The Business Central Manufacturing Exchange - Starting a new event series

Posted by Martin Karlowitsch on Jun 23, 2022 11:00:00 AM

Of course, we at NETRONIC have a passion for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and manufacturing. And although our core focus is rather narrow (scheduling), we always have been looking in a broader sense at manufacturing topics. An example that underlines is my podcast, the Business Central Manufacturing Show

Oftentimes, when we speak to customers (and also to partners), we are confronted with requirements that are outside our scheduling core competency. Sometimes, we are asked for shopfloor solutions and time tracking. Another time, it is product configuration. And yet another time, it is that people request some warehouse functionality from us. Not seldomly, we are also asked for manufacturing solutions that are specific to one particular industry.  

Hence, we grasped a general need for more transparency on the Business Central manufacturing apps and solutions landscape. We took that need seriously and launched the Business Central Manufacturing Exchange to address this need.

Concept of the Business Central Manufacturing Exchange

The Business Central Manufacturing Exchange is an event series that we run under our "next by NETRONIC" event brand. The idea of next by NETRONIC events was to run online events in which we just play a facilitating role. A facilitating role to run panel discussions, dive into Business Central-related topics, and avoid NETRONIC scheduling demos.

Hence, the "next by NETRONIC" event brand is ideal to run an event series in which actually other ISV solutions play the key role.

To some extent, we regard the Business Central Manufacturing Exchange as the "event frontend to Microsoft's AppSource". We want to provide manufacturing ISVs the opportunity to showcase their AppSource apps to a broader audience. We - by the way - will only allow presenters that have their apps in Microsoft AppSource. 

With the Business Central Manufacturing Exchange, we want to make it easier for our customers and partners to find manufacturing apps that close requirement gaps ... just like our visual scheduling apps do.

 

Kicking off the Business Central Manufacturing Exchange

So, for launching the Business Central Manufacturing Exchange, we first identified solution areas that we get asked for frequently. This is:

  • shopfloor
  • warehouse
  • specific verticals

MicrosoftTeams-image (31)Consequently, we reached out to other ISVs and asked them if they would be willing to participate in an event run and marketed by us in which they could showcase their manufacturing apps. We tried to reach out broadly (in terms of geography) and also are open to include ISVs with which we compete in some areas.

Honestly, we were overwhelmed by the resonance we got, and are happy that we could win six ISVs for the first round of the Business Central Manufacturing Exchange. 

In alphabetical order, these are:

  • Clever Dynamics (UK)
  • Insight Works (Canada)
  • Naveksa (Denmark)
  • PrintVis (Denmark)
  • Softera (Lithuania)
  • To-Increase (The Netherlands)


How we run the Business Central Manufacturing Exchange

The kickoff event

We ran a one-hour kickoff event this week. In this event, each ISV had a ten minutes speaking slot to briefly their solution(s) and create some appetite for the topical events that follow later this and next week. Here is what they showed to us:

Clever Dynamics

Insight Works

Naveksa

Printvis

Softera

To-Increase

 

The topical events

Over the course of this week and the next, we will run three events to have a deeper dive into

  • Shopfloor solutions
  • Warehouse solutions
  • Vertical solutions for print companies as well as for industrial equipment manufacturing

If you want to join us short-term, you can register here.

 

A second round of the Business Central Manufacturing Exchange?

We already can see us doing the same format (one kickoff, three topical events) later this year.

If you have a need for a manufacturing app, please let us know and we'll find some ISVs to present.

And if you have a manufacturing app and want to present it, please let us know as well.

 

See you in one of our events :-)

Topics: Business Central Visual Scheduling Extensions