ProWorks Exhibits at Convergence

Last week Jason and I attended Microsoft's annual Convergence conference and exposition showcasing the Microsoft Dynamics line of business solutions. This was my second year to the event and I was pleased that San Diego was the location. The weather was great and the city fondly reminded me of Honolulu. Reportedly over 8000 people were in attendance, evidence that the Microsoft Dynamics community is continuing to grow. Again this year I was impressed that the event planners were able to manage that many people and make there time productive. The exposition hours seemed to be extended this year. At times there is quite a bit of traffic which was great for us. Jason and I got a chance to speak with a number of CRM partners and customers. I noticed a distinct increase in the awareness around CRM analytics and predictive analysis. We have to thank Microsoft for at least some of that. They ran a CRM analysis demo in the expo hall and had a couple of educational sessions devoted specifically to CRM analytics. As partners and customers begin to complete their inital implementations of CRM they seem to be looking for ways to take advantage of their growing CRM data.

One of our biggest challenges has been to clearly present the potential benefits of CRM analytics. Good analysis has been limited to data experts and executives for so long I think everyone else naturally asks "so how does this help me?" I am really looking for forward to Microsoft contributing to the general credibility of CRM analytics and predictive analysis and helping ProWorks to focus on meeting specific analysis needs for CRM users.

I would not have complained if the exposition hours were reduced a bit. Some of times overlap with the learning sessions and the number of visitors can be pretty minimal.

The structured networking could also have been much better. I completely agree with Mike Snyder's assessment of the networking system on the Sonoma Partners Blog. Last years system was not the greatest solution. This years new solution was terrible by comparison. I hope the event coordinators notice a reduction in scheduled meetings through the networking system and give it some serious attention for next year.

It was great trip. Thank you to Microsoft for hosting a fun and productive event. The entertainment was great. Where do you find an old Asteroids arcade game? I particularly enjoyed the sushi table and the baked brie. And thank you to all the Dynamics partners and customers that visited our booth and spoke with us.

Convergence 2007

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth at Microsoft Convergence 2007!

We enjoyed our time in San Diego and made some great contacts. Shortly we will be announcing the winners of the books we were giving away.

If you want to see a demo or would like to learn more about our predictive analysis and text mining for CRM, just contact us at crm@proworks.com.