At GPUG Summit 2012, Users Look to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, Future of Reporting

Expect two major software topics at GPUG Summit 2012: Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and the future of financial reporting.  As one of the final user-focused events events before the GP 2013 release, Summit planners were sure to feature in a 90 minute product deep dive session on day 2 of the event, which is expected to pull in the majority of the  500 or so expected GPUG attendees.

But Dynamics GP 2013's features and architecture are not the only topic getting users' attention in the second half of 2012. Expect a lot of alert audience members in sessions related to FRx and Management Reporter at Summit this year.

"What is getting folks nervous this year is reporting," says GPUG director Kim Peterson. "Out of the 42,000 GP users out there, my guess is that 75% are using FRx as their reporting tool, and it won't integrate with GP 2013.  So they have to make a decisions about what they will do in terms of Management Reporter, SQL Server Reporting Service, or a third party tool."

Indeed, if you listen to the GP Day keynote of the recent Decisions Spring 2012 virtual event, the question queue got pretty overloaded with Management Reporter and FRx questions rather than actual GP 2013 questions, probably more than on AX and NAV days of the virtual event combined.

Overall, Peterson believes the users are looking forward to GP 2013.  She hears a lot of questions still coming from group members regarding whether they will feel pressure to move their solutions to a cloud environment, something that Microsoft has repeatedly stated will not be the case.

If ...