Plumbline Solutions - Software Consulting Services

Newsletter - April 2006

Check out the first part in our three-part series about Business Portal!

This is the first in a three-part series on Business Portal in Microsoft Dynamics™ SL. This article will cover the services Plumbline Solutions offers to jump-start the process of building knowledge around Business Portal with particular focus on training, pre-sale demonstrations, and general consulting. Our expertise can help you take a customer from “soup to nuts,” or we can help fill the gaps on an ”a la carte” basis. Our goal is to provide you with options that allow you to extend your reach into the market with Business Portal in Microsoft Dynamics SL.

Training — Request us to create a training class for your staff or for a customer to provide hands-on experience with Business Portal. We can tailor the training to be as specific or generic as needed, covering features from the installation and setup processes to adding web parts that point to internal SharePoint sites.

Pre-sale demos — Allow us to tailor a product demonstration that addresses all of the questions your prospect is asking. You gather the requirements, and we’ll do the work required to help you close the deal.

General consulting — Whether you have questions about the latest release of Business Portal in Microsoft Dynamics SL or an earlier release, let us help you get quick answers. We can provide consulting on general topics. We can reduce the time you would otherwise spend searching through documentation or working in trial and error mode.

Next month, we’ll talk about deployment, integration, and remote implementation of Business Portal in Microsoft Dynamics SL.

At Plumbline Solutions, we value hearing from you. Are there specific Hints and Tips, Solutions of the Month, or other information you would like to see in our monthly newsletter? If so, please send your requests to Adam Lauth at marketing@plumblinesolutions.com, and we will do our best to fulfill them.

Plumbline Solutions provides software engineering services for Microsoft^® Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Microsoft Certified Partners. We offer software development, application support, and technology consulting, with a dedicated focus on delivering excellence and building lasting relationships.

Want an efficient way to see the day's orders? The default Orders page in Business Portal shows all orders in the system. You can add a Business Portal query to the existing Orders page to show just today's orders. To do this, use the Today query variable. By using a query variable, you won’t need to modify the query ever day to set the current date.

Here are the steps to add a new query to your existing Orders page:

1. Navigate to Sales | Orders.

2. Use the menu next to Sales Order List, and choose Create New Query.

3. Click Next until you are at the Restrict Rows page.

4. Click Advanced.

5. Click the magnifying glass next to <Add>.

6. Select Order Date, and then click OK.

7. Click the Advanced Restriction button (the button with the blue arrow on it).

8. In the Advanced Restrictions dialog, choose Variables. This will populate a list of variables that can be applied to a date field.

9. Choose Today, and click OK.

10. Click Next until you are at the Save Query page.

11. Name the query Today's Sales, and click Next.

12. Click Finish.

Your new query will now display only today's orders. If you want to see all sales, use the menu next to the query name to switch back to the default Sales Order List query.

This is just one example of how easy it is to customize Business Portal to see the data that you need.

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Name: Brian Lloyd

Team: Application Development Consulting (ADC)

Role: Consultant

Background: I started supporting Solomon Software in January 1998. My last position was on the Microsoft Solomon Extended Services team assisting Premier customers with environment, Solomon Desktop, and Business Portal issues. With Plumbline Solutions, I provide Business Portal consulting services to partners, including development, training and pre-sale demonstrations.

Likes best about consulting: My days are never the same. One day I might be coding a new page or customizing an existing page for Business Portal, and the next day I could be doing a remote implementation or assisting with a Business Portal demonstration. I’ve enjoyed the change moving from Support to being a consultant.

Hobbies: Golf, being with my family, and playing Halo2 on Xbox Live.

Looking for a third-party application or vertical solution that can be used with Microsoft Dynamics™ SL (formerly Microsoft^® Business Solutions—Solomon)?

Take a look at Plumbline’s ISV Link Exchange for a list of add-on products. It’s a fast, friendly way to help you find what you’re looking for.

If you would like us to add a link to your company’s Web site, contact Adam Lauth,
marketing@plumblinesolutions.com or call 419-421-0270, extension 119.