Preview of Directions NA

What to expect from Microsoft's event for partners

The Directions North America conference takes place between September 30 and October 3, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina, California.

It’s billed as the only Microsoft Partner Conference in North America where Microsoft partners (such as Equisys) can learn about Microsoft Dynamics Business Central and Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

As Directions is an event which is driven by Partners and focused on the needs of Partners and the markets they target, it affords delegates the opportunity to share and discuss the challenges, opportunities and predicted developments in the world of Microsoft Dynamics.

For us, we’re looking forward to meeting and networking with Zetadocs partners, and to hearing what they want from us and how we can improve our offering.

We’ll also be looking to gather as much useful information as we can from what promises to be a wide and varied range of relevant sessions being held over the course of the 4 days, in addition to meeting people at our expo kiosk (D2).

With over 121 sessions, meetings and presentations already scheduled, it’s difficult to predict what the highlights will be; indeed the element of surprise continues to be one of the most appealing features of the conference.

The arrival of Dynamics 365 Business Central

It's fair to say, however, that a core theme of this year’s Directions events in both the US and EMEA will be how Microsoft plans to transition Dynamics NAV to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

As Marko Perisic (General Manager of Microsoft Dynamics 365) says, Business Central is a solution which has been designed specifically for the age of digital transformation (for our own thoughts on what digital transformation means for small and medium sized businesses, read our recent blog on the topic).

Microsoft customers around the world are eagerly awaiting further information about what Business Central is and what the future plans for the product are.

Partners attending Directions are no different.

Through keynotes, hands-on labs and breakout sessions, Marko and his team are promising to share:

• What the move from NAV to Business Central means for businesses
• How to transition from NAV to Business Central
• The future strategy for the product

Bearing all of that in mind, and knowing that many of our fellow ISVs and Partners will be present at Directions, we’ve had a look through the programme to whet our appetite about what else might be on offer.

Some of the sessions which have already caught our eye include this one by Microsoft Partner Development Manager David O’Bryan: How to transition Customers to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

The session promises to discuss how Microsoft transition programs and offers can be distilled into real world scenarios to help clients make the most of their investment and benefit by moving to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

On Day 2, the session on Effective sales and demo tools should offer a useful insight into the tools and mechanisms available to Dynamics partners to promote Business Central and other solutions to end users. We’ll be looking for information on how we can dovetail our Zetadocs demos with these tools.

In summary

Directions 2019 is likely to be a lively affair, with a great many questions heading in the direction (pardon the pun) of Microsoft about the what, how, when, where and why of Dynamics 365 Business Central.

We look forward to being able to share some of the answers on this blog.

If you are heading to Directions, be sure to say hello to the Equisys team at Expo Kiosk D2 and ask us what Dynamics 365 Business Central means for Zetadocs.