Your Microsoft Dynamics® solution is mission critical to the success of your business. Together with your Microsoft Dynamics partner, we understand this and want to help you ensure your solution runs smoothly and performing at its highest level.  Enrollment in the Business Ready Enhancement plan is an essential part of providing your organization with the innovative upgrades to expand your functionality along with important updates to help ensure compliance and improved performance.  On June 1, 2010, Microsoft will begin requiring a Business Ready Enhancement Plan when making additional license purchases on supported versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics AX. This policy change is designed to drive more customers to maximize their solution value and help protect future investments they make.  As a value Microsoft Dynamics Customer, we look forward to your continued enrollment in a plan to ensure you have access to the support, training, tools, and solutions you need to expand your business and plan for future growth.  Please contact your Microsoft Dynamics Partner if you have any questions regarding this change.

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Currently Maconomy’s largest single implementation has around 8,000 active users. But Kantar Group, a long-time Maconomy client, wanted to know if Maconomy could potentially scale their system to 60,000 users. This would enable Kantar Group to consolidate their entire global organization and help them prepare for future growth. Maconomy ran a series of performance tests on-site at Kantar Group to determine whether the solution could be scaled up to support 35,000 users with adequate performance. As it turned out, the system’s capacity was even greater.

“Our tests showed that we could expand our system capacity to over 60,000 users by using standard software and regular performance tweaks. We even tested on-site with the client during the peak month-end period. We used these test results to fine-tune our database setup and now we’ve presented solid proof to Kantar Group that we can support their worldwide operations throughout their organization,” says Allan Junge Hyldal, Solution Management Director, Maconomy.

“No matter the size of your organization, you need a business solution that addresses your main business challenges, not just your size. Maconomy has asserted itself as a competent business partner in many of our subsidiaries, so we asked them if they could design a solution to leverage the operations of our entire organization. We’ve followed Maconomy closely while they’ve proven the scalability of the solution, and the results speak for themselves. 60,000 users on a single database will put great strains on any system, but the performance of Maconomy’s system was virtually unaffected,” says CTO Marv Ritter, Kantar Group.

A business solution on a single database will help make Kantar Group’s overall operations leaner and reduce their running maintenance costs. Additionally, Kantar Group will be able to assimilate new companies quicker following mergers and acquisitions. Maconomy will put the parent company in full control of financial management while enabling local flexibility to help Kantar Group’s subsidiaries in 52 countries solve their unique project management challenges.

“Maconomy is clearly ready for the major league. We have demonstrated that we can help even the world’s largest project-focused companies run their business. Maconomy is widely recognized as a leader in providing business value to project-focused companies based on years of exclusive focus on these businesses. But it may come as a surprise to some people that we also possess the robustness and technical savvy to put multinational companies in full control of their global operations,” says US President Steen Andersen, Maconomy.

Please note that this release does not affect Maconomy’s financial expectations for 2010.

About Maconomy

Maconomy is a global supplier of industry-specific business solutions for project- and service-oriented companies (“Professional Services Organizations”). Maconomy provides services to approximately 600 customers in 58 countries through offices in the U.S. and Europe, and through a comprehensive partner network. More than 126,000 users worldwide use Maconomy’s business solutions.

About Kantar Group

Kantar Group, based in London, was founded in 1993 as the market research, information and consultancy division of WPP Group. It is a network of more than 20 specialist companies with around 35,000 employees working in 80 countries across various research and consultancy disciplines. Kantar Group’s services are used by more than half of the Fortune Top 500 companies worldwide.

The study, called Delivering Project Profitability: On Time and Under Budget, looked at project-based businesses and the challenges they face in remaining profitable inside a distressed and developing world.

While it acknowledged that a subject like this can’t be accurately painted with a single brush, given the range of corporate activity bustling out there, it does provide some strong counsel on how everyone could get a leg up in this cramped economy by paying attention to certain proven practices.

The study, which was based on feedback from some 315 respondents, explored a scene already weakened by both a struggling economy and the considerable pressures the new competition of emerging markets presents. Market and business volume are down, and companies don’t have the same freedoms they once did to tinker with their prices in any kind of upward direction.

The report points to what it refers to as best-in-class companies—or those in the top 20% of performance scorers—and reveals that these folks had delivered a full 91% of their projects early or on time, and a full 96% within budget. Not bad.

This compares to the performance record of the laggards, or those businesses whose performance scored them a place in the bottom 30% of the group, who were only able to deliver 35% of their projects early or on time, and just 43% of them inside of a budget. Amazing.

Anyway, the conclusion this paper properly draws is that a company’s ability to produce projects on time and on budget is probably its most valuable asset right now.

Piece of cake, right? Sure it is. Just so long as you equip yourself with the right tools.

That’s where 360 Visibility and its serious toolbox come into play.

The top-performing companies, says the study, long ago adopted the stuff and have been benefiting from it ever since. Their attention to enterprise-level software means they’re better able to control and manage their data than before. They’re operating inside of a organization that has learned to collaborate. They respond cohesively to problems. They are more profitable.

“Optimized decision-making can only be achieved by providing critical and accurate project management data across the enterprise in the proper context,” the study reports.

Even so, scarcely half of the so-called laggard organizations have implemented such solutions. Many firms are so limited by a desktop-bound project-management vision that they can’t lift their eyes to take in concepts such as workflow automation, collaboration tools and document management.

And so, while standardized best practices are always welcome at the party, one overlooks at their peril the critical role that enterprise-level applications can play in achieving full potential.

The tickle in the throat. The scratch in the chest. The leak in the nose. Far from down and out, you’re functioning just fine, thankyouverymuch. Still, there’s trouble around your edges and every reason to believe you could be performing at levels much closer to the top of your game.

But wait. Before congratulating yourself on the wisdom that delivered tickly, scratchy, leaky you to the doctor’s office in pursuit of a clean bill, consider that other parts of your life could benefit from similarly preventative attention.

An information technology health check is common sense, write large, 72-point type, shout it from the rooftops and nothing less. Technology, after all, is a torpedo, tugging progress along by the nosehairs. For a company to imagine it can remain still in this rushing current, without benefit of the occasional Band-Aid, upgrade or plans best laid, is pure folly.

At 360 Visibility, our proven IT Health Check provides clients with a comprehensive review of their IT infrastructure status. Complete with diagnosis, we offer an all-in prescription for improvement. Among other things, our detailed report will identify both areas of present-day, drag-you-down incompetence and of big, hairy potential risk. We’ll benchmark your firm against industry best practices and offer some guidance on bridging the divide.

We’ll tell you if your existing infrastructure can be better aligned with your existing business strategy. We’ll scope out your IT inefficiencies. We’ll poke around your disaster recovery and business continuity provisions. We’ll take a listen to your IT policies and procedures.

Your cabling, switching, wireless networks, phone system, routing and firewalls will all be subject to a technician’s gentle exploration. We’ll call up your legacy phone system to see if it’s up to snuff.

And we’ll give you a brutal glimpse of the scene that awaits a company that makes no move to improve.

More than that, qualified 360 Visibility technicians will set you up with a exhaustive report that includes working paper checklists on those specific categories we’ve identified as worth watching, and solid written counsel to help you prioritize next steps within an implementation timeline.

Your IT Infrastructure is a critical factor in the success of your business. It provides the construct for your employees to do their jobs. It facilitates daily operations and expedites plans for growth. Thanks to it, security, communication and access to information are reasonable expectations for a day at the office.

If the information technology bones inside a business are unwell, or even in peril of minor fracture, the company as a whole will suffer. And if the place isn’t operating at maximum capacity, when a certified IT professional with a highly refined trouble-seeking stethoscope is at such close hand, well, that’s just a shame.

And that doesn’t feel good at all.

Property management ain’t the breeze you imagined it might be.

But there is help at hand. Property management software, to say nothing of the attendant professional expertise that would facilitate its installation chez vous, represents an eminently useful and increasingly sophisticated tool for keeping abreast of the complicated business of property management.

Property is a high-value asset, after all, and its inclusion is your portfolio is not to be trifled with. Property management software exists on a wide platform, from the simple to the complex. Research, on this front, bears fruit.

6 Steps to Choosing the Right Property Management Software Solution

1. Draw yourself up a property management checklist to help identify your requirements. Consider such essentials as reducing costs, overseeing maintenance schedules, handling contractors’ performances, calculating recoverable expenses, tracking deals and managing complex leases.
2. Shop for both software and software provider wisely. Compare product specifications with your identified business needs (it isn’t worth paying for bells you’ll never ring), and seek out endorsements from happy customers. Read reviews and accounts of other clients’ experiences.
3. Remember that there’s every possibility that your competitors will have gotten there first, and are already well equipped with software to keep their real estate interests in fighting trim. You and your manual approach are no match for that kind of intelligent control. Get equipped.
4. The best property management software boasts a range of features, including lease management, where lease renewal notifications are automated to proactively retain tenants on the most favourable terms; maintenance scheduling, where schedules and contractors are tightly managed to minimize surprise costs; and operating income forecasts, where project lease revenues and operating expenses are accurately predicted for terms of up to 24 months out.
5. Choose a provider with a track record. At 360 Visibility, where property management solutions span a wide range of applications (commercial, hotel, industrial, retail, residential and vacation), experience is wide reaching, and expertise is a given.
6. Remember the value of integration. A smart software solution eliminates the inefficiencies of multiple computing platforms, incompatible software and redundant processes. True property management efficiency can only be realized with a property management software solution that smartly integrates multiple avenues of functionality.

It was a curious stance to embrace, way back in 2004 at Microsoft’s worldwide partner conference, held that year in Toronto. But there was wisdom in Ballmer’s Danish declaration.

Specifically, the Microsoft Corporation CEO was expressing his high-flown opinion that, if Microsoft Business Solutions was as successful with Navision in other countries as it had been in this Viking motherland, this business unit would increase its revenue by a factor of 10.

“This is not rocket science anymore,” he said. “Rocket science is when you say, ‘Oh, it’s never been done before. We don’t know how to get there.’

“No. We just have to be as good as we are in Denmark in every other country.”

Fast forward six years, and find 360 leveraging Ballmer’s vision with the establishment of a NAV practice that could make Canada the first.

But exactly what is it that Denmark is doing that would compel Ballmer to give voice to such an extraordinary aspiration? Certainly the place has some clever windmill technology going on, and its pastries are always a delight. But is that the extent of it?

Not by a long shot.

Ballmer’s Denmark envy is not so much about the products on offer in that Scandinavian stronghold as it is about the people proffering them.

Certainly the conceit of working smarter, not harder, is the carrot at the end of every technological development-and-implementation stick. In Denmark—home, not uncoincidentally, to some of the world’s happiest souls—they seem to have figured out a way to grab it.

Almost from day one, Danish partners built industry solutions for NAV that ensured quick delivery without the imperative to constantly reinvent the wheel. More than that, the partners began trading these solutions inside their own circle, a munificent move that made the solutions available to all players equally. With one partner responsible for developing and maintaining the solution, more partners could focus on actually implementing it—and on creating real business value for customers.

Participating businesses welcomed the increased productivity and decreased administrative hassle this model promoted. Thanks to this generous and forward-thinking approach, the country as a whole made a pain-free transition into a digital business environment that supports mutual prosperity while releasing people from menial tasks in exchange for labours more creatively stimulating.

NAV has been in this country since 1997. That we have yet to complete the Danish transition is a function of the preponderance of Canadian companies running systems that don’t support a modern, optimized business model. It’s a scene fit for revision. There’s money to be made and savings to be exploited—but we need to move now, and put infrastructure in place to make the most of them.

360 does Denmark

Here at 360, we’re working on several solutions for just that. Take our set-to-launch and enormously effective property-management product—built in the latest version of NAV 2009—for one. Or the of-the-moment NAV-enabled solution we’re putting together for the professional services market.

What’s more, 360 is helping existing Canadian NAV customers get more from their investment—by evaluating the business impact of their current solutions and comparing them to the true potential that could be unleashed with some modification—to spectacular effect.

And if there’s still any doubt about our commitment to all things Danish, look no further than our recently installed vice-president of sales, Jens Baun, an import from the land of The Little Mermaid. Baun brings many years and many implementations to the table, to say nothing of his native gifts.

Thanks to him and our great wealth of Canadian NAV analysts and consultants, we can make good on the delivery of both genuine Danish experience and genuine Canadian smarts.

Watch the worldwide partner conference video here:

SharePoint is a browser-based collaboration and document-management platform from Microsoft. Effectively a content-management system, SharePoint allows groups to set up a centralized, password-protected space for document sharing. Here, documents can be stored, downloaded and edited, and then uploaded for continued sharing. SharePoint can also host specialized applications, such as wikis and blogs, from within a browser.

The logic behind the concept is that an organization’s effectiveness can by streamlined by having someone else oversee the maintenance of a server, and the management of the data on it. Corporate clients have outsiders host applications on a SharePoint platform such that developers can focus on the application and not have to worry about such minutiae as access, permissions and coordinating look-and-feel with other applications.

A feature-rich document storage site and retrieval system, SharePoint boasts a cache of tools that includes document storage, tasks, calendars, announcements and contacts—data-dense material that SharePoint frees from a multitude of desktop folders on company servers. Users can also sync up their MS Outlook to work with SharePoint to share calendars and appointments.

SharePoint works in units called sites, which are really just collections of tools. A single business may have many sites and sub-sites, each with SharePoint’s drill-down capability.

Users can access SharePoint from anywhere: through their web browser, Outlook or compatible Microsoft Office applications like Word 2007 and Excel 2007. And you can further customize your SharePoint site with Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007 and Visual Studio 2005 access.

It is a brilliant, easy and seamless integrate into your corporate culture. Good-bye Windows Explore with in nested directories and unsearchable documents.

360 Visibility: Points worth Sharing

At 360 Visibility, our hosted SharePoint service has been built with component-level redundancy, and is housed in one of the most sophisticated data centres on the market. Clients can develop business-line applications delivered through a secure portal to help increase their efficiencies.

With the click of a button they can set up new accounts, reset passwords and manage storage. The whole point of hosted SharePoint, after all, is to relieve non-technically minded administrators of the burden of IT expertise. And users also gain access to 360’s considerable resources to create their own rocking applications featuring cool and uber-efficient functionality like automated processes and event-driven e-mail alerts.

And of course the choice to sign on with 360’s hosted SharePoint services means access to an expertly managed—and individually customized—Microsoft Windows environment without having to invest in the building and maintenance of a comparably outfitted in-house system. You pay only for the service you need and sidestep handily the initial outlay of installation, to say nothing of the ongoing cost of support.

Best of all, SharePoint users can rest assured knowing their SharePoint site—managed capably by Microsoft Gold Certified staff—is always available to them through redundancy and 24×7 monitoring.