This has been a period of extraordinary adjustment as businesses try to navigate through the impacts of having staff that suddenly needs to work remotely. While the occasional work-from-home day is nothing new, having an entire workforce become a virtual organization creates new strains. As finance professionals using Dynamics GP or Dynamics SL, you may find the software being slower or unresponsive.

Here are some answers to common questions we get, and ways we can help with your Microsoft remote work.

Why does this occur?

Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL both are what is commonly known as a “fat client”, meaning that most of its resources are installed locally. All data is processed on the client side, then sent back and forth to the SQL server. Per Microsoft’s recommendation, this requires a connection of 1GB to the server. Your office setting has that – your home Wi-Fi probably does not. If the speed of your personal connection is insufficient, you are going to find that Dynamics runs slowly.

How can this be addressed?

• One option we recommend is to use a RDS or Citrix server in addition to your SQL server. This would allow images to be streamed to your remote users. This Microsoft remote work set up does not require much bandwidth.
• If that Microsoft remote work set up is not feasible, or if you don’t have a virtual server, a second option is to have users connect through a VPN, then connect remote to an office desktop and use Dynamics remotely. The issue with that is you will need to have a computer that is on in the office, and is susceptible to power outages or similar disruptions.

How can we help?

• Intellitec is a Microsoft Tier 1 Cloud Solution Provider, which means we can host your Dynamics GP or Dynamics SL in Microsoft Azure. This means that your data is not only secure, but also accessible at high speeds from any browser in the world, and doesn’t require any software installation.
• If Azure is not right for you at this time, we can work with you to create a Remote Desktop Service (RDS) environment – supplying not only the licenses, but also the know-how to ensure your infrastructure is configured correctly, and that has the proper access to Dynamics.

Eventually this current situation will pass, and things will return to normal. But for now, it make sense to ensure you have a solution in place so that you are prepared for any eventuality. If you would like to discuss your options, please contact us or call 302-656-7050