Dynamics CRM 4.0 Mobile Interface pending update to the v3.0 Mobile Express/Thin-Client.

Many of our clients have been asking about the pending release and roadmap for the Mobility client and the GP connector.  We are being told that the mobility client is being worked on and will be released soon.  No word on the connectors. 

 

I was in a briefing on CRM 4.0 last summer at the Partner Conference and they stated that the mobility access is a "cornerstone" of 4.0 so I expect them to enhance the express/thin client a bunch and release that in the coming months.  I have used mobility and you really don't need it for too much but it is nice to have.  It is definitely a feature that is required to compete in the market.  It comes free with MS CRM which is a great price for the value.  Most competitors charge for extending your data to mobile devices. 

 

The reason it is not as vital as some people believe is that MS CRM works through your outlook and specifically unifies your individual and corporate CONTACTs Data.  MS CRM Connects and Unifies investments in Outlook, Exchange, and Active Directory.  So if you set it up normally you or another person in your organization can update a contact in CRM and that flows through to the Outlook contacts and that flows through to your mobile contacts on your active synch enabled phone/PDA.  I am sure you are using Windows Mobile instead of Blackberry....If not you really should try cause it is a lot better value.

 

It doesn't really matter what you use because when you update an Outlook record in outlook or in CRM is synchs the records which also synchs through EXCHANGE to your mobile device.  So you have "One Truth" on the contact information.  That is the beauty of MS CRM embedded in the Outlook and Exchange stack applications.  Embedded not integrated.  They are designed to work together as one business enabling platform/system.

 

So people have access to the contact info on the go.  This is mostly what people need it for.  It also supports custom entities/extensions which is great.  PDAs do not really lend themselves to massive data input/reports/interactions.  So I doubt you are going to do 1000 or 100 words of typing on the mobile client or run your daily business.  I have mostly seen field service and sales people use it for a quick check of account address info and then also maybe reviewing the funnel and opportunities. 

 

I have yet to seen a cold call rep go mobile to smile and dial 50 calls.  If you have let me know.  That does not seem optimal utilization of time and resources 

 

So MOBILE is really for quick looks and quick entry.  The thin client is really optimal for that. 

 

Regards, Jon Petrucelli

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Training guides and links and information

Here is a great post about MS CRM and all the various training available to the community.  There is a TON.  I have been through this and it is very good now and they will continue to enhance and build on it for years! 

 

There are at least 500 hours of training available to full clients.  That is a lot of information.  Trust me, I have been through a lot of it getting triple certified  Last Fall I went to the Microsoft Redmond Center for 5 days immersion on 4.0 and we previewed much of this training materials.  Thankfully the new content and materials and product is a lot better than the old 1.0 and 1.2 training.  Back then it still had the Great Plains logo on the materials.  I think I still have my manuals from the early days. 

 

Here is the catch.  Training is a must but it cannot replace the real world experience on the product with clients.

 

From a Technical perspective: All this training and studying cannot replace the experience on the product and the experience of bending your mind around client problems and requirements to figure out what is the OPTIMAL way to solve them.  The key term here is optimal.  This is critical because pretty much anything can be done in MS CRM but you do not always want to do what can be done.  Certain areas of the system and outside the SDK should be treaded on very lightly because the long term sustainability of the client system can be greatly impacted if you do not do things optimally.  Explore all the normal options before recommending the last resort: crack the code and go crazy.

 

From a Business Perspective: You must have the experience not only on the product but also with the business processes and domain knowledge to be able to hold your own in discovery, design, and envisioning meetings with VPs of Sales and Marketing and Business leaders.  These are the decision makers that ultimately decide your success and failure and pay the bills.  You have got to be able to engage them on their ground and gain a "trusted advisor" relationship footing.  If they do not respect you they will not listen, if they don't listen then the project can quickly become a low priority or get out of control.  When these things happen you can almost guarantee they will be having a meeting in 6 months and blame the product for all the problems in their business.

 

Training is awesome but there is not substitute for experience and cycles in front of clients solving their problems optimally!

 

Regards, Jon Petrucelli

We received an Award from Microsoft - The "Compete to WIN" Award

I am proud to announce that last week (Jan 23rd approx) we were awarded the South Central Area (TX and 4 other states) 2008-H1 COMPETE TO WIN Award.  This is especially encouraging as the pool of nominations included all MS products not just CRM or Dynamics. 

 

The award revolves around competing effectively against many of the alternative CRM products in the market.  We went head-to-head and won the business against Seibel, EPICOR and SalesForce.com (many times).  We defeated these worthy competitors by selling the very real and evident value of MS CRM.  It was an intense 6 months but very rewarding with licenses and projects implemented. 

 

I want to especially thank Brett Bergman, Dale Schlagel and Daniel Hunter at Microsoft.  We worked with them on a daily basis to get all the clients signed.  December especially was a tornado of business with the impending launch of CRM 4.0!

 

Regards, Jon Petrucelli

MS Dynamics CRM 4.0 Email Routing, Connector and Management Advancements and Enhancements

One of the big problems in CRM 3.0 was the email integration/management.  There were huge improvements over version 1 and 1.2 but there were still many opportunities to streamline the process and configuration.  Well MSFT really worked on this and I am happy to say the Email management functions and features and architecture has been greatly enhanced.  I am sure we will discover opportunities for improvement" but I have to say I am very impressed with the new Email management system in CRM 4.0. 

 

The CRM TEAM did a great write up on all the enhancements here: CLICK HERE

 

It really lays out a high level guide all the changes, enhancements and advancements.  I highly recommend any admin start looking here.  The Implementation and Installation guides will help with the most detailed readings.  The best way to learn is to install and start testing and "poking around" 

 

Regards, Jon Petrucelli

From CRM Buzz: How Companies Waste Leads

How Companies Waste Leads – My Take: The net-net of the story is that companies should better manage and track their leads. The recommendations are to Have a CRM system (Me thinks that is a good idea ;-)) and then to have a formal tracking and nurture program that retains the warm leads. Sales people get caught up on HOT leads and may not facilitate a long term nurture strategy so the company should maintain this. Good ideas. Well written too.

 

Marketing expert, Patty Azzarello, shares two basic principals that will keep you from wasting leads. Follow her advice and you will maximize your investment in marketing and close more business.

View article...

Bill Gates Last day video - This is too funny. You gotta see this.

http://alexbarnett.net/blog/archive/2008/01/17/billg-last-full-day-at-microsoft-has-come-and-gone.aspx

 

Click the link and then hit the play button.  I watched a few last week and the sound was all messed up.  This is the best one with the sound I have heard.  Very funny and loads of cameos.  At the Conventions they always have funny self deprecating humor like this.  Its worth ten mins. 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM LIVE is coming and will offer clients more choice than ever before!

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live delivers a fast, flexible and familiar customer management solution for businesses looking to combine the power of online services with the richness of their everyday productivity applications. This solution is optimized for business work groups or departments who want to have their customer relationships managed by Microsoft.  We have been in the beta/Early Adopter program for months and have found the platform to be very stable and reliable.  It is pretty much CRM 4.0 but you just do not have to host the servers.  There are a few limitations around loading code onto the server and some other things, but essentially it is the exact same application.

The Pricing is better than almost every other Hosted CRM provider but still expensive over 2-3 years TCO.  Hosted runs about $40-$60/month per users.  Still much cheaper than competition.  But On premise runs about $35/user if you spread the payments over 3 years.  But with the on-premise solution there are additional costs for the platform you do not have with CRM LIVE.  I personally think the on-premise will still be the best for situations above 25-30 users.  They typically want more specific requirements and have more existing infrastructure.  So this will be an easy decision.  $50/user for 100 users is $5000/month = $60,000 per year.  You can get a lot of work done on premise for the approximate $40,000 less the on-premise software would cost over 3 years. 

We think the CRM LIVE pricing will be very compelling for certain folks with less than 10 users or they do not want a lot of infrastructure.  There is a lot of cost to care and feed a server, a lot more than just the purchase price.  So we think this will be very compelling and will also give us one great software Application (MS CRM 4.0) that can be consumed and delivered in whatever manner is best for the client.  You see On-premise or On-Demand is just a delivery mode, and should not be considered a business model or application value point.  Think of it like Cable versus Direct TV or Cellular vs. land line phone.  They are delivery models and you pick the one that meets your needs and requirements. 

The great thing about CRM 4.0 (TITAN) will be that it is offered in either and a client can run both or move back and forth from one platform to the next.  The data, configurations and customizations are all easily portable from one delivery platform to the next.  This is a huge advantage and a huge benefit to the clients.  Very few enterprise application providers can boast this delivery platform choice and portability.  Most of the zealots/bigots have painted themselves into a corner railing against one mode or the other. 

So fir the first time a client can chose an enterprise class application like MS CRM 4.0 and chose the best price points per user and the correct delivery model for their particular business or group.  They will also have flexibility to change platforms as needed for business or seasonal changes. 

This new delivery model is expected to release (Release to Web – RTW) on or around the month or March 2008.  In the past the CRM LIVE team was referring to March as the RTW date but most recently they have been messaging SPRING 2008.  So not sure what that means.  Right now people can get admitted to the Early Access 2 program (EA2).  This just opened to more people last week.  So call us if you want to get signed up – 512-498-1005. 

Jon Petrucelli

Dynamics CRM 4.0 System Requirements Details

The bottom line on hardware and software requirements: Get solid hardware for the CRM server. Especially if you are trying to do it right. 2GB RAM, Large HD and fast processor are so cheap nowadays that it is worth it. At a minimum make sure you have the room to add RAM. You also want to make sure you have fast seek times and fast speeds on your Hard Drive. This is a DB drive application and the server largely handles the db load. RAID 10 with striped and mirrored arrays is a good way to configure the RAID array of hard drives. This will give the best data seek times on the DB. Great info below.

The hardware and software requirements described below are provided as general requirements. Individual factors to consider that can affect these requirements include:

•	Number of servers involved and how they are configured
•	Dependency of Microsoft Dynamics CRM on Microsoft SQL Server 2005
•	Number of users the Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation will support
•	Integration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Microsoft Exchange servers
•	Performance of your servers and the local area network (LAN)
•	Whether or not you already have Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services installed

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Implementation Guide provides detailed information about the installation and implementation requirements for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. The following additional installation topics are covered in Chapter 3 of the guide:

•	Multiple-server deployment (including hardware recommendations for Microsoft SQL Server and Exchange Server)
•	Single-server deployment
•	Installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM on a virtual machine
•	Using special and extended characters
•	Planning server requirements for reporting

Read all the details here: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/crm/product/systemrequirements.mspx

Regards, Jon Petrucelli

Good marketing video explaining the Marketing modules and features of Microsoft Dynamics CRM

I got this from the CRM Facebook group.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/everyonegetsit/default.mspx?WT.mc_id=egivanity

 

Microsoft is getting much better at explaining the business value of the technology to the people.  This is not an easy thing to do and I think they are getting better at competeing in the domain. 

CHOICE Explained - The value and growing momentum around the general launch of the MS CRM LIVE SAAS Solution

CHOICE is an interesting word to build a marketing campaign and go to market strategy around.  I think it is especially ironic given that MSFT has spent more money in anti-trust defense than probably any other company.  I like to joke around that “You have Choice as long as you pick Microsoft CRM.”    LOL.  ;-)  Luckily you have some pretty dang good choices.  I won’t make any bones about that I am a MS CRM Zealot, just ask anyone that knows me or works with me.  My wife would tell you that I am an obsessive and that is a gift and a curse. 

“I have been with the rest and now I’m with the best.”  MS CRM is a great solution.  I have used almost all the others so I can tell you some stories.  From ACT! to Seibel to SFDC.  They all have their pros and cons.  MS CRM has its pros and cons, BUT for the money it is hands down THE BEST value there is and ever has been in the CRM marketplace.  I can argue that with anyone.  MS CRM costs approximately $2-$3/day per user.  That is roughly the cost of a Starbucks Venti Coffee.  Don’t tell Phil Richardson I mixed coffee and CRM on my blog.  You can run the numbers and see. 

For that price you get a Business-class, server-based, SQL-driven, business platform application that is embedded in the Outlook interface with mobile, IE and Thin client interfaces to the same data real time, off-line client too.  That has been the holy grail of CRM forever.  Not to mention all the controls, reporting, workflow, Excel and Word Integrations, API, Customizations, Data Migration, etc.  This all combines to be one heck of a business platform for Marketing, Sales, Service, and extensions.  We use it for much more than it is marketed as. 

MS CRM is basically an Entity relationship management platform.  XRM – X being a variable.  It is this XRM platform that comes pre configured with the Marketing, Sales and Service modules and associated sub modules.  We also extend it to use for any relationship tracking we want that is optimal for the platform to include: Recruiting/Talent, Asset Mgmt, Projects, and even IDEA management and whole lot more.  Example: Why not treat your recruiting and talent acquisition of new people for your organization with a proper system to better manage the process.  Talent is what will win the business battles in America in the coming decades.  Why not treat recruits better than you treat prospects??

Back to CHOICE.  MS CRM is going to continue to grow at the fastest rates ever in business applications (Roughly 5,000 company adds a year averaging 40 users per company) because now you can choose either on-premise or hosted, SAAS, ASP, on-demand deployment model and you can easily move back and forth from on-premise to hosted and hosted to on-premise.  This is a HUGE.  HUGE I tell you.  Clients can start on hosted and move to on premise when it is optimal.  Or the reverse.  That is the best thing for the client.  I have posted before that SAAS and multi tenancy as a business model primarily benefits the publisher like SFDC.  It allows them economies of scale and leverage to cram more businesses on one shared piece of hardware.  That does not really help the client.  Working MS CRM and having the CHOICE of deployment models will give real value and benefit to the CLIENT which is good business practices, so they say ;-). 

Here is a link to the recent announcements - http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2008/01/09/choice-begins-today.aspx

I hope this helps explain my random thoughts on why Microsoft is a leader in providing CHOICE to the world.  ;-)  - Jon Petrucelli, Zealot and Sales Guy.

More on the Brad Wilson Q&A Regarding Dynamics CRM 4.0 Strategy - Good info regarding the vision and direction in here...

CRM Buyer magazine posted this interesting Q&A.  Brad Wilson came on board right before the projected launch of CRM v 2.0 and immediately squashed it from as far as I can tell.  I remember those days and my impression was that this guy better do something big or else we are going to shelve this MS CRM product.  We had been doing a lot of investing and demoing 1.2 at that time and not a lot of selling and transacting.  We were looking forward to the surge that MSFT can put around a new version release to jump start the line of business.  So when he squashed the 2.0 release I immediately jumped on the fence.

Well CRM 3.0 was a huge improvement in the front end and interface into the MS CRM application.  It really was a quantum leap forward from a front end perspective.  On the back end and the admin side there was not too much different. 

Sidebar – I always try to tell people 1.2 was not that bad and not all evil.  It was a pretty good application relative to competition like SFDC and Saleslogix and ACT.  But the 3.0 version put a whole new skin on the beast that was VERY appealing and fixed some major limitations like entity creation and SRS reporting etc.  But from a admin and backend it was still VERY much the 1.2 application.

Now with 4.0 they have really enhanced the back end A LOT and added some missing pieces like Multi-National, Multi-Tenant, Data Migrations/Management, Reports Wizard etc.  So it is another quantum leap in about 2 years.  And believe me it is a great product so far.  I have been working on it for more than 6 months and it is AWESOME!  Now the community is getting at it and they are saying the same thing. 

So Great job to Brad Wilson and the Dynamics Team.  A Team is usually a direct reflection of its leadership.  So if that is the case I would have to give a big round of applause and pat on the back to the one Brad Wilson because he has done a fantastic technical, business and people leadership job with the CRM product in my humble opinion. 

Here is the link to the Q&A.  We have more videos and stuff on the blog just search for ‘Brad Wilson’.  http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/60933.html

CLIENT Feedback on CRM 4.0 Installation "This seems to Rock"

One of our clients is very savvy and has already run test upgrades on their existing CRM 3.0 test system.  Here is their feedback on the upgrade and the resulting CRM 4.0 performance. 

“I have the new CRM running on a test server, the Outlook integrator is a 100 times better.  I am still going through several of the options but I have not had a problem yet and this is an upgrade from a copied deployment of 3.0.  Thanks for the info, this seems to rock right now and I am running it on an old virtual server.

Rob”

Microsoft has done A LOT of enhancement and improvement on how the back end of Dynamics CRM 4.0 works relative to the 1.0 and 3.0 days.  It has greatly improved the throughout, performance and ultimate end user experience with the application.  That is a huge benefit to upgrading to CRM 4.0.  Performance and Experience enables higher user adoption!  Great job CRM 4.0 TITAN Team!

Regards, Jon Petrucelli

Dynamics CRM 3.0 to 4.0 UPGRADE Tips, Findings and Recommendations - Part 1

Line of Business core application upgrades can be a very tenuous time for a system admin. Luckily we have been doing a lot of CRM 4.0 related work: Installations, upgrades, code version moves and just general poking around (technical term). We are going to start posting our findings and recommendations to share with our loyal readers, if any are out there. Hopefully they will bring someone some enjoyment.

Many thanks to our team for pulling these together. New Versions and the associated hassles with new installations, upgrades and bugs can be a tough couple weeks as one learns the ins and outs of the new process. We fortunately have quite a few spare servers and development boxes that we can test and retest and train on before ‘go-time’ in front of a client. Even with all the training we cannot prepare for all the wrinkles a field/production system might contain. This is the time to shine and why we get paid the big bucks ;-).

Here are our first set of findings and recommendations around upgrading from CRM 3.0 to 4.0.

-CRM 4.0 has some many great enhancements and productivity features that it is worth it to me to do the upgrade even if it breaks some things.

-Be very careful, back everything up (DBs, Web configs, ISV configs, etc), test on a dev environment if at all possible. Image the entire server if you can.

-With good backups to the core DB and Metabase in 3.0 you can roll the system back using the Redeployment wizard if necessary.

-Installs and Upgrades are largely about “Conditioning” the Domain and Server to properly and efficiently accept the CRM code. Spending a lot of time making sure ht system and domain and environment are properly configured is a very important step. If done correctly then the application largely installs itself.

-An upgrade can break many customizations that users might really like. So run a test before if at all possible.

-CRM will open just fine, but the URL to navigate to will be a little different…it includes the company name as well, for example: http://titan:5555/productivegap/loader.aspx

-Custom reports that had been deployed and working in CRM 3.0 do not show up in the Reports section of CRM. The Custom Reports still exist in the Report Manager list, but not in CRM automatically. Added the reports to CRM manually, and the reports seem to be working fine including a custom sub report

-Opened an Account and received a generic error. There was no ‘OnLoad’ type of error, etc. like in CRM 3.0. The error was related to Field Level Security. This is not allowed at all in CRM 4.0, and the MSCRMServices is no longer available, see this blog: Click Here

-Javascript that shows the Products on an IFrame on a tab instead of the Navigation Bar works perfectly

Call us if you need help. 512-498-1005 - Regards, Jon Petrucelli

Do you want to get into the Microsoft CRM LIVE beta program.

Let me know.  Call 512-498-1005.  They are expanding the program and taking more early adopters in.  Price is free.!!!  Cant beat that. 

For more info, read the CRM Team Blog article. 

Choice Begins Today - Say good-bye to the one-size-fits-all and one-way CRM systems of yesterday, and say hello to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live. Beginning today, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live has officially reached our second early-access release and is expanding access for Microsoft customers and partners located in the United States and Canada. Within this expanded program, Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers and partners can combine the power of online services with their everyday productivity solutions to manage customer information and business processes with ease. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live – designed on our new, multi-tenant, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 architecture, equips your organization with a solution for fast implementation and adoption, delivers a flexible and agile business application that adapts quickly and easily to your unique business needs, and most importantly, enhances your everyday productivity tools like Microsoft Office Outlook, Word and Excel by equipping your with real-time business insight and customer intelligence so you can make critical business decisions with ease.

Regards, Jon Petrucelli

CRM 4.0 - Language Pack UI Installation Pack Details

From Menno - By installing a Language Pack on the server that is running Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 and then enabling the language in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Web application, users can view Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 in a language other than the base language of the installation.

Follow these instructions to get the packs:

-Access the download page (display languages are available for each 4.0 language version)

-Select the ‘Language Pack’ from the “Change Language” dropdown in the Quick Details section on the download landing page.

Once installed the users can go to their CRM 4.0 browser interface, Workplace, Personalize Workplace, Languages Tab, and then select the desired language.  We have some Multi National clients that this is a huge deal for.  Great improvement! 

Jon

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Multi Language - First language packs now available for download

 The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team today announced that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 English, German and Spanish language packs are now available for download. 

 

Dynamics CRM 4.0 Installation Video

Another Great Video from Channel 9 and the CRM team.   John O’Donnell walks you through the simple installation of MS CRM 4.0.  These guys are really putting out some amazing content.  Great Stuff and Kudos to them for sharing so much and helping evangelize!  There is just no way any individual partner could put this much high quality content out.  Enjoy - http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=364853

What's New in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - Great overview information here on the new upgrades and enhancements.

Published: January 2, 2008 - Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 business software is a complete customer relationship management (CRM) solution that provides the capabilities that organizations need to gain and retain competitive advantage in today's business world.  Microsoft relies on customers to guide product evolution. To this end, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM team spent significant time listening to customers and observing how they use CRM. The results of this research have helped us bring our customers Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0. Here's a quick look at the latest Microsoft Dynamics CRM features.

        Improved end-user benefits     
        Enhanced integration with Microsoft Office     
        Greater support for global business    
        Flexible hosting scenarios with multi-tenant installations     
        Improved availability, performance, and scalability    

Dynamics CRM 4.0 SDK now available online

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 SDK is now ready for download. The documentation is critical in for both programmers and for others.  There are loads of examples of code and real world scenarios.  Everyone that is an admin or super user should know where this doc is and how to use it to get answers.  There is also a lot of info about the new features etc.  This is usually a live doc kept on MSDN and it gets updated with new info every few months.  Very powerful information source.  Check it out. 

Channel 9 - John O'Donnell Demos the Dynamics CRM 4.0 Data Migration Wizard

John O'Donnell, who is a Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelist, demonstrates the new Data Migration Manager tool in Microsoft Dynamics 4.0 showing how the new Data Migration Manager is used to import and link multiple entities from CSV files.

John O-Donnell blogs at http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde.

       

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 online event

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is THE RIGHT CHOICE for marketing, sales & customer service success Discover how Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 can help you deepen customer relationships and stay competitive. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 you can: ·      ... [StartDate: 2/7/2008 9:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada); EndDate: 2/7/2008 11:30 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada); RegistrationFee: No; PrimaryLanguage: English; TargetAudience: Business Decision Maker; ]

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Happy New Year 2008

Happy New year to everyone!  Thanks to all our clients and partners out there.  We have had a great year in 2007 and we owe that all to our great clients and partners.  Without them we would not be in business for sure.  We have again grown the business 100+ percent in 2007 and we expect that same growth in 2008.  CRM 4.0 has just launched and we have already seen significant traction.  The new version really filled in some gaps and challenges in the 3.0 version specifically on Data Migration, Multi-National, Many-to-Many Relationships and much more.  All the clients we have shown CRM 4.0 to have been very excited and interested about the new version.  Let me know if you want a demo or consult.  We believe 2008 holds a lot of promise for our team and for CRM version 4.0.  It has already started off with a bang at the end of December and we expect that momentum to increase in January and February! 

Best wishes to all readers in the New Year.  Jon Petrucelli - President and Founder - ProductiveGap Corp - www.productivegap.com