In this issue:

InterConnect 2003
FREE Microsoft Business Solutions Annual Customer Conference

InterConnect 2003 is a one day event, held by Microsoft Business Solutions for all its customers, featuring all products in separate streams. The event gives you an opportunity to learn from other businesses as well as hear an update from Microsoft Business Solutions.

The event dates are:
Melbourne: 31st March - Grand Hyatt Hotel
Sydney: 4th April - Sheraton on the Park

To find out more or to register please follow this link:
http://www.mih-marketing.com.au/ext_cfm/interconnect_register.cfm

New Customer Support email address
Microsoft Business Solutions naming conventions

Following the Microsoft Business Solutions group integration and our product line expansion to include Great Plains, Axapta, Microsoft Customer Relationship Management and Microsoft Retail Management System, we have adopted new naming conventions in our group. As a result we have changed our customer support email to reflect the combined Microsoft Business Solutions support.

Our new Customer support email address is mbshelp@pa.com.au
Our group's website address is www.pa.com.au/mbs

Remember that a service request can be logged with our Customer Service team by the telephone, fax, eCustomer or by using the above mentioned customer support email address.

Professional Advantage leads in certified professionals for Microsoft Business Solutions
Over 120 certifications are to be gained by the end of Certified Professional Program

In response to your growing expectations of service standards, and in recognition of the importance of formal qualifications, Professional Advantage personnel have earned over 70 Microsoft Business Solutions certifications with plans for another 50 to be gained over the next 2 months.

It is anticipated that as a result of participating in the Microsoft Business Solutions Certified Professional Program, as many as 26 Professional Advantage consultants will achieve the status of Certified Master - Microsoft Great Plains. To qualify for the Master level of certification, the professionals are required to achieve certification in all core modules, as well as one of the specialised series such as project accounting, distribution, service management or FRx report writer.

Achieve
Peak
Performance
From Your
System

Professional Advantage is offering an Application Process Audit for your system optimisation. The Application Process Audit has been designed to ensure that your system is operating at the optimal level of performance. This audit is designed to complement the Technical and Reports Audits.

Has your company adopted best
practice in its processes?

Over 100 points scrutinised in the
Audit Recommendations Report

Duration from half day to full day. Consulting rates for this service are at $200 p/h

For more information please contact
Nicola Taylor 02 9919 8932
nicola_taylor@pa.com.au

Professional Advantage achieves Microsoft Gold Certification
Professional Advantage is recognised for its work in Business Intelligence field

Professional Advantage has become one of only 7 Microsoft Gold Certified Partners for Business Intelligence (BI) in Australia.

This achievement comes in recognition of our continuous focus on delivering cost effective and easy to use OLAP-based reporting solutions to its customers.

Strict selection process by Microsoft identifies partners who have proven their commitment and expertise in building, implementing, and delivering BI oriented solutions featuring Data Warehousing, Data Mart or OLAP functionality based on Microsoft technologies Microsoft Gold Certified Partners receive enhanced benefits above the Microsoft Certified Partner Program that include prioritised access to advanced training opportunities, prioritised listing on referrals and business engagements and others.

Special training offer for May
Save $200 on report writer training

Professional Advantage is offering a special rate for a public training course taken in May. Reserve your seat now for Report Writer training at only $495 per person + GST (normally $695).
Training dates are:
Sydney: 12 May
Melbourne: 5 May

To find out what is covered in this course please follow the link below:
http://www.pa.com.au/mbs/training_public_courses.htm

Please call Nicola Taylor at 02 9919 8932, or email nicola_taylor@pa.com.au for more details or to reserve a place on one of the above sessions!

Tips and tricks from Customer Support

Tips: How to effectively search for solutions

The Customer Service Team continually updates our Solutions Database, which can be accessed through our Online Customer Support system. The Solutions Database contains answers to common questions that we receive from you, our customers.

The database currently contains over 2100 solutions.

There are different ways you can limit your search when searching for solutions. When entering the name of what you are searching for, enter a few key words, separated by a wildcard character:
- A question mark (?) should be used when you want to replace 1 character
- An asterixis (*) should be used when you want to replace a range of characters.

The solutions are entered according to a module. Therefore, if you would like to search for everything relating to General Ledger you simply need to type in GL* and this will return everything that starts with GL.

If you don't currently have access to our Online Customer Support system please contact our Customer Service Team and we will provide you with your Login ID and password.

Tricks: Multi Bins

Any Bin created with the first letter of 'Z' will not be displayed in any window. It does show up on the Setup Report as well as in the Tables, but does not show in any Bin Lookup Windows, nor the Site Bin Maintenance Window.

Microsoft Customer Relationship Management update
Australian release is due in August/September 2003

The much anticipated release of Microsoft CRM solution is getting closer. The US version of the product was released to manufacture on the 22nd of January 2003. The International release (Australian version) will be here in the second half of 2003. The International release will be version 2.0 and will contain additional features.
The US version 2 of the product is slated for release in January of 2004 and will include added functionality of marketing assistant and a customer based web solution.

Microsoft is allowing some customers to join the Early Adopters Program and run the US version 1.0 of the product. For more information please contact your account manager.

Staff Update
More service professionals join Professional Advantage

Customer Service
Justine Malone
Justine brings to our customer service team over 6 years of experience with the Great Plains product. Justine has worked in customer service and consulting roles, most recently having managed a Great Plains customer service team.

Consulting - Sydney
Michelle Rettig
Michelle has been working in our customer service for the past 6 months and has now moved into our Sydney consulting team. Prior to joining Professional Advantage, Michelle has worked for several years at Microsoft Business Solution - (formerly Great Plains) and has extensive experience with Microsoft Great Plains software.

Sales
Mark Rettig
Mark has returned to Professional Advantage to rejoin our sales team. During his almost three year absence Mark has been selling into the Tier One space, most recently with Peoplesoft.