Plumbline Solutions - Software Consulting Services

June 2008 Newsletter

In this Edition:

Summer is almost here!

If you experience a cyclical decrease in business during the summer months, it's a great time to connect with your existing customers. How about holding a customer event, such as a user group meeting, or a customer appreciation get-together? You can build customer loyalty by providing education around new technologies or applications that may be advantageous to them, or your goal may be to simply help them increase efficiencies with their existing solutions. A group event also presents the opportunity for your customers to socialize and learn from each other.

Not sure how to go about arranging a customer event? See our Solution of the Month article. Don't have the time or resources to create marketing materials or facilitate a presentation? No problem - we can help! We have created user group seminar templates that are readily available to help with pre-event planning, creating fliers, invitations, thank-you notices, and more.

Best of all, if you act quickly, Microsoft may even cover the costs for a Plumbline Consultant to come on-site during your event to do presentations for you. Let me know if you are interested in having us assist you with a user group event this summer.

Best Regards,

Todd Michael
Director of Sales & Marketing
Plumbline Solutions, Inc.
(419) 581-2973

P.S. For those of you who are fans of Gary Harpst's Six Disciplines for Excellence book, you will be excited to learn that he will be publishing another book next month. You can read more about his new book in the "What's New" section of our newsletter.

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

Planning a Customer Event

Benefits:

• Strengthen relationships with your customers
• Generate add-on sales
• Introduce a new product or service
• Educate

The Process:

• Organization & Planning
• How will you measure success?
• Create project plan with deadlines
• Build in communication touch-points
• Evaluate

Getting Started:

1. Give yourself plenty of time to plan – typically 2-3 months in advance of the event date and determine the desired outcome at the beginning of the project planning process to ensure you stay on track [read more].

Load Report Failed error when trying to print on a Terminal Server or Citrix Server. When you try to print or preview a report in Microsoft Dynamics SL, [read more].

How to add a help file for a third party screen in SL 7.0? If you need to update your SL 6.5 code for SL 7.0, try using the freeware program called HelpMaker to create any of the standard kind of help files [read more].

Troubleshooting Performance Issues in Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0 There are a number of possible places users can see performance issues and there are a number of possible causes for these issues [read more].

The Pay When Paid Process in 7.0 is fully automated, based on a new "Pay When Paid" terms code in the voucher. There is a new table that links A/P vouchers to A/R invoices in the AR data base [read more].

BP 4.0 & SDK The Business Portal SDK was discontinued in 4.0. Custom development should be done in the WSS SDK and/or the MOSS SDK to incorporate additional SL data into Business Portal [read more].

Business Ready Licensing - what's different? Business Ready Licensing is a new method of licensing for Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0. When entering the registration keys, instead of having to enter one key for every module... [read more].

Do you know where to find the Solomon.ini file?

Tips On Installing Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0 on a Terminal Server. This hot topic covers server settings and hot fixes that should be installed for the best performance when running Dynamics SL on a terminal server.

If you have consultants in your organization that are not receiving the Plumbline Newsletter, please forward a copy of the newsletter to them and have them click on the "Subscribe me!" link in the email.

Sign-up is also available on our website. We want to make sure we have these professionals “in the know” about the latest SL activities and ensure they have access to the monthly hints & tips.

To read previous issues of our Newsletter click here.

Mark your calendars for these upcoming events:

Tech-Ed 2008 held in Orlando, FL
U.S. Developers: June 3-6
U.S. IT Professionals: June 10-13

Virtual Tech-Ed
Tech-Ed Online is the global information portal for all Tech-Ed events. Access technical training and resources before and after Tech-Ed 2008.

A web seminar about the VMAX program is available on June 11, 2008 9:30 AM PST. To register, click here: Generate More Qualified Leads with a Vertical Value Proposition.

WPC 2008 July 7-10 in Houston, TX
Registration is now open!

Dynamics SL User Group Fall Meeting held in Hartford, CT Sept. 17-19

Name: Karen Archer

Background: At Plumbline, Karen has been a designer and a developer with experience in most of the Microsoft Dynamics SL modules. Prior to joining Plumbline, Karen worked in a number of different design, developer and project management roles for Solomon Software, Great Plains Software, and Microsoft, offering more than 25 years of experience.

Likes best about consulting: Opportunities to work on projects with different people, different technologies and different challenges while meeting the customer’s needs. [read more]

Welcome to our newest Link Exchange Program participant!

Tectura - ReQlogic is a browser-based procurement, requisitioning, expense processing and workflow application.

To participate in the Plumbline Solutions' Link Exchange Program and gain greater visibility for your products or services , e-mail us or read the participation details.

We now have 44 ISVs offering 198 solutions featured on our web site!

Access Plumbline Solutions' Link Exchange for a list of Microsoft Dynamics SL add-on products in one easy-to-search area: Plumbline Solutions' Link Exchange

ISV Central - join this group to gain even more exposure for your add-on solutions. This program was recently expanded to include Dynamics SL applications.

Marketing Programs you can leverage to stretch your dollars.

VMAX Program - now open for enrollment. Learn how you can save 50% on your vertical marketing campaign expenses by visiting www.microsoftvmax.com.

Additional ways to save money and time on your marketing efforts - leverage Microsoft's CDF Program and Ready to Go Campaigns.

Looking for ways to communicate with other Dynamics SL partners and developers?

Systematic Solutions has developed a blog that invites discussion about Microsoft and Dynamics software tips & hints, industry trends, etc. This site replaces their previous "Keeping it Simple with Solomon" newsletter. You can visit the site here: http://www.systematicsol.com/blog.

Microsoft also has a Public Forum for SL users can access to connect with other developers.

Another site you may want to reference for some useful developer information - just follow the hyperlink!

Of course, the Solomon Partner Forum has been a great vehicle to exchange technical information and product tips & hints for years. We frequently access this site to contribute information and provide feedback, as well as gain insight into top issues!

You can access the Partner Forum from PartnerSource- by selecting Communities> Newsgroups>Partner Private Newsgroups> Solomon Partner Forum.

Read about a revolutionary new way to attack the oldest problem in business!

Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution is the newest book by successful serial entrepreneur, and former Solomon Software co-founder and CEO, Gary Harpst.

In this new book, Harpst explains what his newest venture, Six Disciplines, has learned in the past seven years about “how to solve the one business problem that makes solving all other business problems easier.”

Over 100 man-years of research and development and $20 million investment have resulted in the first complete strategy execution program for small and midsized businesses.

In this new book, Harpst lays out the elements of a breakthrough strategy execution program, and dramatically demonstrates why such a program will become a mainstream requirement for all successful businesses in the near future.

You can now pre-order Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution at 30% off - by going to www.SixDisciplines.com/Revolution.

Start a revolution in your own organization!

Get your copy of Six Disciplines^® Execution Revolution today!