Scribe Software Blog

Scribe’s First 2012 Partner Summit in NYC

Today we're presenting our first Partner Summit for 2012 in Time Square in NYC.

After the great feedback we received from our user conference sessions, we decided to take Scribe on-the-road to our partners for a day full of 10 educational sessions. With partners spanning from Toronto to CA, we're glad we have another one coming up next month in Chicago for those were weren't able to make it today.

Who will get the most out of the partner summits? The consultants working hands–on with customer integrations, sales team members who could learn more about how to best sell and position Scribe, as well as new sales team members since we give you the opportunity to do a live in-class sales certification training right there!

The summit is still in action now… so I wanted to share a few pictures "live" with you as well as the agenda we're covering. If you're a Scribe partner, you still have a chance to register for next month's partner Summit in Chicago here. May 17 in downtown Chicago, 9-5:30pm.

Agenda for NY and Chicago Partner Summits

Keynote – State of Data Integration 2012 - Analyzing data integration trends and the impact on your business
Scribe Online - Scribe Online platform overview, demonstration, latest features and benefits
SharePoint/Webservices (Technical) - Leveraging Scribe Insight for SharePoint and Webservices integrations
Sales Certification/Partner Portal (Business) - Understanding Scribe product positioning, architecture, and pricing. Introduction to new Scribe Partner Portal
Top Ten Insight Issue/Resolutions (Technical) - Review of the most commonly reported Scribe Insight issues and their resolutions
Selling in the Enterprise (Business) - Scribe is the perfect fit for your enterprise opportunities – learn why in this session
Improving Insight Performance (Technical) - Tips and tricks for getting the best performance out of your Insight deployment
Mainstreaming the Cloud (Business) - Cloud apps? Premise apps? Both? Turning integration challenges into opportunity
New and Overlooked Insight Features - Introduction to new and making the most of some old (but gold) Insight features
Future directions and closing - Here's where we're headed, join us for what will be a great ride!

REGISTER TODAY! Registrations are already in the double digits for Chicago and seating is limited with only 25 seats left. Register now for the Chicago partner Summit, Thursday May 17. Continental breakfast and registration 8-9am, sessions 9-5:30pm (lunch included), and cocktail reception on-site 5:30-7pm. Cost is $99 per person.

BONUS: We're also offering a follow-up half-day Integration Day on Friday May 18, from 8:30-noon. 3 1/2 hours of integration information that is perfect for prospects, or customers who aren't finding they are using Scribe as extensively as they could. We have invitations already created that are appropriate for partners to send out to your contacts, so contact me if you're interested. Otherwise be sure to sign up for Integration Day yourself and get an opportunity to have a 15 min private session with our pre-sales technical team member (only available on Integration Day).

Wondering if we'll hold more Partner Summits this year farther west? Right now they aren't planned, therefore we recommend you plan a trip to Chicago so you don't miss out on this great education opportunity! Additional questions? Contact partners@scribesoft.com or contact me directly at heather.robinson@scribesoft.com.

Scribe Welcomes New MVPs

Scribe welcomes the newest members of the Scribe MVP Team:

Anders Jeppesen	AlfaPeople	Denmark
David Vidmar	Adacta	Slovenia
Todd Fleming	Broadpoint	US
Bas van Sluis	CRM Resultants	Netherlands
Randall Marshall	ePartners Florida	US
Peter Lynch	eBECS	UK
Marc Perez	LBMC	US
Philip Massey	Massey Consulting	US
Paul Reitmeyer	Planet Technologies	US
Cesar Cordero	TriBridge	US
Patrick Austin	Webfortis	US

We are excited to have these individuals as members of this elite community of integration experts. This is a particularly exciting time as we are planning to more proactively promote and leverage their expertise across the Scribe consulting community. These individuals are a valuable resource and the rest of our channel will be able to learn from them as they participate in the Scribe Integrator blog and Inside Track monthly panel discussions. They will also be key influencers with future releases of both Scribe Insight and Scribe Online. Please join us in congratulating this team and look for their worthwhile contributions in the future. Read more about the MVP program and the MVPs.

What Role Does Integration Play in Microsoft’s Cloud Strategy?

MSDynamicsWorld.com published Betsy Bilhorn's article on Microsoft's Cloud strategy, the temptations for short-cuts, and long term considerations for your business.  Here's a brief excerpt:

Call it whatever you like - infrastructure, IT environment, or ecosystem - Microsoft's technology stack still dominates the IT landscape and continues to be as attractive to customers as it is challenging to competitors. An integrated stack is a great selling point: Windows, SQL, SharePoint, Dynamics, and Office are all Microsoft, all compatible. Great! But do they really integrate together right "out of the box?"

Read the entire article on MSDynamicsWorld.com and see how well your integration strategy "plays" with Microsoft's.

Scribe Partner Excellence Results in Customer Excellence

As Director of Sales for Scribe Software, I am continually impressed by the professionalism and dedication to customer satisfaction of our reselling partners. Nowhere is this more evident than at Microsoft Convergence when each year, Microsoft honors their Dynamics customers for their excellence in various award categories. 

This year Scribe customers won excellence awards in 7 of the 19 categories. This is no fluke, as the Scribe Partners involved in these Dynamics/Scribe implementations are not only top Dynamics partners, but are also perennial participants in Scribe’s top ten performing partners! 

The winning customers certainly deserve congratulations and recognition.  I would also like to add a special Scribe ‘congratulations’ to our partners Hitachi Consulting, McGladrey, Tectura Corporation, Columbus IT, Tribridge, and Customer Effective - their recognition and rewards are well deserved! Read more about these customers and partners and the awards won, in our press release.

Scribe Product Redux

The word 'redux' is a Latin word meaning 'revisit'. A lot of people read this word as 're-do' in both meaning   as  well as pronunciation, when it is actually pronounced 're-ducks'. So by naming this blog 'Scribe Product Redux' please understand that I mean 'revisit' – in the full sense of the Latin word and not 're-do', and my explanation follows.

Recently Scribe announced a simplification and repackaging of its product structure. We wanted to make it easier for our resellers to quote and sell the product by eliminating various add-ons such as Application Adapters, CRM or ERP User packs, and test servers, including those in a bundled product. At the end of the day, this move does make it very easy for our resellers to quote our products, concentrating the need for many skus down to just one or two.

In making this change, we also looked at placing the value of our product more on what integration is all about – 'what one might be connecting together' – and after doing a good bit of due diligence with existing customers and a number of our resellers on the value of 'connections', we decided to implement 'number of connections' as a way to scale the value of the products.

Needless to say, the initial announcement of this change and our certainly well intentioned efforts to aid our resellers and customers in connection counting, has caused a bit of angst in the Scribe community. We understand that and we are learning from it. From the period prior to our product packaging change through our initial announcement, and even up to the time I am writing this blog, we have been continually communicating with our resellers and customers on this subject and as a result, have made some minor adjustments to alleviate angst concerning our products and connection counting.

In other words, and as we always try to do – we listen to our resellers and customers and do our very best to respond with actions that result in a true win-win situation. So if the word has not yet reached your desk or email, here are a few of the adjustments we have recently incorporated into our repackaged product set – as part of our Scribe Product Redux:

    For Scribe Small Business – we have raised the user limits on the SB30 (30 users) to now be 100 CRM users or 50 ERP users, and the product is now called SB100. SB30 goes away. Those resellers or customers having purchased an SB30 package will be converted to the SB100 in our internal systems here at Scribe; there are no price adjustments or increases as the SB100 is priced the same as the original SB30 price. Additionally, we have added the ability to scale to unlimited 'connections' in either the SB15 or SB100 packages at a very nominal cost, so those customers with a limited amount of users that do have a need for many, many connection points can now easily do so. BTW – the Scribe SB15 and SB100 packages are very competitively priced and are an excellent choice in lieu of a less comprehensive point solution.  Scribe allows for configurable bi-directional migration and integration between any application or data store – providing a single platform for all of your data integration requirements (one integration engine to learn, manage and maintain).

    For Scribe Standard - We have also now added a 'low-cost' ability to scale to unlimited     'connections' in the Scribe Standard package, allowing our resellers to sell this option upfront with Scribe Standard, eliminating any concern over how an integration deployment may grow or expand over time in terms of 'connections'. This addition of 'unlimited connections' is now also being offered as simply a maintenance fee adjustment with our existing customers – so the need for a detailed 'connections' review by a customer goes away as well.

Please contact your Scribe Regional Business Manager or Account Executive for additional pricing details.

Once again, these are minor changes to our recent product repackaging that we are happy to make in response to our continued Scribe – Reseller – Customer communications. The initial response to these recent 'tweaks' has been extremely positive - so to our Scribe community – I thank you for your candor, your valued input, and as always, your partnership with Scribe.

Lou Antonucci

Director of Sales US/ROW

Updated Scribe Demo VPCs are Here!

We now have updated versions of the Scribe Demonstration VPCs. What's new on the VPCs? They have the latest operating system updates installed, they're upgraded to Scribe 7.0.1, and their expiration date is set to January 31, 2012.

Each VPC comes with a user guide and with demo scripts.

The "AX and CRM Edition" include the following demonstrations:

• Integration between Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM
• Web leads integration with Dynamics CRM

The "GP and CRM Edition" includes the following demonstrations:

• Integration between Dynamics GP and Dynamics CRM
• Integration samples from text to Dynamics GP
• Competitive migration sample from text to Dynamics GP
• Web leads integration with Dynamics CRM

The "NAV and CRM Edition" includes the following demonstrations:

• Integration between Dynamics NAV and Dynamics CRM
• Web leads integration with Dynamics CRM

You can use the Demonstration VPCs to do product demonstrations, to do Scribe training, and as a way to explore the features of the product. The VPC images are available to Scribe Certified Consultants and you will need a login to Scribe OpenMind to get to the download pages. The VPC page on our Web site is located at http://www.scribesoft.com/VPC.asp. If you are not a Scribe Certified Consultant and would like information on becoming one, please contact sales@scribesoft.com.

Project Scoping and Estimating

It's typical for newer Scribe partners to struggle a bit with qualifying and scoping projects on which they are bidding. It is a much easier task if you have had previous experience with Scribe and implementing integrations with Scribe.  If you don't have that breadth of experience, then the question I hear most often which trumps all other questions is, "Where do I begin?"

What we have tried to do here is supply a base line to help with the process. The attached, downloadable documents are to be used at the discretion of the partner (you) and as a useful tool, Scribe is not responsible for its use and or outcomes of its use. Having said that, I think these documents will be of great benefit for getting you in the ball-park on an estimate, making your projects more profitable whilst achieving customer satisfaction.

 

Link for Project Scoping Guide: Scoping and Estimating

Link for Estimating Worksheet: Estimating Spreadsheet

Scribe’s European Road Trip

I wanted to use my posting to list the many events that Scribe will be attending in the months of September and October in EMEA. Scribe has made several announcements lately regarding a new CEO, product packaging and pricing changes, and our cloud strategy. For our European partners and customers this is a great opportunity for us to spend time together, building our relationship, and for Scribe to learn more about the integration needs of your business. If you will be attending any of these events, please be sure to come and say "Hello, Hoi, Guten Tag, Bonjour, Cheers, Ciao, Ahoj or Hej" !

For Scribe partners attending the Dynamics Technical Airlift in Leipzig, Scribe will be hosting a Partner Roundtable on 21 October, 8:30 a.m. at the Westin Leipzig please contact Lara Maite at lara.maitre@scribesoft.com to register.

 

Date	Event	Stand/Booth	Attendees
29-30 Sept	Microsoft Partnerkonferenz 2010	16	Peter Fricke, succentric Markus Lischka, succentric Lynn Harrington, Scribe
14 Oct	Convergence 2010- UK	LS18	Linda Johnson, Lou Guercia, Peter Chase, John Annakin, Lynn Harrington
15 Oct	UK Dynamics Partner Day		Linda Johnson, Lou Guercia, Peter Chase, John Annakin, Lynn Harrington
18 Oct	CEE Partner Day	PS18	Linda Johnson, Lou Guercia, Peter Chase, John Annakin, Lynn Harrington
19 Oct	Convergence 2010- Prague	PS18	Linda Johnson, Lou Guercia, Peter Chase, John Annakin, Lynn Harrington
20 Oct	Partner Reception- The Hague		Linda Johnson, Peter Chase, John Annakin, Scribe
21 Oct	Convergence 2010- The Hague	HS30	Linda Johnson, Peter Chase, John Annakin
21 Oct	Technical Airlift- Leipzig	Scribe Partner Roundtable	Lou Guercia, Scribe Lynn Harrington, Scribe Peter Fricke, succentric

Scribe Software Named to 2010 President’s Club for Microsoft Dynamics

Scribe is pleased to announce we've been named to the 2010 President's Club for Microsoft Dynamics, and recognized by Microsoft for our committment to customers.

President's Club for Microsoft Dynamics honors high-performing Microsoft Dynamics partners whose commitment to customers is reflected in their business success and growth. This prestigious group represents the top 5 percent of Microsoft Dynamics partners worldwide. Membership is granted based on their continual, committed efforts aimed at offering solutions that meet the needs of their customers.

"Microsoft is proud to recognize Scribe Software for its outstanding sales achievement," said Doug Kennedy, vice president of Microsoft Dynamics Partners. "This honor is a direct reflection of Scribe's outstanding group of employees and management team, all of whom should be very proud of this accomplishment. Scribe plays a very important role in the growth and success of Microsoft Dynamics."

This acknowledgment came during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), the company’s annual premier partner event, which is taking place this week in Washington, D.C. WPC provides Microsoft Corp.’s partner community with the largest opportunity to learn about the company’s road map for the upcoming year, establish connections, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations and learn new skills.

Scribe or BizTalk you ask?

So what's better, Scribe Insight or Microsoft BizTalk? This is a question we have been getting at Scribe for a long time. At the highest level, the right answer is neither…they are both great products, it depends on what your integration needs are. Unfortunately, given that both products have seemingly similar functionality, we have not always been great at giving a clear and understandable follow-on explanation to "it depends". We have spent a lot of time focusing on the lower cost of ownership and ease of deployment of Scribe as our key differentiation. And while that type of blanket statement is not always true, for the types of customer projects that our resellers and sales folks engage in, the TCO and simplicity of Scribe is significantly lower. After much cajoling from our sales team and the consumption of a lot of caffeine, I decided to really dig into this subject with the goal of providing a more detailed explanation of this answer; an answer that not only discusses the different scenarios where each product is strong, but also illustrates the design and feature differences that underlie these strengths. The result of this effort is a white paper that is intended to inform our customers' decisions in an unbiased (as unbiased as a co-founder of Scribe could possibly be) and objective way. You can click on the icon to the right to get your copy of this paper.

The paper itself can be summarized by contrasting two, two-word phrases; 'data driven' integration where Scribe is strong or 'process driven' integration where BizTalk shines. Hopefully after reading this paper, the differences between the two will be clear to you and distinguishing between the two will be relatively straightforward.

My hope is that this paper will lead to better decisions for our customers; whether the answer is to use Scribe, use BizTalk, or for those with broader needs, both products.

Happy reading!