The Townsend Report

Last week our company  Sylogist  announced the acquisition of  Mission CRM , a leader in Microsoft Dynamics 365 / Power Apps solutions for nonprofits.  This is big news for us and for the nonprofit sector.  Mission CRM built a SaaS fundraising and engagement platform architecture and mindset.  They were one of the first to embrace the vision of Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact   organization which called for industry standards of compatibility and interoperability as well as working solutions geared toward the needs of nonprofits.  Microsoft partnered with Mission CRM in development of the Common Data Model ("CDM") for nonprofits and in developing the  Fundraising and Engagement solution , based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise.   The Mission CRM solution takes advantage of the Microsoft platform and provides seamless constituent engagement, online fundraising and campaign pages, event management, peer-to-peer fundraising, donation processing, funds distributi

Source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-gp/terms/lifecycle by James Townsend This year Microsoft announced a date for the end of mainstream support for Dynamics 365 GP 2018 accounting software.  This spurred some blogs and customers to think that they must switch from Dynamics GP to another product by January 10, 2023 when mainstream support ends. It turns out that this announcement does not cover the latest version which is named simply Dynamics 365 GP (without a year in the product name).  Dynamics 365 GP will continue to be developed and supported indefinitely. Without support, customers cannot continue to use accounting software because it must be maintained in order to comply with changing tax and regulatory requirements.  Microsoft ships these updates in the June and December releases, and adds hotfixes and other new features in an October update.  This stay of execution is good news for Dynamics GP customers, but it doesn't mean that they should not be seeking a m

  by James Townsend Microsoft Power Apps is one of my favorite subjects, and I enjoy reading blog posts from members of this thriving technical community.  Here are some of my favorite bloggers and their blogs: The Official Microsoft Power Apps Blog   I have to start with the official Microsoft Power Apps blog.  It has many contributors, largely Microsoft program manager, including frequent posters Denise Moran ,  Greg Lindhorst , Kartik Kanakasabesan , and  Adrian Orth .  This is the place to go for product announcements, updates and technical how-to for a broad range of Power Apps topics.  April Dunnam April Dunnam has been a rising star for years, formerly on SharePoint and now devoting herself to Power Platform.  April offers highly understandable explanations of Power Platform, Dataverse and other top Power Apps topics. She joined Microsoft in late 2019 and has a thriving YouTube channel .  Carl De Souza Power Apps Blog and eBook This is one of the most extensive and best organize

Student Portal by James Townsend For over three years, Microsoft has released solution accelerators based on Dynamics 365 for industries including healthcare, automotive, manufacturing, finance, nonprofits and education.  Each year we are seeing new solutions and updates to solutions based on Dynamics 365, Power Apps and the Common Data Model. In August 2021 Microsoft released the Higher Education component in the latest version of the  Dynamics 365 Education Accelerator v3.2.3.10 . Here are some highlights from the Higher Ed solution A student portal  An advisor dashboard  A business partner dashboard for events, hackathons, internships, scholarships, and grants. The Accomplishment extension tracking student work outside courses. The Grants phone app that allows research faculty to keep track of applications and approvals.  Rich reporting on students applying for internships, grants, and scholarships. System views for tables including students, faculty, extracurricular activities, pr

by James Townsend This month Microsoft announced major price cuts for Power Apps .  Starting October 1, 2021, the per user plan will be priced at $20/user/month, a fifty percent reduction from the previous price.  The Power Apps per app plan will also be slashed in half to $5/user/app/month. There are no license minimums for these subscriptions.  The Power Apps portal price has also been reduced for high volume customers. Portal logins and page views were formerly quite expensive for public websites with large numbers of authenticated users.   Nothing pleases customers more than price cuts, so Microsoft is likely to help its customers have a happier summer as well as planning for broader adoption of Power Apps. 

by James Townsend Many organizations such as nonprofits, non-governmental agencies, K-12 school districts, state, and local government agencies depend on grants to fund some of, or in many cases, their entire operations.  In the United States alone there are over 1.5 million nonprofit organizations [1] .  Winning grants can be difficult, especially for competitive programs, so managing the grants that your organization receives is critical to making grants successful and to paving the way for additional grants in the future. Grants nearly always come with compliance requirements such as post-award reporting and spending guidelines.  A surprising number of organizations track grants in spreadsheets and use email as their  principal means of sharing information and automating workflows.  This increases the risk of poor data integrity and usually requires monthly spreadsheet updates and distribution to decision-makers. Organizations that receive grants should use a financial solution, suc