I am looking for a way to track the navigation process of my users, as well as the number of clicks/user for each view, average screen time per/day/user, and so on.
I know I can do this programmatically but it doesn't seem like the ideal solution.
Is there any software that covers all of this?
Visual Studio App Center provides multiple useful tools. It offers real-time diagnostic data, tracking of usage patterns, user adoption and a lot more engagement metrics with App Center Analytics. You can even use custom events to get the exact user behaviors you are looking for.
I've been using it for a while and so far i'm satisfied.
AppCenter is the easiest to integrate with, it also allows you to export the data to ApplicationInsights on azure to do more with that data. There are some other options like Google Analytics (You have to install nugets on platform projects and implement them separately). You also have segment If you are interested.
I have requirement of preparing an in-house Project Management and accounting app using Microsoft Dynamics. My requirements are similar to what explained in the below page:
http://community.dynamics.com/product/crm/f/117/p/54453/98182.aspx
Can someone suggest that should we use ERP or CRM? And which one to use i.e. SL, GP, NAV, AX? And why?
CRM is probably the first choice to eliminate. Project management is usually an internally facing application, while CRM is by definition, externally facing. Secondly, if you need to maintain budgets, Dynamics CRM doesn't have anything built in for this (a general ledger for example).
As for the others, each will have its own costs and the extent of support you can get for any of them will vary depending on where your business is located. In some areas you may be able to get good SL support but no NAV or AX for example.
As for one you may not have considered, have you considered Project Server / SharePoint? If you need really heavy weight PM capability, Project may be your best bet. SharePoint can do some PM stuff. There's at least one book around by Dux Raymond Sy, published by O'Reilly. He's also done at least one webcast. Both are based on SharePoint 2007.
HTH
Of the Dynamics ERP products, SL is the one most focused on the project management (i.e. Project Accounting) space. CRM doesn't have a lot of project management capabilities built in, but is probably the most customisable and extendable of the dynamics range.
If you're after something that needs to cover the financial aspect of PM (e.g. billing, tracking costs etc) then you should look at the ERP options. If you're not worried about the financial side, then building a custom solution within CRM might be an option.
Came across this thread in a search I was doing. Hope Sukhminder Singh is still listening...
Sounds like you shouldn't abandon Dynamics CRM, a tool which your organization has tried and tested for nurturing customer satisfaction and turning it into ongoing revenue. On the other hand, you need to maintain a smooth accounting and billing relationship with the same customers - and for that, you'll need an ERP solution. As ccellar suggested NAV can do that, or even SharePoint, as suggested by Mike. I'll hazard a guess your organization already has SharePoint, too.
Now, what about the integration? You know, devising an effective, scalable, and future-proof way for getting MS folk to "talk" is quite a challenge! Also, you need a solution that places stress on human, as well as system workflows. The human factor can be decisive in time-critical projects.
Sukhminder, are you going to be coding solutions on either end? That's one way to go, though often, that option comes with high overheads: dragged-out coding projects, functionality that can be difficult to maintain, and even harder to modify, and serious concerns when one of the systems is upgraded or replaced.
From another angle--are you considering BPM? I'd urge you to.
BPM (Business Process Management) software suites are becoming an increasingly practical and mainstream option as an organization's central integration hub. BPM lets you rapidly map out and control mission critical processes involving multiple systems (as in your scenario). BPM lets you visualize the players, processes and apps over time, and when it comes to adjusting, remapping, and remodeling your workflows, you may have to do some coding, but a large part of the work can be done by experienced, non-programmer BPM users.
There are a bunch of vendors out there, each with its own pros and cons. For the job of connecting MS CRM and MS ERP/Sharepoint, here are 3 candidates I have come across.
Kofax's TotalAgility BMP integrates between Dynamics CRM and SharePoint, by leveraging SharePoint capabilities. The solution obviates elaborate coding by supporting workflows, rules, and user screens. It "orchestrates" processes between itself and other MS and products, most notably SharePoint, CRM, Lync, Visio, Outlook. They enable "in-flight" process change and dynamic BPM, so that down-time on your production is minimal. See the data sheet.
Sequence Business Process Management from PNMsoft. Provides integration with systems from many vendors. The forte is on human-centric processes, with a strong bent for Microsoft products. Sequence lets you integrate with existing systems using wizard-based connectors. When your organization changes, Sequence lets you "hot-swap" your business processes fast, without down time in your production.
MuleSoft's CRM-ERP integration. Their strong point is application integration, for connecting (legacy) systems from a range of vendors, including SAP, Oracle, Salesforce.com, and MS. The Mule ESB is a lightweight integration platform. It comes with a library of connectors to quickly create connectivity with all systems and services, whether on-premise or in the cloud. When adding or modifying an endpoint, you can easily update your integrations to reflect the change.
HTH some....
I'd start off at the Microsoft Dynamics site and explore what each product has on offer. They even have an ERP selector tool for you to try out with just a few questions. Why not contact Microsoft yourself and they could provide a list of potential partners that work in your area - it will be an important decision and they would better guide you through the selection process.
After a few projects which also had an accounting part, I would not recommend to use Dynamics CRM (at least for the accounting part). That's not what it's meant for and you have to spend much effort to get to a level of Dynamics NAV for example.
On the other side: why not combine both systems and use their strenghts.
We're working on the next version of a tracking system. The previous incarnation used an LCD with a simple custom UI however as we've had usability problems and we've found development time-consuming, and as our display is going out of production, we're considering using a regular cellphone or PDA as the interface instead.
Our main worry is whether we can keep such a product on the market for five to ten years without having to continually keep porting and adapting the application to new devices. To make things somewhat easier we intend to bundle the phones with the system, though in an ideal world our (largely non-technical) users would be able to use their own.
So, what's our best bet? Are there a good platform-independent libraries we can count on being supported for a while? Or are we better of betting on a single platform at a time? Perhaps backward-compatibility is more likely to be maintained on a PDA? Truth be told I'm not even sure what language to bet on for the generic parts of the code.
I'm also a little anxious about the link to our hardware. Bluetooth SPP is attractive since it's particularly easy to use and there are plenty of ready-made modules available, but support on the phone side is far from universal.
Any pragmatic advice would be most welcome as I must admit to having no experience with mobile application development.
If you don't control the entire production chain for hardware like Apple does for example, you have no chance on long term. Unless your product is really innovative and market wants it so much, or if you are playing on a market niche (healthcare for instance). My proposal would be to make a market study and check what your customer use as mobile devices first. You should choose one or two top platforms first, and gradually add new platforms if market asks. If you are in US probably iPhone, Android, RIM would be the top choices, in Europe I would have to choose between iPhone, Android, Symbian, Windows. It's the same like developing a website you start with two top browsers and gradually add support for minor ones.
About portable libraries I wouldn't bet on this. Instead I would design an architecture using abstraction layers. For example I would have Bluetooth abstraction layer that would expose functionalities to my Business Logic Layer; underneath I would have BlueZ if I deploy on Android/Linux, maybe GameKit for iPhone, MS stack or Widcomm for Windows and so on.
PDAs are dead, actually they've merged into smartphones and tablets, they were an evolutionary step. So forget them.
HTML5 is a good idea but is only the front layer, you must deal also business logic and lower layers.
Bluetooth SPP is good because it is common, and interoperable it's like the webservices for enterprise. Instead of giving an API that is platform dependent you could provide a set of custom AT commands, that can be used by anyone that can connect on Bluetooth to SPP.
Cross platform sounds like HTML 5, CSS and Javascript, along with some javascript frameworks for mobile development like the ones listed here
I am Mobile-developer and 3 major mobile-platforms have channels for their users to get/buy software and for their developers to distribute/sell their creations, namely AppStore (IPhone), Marketplace (Windows Mobile) and Android Market (Android).
I have now written a software running on Windows. I have "spread the word" by publishing some articles on various forums/blogs but still it's difficult "to reach out". Are you aware about any similar "store", like AppStore, for Windows Users? I am not but I might be wrong. Or are you aware about any huge forum/blog where developers can advertise their applications?
Thanks.
There is no centralized store for arbitrary applications. If your product is consumer targeted, Download.com is a major shareware destination. If your product is niche, I suggest seeking out communities around your market and advertise on the respective forums, or simply run Google AdWords.
Does anyone have any experience with any COTS systems for managing workshops and the associated registrations, courses, communications, etc.?
We have a home-built Perl system that is about 8 years old and is currently embedded as an iframe in a SharePoint portal site (externally facing). Needless to say, it isn't integrated into our site well, looks like crap, needs an overhaul, lacks features, etc. It would be nice to find either a product we can install or a service that provides those features.
Thanks!
You might also look into Moodle - it's a platform developed to supplement classroom teaching (or implement online learning courses) but should have all the major features you listed, and would support your needs reasonably well, as well as enhancing your event with an online component such as slide/presentation distribution only to registered users or users that took a particular class, etc)