The Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client is Here to Stay

Convergence 2013 is long gone. At the March event, there were a total of six Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client concurrent sessions conducted by various presenters. I personally had a chance to present two of these sessions at both PreGAME and at the main Convergence event. Overall, these six sessions averaged 95 attendees. The common theme: Dynamics GP partners were a no-show for the Web Client concurrent sessions.

While I don't want to read too much into these numbers, I do want to spend some time talking about this phenomenon in more detail, since adoption of the Dynamics GP web client technology is going to be critical in future sales, deployments, and upgrades.

First, some background...

A good number of partners attended the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift 2012 in Fargo, North Dakota back in September of 2012, where they had a chance to "play" with the Beta version of the Web Client and participate in hands-on labs that walked them through a single-machine deployment. If I had to take a guess, there were approximately some 120 participants in the all-day technical hands-on lab.

Prior to Convergence 2013, Microsoft conducted a couple of five-day training classes (a 2-day functional class, and a 3-day in-depth technical class) in Atlanta and elsewhere, geared towards partners as well. The turn out to the Atlanta session, which I had a chance to attend, yielded no more than 25 individuals per class.

At Convergence, partners are usually interested in sessions where they can interact with customers directly. Unfortunately, none of these interactive sessions focused on the Web Client, so I can somewhat excuse the lack of partner participation at the concurrent Web Client sessions.

However, this way of thinking is also dangerous.

There were many hundreds of ...