General Information

Location : Minneapolis Convention Center - very nice facility, impressive Auditorium and Ballroom facilities.
Exhibit space: Well laid out, more than 100 exhibitors, good-sized demo stations
Number of Attendees: More than 4,000 total - not sure how many were Microsoft employees
Weather: Warm (to our surprise, we expected snow.)

Excitement Level: Geni thought that the excitement level was generally high, however I thought that excitement was more subdued than past Stampedes in which Great Plains employees crowded the airports and cheered all arriving passengers. Since Geni was with Navision for three years, I can understand how she would have lowered expectations for conference excitement. (Hey, Navision was able to generate some excitement in my day. We had XBRL didn't we?) For my money, this year's Best Software Conference which featured motorized toilet racing was more exciting, but not even that tops the frenzy at the Open System Conference a few years ago in which Michael Bertini's keynote presentation featured him climbing onto a dunking booth and giving resellers a chance to dunk him. - This paragraph edited by J. Carlton Collins

Overall Impression - The event was more about personal relationships than product information. Doug Burgum certainly builds trust with his partners and there is a great deal of devotion to him personally.  There was ample time for networking but most of the product information was provided in concurrent sessions so it was tough to catch them all.  My expectations were high for a lavish event, the food was not as elaborate as expected but was certainly plentiful.   I also expected to see more high powered stars on stage - but the partners seemed to be satisfied with Microsoft Business Solutions stars instead.  The Danes were on stage representing the Navision product lines, and although they did a nice job, I still wondered why no US team members were in that role.

Product Announcements -

• Microsoft Business Solutions Professional Services Automation (PSA) - featuring integration of Microsoft Project and Solomon Project Series - we think this is a product to watch. Available 4th quarter this year.
• Microsoft Retail Management System (RMS) - built around the QuickSell products, it integrates point-of-sale (POS) and retail management applications with Microsoft Business Solutions -Great Plains.
• Microsoft CRM - integrates to Microsoft Outlook
• Axapta 3.0 available in September
• Small Business Manager enhancements are coming - version 7.0 will include inventory management, cash flow calendar and a letter writing assistant, Microsoft Excel integration.

Other Announcements -

• Accelerated R&D Investments - the Microsoft Business Solutions investment in R&D will be
  • 20 times Solomon's R&D when they were acquired by GPS
  • 6 times Navision's R&D when acquired by Microsoft
  • 9-10 times Great Plains R&D when acquired by Microsoft
• End user financing will be offered by Microsoft
• Published pricing will be provided - Great Plains pricing will go from 6 separate price lists to 1.
• Pricing by the feature (shades of Navision "granular pricing"...)

In the "not-for-the-easily distracted" column, attendees at this conference were given nice badge holders, complete with retractable wires attached to the badges. The badges were scanned as you entered every event, and the retractable wire allowed you to reach the scanning device without having to remove your badge.  Badge scanning  was a great way to measure attendance in each of the venues.  The problem, for those of us who are out of Ritalin, is that those darn retractable wires are also a great source of entertainment during every session.  I spotted lots of people using their badges as a yo-yo as they scurried between events!