BizApps Wiki – a great place for ERP, CRM and other experts

New platform BizApps.Wiki has just started. On the first sight it looks like as well know Wikipedia, but there is ‘but’…

In comparison with Wikipedia there is highly focused content only with business applications (solutions/software) and other related topics. By the business application topics you can find information about almost all possible business application solutions as well as vendors (global and local). Also you can find information about partners or about the most impactful experts (MVPs or similar).

By the ‘other related topics’ it means you can find a lot information about project management, business processes, implementation processes, learning guides, certifications, events, communities, accounting… and so on.

OK it is obviously that topics are not related only with Dynamics solutions as this is Wiki about all business solutions, but there are for sure a few dozens of articles (maybe even more) related only with Microsoft solutions.

And on the end, there is one really good idea about building the digital business applications museum. Even if its history is not so big, it is very interesting how these applications looked like 20-30 years ago. And this is not finished project… as you can see on the first page, this is an ongoing project (always work-in-progress) where it is expected that community will take a part in building or editing this library of articles.

I’ll not write about the project in more details as you can easily go there and check. Definitely good for developers, consultants, project managers, but also for future experts such as students…

Advertisement

What MB-800 exam can guarantee?

I wanted to write this article as I recently passed this exam and I wrote about how to prepare yourself. I already mentioned in this article that if you have an experience in BC or NAV, you generally don’t need to prepare for this exam (but it implies you know and understand BC on the cloud). Now I’m not planning to continue in this direction how to prepare for the exam, but I want to discuss about what we can expect as result of passing this exam.

Generally the most of questions as well as case of study will show your real knowledge, but to be honest you can learn it even if you are not experienced and it cannot prove some specific level of knowledge. Of course, there are some questions non related with real implementation process and as a person with 15+ years in implementation I don’t know why someone thins it is important to know some report by heart, but there is not so many such a questions.

What is more important by my opinion is related with this that I personally am not a fan of this new exam models where we have one exam from whole solution. OK, for F&O we have 4 functional exams and there are similar situation with CRM exams, but there much more topics there and personally I think we have a small number of exams even in F&O and CRM areas. But when we talk about BC, I really cannot believe that one who will pass just one common exam can prove some serious knowledge. Generally BC is implemented very often as a big project and you cannot expect universal consultant who can implement all areas.

Based on my experience, we need to have minimum three exams: one core (we can use MB-800 for this) and another for essential features and third one for premium features (+WMS). And OK, we need development exam. In this case if these exams are prepared on the level as this one, they can prove serial knowledge.

Just to clarify, I like this exam, especially as it comes after a couple of years with no certification for NAV and BC. This is really well done job, but I think partners will need more. Currently, when you see that someone passed MB-800, it can guarantee that this person have basic understanding and knowledge of Business Central. It can be a case that this person is an expert, but this is definitely not necessary to pass this exam.

But as my conclusion, I would like to encourage all BC consultants (and developers as well) to try to pass this exam. Generally I think it is a good idea and especially I would like to recommend passing this exam for junior consultants. Preparing for this exam, they can learn something new and consolidate knowledge. Start with Learning Paths as now we have a lot of really good materials there.

Disclaimer: Everything I wrote in this article is my personal point of view and based on my personal experience and opinion. It doesn’t represent any official opinion companies I’m connected with.

Business Central & Power Platform Exams Experiences

Recently I’ve passed these two new exams: Business Central Functional Consultant Associate and Power Platform App Maker Associate and I would like to share some my experience about them. I’ll try to be brief and just to give you some basic directions.

First I need to admit that I’m not big fan of this kind of certification. Based on my previous experience 10+ year ago, it was more about getting certificate and less about proving a real knowledge. I had an opportunity to meet a lot highly certified persons, but they couldn’t implement even the easiest projects. But still, partners wanted to invest in certification as some kind of knowledge proof.

But with new exams in the last few years things are slightly changed and I had opportunity to check them. But with these two new exams I’m talking about, things improved drastically. And I can say I’m really positive surprised.

First what I want to say is that I didn’t prepare myself for these two exams. And when I say ‘I didn’t prepare’, I mean it for real. I wanted to see if it is possible to pass these exams with real experience and practical knowledge. And I succeed! From my perspective this is the most important fact – if you are waring with these technologies and have a real practical knowledge, you can pass them without any problem. It still means you should be focused on questions as they can sometimes be complicated, especially when it comes to the case studies. I didn’t want to say these exams are easy as they are not, but you don’t need to prepare yourself if you know topics. But to be honest, you can still find a couple of useless questions, you really don’t need in practice, but even if you fail on some of them you will still have big chance to pass exams.

What I want to mention about BC exam is to be prepared with SaaS topics as this is very important. It is not enough to know only features in system, as you need to understand cloud concept as well. On the other side, when we talk about Power Platform, you should know both Canvas and Model-driven Power Apps, Power Automate as well as other Power Platform features (AI, Chat Bots…) and CDS. But this is what we imply with the Power Platform knowledge.

If you are newbie, in this case you need to learn for these exams. But good thing is that if you want to start, you can find everything you will need on the Learning Path site. But one small note, when you start to learn from Learning Paths, I often hear that there are not enough information and some of people often fail on exams. This is because, you need to open every link you have in your learning path as often you can find basic information in this part of text, but when you click on some links, you will be redirected to Microsoft docs site with all necessary information with related topic.

On the end I want to say THANKS to all people involved in preparation these two new exams as they made a good result. And for all of you who didn’t register for these exams, do it… you will not make mistake.

Cloud Partner Competencies and Business Central

You are involved only in Business Central business and now you have Enterprise Resource Planning competency. But this competency is not in the cloud and if you want to get Cloud Business Application competency you can choose one of the options as a two different paths in achieving competencies:

  • Customer Engagements options
  • Unified Operations option

The first one is for CRM partners and the second one is in ERP. But when you read details, this is for Finance, Supply Chain Management, Retail and Talent (F&O) and all required exams are from F&O. If you want to continue only in Business Central and want cloud competency as Business Central is cloud product, you probably don’t know how you can fit with these requirements.

OK before I continue, I need to mention that this is my private text and it doesn’t represent Microsoft official statement, and this is not an announcement. Everything I’m writing here is based on Cecilia Flombaum presentation on the Microsoft Inspire a few days ago. If you want to see whole presentation, session is still available here (first part of presentation is mostly about Partner Contribution Indicator, but you can find BC details from cca 13:30).

She mentioned that we can expect a Business Central differentiation as well as Power Platform differentiation if you are focused only on one of these solutions. That will allow Business Central partner to achieve their silver and/or gold statuses in Cloud Business Application competency.

Currently we don’t know what will be required to achieve competency and statuses and if it will be connected with recently announced BC exam (probably yes).

But Business Central implementers will have one more opportunity – to achieve Small and Midsize Cloud Solutions competency through a Business Central differentiation opportunity. Probably there will be some differences i.e. slightly different threshold.

OK, this is everything we know for now. As sook as we have more information, you can find it on the Microsoft Partner Network.

New Dynamics Exams – finally

Finally we’ve started with Dynamics Exams. Currently, there are following exams available:

  • NAV Core Application Setup Certification
  • GP Core Financial Setup & Functionality Certification
  • GP Core Installation & Configuration Certification

As you seen, currently there are only three exams, but we will get new NAV exams in Q2 2016:

  • NAV Core Installation & Configuration Certification
  • NAV Core Development Certification

All these exams are prepared by Association of Dynamics Professionals. The vision of the Association of Dynamics Professionals (DynamicsPro) is that every Dynamics professional recognizes and adheres to high quality and certification standards for all Microsoft Dynamics products. I am part of this project and I think these exams are really good way to approve your knowledge and recognition. I know other people who are involved in these exams preparation and I strongly believe in this. Exams were written by people who know what it takes to have a successful project. They will help consultants deliver excellent service and ensure they meet professional quality standards.

Beginning this month – February, exams will be available on many different location in US and finally in Europe. You can register for exams here. Please take a look and register for the next exam in your area. If you don’t see something in your area, check back often, as DynamicsPro will be adding new exam dates and locations regularly.

Thea are currently available on the following locations, based on the next schedule:

  • Tuesday, February 23, 2016: Houston, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix
  • Wednesday, March 2, 2016: Atlanta
  • Thursday, March 10, 2016: Las Vegas
  • Tuesday, March 15, 2016: Washington, DC
  • Tuesday, March 22, 2016: Minneapolis, Phoenix
  • Tuesday, March 29, 2016: Netherlands
  • Tuesday, April 5, 2016: Midlands, England
  • Thursday, April 7, 2016: Tampa
  • Tuesday, June 7, 2016: Chicago

You can expect on more location soon. Online exam delivery has been delayed, but it will be available in the future. Be among the first in the industry to prove your knowledge and skills on the latest versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and GP through this new certification program.

Be the First Who Passed the New NAV Exam

Just to be sure that you are not forgotten, new Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 will be launched in only two weeks.

If you attend to NAVUG Summit in Reno this October, you can be really the first who passed the new NAV exam and show your expertise in Dynamics NAV 2015 Core Application Setup. It is not too late to register yourself here.

If you will not attend NAVUG Summit, maybe you will be in Orlando later the same moth – October 25-28 on Directions NA. You will have the same opportunity and you can register yourself here. In this situation, you will not be the first, but one of the first for sure.

This exam is prepared by a large number of NAV experts all around the world and I think it is a good chance to check your knowledge about NAV 2015.

NAV 2015 Certification is starting soon

Are you looking to distinguish yourself as a leading Dynamics NAV professional? Do you want to set yourself apart from your colleagues and competitors? Look no further than certification from the Association of Dynamics Professionals (Dynamics Pro).

Dynamics Pro is an independent, not-for-profit, membership organization dedicated to the Microsoft Dynamics community. Their certification exams for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 will be available at Directions NA and during NAVUG Summit – great opportunity to build your Dynamics NAV skills.

Dynamics Pro

These exams are prepared by a large number of NAV professionals and they represent a real world knowledge. I think it is a great job. Now, NAV certification is alive again. Check out certification exam offerings by visiting www.dynamicspro.org/certification.

Preparing New NAV Certification Exam Questions

I have already wrote about new Microsoft Dynamics NAV certification process. First, we have to update following two exams to NAV 2015:

  • Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 Core Setup and Finance
  • Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 Installation & Configuration

Currently, you will be able to check these certification exams on:

If you want to help in exam preparation proposing question ideas, you can do it registering on http://credentialing.dynamicspro.org/. We really need help of community in exam preparation. You will spend a little bit of your free time, but you will help in building of something big.

New Certification Exams for NAV

As you already know, Microsoft has canceled official exams for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Currently, three exams for NAV still exists, but only for NAV 2013. Microsoft does not want to prepare new exams in future for NAV and GP. But it does not mean that we will have not exams in the future.

Microsoft want to support the launch of the Association of Dynamics Professionals and exams preparation by Community, because certification is an important way for individuals to develop their skills and enhance the value they are able to add to their clients or employers.

In the close future, the Association of Dynamics Professionals will continue with certification exams for NAV and GP. First, we can expect two new exams for NAV 2015 at the fall this year. After that, it will be continued. You can find more about it on http://www.dynamicspro.org/.

About the Association of Dynamics Professionals:

Founded in 2015, the Association of Dynamics Professionals is an independent, not-for-profit membership organization devoted to the Microsoft Dynamics Community. The Association exists to serve its members and to improve the community as a whole through knowledge sharing, education and the establishment of competency standards and assessments.

See you soon with new NAV certification exams…

You can find more about exam here.