Another year, another Community Summit completed! Technology Management Concepts has been a proud sponsor of the Dynamics Communities’ Community Summit NA for the last four years and this year we were honored to be a part of the event, again!
We look forward to sponsoring the Summit each year, because it brings us closer to the community to better understand their ever-changing needs. We understand that for us to serve our community, we must learn about their main concerns and how to address them with our knowledge and expertise.
Aside from business, we truly care about building partnerships and a Dynamics community, because having a solid foundation helps us better understand you and your organization’s goals inside and out. This in turn leads to long-lasting and consistent results. Having said that, this year we made the Dynamics community our top priority by bringing our top consultants and practice managers to provide them with innovative ideas and skills.
In addition to serving the community with our industry knowledge, we got to sponsor the Women in Technology Panel and Reception for the second year in a row! As a woman-owned company committed to creating values by promoting diversity and inclusion, Microsoft’s promotion of D.E.I hits home with TMC and our President, Jennifer Harris core values. Jennifer has always been passionate about advocating for women and the underrepresented in her community, professionally and personally. So, we were very excited to have her speak on the Women in Tech panel to inspire women on how to “fail forward” without the crash and burn while navigating the landscape of gender equality within their career.
As a Microsoft Partner, not only do we want to get to know our community, but we’re also committed to helping them stay relevant and competitive. We do this by keeping them up to date with their industry innovations and trends, which is why we’d like to report our findings this year with you. Here are the 3 biggest takeaways from the Community Summit:
TAKEAWAY #1 – Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365 Business Central Migration (the rumor is true!).
As you may know, Microsoft is retiring Dynamics GP in 2028 and users are starting to think about the “after-GP” life! In the past few years, many GP users have already moved their Environment to the Microsoft Azure Cloud and many more of them will do so in the next 2 years!
That being said, this year was different, it was not about optimizing or keeping relevant GP… it was about taking the leap to migrate from Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365 Business Central and creating a roadmap for a smooth transition within the next 5 years.
For the users who were still using an on-prem version of GP, we recommended that they think about moving their system onto the Microsoft Azure cloud, at least for security reasons and cost.
For those who were not ready at all… we get it! That is why we still have a strong GP Practice and will continue to provide support whenever needed.
If you are curious about how a roadmap for your company would look like, you should schedule an assessment to get recommendations from your Microsoft Partner. Learn more here.
TAKEAWAY #2 – Gender Equity and Women in Technology Awareness
This is fairly new! We noticed we were getting more interactions around the fact that we are a Women Owned Certified company and member of the Women in Dynamics group, and we love it!
Some of the questions we were asked were: What it means to be part of the Women in Dynamics group, why it is important, and how to promote diversity and inclusivity in the Microsoft Dynamics community. These were all were great questions discussed!
With our renewed support and participation in the Women in Tech Panel and Reception that took place this year again at Summit, we received a lot of love! Jennifer our President, who was a panelist, discussed sustainable empowerment and allyship with an incredible line-up of talented women.
She mentioned that “The best part was how many women came up to us after and shared their stories. What an inspiration!”
Read more about why women-owned tech firms are taking the lead in Digital Transformation Implementation here.
PS: If you were one of the lucky attendees who got a cap, send us your best picture on Instagram or LinkedIn.
TAKEAWAY #3 – Shop for a new partner for “Lack of technical support”
“Not all partners are created equal”. This is what we were there to tell users and we couldn’t be closer to reality! We heard many users express that even though they had a Microsoft partner, they were “kind of” looking to change… and the main reason is because there is a lack of technical support from their partner.
In the past, we have always seen “orphans” look for a new partner, but this year was particularly impressive as many smaller GP partners are not able to help their clients grow their systems- either by keeping Dynamics GP relevant or migrating them to Dynamics 365 Business Central. As a result, this lack of overall guidance has led many users to “shop” for a new partner.
If you want to learn more, read the following articles: End of Support for Dynamics GP, and How to Select a Microsoft Partner to Support Your Dynamics 365 Apps.
About TMC
Part of the reason we are outstanding at what we do at Technology Management Concepts is that we’re a team of visionary professionals committed to creating a company that values diversity and inclusion. As a female-run enterprise certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), our mission is to lead digital transformation and help organizations unlock their full technology potential through solutions like Microsoft Azure and Dynamics 365 and other leading cloud platforms.
And thanks to our commitment to helping small businesses thrive, we’ve recently been featured in the Inc Magazine’s “2022 Best Workplace in the USA List!” Our partners can rest assured that when they partner with us, they will be working with highly skilled individuals who are passionate about delivering innovative IT solutions.
We only hire the best of the best, which makes the size of our company big enough to have the expertise to support your growth and small enough to provide you a unique, customized and nurturing experience because we know that every organization operates differently.
If you’d like to learn more about how TMC can help your organization achieve its goals, please contact us today.
