
Steve Endow's Business Central Podcast
Steve Endow's Business Central Podcast
I Need Coffee - Episode 161 - BC Weekly Update!
Show Notes: Episode 161 of "I Need Coffee" - Weekly BC Review
1. Personal Updates:
- Host is recovering from a cold, managing with water due to a failed coffee attempt.
- Watched "The Bondsmen" on Amazon Prime, enjoying Kevin Bacon’s performance in a light, silly show.
- Performed grill maintenance, replacing Weber flavor bars for veggie grilling.
- Watched "Malcolm in the Middle" and "The Residence" on Netflix, praising the cast, including Uzo Aduba and Giancarlo Esposito.
2. Community Engagement:
- Encourages listeners to share projects, Business Central features, customizations, or interesting blogs they’re working on or reading.
- Curious about obscure or unique projects in the community.
3. Professional Updates:
- Cosmo Alpaca Issue: Resolved a VS Code authentication issue causing permission errors with Cosmo Alpaca, requiring a settings profile reset.
- Business Central Report Layouts: Discussed challenges with Dynamics GP to Business Central migrations, particularly mapping GP-specific fields (e.g., reprint flags, order types) to BC, requiring implementation pauses for clarification.
- Power Automate and Azure Key Vault: Noted a 3–5 day delay for permissions to propagate in Power Automate when using Azure Key Vault, necessitating documentation to warn customers.
- Passkey Authentication: Adopted passkeys via RoboForm password manager, praising its seamless, portable implementation across devices.
- NFC Authentication: Impressed by NFC-based bank app authentication using a credit card on an iPhone, enabling Face ID setup.
- Business Central Admin Dashboard: Junior developer Franklin in El Salvador is building a BC Admin Dashboard to display admin center data (e.g., environment status, storage, upgrade dates) within Business Central for improved customer support.
4. Upcoming Events:
- Presenting at Directions NA (April 7–9, 2025, Las Vegas) on avoiding lawsuits through better project management and using the BC Admin Center API for customer service.
- Other events: ColorCloud (April 24–25, Hamburg), DynamicsCon (May 13–16, Chicago), Dynamics Minds (May 26–28, Slovenia).
5. Project Management Insights:
- Session on avoiding lawsuits emphasizes declining risky sales opportunities, unrealistic customer requests, or projects lacking sufficient skills/staff.
- Importance of saying “no” to focus resources, declining on-prem BC/NAV projects, and potentially firing problematic customers to reduce risk.
6. Workshop Observations:
- Admires highly organized workshops (e.g., Porsche garage in Germany, Rocket Lab in New Zealand) for their meticulous tool management and cleanliness, aspiring to apply similar discipline to ERP projects.
7. Tech Issues:
- Reported Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon keyboard failures in El Salvador due to high heat and humidity in a coffee roastery and beach environment. Ordered a replacement keyboard and a hygrometer to monitor conditions.
8. Travel Coffee Setup:
- Planned a coffee setup for El Salvador office: Kin Grinder K6 ($99), Hario V60 pourover, and Aeropress Go with a steel travel mug for pour-over brewing. Aims to leave equipment at the office for convenience.
9. Closing:
- Plans to rest, recover, and finalize a presentation for Directions NA.
- Encourages listeners to share weekend plans, learn Business Central, and attend Las Vegas event.