If you know me, you know that I am not someone who does particularly well with change or uncomfortable situations in general. When I was young my mom even attempted to write a book called “Change is Good” specifically to help me cope. Well, if you’ve been anywhere around the world in the past few months, you probably know that life recently has been all about change and adapting (go figure!). Although this hasn’t been the easiest journey, I do have to admit that it has been quite an experience living through a historical moment such as this. To help me reflect, I’m channeling my inner “Change is Good” book and I’m finding a lot of enjoyment in asking friends and family how they want to tell their experience in ten to fifty years when we look back on this time. So, as we embark into month who-even-keeps-count-anymore, I went around (and by “went around” I mean Teams Messaged as we’re all entirely remote still) and asked the team here at sa.global, “how would you describe your experience?”. After compiling all the responses, I thought it would be fun to share the spirit of adapting, so here are a few of my favorites, both personal and professional: Tyler, from our Operation’s Team, has been geographically removed from his family and friends for several years now, but at this point with day and overnight trips no longer being the norm, digital communication has increased. His father is a Luddite. However, his mother owns a smartphone and is tech-savvy compared to most of her generation. As music is a large part of his life, shared web drives have also enabled him and his friends to collaborate on their childish musical endeavors. To appease the creative folk, Lauren, our new Operation’s Manager, mentioned how much she misses being involved in a quilt guild or any other social craft group for that matter. In hopes of scratching that itch, she had a Microsoft Teams ‘crafty hour’ with a few of our coworkers. Most of the crafts were craft cocktails and beers but she says she enjoyed demonstrating drop spinning to her coworker. Overall, there was one knitter and a handful of spectators in attendance. It was a fun combination of watercooler work talk and a social hour she said she “got to ruin a few childhood memories by explaining spindles are not sharp so no way Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger upon one”. For those that are missing travel postcards and snail mail, Joel, our Power Practice manager, might have found the best 21st century solution. As he puts it, he “loves mail – the old-fashioned kind.” One of his favorite ways to keep in touch with friends and family is via an App called TouchNote. With this app, he can create a postcard with his own digital photos. “TouchNote will then physically print and mail my postcard and send it anywhere in the world. It’s a great way to stay in touch – when I eventually see everyone in person, I know their fridge will have the cards I’ve been sending.” I found this adaptation to be an amazing way to stay in touch and show those in your life how much you’re thinking of them, even at a distance. During these last few months, David, our Strategic Engagement Manager, has been leveraging the concept of “Covid19CheckIns” – as explained in his recent blog where he wrote about living in a virtual world. “These are 15 to 20-minute meetings with people in my life, work, community, family, etc. We set up a Teams session and catch up on movies, books, recipe ideas, etc. while staying away from anything work related.” I hope these stories and adaptations eased your mind as much as they eased mine and show a bit of light in a tumultuous and uncertain time. Best, Abby Korsen, Account Manager
News You Should Know
#MSDyn365FO: Are you interested in making suggestions on improving this solution? Please leverage the Microsoft Experience site to vote and submit ideas. #MSDyn365CE: Capacity overage enforcement has begun including restrictions on new environments, backups, and more. Be sure to check your admin center to determine if you are over capacity. Click here to see details on current enforcement scenarios. #MSDynGP: Have you heard about the recent challenges of using Word templates with Dynamics GP? Here are some workarounds you should consider? #MSDyn365BC: Lots of exciting things coming with Wave 2 of Business Central after October 1st. Read more about it here. #PowerPlatform: Microsoft announced at Ignite a new Power BI “Premium Per User” offering coming later this year. Organizations will be able to use Power BI Premium features, such as Paginated reports and more frequent data refreshes, starting at a significantly lower price point. #Microsoft365: Microsoft is bringing Breakout Rooms & custom presentation formats to the Teams platform by the end of the year. If you have any questions or would like to have a discussion with us about any of the topics above, please reach out to your Practice Manager, or fill out the Contact Us form.
Upcoming Virtual FREE Events
Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event Thursday, October 1, 2020 9:00am PDT / 12:00pm EDT (2-hour event) Sign up Here Community Summit North America Training event for Dynamics users and partners October 7 – 9. 2020 Register here now Virtual Work From Home & Commuting Expo This Expo is open and free to all Irvine Spectrum area employees and residents! October 12 – 23. 2020 Learn more about it here Leadership Goes Beyond | Pulse Virtual Conference Free Virtual Leadership Conference and Webcasts Tuesday, October 27th 8:00am PDT / 11:00am EDT Register Now Here
DC Blog Roundup
PCF Controls – Make #PowerPlatform & #Dynamics365 Work the Way You Want 
Learn more about formatting phone numbers in D365 with PCF Controls. Master Planning And Shelf Life 
Read more about the functionality within Dynamics 365 Finance about the shelf life of products and material. Get ideas about this now.
Cloud Business Applications – How to Avoid Data Silos
It’s no secret that cloud is king when it comes to business applications. If you have evaluated an ERP, CRM, Document Management, Corporate Performance Manager (CPM), or any other business application in the last few years, chances are they were all cloud. Cloud applications are fantastic! They allow us to scale our businesses, access them for anywhere, add users easily, not manage any IT infrastructure, and we get to do all that by just paying an easy monthly fee. There is a cloud app for everything, which is great but can create a pretty big problem… data silos. Having so many different applications in different cloud environments can make it difficult to gather data together in a way that is useful for making business decisions. This is why having a cloud strategy needs to go hand in hand with having an integration strategy. Read more about this from our strategic partner eOne Solutions.