This is a guest blog by Advanced Certified Consultant and Method Solution Provider, Mark Crews.
The Cloud Consultancy team is just back from the 1st Method Solution Providers (MSPs) Retreat, adeptly run by Scaling New Heights. Over the course of the retreat, we had a chance to preview the next generation of Method, and participate in many jam-packed, cutting-edge sessions presented by the Method team, as well as other MSPs. We loved the chance to informally network with our fellow MSPs and spend three days immersed in Method. The best part though, was getting to see the future of Method CRM.
Joe Woodard and Paul Jackson, Method’s CEO, kicked off the retreat with keynote presentations. Paul coined the concept of “frankensteining” or putting together a business system made from many different applications which may or may not work well together. Naturally, Method is the antidote, since it can provide the functionality of many different apps, and reduces the number of moving pieces. Paul unveiled the new Method logo, which incorporates the infinity sign, reflecting the infinite possibilities of Method. Finally, his keynote included what we were all waiting for, a sneak peak at the new version, known as V2, and a timeline for its release. Method users should be excited to know that V2 Mobile Beta will be available soon.
The developers at Method have been hard at work on the next generation platform over the last year, and it shows. It’s built on a proprietary markup language using HTML5, taking advantage of the latest in web technology. For the first time, Method screens really are true web pages, with all the power that implies. The User Interface (UI) is greatly simplified, which will lead to easier adoption for new users, and it is slick and fast. Of course it is responsive, allowing designs to work equally well on any device: mobile, tablet, desktop. Under the hood, we have all the great drag and drop design tools that have made Method such an awesome platform for creating custom applications, but V2 goes even farther with some advanced filtering and expressions, which gives us more power as developers. Method gave all the attendees a demo account to play with V2, and the designer is as slick as the user interface, making it a joy to use.
The sessions then broke up into two groups - new Method Solution Providers training for Method certification for the first time, and a post-certification track for advanced developers. Paul and his team presented topics ranging from Marketing to UI Design to Advanced Report Designer tricks, and many of the sessions included peeks into the capabilities of the new version. Throughout all sessions, the Method team reiterated their core vision for V2 - rapid, responsive, and a radical new approach to business software, which seeks to unify all the different areas of a business - marketing, sales, accounting and management reporting - on one platform.
We also had some great joint sessions: Selling Method, an open forum sparked by a conversation with three long-time MSPs, Robin Hall of VARC, Matt Raiser of Tech in the Field and Gale Kirsopp of Kirsopp Consulting, and Consulting Legalities, presented by Joe Woodard. Cloud Consultancy really enjoyed participating in the Advanced Think Tank, where the post-certification group had a series of open discussions led by different MSPs: Database Naming conventions, using Method on QBO vs QB desktop, UI design principles (led by Carol Oliver of Woodard Consulting) and a continuation of the selling discussion (led by Robin Hall).
Those MSP’s who missed the retreat should be able to access some of the presentations in the MSP only V2 forum. Three days went by very quickly! Thanks to the Scaling New Heights team, Joe Woodard, Ardel Strother and the ever capable Wendy Rohrssen, the event was a great success and return on investment for everyone who attended. We can’t wait for the next retreat, but in the meantime, we have V2 to assimilate and look forward to implementing, soon!
Mark Crews
Cloud Consultancy
Mark is an Advanced Certified Consultant and Account Manager for Method CRM, accorded “Guru Status”. His experiences have garnered the Method CRM Partner of the Year and Community Excellence awards. Mark is also an avid music fan and the founding member of Cloud Consultancy, which was born when he found partners who share his passion for software development, cloud computing, Method CRM, and just having fun.