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The CRGroup Blog has moved, and we think you'll love the new digs!

Please visit us at our new address: blog.crgroup.com

Things We Think Dynamics Users Might Need a Permanent Vacation From

Ah….summer is here and its effects are palatable. The days are longer, cold beverages are plentiful and much needed vacations are just around the corner. While most people escape to enjoy the fun activities this season has to offer, for others, the escape is from the stresses that can accompany certain dreaded work tasks.

This can be especially true for Dynamics users and administrators who spend their time manually plugging away to maintain data integrity in their Dynamics® solutions and/or those who work tirelessly to string together reports and metrics to extract some semblance of insight into their systems.

This fabulous summer season, we aim to help with all of that and grant Dynamics users everywhere a permanent vacation from their data and reporting woes:

It’s time to take a permanent vacation from…

Fellow Canadians - Let's Stay in Touch...eh!

Important Subscription Update

With Canada’s anti-spam law in force as of July 1, 2014, we may be affected in our ability to send you information, invitations to our events and other electronic messages related to our breakthrough performance solutions.

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Microsoft Announces Price Increase on GP User Licenses Effective July 1, 2014

Microsoft has announced that it is realigning Microsoft Dynamics GP user prices across versions and licensing models effective 1 July 2014, resulting in a price increase on the additional users you might need in the future.  So, if you think that you will need more users in the next 6 to 12 months, there is no better time to buy those users before the prices go up on 1 July 2014.

Microsoft is making the following changes effective 1 July 2014:

1. Elimination of all user price tiers (e.g. 11-25 users, 75+ users)  for Dynamics GP Professional customers  currently on Module Based Licensing.
2. User price increase will apply on the following license models and editions:

• Microsoft Dynamics GP Professional for module based user pricing
• Microsoft Business Ready Licensing for Business Essentials user pricing

Please note that Module Based Licensing prices for the Standard edition customers and that Business Ready Licensing prices for the Advanced Management edition are not changing.

It should be noted that this price increase does not impact the Enhancement plan cost of users that are licensed prior to July 1, 2014 and it does not impact the Protected List Price of users licensed by existing customers prior to 1 July 2014.

Please let me know if you have any questions about your specific situation and I would be happy to have a call with you. 

Angela Gillis

GP Customer Sales and Service Manager

6 Antares Dr. Phase 1, Suite 200 | Ottawa, ON K2E 8A9

agillis@crgroup.com | T 613.232.4295 x :229 |  F 613.232.7276

GP Support Email :  mbssupport@crgroup.com

How to Take a Company to the Top – and Keep it There

... the Sustainable Right to Succeed 

We now have undisputed evidence that more than two thirds of publicly listed companies do not create shareholder value. Moreover, a large number of those who succeed seem to derive their success from events or items over which they have very little control. There is also evidence that apart from a very select group of companies, it is hard to find companies that continue to perform well beyond a ten year span.

This leads us to ask whether high performing firms are the result of chance, or whether we can determine some systematic approaches to gain a sustainable right to succeed. And if so, what are the key ingredients for this success?

The Three Ingredients....

If you look around and identify companies that you deal with either in your business or as a consumer, you may notice that these “successful” companies have three key ingredients.
 

Turning Heads at Convergence 2014 - Employee Performance Management for Dynamics GP & AX

Are you using Microsoft Dynamics® GP or AX Human Resources (HR)? Maximize your HR capabilities by adding powerful employee performance management!

The CRGroup Team recently returned from the 2014 Convergence Conference and Expo. It was a great opportunity for us to mingle with the Dynamics Community and catch up on the latest and greatest solutions for Dynamics.

CRGroup's award-winning performance management software, emPerform, was featured in our Booth and was responsible for turning a lot of heads because emPerform gives Dynamics users the best of both worlds - powerful performance management to augment their Dynamics HR module PLUS seamless integration with their Dynamics data.

One of our most frequent integration is with Microsoft Dynamics so we wanted to take this opportunity to explain how it works and what is possible for all of the Dynamics users out there:

CFO As Navigator – Becoming the 'Perfect' CFO

CFOs will continue to be under relentless pressure to raise their game—at least, this is the message many are receiving from their colleagues (CXOs) and board members, whose new mantra seems to be: "Take us further and faster."

All you have to do is look at any of a large number of recent surveys on CEO/CXO expectations to see that today's CFOs are expected to go beyond the traditional CFO role, including into areas such as enterprise risk and investor relationships. In fact, four key directives emerge from this data:

Corporate Renaissance Group Partners with Mastermind Solutions

Partnership Will Deliver Complementary Services to Mid-market Business Clients

Earlier this week, Corporate Renaissance Group (CRGroup), a leading provider of business software and performance management solutions, and Mastermind Solutions, a Toronto based management consulting organization that focuses on business growth through strategy, marketing, finance and organizational design, announced a strategic alliance to bring a full suite of complementary services to the mid-market business client.

Does Your Dynamics GP Chart of Accounts Need a Little Love?

We are just going to say what Dynamics GP users everywhere are thinking...sometimes our Chart of Accounts aren’t as loveable as they used to be. No one can predict exactly where and when the honeymoon will end but somehow over time, users tend to outgrow their current account structure and things just aren’t as rosy as they could be.

But the good news is that all is not lost. Fall head over heels for your GP Chart of Accounts once again!

Top 10 Reasons to Visit CRGroup at Convergence 2014

Corporate Renaissance Group is headed to Convergence 2014 in Atlanta and we’d like you to join us there! Booth #1641

Convergence is the premier event for the Microsoft Dynamics community - where opportunity and innovation meet to deliver real business value.

Don’t miss your chance to network with vendors and partners, gain valuable knowledge, and get up to speed on the latest technology and trends surrounding Dynamics technology; including the latest products and solutions offered by Corporate Renaissance Group.

• emPerform: award-winning performance management software to enhance Dynamics GP/AX HR
• Trend Miner: ground-breaking trend analysis for Dynamics CRM
• Easy to use add-ons for Dynamics GP: Changer, Re-Formatter, AA Tools, and more!
• PM-Studio: world-class project management built on SharePoint
• New! PA Time & Expense Manager: project-based time & expense approval for Dynamics GP

Want to book a demo in advance? Contact sales@crgroup.com
Questions? Contact us 1.800.576.6215

Top 10 Reasons to Visit CRGroup at Convergence:

Read more here: http://www.crgroup.com/Documents/CRGroup_10reasons.pdf

CIOs Need to be the Guiding Light

Looking back one can think of three inflection points that intertwined technology and business: the advent of mainframes in the 1970s; the PC revolution followed by the introduction of powerful servers; the Y2K threat, which led to rethinking of IT infrastructure and introduction of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems followed by open source and the outsourcing/off-shoring revolution of the 21st century. 

CRGroup's Top Ten Dynamics GP Tips & Tricks of 2013

The CRGroup Blog covers topics including ERP, CPM, document management, and much more.

Here are ten of our top posts related to Microsoft Dynamics GP from 2013:

Do you Really Need to Embrace Analytics?

If you have not witnessed the deluge of big data and business analytics media coverage to date, then welcome back from the coma you were apparently in for the last couple of years. For the rest of you, perhaps you have the same nagging question that I have: Are big data and business analytics such a big deal that if our organization is late to the party in deploying them, we will never catch up to our competitors?

I go back and forth on wondering if applying analytics now is an urgent imperative for an organization to survive or if it is a “nice to have” relative to more critical “must have” capabilities that an organization should ideally possess.