20 Scenes From Microsoft Convergence In New Orleans

The long, cavernous Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans was the site for this year's Microsoft Convergence conference for customers and resellers of Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM applications. In providing some statistics about the show, Chris Caren, general manager of product management and marketing for Microsoft Dynamics, joked that attendees had collectively taken more than 5 million steps in making their way between keynote speeches, technology sessions and the exhibition floor.

Attendance at this year's Convergence was approximately 7,000, down from 9,500 at last year's show in Orlando, Fla. Traffic was noticeably light in the convention center hallways and on the exhibition floor. Despite New Orleans' attractions of good food and cool jazz, Microsoft executives said tight travel budgets kept attendance down this year. Hopefully, an improving economy will boost attendance at the show next year, scheduled for April 25-28 in Atlanta.

This sculpture of a wrecked house perched in a tree is a rather offbeat Katrina memorial in front of the convention center. The stone monument in back reads: "Honoring the people and remembering the events that occurred August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina."





After Katrina struck and the levees failed, flooding about 80 percent of the city, the convention center became a refugee center for as many as 20,000 residents displaced by the disaster. Some weren't evacuated to safety until Sept. 4, nearly a week later.

The state of the economy was a major focus of the keynote speech given by Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions. Changes brought about by the economic upheaval are creating opportunities for businesses, he said. "Embrace this crisis, embrace the change and turn it into opportunity. It's never going to be back to normal. We need to position ourselves today for the different world that will emerge," he said.





Tatarinov also announced that a new release of Microsoft's on-demand CRM application, Dynamics CRM Online March 2009 Service Update, was available. And the vendor is offering free add-on modules called "Accelerators" that expand the sales and marketing capabilities of the on-premise Dynamics CRM application.

Tatarinov, seen here on the giant projection screen during his Tuesday keynote, said Microsoft is providing financial incentives for customers to buy Dynamics applications in these tough times, including a new "Smart Pay" option that allows customers to use the software for six months before they have to begin paying for it. That helps them spread out and delay payments as much as possible in an effort to conserve cash.





During a press conference following his speech, however, Tatarinov said a zero-percent financing deal Microsoft has offered Dynamics customers since November will end March 20 as scheduled. But he said Microsoft is working on additional sales stimulus initiatives for its partners that will be unveiled at the vendor's Worldwide Partner Conference in July.

The band Radiator entertained the crowd before and after keynote speeches during the conference. A few people noted that one of the band's guitar players bore more than a passing resemblance to the late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia.

Nearly 200 solution providers and third-party vendors were exhibiting their wares on the exhibition show floor. But foot traffic was generally light to moderate during most hours the floor was open.

Brian Bachofner, channel manager for Hoover's, demonstrates the company's new Access Hoover's business database integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. With the link Dynamics CRM users will be able to pull information about more than 29 million public and private companies into their CRM system. Sales representatives can use the information to research sales prospects, for example, and prepare for sales calls. Hoover's also has a partner program to help Microsoft Dynamics partners add Access Hoover's to their solutions.

True Commerce's booth was particularly popular--not surprising, perhaps, as the company was giving away a lease for this BMW 128i. Hundreds crowded around the booth during the Expo reception Wednesday for the contest drawing. True Commerce, a Microsoft Gold partner, provides software and services to help customers implement EDI (electronic data interchange) systems.

Cincom Systems was demonstrating a new release of its Cincom Acquire Sales and Product Configurator software that's now integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX. The Cincom software captures product pricing and configuration information and makes it available to a company's sales representatives and channel partners. The software can be used for developing sales proposals, for example, and providing customers with product configuration information.

CDC Software expanded its c360 line of add-on applications for Microsoft Dynamics CRM with its new c360 High-Tech software designed for high-technology companies, demonstrated here by partner account manager Brad Burks. The line includes a sales forecast management application, customer portal software, a tool for exploring relationships between CRM records, and software that links a company's Web site to Dynamics CRM for capturing sales lead information.

AXtension, which develops applications that extend the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics AX, was demonstrating its software using this pair of monitors that looked like something out of 'The Jetsons.' At the show the company unveiled its new Migrax toolset for Dynamics AX code migration projects.

Traffic was steady at the booth run by SalesPad Solutions where the company demonstrated its new SalesPad DataCollection and SalesPad ShipTo applications that work with Microsoft Dynamics GP. DataCollection is a Windows Mobile bar-code data collection application that's integrated with Dynamics GP and SalesPad, the company's front-end sales and customer service tool for Dynamics GP. SalesPad ShipTo integrates Dynamics GP and SalesPad with the UPS WorldShip shipping system.

Andrew Rumney of eBECS demonstrates the company's new applications for Thomas Vest, senior product manager, Microsoft Dynamics AX global product management. EBECS, a Microsoft Gold partner, specializes in developing applications based on "Lean" manufacturing methodologies. The new applications include a Lean manufacturing application for the aerospace and defense industries based on Dynamics AX and a new Lean manufacturing application that works with Dynamics NAV.





In March 2007 Microsoft acquired eBECS' original product, the eBECS Lean Enterprise for Microsoft Dynamics AX module.

The Windows Mobile kiosk in Microsoft's show floor area had a steady stream of visitors who were checking out the vendor's mobile software--including Windows Live for Mobile--running on a range of mobile devices.

Fastpath Solutions used Convergence 2009 as the launchpad for Fastpath Assure, a Sarbanes-Oxley compliance tool that works with Microsoft Dynamics AX. Sarbanes-Oxley's financial control and reporting regulations already apply to all publicly held companies and there are proposals to extend them to small and midsize businesses. Fastpath said the new application is a cost-effective alternative to compliance software from Oracle and SAP.

A popular attraction on the show floor was a demonstration of Microsoft's surface computing technology. Attendees could assemble a puzzle by using their fingertips to move virtual puzzle pieces around on this tabletop device. During Tatarinov's keynote Microsoft provided a demonstration of the surface computing technology, running Dynamics AX on the back end, for warehouse management and machinery maintenance applications.

Microsoft Gold partner Ignify demonstrated its new eCommerce 4.0 online storefront and business commerce system for midsize and large companies. The new version works with all Microsoft Dynamics ERP software lines to automate order processing and fulfillment. The 4.0 release also meets the latest Payment Application Data Security Standard specifications set by the PCI Security Standards Council.

Traffic got a boost Wednesday afternoon when the show floor was opened for a reception. There's nothing like food and an open bar to draw a crowd. The menu included flatbread pizza, Cajun shrimp and pulled pork sandwiches.

"You can think of us as the world's largest computer science department," said Kevin Schofield, general manager of Microsoft Research, in the final Convergence 2009 keynote. Separate from Microsoft's 30,000 programmers who develop products, Schofield's organization, including six laboratories around the world, conducts basic research into information technology that may--or may not--ever appear as a commercial product.



Part of Schofield's speech included demonstrations of computer vision and speech-recognition technology. But he also talked about how technology and exploration go hand-in-hand, from the sextant used by 18th century sailors to technology future astronauts will use to explore Mars. "Can you imagine if Lewis and Clark had a digital camera?" he wondered aloud.