Envision of the Envisioner’s

Microsoft with a vision to grow and ignite opportunities for business around the world marked its flagship event “Microsoft Envision” on April 3^rd 2016 at New Orleans at the City’s Ernest N. Morial Convention Centre. Intended to foster the free exchange of ideas and build a strong community, the convention was a platform where 6000 business leaders from 70 countries converged.

In his keynote, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft shed light on the latest technology and spoke about Microsoft reinventing productivity and business process through the Windows 10 platform and other products. The mind blowing enhancements made to Skype were previewed by Lilian Rincon of the Skype team who unveiled the benefits of “Cortana”, which enables to integrate with “BOT” or automated artificial intelligence to simplify business and enable various functions without leaving Skype.

The three-day event favored all trades and focused on the tight integration of sales, marketing and finance. The financial services block chain was initiated by Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President for Business Development at Microsoft is intended to transform decade old processes and streamline operations potentially saving billions of dollars from back office operations.

Transportation and communication being analogously beneficial to business in the 21^st century, Microsoft is all set to collaborate with automobile giant “Toyota” to deliver a car technology drawing in part with Microsoft’s Asure Cloud service.

For all the anticipants worldwide who are keen to add some life to images? Hololens, the augmented reality headset, is a blessing showered by Microsoft. The device being the first fully untethered,holographic computer enables its users to interact with HD holograms. To add to the outstanding advancements, Microsoft had redefined digital money by adding more value to Paypal. Used by 14 million merchants and 180 million people worldwide, Paypal which acquired “Xoom” (an international money transfer service) is said to have laid eyes on “Venmo”, the digital wallet service as it has a social element to it due to which the millennial and younger generations are well versed with it.

Unlike most conferences, Microsoft even catered to the impaired by live captioning the keynotes. The inaugural Microsoft Envision which was an eye opener for business leaders worldwide enabled the attendees to envision how technology transform and empower business. Since Envision 2016 was a new horizon for the business world, business leaders worldwide are patiently looking forward to the Microsoft Envision 2017 which will be held next year at Los Angeles, USA.

Metadata welcomes Elan Thomas to the Family!

Metadata & Property-xRM Team is excited to welcome Elan Thomas to the team as Marketing Executive. Born and brought up in Kuwait, she completed her Post-Graduation in Masters in Business Administration from Federal Institute of Science and Technology. Previously, Elan did her internship at Agility, Kuwait. She has also interned at Ogilvy & Mather, Bangalore. She enjoys reading, socializing, music and writing poems.

Voice of the Customer (VOC) feature is available in our Region!

VOC feature is in for Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Asia Instances!

Everyone has been talking a lot about VOC lately. However, we were unable to get a hands-on experience on it.

Good news is that Voice of the Customer is available for CRM instances in the Asia Region too!

With the new Voice of the Customer feature, you can create and send out Voice of the Customer surveys to gain valuable feedback from your customers about your products or services. Respondents can take your surveys on a phone, tablet, or computer. You can see your customer’s feedback history as you work a sale or resolve a service case.

When a customer completes a survey, you can use rules to trigger follow-up actions that occur immediately. For example, if a customer answers a survey question that indicates an interest in one of your products, the system can generate a quote request and assign it to a salesperson. Or, if a customer replies with a complaint, the system can create a new service case and route it to the right queue for prompt handling. You can also send a survey automatically when a service case closes, to track how satisfied your customer is with the service they received.

The survey analytics included with the Voice of the Customer solution help you use customer feedback to identify gaps in service, run targeted marketing campaigns, or send offers to increase sales.

Also, I hope you heard about the acquisition of Mojo Surveys for making this happen (Source:-http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-makes-another-crm-related-acquisition/)

I couldn’t resist myself to capture some of the screenshots of the application. Check them out:-

Microsoft has published an interesting thread of App Building!

Just came across this post:-

Seeking guidance on app building? #Reimagine it with UWP!

Yes, its all about UWP (Universal Windows Platform) App Design! Interesting isn’t it?

The article describes the UI features and benefits of UWP apps and provides some high-level design guidance for creating first UWP app.

To read more, visit :- https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/layout/design-and-ui-intro

See how well you can manage your Inventory and Payments using Property-xRM!

Real Estate Advisors, No More Hassles!

Yes, with our Real Estate CRM, Property-xRM, you will be able to manage inventory details, receipt management, booking forms and track payment details of your customers.

The good news is that you can manage both Sales and Rentals in Property-xRM!

Property-xRM by Metadata Technologies is an award winning provider of vertical-specific on premise and cloud based software applications and services that help organizations enhance operational performance, reduce costs, optimize and expand delivery channels, and strengthen customer relationships. Property-xRM, Built on Microsoft Dynamics®CRM, and designed specifically for Real Estate, Metadata Technologies innovative offerings focus on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and provide users with 360-degree visibility across various departments in Real Estate Organizations.

What are you waiting for, visit http://www.propertyxrm.com for more information or get in touch with our experts at sales@metadatacorp.com or ring us at +971 4 391 0710.

Explore the Editable Grid Functionality in Microsoft Dynamics CRM!

Let’s have a look at a zero code add on for Dynamics CRM 2013, 2015, and 2016 for easily implementing custom editable grids.

Quick look at some of the features provided by the tool:

• In-line editing, editing multiple records at the same time
• Allows multiple grids on a single form in different sections
• Export to Excel, PDF, and CSV
• Built in validation for Required, Max Length, Min Value, and Max Value field attributes
• Sorting, Paging, Searching
• Inherits CRM Security Model
• Navigation via keyboard arrows or tab keys
• Unlimited undo, undo all changes – Resets all changed cells to their original value.
• Display sum for numeric fields

Download latest solution from https://dcrmeg.codeplex.com/

Import the downloaded managed zipped file to the Dynamics CRM Solutions and Publish.

Configuring the editable grid

Open Advanced Find and look for and select “D CRM EG Configuration” list option. Click on the “results” toolbar button.

Click New D CRM EG Configuration toolbar button.

Select the entity where the grid is to be displayed on. In this example, we set it to a custom entity “Settlement”.

Select an entity to display data from. In this example, we set it to entity “Invoice”.

Click on the “+” button to add the selected entity to the list of entities to display data from.

Click to select the “Invoice” entity list item. This will display a list of all fields for the entity and other configuration settings.

If a selected entity has a many-to-one relationship with the entity hosting the grid, you will be presented with the option to use this relationship to display only related records or all records.

Select the fields that you would like to be displayed on the grid. Each selected field will have a corresponding tile under the “Selected grid headers” section.

Each selected field can be set to read-only. Its initial width can also be specified in percentage.

Each selected fields conditions can be set to filter records.

To re-arrange the field display order, drag and drop the tiles under the “Selected grid headers” section.

Set whether to display SUM for numeric values.

Set the initial number of records per page if the number of records exceed five.

Save and close the new configuration record.

Setting up the grid on the form

Customize the “Settlement” form in our example.

Add a new tab if required in the form, then add a new Web Resource.

Select the fields that you would like to be displayed on the grid. Each selected field will have a corresponding tile under the “Selected grid headers” section.

Each selected field can be set to read-only. Its initial width can also be specified in percentage.

Each selected fields conditions can be set to filter records.

To re-arrange the field display order, drag and drop the tiles under the “Selected grid headers” section.

Set whether to display SUM for numeric values.

Set the initial number of records per page if the number of records exceed five.

Save and close the new configuration record.

Setting up the grid on the form

Customize the “Settlement” form in our example.

Add a new tab if required in the form, then add a new Web Resource.

Select the Web Resource “dcmeg_dcmeghtml” for the editable grids. Set the field name and properties. In case of multiple grids, set the GUIDs from the configuration to the Custom Parameter.

In the formatting tab, set grid rows and uncheck “Display border”. Click Ok. Save and Publish form. Refresh “Settlement” form.

You should see a grid displaying selected fields from the “Invoice” entity as per configured.

Source: https://dcrmeg.codeplex.com/

Metadata Team Mourns for the Departed Souls of Flydubai Incident – FZ981

Tears are not enough.Words are useless now. People have departed tragically to a better world and a higher existence. We pray for their souls and their families.

-Metadata Team.

Dubai’s Commercial Market Versus People’s Expectations is a Concern Today!

According to Cluttons (An International real estate consultancy ), stability in lease in Dubai’s main markets persisted throughout the Q1 2016 as a result of continued high demands from domestic and international occupiers.

Faisal Durrani, Cluttons’ head of research, commented, “Despite sustained demand, occupiers remain cost conscious and budget driven in the face of a softening global economic backdrop, with the key word for many being ‘prudence’. Landlords, by contrast appear to be slow to react to the cooling market, with many reluctant to move on asking prices and others demonstrating a lack of flexibility for lease terms at renewal. The emerging gulf between market reality and landlords’ expectations is a concern, particularly for a market that is now starting to show signs of maturity.”

According to Cluttons Spring 2016 Dubai Office Market Bulletin, with the establishment of two new free-zones in the form of Dubai World Trade District in 2015 and Dubai Design District (D3) , the Central Dubai has become the focus of many occupiers and developers, particularly as it has long suffered from a demand-supply imbalance in the face of rising requirement levels.

Cluttons data also shows that, the strongest performing submarket during 2015 in New Dubai was the Tecom Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and Dubai Knowledge Village area. Overall, this submarket experienced a 10% rise in lower limit rents to AED 165 psf, while upper limit rents rose 13% to AED 225 psf.

Murray Strang, Head of Investment and Agency at Cluttons UAE said, “Firms continue to be attracted to this free-zone submarket because of the high quality of buildings and the presence of other high profile occupiers in the area. In comparison, JLT (Jumeirah Lake Towers) has seen both lower and upper limit rents fall over the past 12 months, by 13% and 10% respectively to AED 70 psf and AED 180 psf.”

According to the heat maps produced for the bulletin, Old Dubai remains a hub for local businesses, with a steady stream of demand coming through over 2015. The continued popularity of the Old Dubai market is reflected in the rise of rents in areas like Bur Dubai and Garhoud. Bur Dubai registered a 20% rise in lower limit rents to AED 60psf, while upper limit rents moved up by 7% to settle at AED 140 psf at the end of last year.

“The narrowing rental band is reflective of the markets gradual maturing process, however, it is also hinting at the achievement of a potential ceiling in upper limit rents. With the majority of stock comprised of older buildings, there is a growing opportunity for landlords to undertake refurbishment in order to drive rents up,” said Strang.

The report also highlights that, some submarkets are experiencing the effects of rental stagnation. Dubai Fringe submarket has been amongst the first few to witness this trend, with three of five submarkets in the area registering no change in lower or upper limit rents over 2015.

“This reflects a stabilisation in requirements for fringe office space. Dubai South, which will house the largest airport in the world, Al Maktoum International, in addition to the World Expo 2020 site is positioning itself as a significant destination in its own right which in the long-run is likely to help bolster office rents”, Durrani concluded.

Source: http://www.worldpropertyjournal.com

Wishing all the Women in the World a Happy Woman’s Day!

30% rent hikes in Sharjah: Can landlord increase rent yearly?

Families affected claim landlords violating law

A 30 per cent rent hike demand from his landlord in 2016 has left KR (name withheld on request), an Indian, renting a one-bed apartment in Sharjah, shocked.

“My landlord has hiked my rent again. This is for the second consecutive year and now he is asking me to pay Dh26,000 per annum (pa) from Dh20,000 pa,” he told Emirates 24|7.

Being the sole breadwinner in the family, he admits the latest rent hike has sent his household budget haywire.

Post, paying the monthly installment on his personal loan and household expenses, KR claims he is “left with no savings”.
“I have two kids. I am paying Dh1,000 a month for my elder child’s school.

“The younger will start schooling this year and so I have to pay another Dh900 a month. It’s the rent hike demand that will make it difficult for me to meet the ends.”

Similarly, Ajmal Anwar, an Emirates 24|7 reader, informs his rent has been hiked every year.

He pays Dh42,000 pa for a one-bedroom unit in Al Nahda area in 2016, up 13.5 per cent, compared to 2015.

“Despite having municipality control on rent, landlords charge rent increase every year.

“As well if we complain, they would show the contract value, which is high.

“Besides, some also seek annual maintenance charges, satellite charges, waste disposal charges, parking charges and make it to their desired amount,” he said in a comment on Emirates 24|7 website.

In December 2015, Cluttons, a real estate consultancy, said residential rents had declined 1.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2015 – first in over two years – compared to the same period last year, but residents of some apartment blocks told this website in January 2016 that they were facing rent increases of up to 17 per cent at the time of renewal.

However, many of the residents don’t tend to file complaint with the Sharjah Municipality’s rent dispute committee even though the option exists.

Here are some of the articles under Law No. 2 of 2007, regulating the relations between landlords and tenants that protect the latter’s rights:

# Article 9 stipulates that the landlord should guarantee that the property is given on rent as per the specifications mentioned in the contract and in case any amenities found lacking, the tenant has the right to claim its addition or maintenance. It also mentions that landlords should carry out maintenance of the leased properties, unless both parties agreed otherwise.

# Article 11A states that the landlord is not entitled to increase the rent under a lease prior to the expiry of 3 years from the signing of the lease.

# Article 11B provides that the increase mentioned in Article 11A shall be according to the market rent of comparable properties and once decided will be applicable to that property for 2 consecutive years.

If the revised rental value cannot be agreed upon by the landlord and tenant, they may refer it to the Rental Committee who will settle the dispute and place a rental value on the property in question.

# Article 12 mentions the landlord will have no right to ask the tenant to vacate the property before the expiry of a period of three years from the first signing of the contract unless the tenant is refusing to pay the rent.

# Article 15A provides for the criteria which the Rental Committee will consider in determining the rental value. These include (i) the location of the property, (ii) number of floors in the property, (iii) the level of the property within the building, (iv) the finishes to the property, (v) services within the building, (vi) the age of the building according to the completion certificate and (vii) the area of the building.

Source:

http://www.emirates247.com/news/30-rent-hikes-in-sharjah-can-landlord-increase-rent-yearly-2016-02-15-1.620982?utm_content=buffer0bd4b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer