsoft deals with the infrastructure
09:44 they deal with the upgrading and keeping
09:47 you current and on the releases so
09:51 that's really the the big announcement
09:54 but they also took nav which it was
09:57 previously known rebranded it as
09:58 Dynamics 365 business central and call
10:01 that the on-premise version so for those
10:06 who are running nav or have always the
10:09 were otherwise loved nav and want to use
10:12 it or considering using it it is still
10:15 available Microsoft Dynamics 365
10:17 business central on-premise now does it
10:21 have a lot of the same functionality as
10:24 they have a lot of the same look it has
10:27 almost these full functionality between
10:31 both products there are there are going
10:35 to be certain advantages if you're
10:37 running on the Microsoft cloud version
10:39 where some of the integrations with if
10:42 you're running office 365 or some of the
10:46 Cortana artificial intelligence or power
10:48 bi those integrations are
10:51 blurt is set up there like automatically
10:54 enabled if you will because you're
10:55 authenticating through office 365 so
10:58 there are going to be some some
11:00 advantages to that but if for whatever
11:02 reason you still wanted an on-premise
11:06 solution or just full control over the
11:09 the administration of the sequel server
11:11 database or whatever you can still run
11:15 the traditional kind of quote on premise
11:18 version even if you're running that on
11:20 an on an azure server it's a private
11:23 cloud you can respectively create your
11:26 own private cloud and now you have full
11:28 administrative control over everything
11:30 very nice so is the private cloud
11:32 quicker than the multi-tenant cloud in
11:37 terms of speed mm-hmm
11:40 you know the performance I here's what I
11:42 would say is the the performance so far
11:44 we've had no negative feedback on the
11:46 performance of the Microsoft cloud
11:47 hosted version but having your own
11:52 private cloud or on-premise server does
11:55 give you yourself directly more control
11:59 over adding horsepower so if it is slow
12:02 you add as much RAM or processors as you
12:06 want right whereas other Microsoft
12:09 clouds hosted solution right Microsoft
12:14 Microsoft is responsible for making sure
12:16 your performance is good so companies
12:18 that are traditionally busier in a
12:20 certain season of the year can ramp up
12:23 power on their own cloud yes on their
12:27 own by that loud reset when they're not
12:29 as busy correct you could save them a
12:31 little bit of money yeah absolutely we
12:34 have customers that do that so the and
12:36 what it is is you basically kind of you
12:40 know temporarily shutdown and just
12:42 change your Azure resource allocation
12:46 and then you restart your business
12:49 central services and now you have
12:51 doubled or tripled or whatever it is
12:53 your horsepower and it's it's it's a
12:55 pay-as-you-go model so if you happen to
12:58 have that server jacked up for like two
13:01 days in four hours you pay
13:05 for that extra capacity for two days or
13:09 in four hours
13:09 oh very nice very nice and just so the
13:12 listeners know Kenya is obviously
13:14 business central nav expert and it's
13:18 kind of my job to try and stop them
13:19 during the podcast yeah I'm gonna give
13:25 you a question here let's see let's see
13:26 how it goes
13:28 business central full cloud multi-tenant
13:30 running in the cloud yeah how far back
13:33 can you retrieve information if
13:35 something crashes well they're in in
13:40 business central there is no there's
13:44 there's no automatic data deletion or
13:47 data archiving if you if you're using
13:50 business central you've got your posting
13:52 transactions in there those trains at
13:54 those posted invoices those general
13:57 ledger journal entries or receivable
13:59 entries they're there as long as you're
14:02 running so we have customers today that
14:05 are running Dynamics NAV right the
14:08 legacy that probably solution for
14:09 business central who have literally
14:12 twenty years of data that they've
14:15 accumulated within their database so do
14:18 you know that is it possible if somebody
14:19 deletes the data in the cloud to contact
14:22 Microsoft and have a restored or if well
14:26 I mean there are you mean someone at
14:29 your organization and say deletes a
14:31 company yeah the whole company yeah you
14:35 know what that's a good question oh it's
14:41 over so so one is one solution to that
14:46 is that they have created what they call
14:48 a sandbox environment so what you could
14:51 what the customer so the end user has
14:53 the ability to do is at any point they
14:57 can log into business central on the
14:59 cloud and they can create a sandbox
15:03 environment which is a full complete
15:06 copy of their live production
15:08 environment nice so they have all the
15:09 data backed up if they need yeah you can
15:11 use it obviously as backups or you could
15:14 use it as
15:16 for as a testing environment or training
15:19 environment right so there's a lot of
15:21 different ways that you can use that I'm
15:23 kind of have it there are also tools
15:25 that you can use if you're if the data
15:28 is this a concern where you can call
15:34 power a tool called power query yeah
15:36 where you can directly pull data out of
15:38 business central into tables or yeah
15:44 beautiful very good I just had
15:49 experiences I'll tell you later this is
15:51 yeah so yeah so so going back so that
15:56 was October right so since then
16:00 Microsoft on a regular basis they apply
16:03 updates fixes and things like that to
16:06 the cloud environment yeah and and then
16:09 they came out with a spring release so
16:11 this is April 2019 just last month
16:14 they came out with this April release
16:16 and this April release is for both the
16:18 Microsoft cloud hosted and the
16:21 on-premise version Oh which is different
16:23 usually than then they have update where
16:26 they said right generally once a year
16:27 right it previously was like on a roll
16:29 there's a nad 2015 2016 2017 now it's
16:34 more twice a year is the plan so what
16:37 will expect a fall and a spring release
16:41 coming out and and there's a document
16:44 that's published and it lists all of the
16:47 features that were released I don't want
16:50 to I don't want to get it spoil my next
16:52 segment here we'll put in the show notes
16:54 though so everybody can download yeah
16:55 look at it but there's there's a lot of
16:57 new features that came out so where
17:00 we're at right now so if you're running
17:02 business central in the cloud you may
17:05 say well hey it's May
17:07 I don't see my updates so during the
17:12 month of April Microsoft has been
17:14 rolling out the that spring release
17:17 updates to all the different business
17:20 central environments that it's hosting
17:21 right and it does that kind of piece by
17:24 piece we call them their home clusters
17:27 of environments so you may already have
17:30 your business central environment
17:34 updated you may not so what you want to
17:36 do is if you're running in the cloud go
17:39 to the global search type in system
17:41 information and if you see an update
17:43 that starts with fourteen point
17:45 something you're updated if you're at
17:47 thirteen point five something you have
17:49 not been updated yet right yep so and
17:55 also you do have the ability which is
17:58 really cool so let's say you haven't
18:00 been updated yet but you know there's
18:02 this release out there if you go in your
18:07 partner so something that we can do on
18:09 behalf of a customer is we have the
18:11 ability to build a new sandbox for our
18:14 customers who are running business
18:15 central and we can actually specify that
18:18 that sandbox uses the new version called
18:22 the preview version right so people can
18:25 test out things before right so you're
18:27 running your live up your live version
18:29 and hey there's this cool new spring
18:32 2019 update that's out there this allows
18:36 you to go in and actually build the
18:38 sandbox with your data and your
18:41 interventions and apps in there
18:44 and actually test it and see how it
18:46 works and make sure everything's gonna
18:48 work before you schedule and confirm
18:50 your live update I think they'll
18:53 regardless I think everybody has to be
18:55 updated no matter what eventually right
18:59 you can't hold off it's a no I don't
19:01 want that updated and not have it I
19:03 think so it might be a six month period
19:07 or something yeah now because so yeah
19:09 because you can write extensions you can
19:12 write your own individual apps if you
19:15 will for business central if we're you
19:17 know your specific environment something
19:20 unique that like your business does we
19:22 need to add these fields here so
19:25 Microsoft will run through they'll do
19:27 they'll test upgrade all the
19:29 environments and then it is possible
19:31 that there's some sort of conflict so
19:33 that update could fail right right but
19:36 yeah you're right there is a point where
19:39 I have to be on they will push you
19:41 eventually now we're still really new
19:44 right this is the first major updates
19:46 that's come out it's early May right now
19:49 there are some environments that are
19:51 still haven't been updated Microsoft is
19:54 working on those we're working on a
19:55 couple with them we you know so we
19:58 expect those issues are going to be
19:59 resolved shortly now and then we're
20:02 gonna share with you on this podcast our
20:05 experiences with updates and keep you up
20:07 to date on you know what's going on and
20:11 maybe give you some tips before you if
20:12 we decide for any sin division yeah hey
20:14 by the way don't do this or try to stay
20:17 away from this so so so that's kind of
20:20 where we're at it's it's it's being
20:22 deployed right now there are a ton of
20:26 new features that are that are in there
20:28 some pretty cool stuff we'll get to that
20:31 and a little couple minutes here but the
20:33 other kind of two things I wanted to
20:35 just touch on today was you know with
20:38 business central it is a cloud hosted
20:41 solution and Microsoft is regularly
20:45 applying updates on a regular basis yeah
20:48 but that does not mean that you can't
20:50 tailor it for your business but instead
20:55 of going in and updating the source code
20:56 you can't do that right because if
20:59 you're changing the source code how
21:00 could Microsoft then I go update it but
21:03 you can extend the functionality so they
21:06 call these extensions or that's our term
21:08 for like an app and what that means is
21:11 that we can take a piece of standard
21:13 functionality within business central
21:15 and we can add things to it so we can
21:17 add fields to the customer table we
21:20 could then add business logic that does
21:22 something with those fields or we add a
21:25 report right and it's we can virtually
21:28 add anything right there's really no
21:30 limit right to be done you need a whole
21:33 kind of module built we could build a
21:35 whole you know module within the
21:37 business central environment in the way
21:40 that we do that is through my Christine
21:44 derd Microsoft development tools and
21:46 this is one of the coolest new things is
21:49 that
21:50 the new dove the new they call it the
21:51 modern development environment you do
21:54 this using Visual Studio code which is a
21:58 Microsoft development tool yeah I think
22:01 it's I don't what don't quote me like
22:02 the number one used developer tool in
22:06 the world oh right so there are
22:08 literally you know thousands of people
22:10 all over the place that use Visual
22:12 Studio code to do their development for
22:16 various different solutions so for us
22:19 now in business central to be able to
22:21 leverage that huge community of
22:23 developers who can who now can go in and
22:27 with that without needing a special
22:30 license or certification right can go
22:32 begin building extensions for Business
22:35 Central it's huge yeah it's me a lot of
22:38 extensions out there really soon right
22:39 yeah yeah so so that's that's one thing
22:43 that we're really excited about here we
22:45 obviously are you know are building our
22:47 own extensions we're going on publishing
22:49 extensions an app source yeah we were
22:52 you know we're building custom
22:54 extensions for our customers as they
22:56 need it so those are things we're doing
22:59 every day but that's one of the one of
23:01 the cool coolest new things and kind of
23:03 the last kind of topic I wanted to touch
23:06 on for our shot of business central
23:09 today is the feedback feature and this
23:13 is central this is new so yeah you're in
23:15 business central right you've got some
23:17 icons up on the top right one of them is
23:20 feedback so if you click on feedback you
23:22 know you're looking for something you
23:24 don't like how something works yeah
23:26 click on feedback open it up and you can
23:30 directly provide your feedback to
23:33 Microsoft so right from business central
23:35 you can tell them whether or not you
23:36 like it or don't like it correct or say
23:38 or if you want to see something
23:39 different yeah hey why can't I also do
23:41 this yeah and here's great here's the
23:45 best part
23:45 so that's that's kind of cool because
23:47 before you'd have to go to a website
23:49 right yeah and I think it would go to go
23:53 to a website there was a feedback and I
23:55 got voted on or couldn't there was well
23:57 there was a community feedback site and
23:59 I'm gonna say
24:01 for my own person I want to speak for
24:03 anyone else I'm not really sure what
24:05 happened to that it kind of went out
24:08 into the ether sphere right hit say the
24:12 cloud and and whatever happened with
24:14 that be back well here's what's
24:16 different about business central all
24:18 that feedback is visible in there right
24:20 and then you can see how many other
24:24 people have voted on these different
24:28 feature requests can you feedback right
24:31 right from business central yes oh wow
24:33 so you can log in and go oh I I do a
24:37 search and you can search inside the
24:39 feedback for a certain thing you're
24:40 looking for payment terms so you search
24:43 in payment terms you you find four
24:45 articles and you can see that though
24:48 there's one similar to what you're
24:49 looking for and like four hundred people
24:51 have already voted on this or they like
24:54 it right so you know if it's popular or
24:55 whatnot and right the more popular
24:57 whatever has chances of it actually
25:00 you can also so yeah what what's what
25:04 are the what are the big things people
25:06 are asking for you can sort that list
25:09 based on the number of feedback lights
25:12 oh really so you can see what the most
25:14 popular thing is it's right so and then
25:17 what that means is you can now see what
25:20 are the features that are most likely to
25:23 be included in the next release because
25:26 Microsoft is using that yeah they're
25:29 looking at it and in the spring release
25:31 there have already been features that
25:34 we're sitting out there in the feedback
25:36 that now they they're listening ways
25:39 great I mean that's it's it's the
25:42 customers way of getting their voice
25:45 heard and getting the features that they
25:47 want Microsoft is actually listening
25:49 right not a lot of big companies do know
25:53 it's great to see that community
25:55 feedback no you see that and just to
25:58 know that you're not the only one
25:59 struggling with this or that others
26:00 would like it or maybe on the other hand
26:04 on the opposite right you're you're
26:06 you're asking for this go log in and
26:08 check up on it yeah wait no one else's
26:11 yeah no one else likes that
26:13 one else has feedback on that okay you a
26:15 little crazy with what you want it's
26:17 just maybe it's just you alright
26:19 so so that that's pretty cool I check in
26:23 on that periodically and see what some
26:25 of the most you know kind of that most
26:26 popular ones are yeah because it tells
26:29 me what what are the things that are
26:31 likely to maybe show up and then I
26:34 please I think what is it two months
26:36 before the actual next release which
26:38 will be in October so two months before
26:40 that Microsoft will release their
26:43 release notes which will detail what's
26:46 coming in the October release always two
26:49 months beforehand yeah so that is it for
26:52 my for my shot of you did my shot take a
26:58 swing of it well that's why I finished
27:00 my zombie dust oh nice I'm ready for
27:05 another ready for number two so alright
27:08 well start number two as we start the
27:10 next section alright alright so the next
27:15 feature section that we want to talk
27:17 about is well this is actually our
27:18 featured spotlight section is directions
27:21 there was actually a recent Direction's
27:24 conference in Las Vegas I had a lot of
27:27 attendees a lot of good information and
27:31 solution systems we had a couple people
27:33 attend and they brought back some
27:35 interesting tidbits yeah yeah so the
27:40 first one I know of is that the attend
27:41 the attendant attendee count was over
27:44 905 Plus which I believe is their
27:48 highest ever for directions I bet it is
27:51 yeah yep it's pretty uh just a lot yeah
27:55 I'm gonna I'm gonna crack myself another
28:00 yeah so yeah so you've been to it
28:05 directions I have right yeah where was
28:07 that
28:08 where was that help Arizona Arizona
28:10 Arizona yeah was that right outside of
28:13 Phoenix downtown or was it at all
28:15 Biltmore
28:15 no I was a cowboy or something saloon it
28:20 wasn't in downtown
28:21 went for the actual cat together we had
28:24 to be bussed in the Phoenix downtown so
28:27 it was built more Resort no no it was
28:31 okay something saloon nice place though
28:35 it was actually called saloon yeah well
28:36 something saloon unless I must have
28:38 missed that one I was at the first
28:40 Direction partner so directions I don't
28:43 know if everyone knows this so back in
28:47 2000 I'm gonna guess 2004 there was
28:52 there was really no get-together for
28:55 Microsoft Dynamics NAV partners to get
28:59 together and collaborate and talk right
29:03 and and get together with is B and you
29:07 know app vendors and things like that so
29:09 a group came up with this conference the
29:12 very first one was in Stone Mountain
29:13 Georgia South Side of Atlanta yeah and
29:17 so I attended that one and I was seeing
29:21 a so for so there have been probably
29:22 about 15 directions conferences 16
29:25 whatever it is I've been to about a
29:28 dozen of them Wow so I've missed a few
29:30 the first one how many people would you
29:33 say attended - you know it was more it
29:36 was like a few hundred yeah yeah more
29:39 than I would have expected yeah it was a
29:40 couple hundred people it's probably
29:43 there and then most of them over the
29:46 years you know it's funny there's
29:49 probably four to six hundred you know
29:53 probably around five hundred people six
29:55 hundred people but it's it's it's great
29:57 it's a great community mm-hmm you see
30:00 the same people every time you go you
30:04 can see the same sort of the same people
30:05 in each session that you go to right
30:07 right and and and it really creates a
30:11 good community
30:12 and I think that the Dynamics NAV
30:14 community and our business central
30:15 communities is great so this year I
30:19 didn't go so we had a couple other into
30:24 a few other individuals here attend so
30:27 we're just sharing some of the notes
30:28 that they have right some of these 10
30:31 accounts I'm a little bummed we didn't
30:33 get to go it was the Red Rock Casino and
30:40 Resort in Vegas so could try out the but
30:45 one of the people went for us is big on
30:46 mechanical roulette oh yeah yeah we got
30:51 to find out it was just this week I
30:52 don't know did he win uh and I think he
30:56 I think he lost a little bit him him and
30:58 Mark both lost a little bit but they're
31:01 still holding true to their their
31:02 philosophy that yeah so yeah you
31:05 mentioned like nine hundred attendees
31:08 and some of the figures that they shared
31:11 with with at the conference is there are
31:15 currently over three million
31:17 dynamics users Wow license users out
31:21 there so it's a cooties if you think
31:24 about it yeah right imagine that all
31:25 these people show up to work every day
31:28 and they log in and they're using
31:30 Microsoft Dynamics yeah products right
31:33 so it's huge over 200,000 businesses
31:38 running this now in terms of Microsoft
31:41 you know the business central solution
31:45 with the April 2019 that they just came
31:49 out with over 350 new features Wow right
31:55 it's amazing yeah I mean 350 new
31:57 features on an ERP system within just
31:59 six months they just released this one
32:01 ever
32:02 so there's fanuc they're actually
32:04 listening to feedback they're profess
32:07 ting that money yes those that money
32:09 that you that a user spends is getting
32:12 reinvested on a regular basis back into
32:15 the product
32:16 so they'll believe in the product yeah I
32:19 personally believe in the product yes I
32:22 think the people that have used it
32:24 believed in the product so I think the
32:27 future is bright one of my favorite new
32:30 features we're gonna talk about a few
32:32 features section here session here
32:34 I'm gonna save this one my favorite one
32:36 well cliffhanger for later but one of
32:41 the things is there are over 300 apps
32:43 for business central now available a NAB
32:47 source it's crazy because what a year
32:49 ago there was 12 maybe something like
32:51 that yeah if that yeah for the longest
32:53 time there was only so this is the the
32:55 business central de partner and
32:57 development community who's been hard at
33:00 work over the last six twelve months
33:03 yeah
33:03 Building Solutions for business central
33:08 yeah and I only imagine that if that if
33:11 we if this product continues on at the
33:14 trajectory it's at and and continues
33:16 with I mean we've been so successful
33:18 with nav for years if this is going to
33:21 continue being successful there may be
33:23 over a thousand apps by the end of the
33:24 year I good over/under I completely
33:27 agree with you right yep I think it'd be
33:29 right around a thousand and I think it's
33:31 gonna be twofold basically every year
33:33 from that on them yeah
33:34 the Damien the growth of the dynamics
33:36 365 product line over 50 percent Wow
33:41 over a 50 percent growth rate for the
33:44 dynamics product line so that's huge you
33:49 know other features we talked about the
33:51 sandbox environment how you can copy all
33:53 your data and extensions into there you
33:56 mentioned how the the release notes for
33:58 the October release actually June
34:00 actually more than two months right yeah
34:02 so in June we should have a preview of
34:06 what's what's coming up in there have
34:10 you heard anything though when people
34:13 can actually get into the sandbox and
34:16 create a sandbox and use those features
34:17 you know I I don't I only know that this
34:22 release it was it was about 30 days
34:25 right so I would assume that it will be
34:28 approximately
34:29 days before the release where you can go
34:32 make a sandbox with it with those
34:33 matures in there so so there they're
34:37 continuing to invest a lot of money in
34:40 there
34:42 you know they've improved the efficiency
34:44 that there's rapid start data migration
34:46 tools yeah they've improved the speed
34:49 over two times between the previous
34:52 release so they forgot again gotten the
34:54 feedback from the community and they've
34:57 improved the performance of that so you
34:59 can convert your data faster in there so
35:03 going back to your city you're talking
35:04 about they're reinvesting in the product
35:06 and whatnot I see that there's they're
35:09 putting a lot of investments also into
35:11 the what they call the power platform
35:13 power bi power apps and yeah inflow
35:16 which are all great tools to basically
35:19 help extend business central as well
35:21 right yeah so the whole power platform
35:25 power bi power apps and flow these are
35:28 these are software solutions created by
35:30 Microsoft really that are kind of
35:32 generic in nature mm-hmm right you can
35:35 use these solutions to build your own to
35:39 build your own app yeah that does
35:42 whatever you need it to do it could be
35:44 nothing to do with Dynamics right and
35:47 you can use power bi as a business
35:50 intelligence solution to connect to any
35:53 data source you know it is not just for
35:56 Microsoft no but Microsoft is they're
36:02 smart enough to to integrate these with
36:05 business central mm-hmm so when you're
36:07 running business central cloud you have
36:10 direct integration capabilities with
36:13 power bi and absent flow and and there's
36:16 a lot of workflow solutions you can
36:17 build with that business intelligence
36:19 reporting so that's pretty cool and I've
36:22 actually built a couple I have some
36:23 power apps it's very easy very uh you
36:26 know very quick to do when I think are
36:29 you a developer no I'm not a developer
36:31 but I had to try it out so look it's
36:34 really simple yeah really simple but I
36:36 think that one of the things that the
36:37 biggest upside is Microsoft flow once
36:41 they're able to
36:42 put more commands in there to let you be
36:44 able to say - do you know if I do this
36:47 then I can do that I think people are
36:49 really gonna take advantage that right
36:50 it's gonna be amazing going forward
36:52 could you build us an app to track our
36:56 craft brew craft brews maybe the
37:00 consumption the rain radius consumption
37:04 back definitely we could do that right
37:07 there you go that's it that's a good one
37:09 speaking of that these zombie dust are
37:11 going down pretty pretty smooth now
37:14 they're uh they're very good yeah maybe
37:17 yeah I can see why they're the radii so
37:20 how long you been drinking zombie dust
37:21 for though um you know like I said
37:24 zombie dust is one of the original brews
37:28 that Three Floyds made I said I grew up
37:31 around there yeah so we we were able to
37:34 go to the brewery and get it locally
37:37 like Twelfth Night I would say back you
37:39 know it was when you know I round like
37:43 when you know Sam Adams Oh got popular
37:45 was it was popular right craft brew
37:48 right all right
37:50 so like Sam Adams Sierra Nevada back in
37:55 the early days of craft brews is when
38:00 I've been drinking this for it's always
38:02 been hard difficult to get it so you
38:05 don't I went to a bar in the Chicago
38:08 area and it was actually a restaurant
38:12 bar in restaurant and I sat down with my
38:16 lovely wife Heather and we sat down to
38:19 eat and I looked at the specials menu
38:20 and on the specials menu was zombie dust
38:23 oh really
38:24 so I waitressed came over and I said I
38:28 go oh I go hey I see you have specials
38:31 you have zombie dust on the menu huh she
38:33 goes yeah I said wow that's rare
38:37 I've not seen you know restaurants do
38:40 you ever you have like a keg she goes
38:41 yeah we got one keg in oh I said okay oh
38:44 that's awesome
38:45 I'm gonna call my friends she goes well
38:48 you better hurry it'll probably be gone
38:49 by the end of the night Wow
38:51 so it's popular so it's got its got a
38:53 crowing base so I look around
38:55 the restaurant I'm not exaggerating
38:58 there were at least 10 people I could
39:02 see drinking haha meet us within eyeshot
39:06 of it because they were serving him in a
39:08 you know special glass so you had to get
39:10 it while you can get it right so yeah so
39:13 it's amazing it's been a while alright
39:17 so let's see what else anything else
39:22 that you notice from the directions that
39:23 uh you know I I think there's some
39:30 partner stuff that people don't care I
39:32 mean one of the things I guess maybe
39:33 maybe from a from a customer standpoint
39:35 they care is that that they're good that
39:38 they're coming up with a new
39:39 certification program for partners so in
39:44 order to be certified for business
39:46 central they're bringing back some
39:47 certification exams that you have to
39:50 have we're lucky you know we're like you
39:52 know forty employees we've got a lot of
39:54 people with a variety of skill sets so
39:58 you know historically these exams have
40:01 been on things like financial management
40:03 CRM trade which is like distribution
40:09 manufacturing installation and then
40:12 development right so we're not too
40:15 worried I think I think that you know it
40:19 may become a differentiator between
40:21 partners of who's certified are you
40:25 certified are you not certified I'm kind
40:29 of on the fence about the whole thing I
40:30 think that you know whether or not you
40:33 have how many people certified does that
40:36 really is that really an indicator of
40:39 how good you can how well everything
40:41 right yeah I think customer references
40:44 yeah you know the number of customer
40:47 references and the quality of those
40:49 customer references is much more
40:51 indicative yeah and also how long you've
40:53 been in prison for right stay in
40:55 businesses but you know it's a positive
40:58 sign it means that Microsoft cares that
41:01 who is implement who is helping their
41:03 customers implement a software
41:05 right so so from that perspective you
41:07 know that's good to see
41:20 today's podcast is sponsored by our
41:23 wonderful IT department if you've got
41:25 cyber criminals trying to rob your data
41:27 we've got virtual paddy wagons ready to
41:30 round up those wannabe hamburgers
41:32 contact us at info at soul siscon so
41:42 each podcast we're gonna highlight a
41:44 specific feature of Business Central and
41:48 today we're gonna talk a little bit
41:50 about the outlook what do you call it
41:54 over there the outlook integration
41:57 contact contact insights contact
42:00 insights yeah so I know Ken's got some
42:03 notes on it and a few points he wants to
42:05 touch on yeah so so you know what we are
42:08 what we know right is hi you sit at your
42:10 desk most of the day right you use
42:15 outlook I'm all day long all day right
42:18 now you're sitting there you're looking
42:23 at outlook all right no you're not alone
42:25 everyone does that right 100% sure right
42:29 so one of the great new features of
42:32 business central is that if you're using
42:34 office 365 for email you can launch
42:41 business central from within outlook is
42:45 that so yeah so you're sitting there
42:48 you're working hard at whatever it is
42:52 you do yeah Bing here comes a new email
42:55 so you click when you you instead of
43:00 just opening the email and having to
43:02 then go into the ERP solution look up
43:05 the customer or find out what's going on
43:07 you can click on a button up on your
43:10 ribbon called contact insights
43:14 what it does is it looks at the email
43:17 address the sender of the email compares
43:21 that to your contacts list in Business
43:25 Central and goes oh I know Tom Thomas he
43:30 works for Canon Group he's one of your
43:33 customers and it displays the Canon
43:36 group's customer information right
43:38 within outlook so what you're saying is
43:41 that people can save time by not
43:43 switching between applications and just
43:46 staying outlook and ultimately become
43:48 more productive and get more work done
43:49 and make life a little bit easier
43:51 based on this integration yes if you
43:55 want to be lazy and there you go it's so
44:03 hard you got to minimize you gotta click
44:05 over somewhere else
44:07 right right you don't have to do that
44:09 anymore you're you know click a button
44:12 oh there's canon group and by the way
44:14 once you once it's not just a view of
44:17 the data you can drill into information
44:20 through outlook in Outlook Oh never
44:24 launch business central your in Outlook
44:26 the customer sends you an email that
44:28 says it can when is my order for you
44:32 know number one two three gonna ship I
44:34 can click in Outlook on a little there's
44:38 a pane that opens on the right side I
44:40 can click on a on a tile that shows my
44:43 open orders open the order and see what
44:46 that expected shipment data is it's
44:49 right from with Outlook that's amazing I
44:50 can create new orders customer wants to
44:54 order five new widgets right from our I
44:56 can create that order and I can send
44:59 them an email confirmation of their
45:00 order without leaving outlook so is this
45:03 using maybe the Cortana intelligence to
45:06 a point where it recognizes what's in
45:09 Outlook or is it just basically scanning
45:11 outlook and looking for keywords and
45:13 knowing that so yeah so there's well
45:15 there's it's I would kind of put it in
45:17 two separate features the first is the
45:20 ability to launch the customer or vendor
45:23 information right right from within
45:25 outlook and business central the second
45:28 thing is there is artificial
45:30 intelligence or machine learning or
45:32 whatever you call her built-in so if the
45:37 customer in the body of their email it
45:39 happens to say I want five widgets and
45:41 ten panel side panels it will suggest
45:46 quote or order lines for you nice based
45:50 on the data within the body of the email
45:53 very nice
45:54 yeah this only works with office 365
45:57 yeah you have to be running exchange
45:59 online so your email has to be running
46:01 through exchange online or running
46:04 office 365 for an email but but it's
46:08 it's you know in addition to running on
46:10 the app right on your tablet or your
46:13 phone which you can do with business
46:15 central a lot of people work in Outlook
46:18 so you know from from a usability
46:21 standpoint the the fact that you can sit
46:24 and outlook get an email click on a
46:26 button and have full access to that
46:28 vendor or that customer or contacts
46:32 information right there without having
46:34 to leave Outlook is it we think a huge
46:37 new feature Oh a differentiator right I
46:40 mean who's not going to like that
46:42 everybody's gonna like that that uses
46:44 outlook in business central maybe
46:46 someone who doesn't run outlook maybe
46:48 they maybe I don't okay maybe they won't
46:51 maybe they won't I still want to go in
46:52 their hotmail right so they're pop
46:54 account than ever they can do that right
46:57 but yeah so so it is yeah obviously
47:00 alright it's part of the vision of
47:03 Microsoft that you're you're using
47:05 office 365 you're using business central
47:08 full integration between the two almost
47:11 like email is one concept right we kind
47:13 of think of it like business Central's
47:14 becoming a it's almost like it's just a
47:16 part of your office experience it's
47:20 almost a right well you exactly yeah the
47:22 whole dynamics 365 family it's just that
47:24 it's everything that you need the
47:26 dynamics 365 office 365 you really don't
47:30 need too much more right
47:33 that that's the vision so so yeah so we
47:36 think this is a great feature that's
47:39 included with business central again
47:42 probably 349 more new features out there
47:46 to go check out with the spring update
47:48 though but that's one we think is worth
47:50 mentioning do you think this is
47:52 something that the customer can set up
47:56 by themselves or they need an expert
47:57 like us to do it no customers should be
48:00 able to do this on their own we're
48:03 available to help to assist and walk
48:06 through there
48:07 you know there's kind of their setup you
48:09 Wizards within business central you know
48:13 and how you authenticate and everything
48:15 right and there's plenty of videos
48:18 online that they're walking sites they
48:20 ask to an online help so so hey
48:24 integration is good kind of like
48:26 integrating this uh beer with some
48:28 peanuts maybe in our next podcast you
48:31 know what we do need snacks don't we
48:35 that's right
48:36 yeah we're learning as we go this is our
48:39 maiden voyage right so you know next
48:43 month we'll be we'll be drinking
48:44 something else yeah and you get to be in
48:47 charge of the beer I'll get I'll be in
48:48 charge of snacks there you go and now
48:50 we're talking that's right I'm in
48:52 alright so for one of our last uh one of
48:55 our last two segments we're going to
48:56 talk about this week it's gonna be a
48:58 couple of featured apps were going to
49:00 talk about credit card processing apps
49:02 and and things like that mainly charge
49:04 logic centric business solutions and
49:06 something that I'm not too familiar with
49:08 called Microsoft pay that my co-host
49:11 just sprung on me now
49:13 so Ken what you tell us a little bit
49:15 about let's sure yeah so I guess the
49:18 main the the first point is you know if
49:22 you're running business central yeah the
49:24 first thing to understand is you know
49:26 can you go in and record customer
49:28 deposits and cash receipts yes you can
49:32 more and more people today right use
49:35 credit cards yeah so how do i process a
49:38 credit card I'm taking an order and the
49:41 customers wants to pay for this on a
49:43 credit card or the customer owes me a
49:46 bunch of money for some
49:47 to invoices and I want them to I want to
49:50 I want to accept the credit card and pay
49:52 with a keep track of it yeah so the
49:55 standard business central software when
49:57 you install it does not have that so
49:59 that's the first old credit card process
50:01 right out of the box right but there are
50:05 apps available so if you go to app
50:07 source you can do a search on credit
50:10 card for business under Business Central
50:13 and you'll see that there are multiple
50:15 solutions the first and let's talk about
50:19 the first right is Microsoft pay so
50:22 that's an app you know now Microsoft pay
50:27 it's a it's a it's a payment service
50:29 hosted by Microsoft and they handle
50:31 multiple types of payments including
50:33 credit card we pay paypal and and other
50:38 sources very nice so so that that's one
50:42 solution that's out there there are
50:45 other partner solutions yeah one of
50:50 which you mentioned charge logic right
50:52 so charge logic has been around for a
50:54 while there's their product is credit
50:58 card right that's their live water they
51:01 live and breathe
51:03 credit card processing okay they have a
51:05 PCI compliance solution and so on
51:11 but you know we don't we don't it's a
51:13 great solution but it's not the only one
51:16 there's also another solution out there
51:18 it's on an app source it's called nav X
51:20 credit card and so so you say well okay
51:26 so we've got Microsoft pay let's put
51:29 that into buckets on its own no no it's
51:30 on the bucket and then we've got these
51:32 two different credit card processing
51:34 ones that are out there and great I'm
51:36 different but some minorities I
51:37 apologize if there are other ones out
51:39 there and they're right and tomorrow
51:41 there may be I think that's something we
51:43 start where it's almost virtually
51:45 impossible for your partner or a partner
51:48 like us to know everything about every
51:50 single app that
51:52 out there I mean we have the ability to
51:54 talk to Microsoft and learn about it
51:55 quicker than the end-user does but right
51:59 off the bat it's it's almost impossible
52:01 for us to know every every app that's
52:02 out there it is it is and and Microsoft
52:05 is adding new apps on a regular basis I
52:08 don't know what the schedule is if it's
52:10 daily weekly monthly whatever they're
52:13 there all I know is every time I go out
52:15 there and I look for something it seems
52:16 like there's more out there so you know
52:20 I want to kind of talk about charge
52:22 logic in this nav X credit card and how
52:25 they're similar and how they're
52:26 different the first thing is how they're
52:28 kind of similar is that they're both PCI
52:33 validated or compliant solutions you can
52:37 take accept credit cards through both of
52:40 them you can you know take a credit card
52:43 against in an outstanding sales order
52:46 which then charges your card once you
52:48 end up shipping it and invoicing the
52:50 customer and some reconciliation tools
52:54 available the the charge logic solution
52:59 they use there they are their own
53:01 processors so when you sign up for
53:03 charge logic charge logic is your credit
53:06 card process you have to use right so
53:08 you know the benefits of that is that
53:11 it's simple it's easy right and and
53:15 similarly the nav X credit card solution
53:18 uses a long-established company Century
53:24 Business Solutions as their processor
53:26 and again you know you don't have a
53:29 choice you utilize the processor
53:32 associated with that each app each app
53:34 yeah but that makes it simple you know
53:38 you don't you you may not be able to use
53:40 your current processor anymore but you
53:44 know there's a lot of difficulty
53:46 associated with with integrating your
53:49 your ERP software your processor in your
53:52 bank it also so when I gathering it's
53:55 helping you save a little bit of upfront
53:57 costs as well first year has yeah the
54:00 the fees the monthly fees to utilize
54:03 these applicate
54:04 Asians are really really affordable yeah
54:07 you know so so price is it really
54:10 shouldn't be an issue if you need to
54:12 take credit cards within the software
54:15 the rates are pretty competitive from
54:17 what I understand with what you may be
54:19 paying now if you have a credit card
54:20 processor and you tell me well we've got
54:22 these negotiated rates and this is what
54:25 we're paying you know the rates are
54:28 pretty competitive so you know in my
54:32 opinion even if those rates are slightly
54:35 higher you know you're getting a fully
54:38 integrated software system elimination
54:42 of duplicate entry it's secure and the
54:46 data is encrypted you don't have to
54:48 worry about you know a lot of different
54:50 other systems or manual systems you've
54:52 got fraud those are all things that cost
54:54 you a lot is one of your liability odd
54:57 exposure yeah there's a lot of risk out
55:00 there so we we think these are both good
55:04 solutions that are out there and they
55:07 also both offer a payment portal so what
55:11 you can do is you can you can direct
55:14 your customer to a payment portal you
55:17 put a link on the invoice yeah that you
55:19 email to the customer they can click on
55:22 the link and it takes them to a secure
55:25 payment portal where they can actually
55:27 enter their own credit card information
55:29 and pay that invoice and I believe they
55:32 can see different multiple invoices
55:35 right not just the one right right sure
55:37 now so yeah in the portal it's it's
55:39 mm-hmm it's specific to them so they're
55:41 allowed to see different invoices pick
55:43 what not yeah so yeah so today we just
55:45 want to talk about credit card
55:46 processing again one not included right
55:50 you so you need an app for it and then
55:53 these are these are some of the apps
55:55 that we use yeah we've had success with
55:58 yeah and we would recommend yep
56:00 definitely implemented and supported
56:02 both all right so that brings us almost
56:06 to the end of the podcast we talked a
56:09 lot a lot about you know good things to
56:11 a couple good apps credit card apps we
56:13 talked about us
56:15 beer some business central features that
56:17 are coming out and I got a say Ken a
56:21 really good choice in zombie dust beer a
56:23 really good choice thank you that's very
56:25 good you know like I said we we got to
56:28 set the bar you have our set I'm not
56:31 afraid to go over the bar if we can find
56:33 a way to get over the bar but you know
56:36 next month next time we meet we're gonna
56:39 be drinking something else yeah see
56:41 what's out there and wouldn't talk about
56:43 that yeah I want to give a quick
56:46 shout-out to a buddy of mine who
56:48 actually bought me my first beer when I
56:51 was 21 his name is Dan Lopresti so thank
56:55 you my friend for introducing me to uh
56:57 just some beer back then do you remember
57:00 what kind of beer it was I do not to be
57:03 honest with you but back then it was it
57:06 was probably light or something like
57:09 that ya know craft beers really back
57:11 then and and bar is more to popular
57:14 Miller Lite or Coors Light or Bud Light
57:16 and one of them is something along those
57:18 lines I wish I did remember to be honest
57:21 with you but I do not do you member your
57:23 first uh beer bought it
57:25 there's beer that somebody bought for
57:26 you you know the first beer that
57:33 somebody bought for me I don't remember
57:37 the first beer ever head I'm gonna
57:40 whether or not this is the truth the one
57:44 that comes to my mind is a friend of my
57:49 my older brother rich his name was uh I
57:53 don't want to I won't give his name
57:55 because I was underage at the top but
57:57 went out and and did us a solid and got
58:01 us a case of old style haha
58:06 that's definitely uh right it's
58:09 definitely school right there it's a
58:12 hard it's a hard beer to start out with
58:13 right yeah so I remember I distinctly
58:17 and it wasn't like you know today's a
58:19 case of beer today comes in like a
58:21 cardboard yeah
58:22 box
58:24 this was this was like the corrugated
58:29 like base was it you know I'm saying
58:33 with four six packs that were you know
58:35 connect oh I know what you're talking
58:37 about yeah yeah yeah okay it was just a
58:40 corrugated half box picture like a half
58:43 a box you know just the death but the
58:44 the base of it right with with the 24
58:48 beers in it not even like a regular case
58:52 yeah
58:53 old-style was last time yet old so yeah
58:56 I couldn't tell you that I would I would
58:58 bet it would have had to been a Cubs
59:01 game yeah
59:02 probably around ten years ago yeah I'm
59:07 probably yeah probably probably on the
59:09 same for me for old style yeah not a
59:12 beer choice no they're not something I'm
59:14 ordered when I'm going somewhere not for
59:16 me so but I looking forward to I've had
59:21 a great time this has been fun yeah many
59:24 more to come and looking forward to our
59:25 next meeting you know the beer the
59:28 snacks it's good job business central
59:31 agreed thanks everybody for tuning in we
59:33 truly appreciate it as always if you
59:35 have any questions or whatnot about ERP
59:37 CRM give us colony for 75903 thousand or
59:41 email us at info at solstice calm when
59:44 this is posted we will put show notes
59:46 which will have links to some of the
59:48 things that we talked about today so
59:50 have a good one everyone