New Year's Resolution

New Year's Resolution

Unknown   Januari 17, 2017   Comment  

Well, hello everyone! I hope you had a great time with family and friends and that you are now cranking it in high gear to get this year started off on the right track. I know I am.

A little of what I'm working on...

As the Lead Software Engineer for Mekorma, my job is to make sure we build quality new products, while improving the capabilities of our existing offerings. To that effect, my team has been working on a really cool product that automates the entire processing of payments (checks, EFTs, and Credit Cards) and remittances by leveraging our existing MICR offering, all the while, delivering total Accounts Payable automation in the process. I am really excited to talk about this, so more on this in an upcoming article.

---

Blogging challenge for the New Year

One of the questions I get asked the most in my comments section is, "does this article still apply to the newer versions of GP?" Usually, the person asking the question is referring to versions GP 2015 R2, or GP 2016, and now GP 2016 R2? What I found surprising about this question wasn't so much the question itself, but in revisiting my articles, I have over 1000 that would qualify as "old". So I asked myself, "wouldn't it be cool to go back and revisit some of the older ones to see whether they still apply or not, or what changes they require for them to work with today's newer versions of GP?". In response, I will be revisiting as many articles as I can over the course of this year, and republishing them with newer code and better development patterns (where applicable), or even improved solutions noting whether there's standard functionality now available for what was covered before as a workaround.

Starting tomorrow, I will begin a new series called "Revisiting" where I will cover some of the old material I have on this site under the light of the newer GP versions - you asked, you got it! - all the while introducing new topics.

---

Community Activities and Events

This year, I have the honor to serve as Vice-chair of Association of Dynamics Professionals Credentialing Council Board. You can read more here. The Credentialing Council Board is the most senior leadership body of members of the Association of Dynamics Professionals (DynamicsPro) and is responsible for setting the direction for nearly all aspects of the association. I share the stage with a number of professionals from other disciplines like NAV and SL, and probably one of the most diverse group you will ever find, with folks hailing from Europe and the United States.

I have also taken an active role with my GPUG local chapter, GPUG Georgia, assisting with the planning and marketing of the 2017 quarterly meetings. I will also be delivering sessions at the local chapter meetings. Our goal is to improve participation while delivering rich content that all who attend can immediately leverage in their organizations. If you are currently an active GPUG member and you live in the Metropolitan Atlanta area, please see our Chapter page for more information.

I will also be participating as a speaker at GPUG Amplify 2017 in Anaheim, CA, GPUG Summit 2017 in Nashville, TN, and reIMAGINE 2017 in Fargo, ND. You may also see me at some international events, but that's still being worked out as I type. The following tune has been chosen as the theme song for this year's GPUG Summit.

Finally, this year I'm making an absolute commitment to attend the Microsoft MVP Global Summit 2017 in Seattle, Washington, assuming I get re-awarded as a Microsoft MVP to begin with, in July.

As you can tell, my blogging agenda, along with my agenda of activities and events is quite pack for this year. I hope to meet a good number of what I have planned for the year and see quite a few of you at the events I will be attending. Please join me in continuing to make Microsoft Dynamics GP the leading middle market ERP with over 47,000 customers world wide, by showing your support to your local GPUG chapter, joining the events whether you are a partner, a customer, or an ISV.
Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP

New #MSDYNGP Certification Process

New #MSDYNGP Certification Process

Unknown   Juli 27, 2015   Comment  

Hi everyone! I know, it's been a while since you've heard from me, but my contributions to the Microsoft Dynamics GP community go beyond just blogging and attending events. I've been involved with the development of the next generation of Microsoft Dynamics GP exams and certification process, which is been quite a rewarding experience and certainly a time consuming one. I have always been a firm believer that certifications are an important part of a professional career development, whether you are a partners, a consultant, or a customer, hence, I've spent quite some time over the past few months working with the good folks of the Association of Dynamics Professionals in a counseling capacity to bring new guidelines and a certification process that will be industry worthy.

But as many of you already know, this is the kind of stuff I really enjoy, but we cannot do this by ourselves, so here is where you come in: I NEED YOUR HELP!

The main goal is to build a set of exams that will lead up to a master certification, which will show various degrees of professional development to prospective employers, whether you choose to work for a Microsoft Dynamics GP customer, partner, ISV, or remain an independent consultants. The first iteration of the exam building process is to source questions from the general public. If you are interested in submitting one or more questions for the exam, we would love to hear from you and your help is greatly appreciated.

We have so far invested quite some time into building a solid certification process and need you to think about what questions you would like to see in the exams that will be administered down the road. This will require you to THINK and put some effort into coming up with the questions you submit.

You can go to credentialing.dynamicspro.org and follow the instructions there to submit your questions. You’ll have to watch a video on what makes a good or bad exam question and there is a process to follow. Be patient and work your way through. There's no limit as to how many questions you can submit, but we want your best effort.

This is something that's going to benefit the community as a whole and will allow you to follow your career path in the Dynamics GP world.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP

Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Wrap Up!

Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Wrap Up!

Unknown   November 19, 2014   Comment  

November 13, 2014

After a good 3 days of conference sessions (both attending and delivering), I have to say this event has been very special to me. Being able to catch up - yes, catch up! - with old (and not so old) time friends is probably one of the best experiences of this particular reIMAGINE 2014 event.

At Hector International Airport (FAR) Gate 1

As I sat at Gate 1 at Hector International Airport, looking out at the snow dusting collected on the tarmac (a stark reminder as to why I don't live in these latitudes), I reflect back on days past to highlight the following:

1. You MUST begin learning about Service-Based Architecture in general, now! The truth is, I spoke to numerous developers during this event and the one question that kept coming up was, "Where do I go to learn all this stuff?". It took me some time to get acclimated to these style of services, but frankly, you need to build on your past experience. After all the current Web Services model (SOAP based), while different from the new one (REST based) still offers some of the underpinning architectural elements. If you are a newcomer to the game, then the MSDN library offers quite a few good primers on REST based services. One of my favorites is An Introduction To RESTful Services With WCF by Jon Flanders. In subsequent days, I will be posting a number of articles on the Dexterity service patterns and their implementation.

2. The Microsoft Dynamics GP partner community is alive and well, thank you! It's no coincidence that this event drew close to 500 partners and ISVs. The question that still lingers in my mind is, why not more? These events are not all about the kumbaya and to be honest, the wealth of information is simply overwhelming at times and I'm surprised that, despite the number of attendees, more partners are not taking advantage of the learning opportunities. I am willing to wage a bet: if we get to double the registration for next reIMAGINE chances are this event will need to move to another city not named Fargo as there may not be any venues large enough to host such crowd.

3. The jury is still out on who throws the best event parties, but I must say there are only two clear competitors, so far: FastPath and eOne Solutions. If I'm going to be put in a position to choose... you know what? I will just continue to enjoy the parties, so go on boys and girls! Just let me know when and where I must show up to the next one.

4. Last but not least, this partnership between Microsoft and Dynamic Communities is probably the best darn thing to happen to the Dynamics GP ecosystem after Microsoft's acquisition of Great Plains Software. With Microsoft technologies and products and Dynamic Communities understanding of the user and partner ecosystem, these events just seem to have been catapulted to another level. What I would like to see is more collaboration at the session level, between Microsoft Dynamics GP development team members and partners. It would make for a very interesting perspective, from both the technical and the practical applications of the technology.

I also wanted to thank each and every single person that made this event possible - you know who you are! It's (fairly) easy to show up to these events as an attendee and sometimes as a presenter, but putting a partner event together is no easy feat, so kudos to the Microsoft Dynamics GP Product Management and Product Development teams and the Dynamic Communities team for a great event.

---

Coverage from this event appears in the following posts:

Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Getting Here
Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 1
Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 2
Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 3

Conference material can be downloaded from

http://1drv.ms/1xQMLlD

---

See everyone at Microsoft Convergence 2015 Atlanta, my backyard. Register now to take advantage of the early registration rates and get some great accommodations here in town.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Intelligent Partnerships, LLC
http://www.intelligentpartnerships.com/

Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 3

Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 3

Unknown   November 19, 2014   Comment  

November 12, 2014

As the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end" and it was no different for the reIMAGINE 2014 conference. However, we still had to get through the day with the closing session, and couple breakout sessions we were responsible for.

After the fantastic keynote speech by Doug Burgum and some really fun partner hosted events at the local bars on the previous day, it was just natural to wake up with an appetite, so I was down early for breakfast - then again, so was everyone else!

Breakfast gathering

Breakfast preceded the closing session, which was once more MC'ed by Jesse Byam, who was going around the room asking folks about the highlights of their conference experience, all the while eating their breakfast. Jesse and I had a chance to interact on my own experiences and I have to say, all the Service-Based Architecture sessions I attended were the biggest takeaway for me.

After Jesse got the entire room pumped, Joe Carroll followed up with some closing words, basically highlighting the Microsoft Dynamics GP product trajectory over the past 20 years and how it has allowed him to grow professionally - Joe started out with Great Plains Software almost out of school.

Joe Carroll

Next up was Errol Schoenfish (sporting another cool ply shirt, making it his personal reveal) to conduct the Microsoft Dynamics GP Big Reveal surprise which would show off some of the next major milestones that Microsoft is working on as it relates to our beloved Dynamics GP.

Errol Schoenfish

Errol brought Jarred Hall to stage to demo off the next generation Excel Refreshable reports which is fully integrated to Microsoft Office 365. Jared had a chance to showcase a scenario where Excel reports were generated from GP and consumed directly on Office 365 without ever making it to the end-user's desktop, which is how the current proposition behaves. I have to admit, the next iteration of Excel refreshable reports is going to significantly enhance the user experience.

Jarred Hall and Errol Schoenfish

Next up was Jennifer Ranz, one of the coolest people over at Microsoft - sorry guys, I love you too. Her mission was to show off aspects of the next generation user interface and in particular the new HTML5 UI. While the HTML5 UI is still a long shot from anything resembling a beta product, it was encouraging to see some of the conceptual design elements being considered for the new UI.

Jen Ranz and Errol Schoenfish

HTML5 UI Prototype with our favorite client on display

Next, reIMAGINE took a turn for the better when Errol invited partners to talk about their own success stories in reimagining their business around Microsoft Dynamics GP. We had a chance to hear from John Hendrickson with InterDyn BMI and Matt Woodward with The SMB Suite. While both businesses went down different reimagining paths, it was clear to me personally that a diversified product and services portfolio, high levels of customer service, and taking advantage of different Microsoft programs propelled these two organizations to the top of their game.

John Hendrickson (InterDyn BMI), Errol Schoenfish, and Matt Woodward (The SMB Suite)

Errol concluded the session with a very emotional account of his son Tucker's basic and technical training in the Air National Guard at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas and how throughout the program, Tucker has developed some rigorous discipline and precision that have improved his life all around. Errol exhorted all attendees to the closing session to learn and improve their skills to continue reimagining their career paths.

Once the closing session was over, David and I quickly went to the Holiday Inn Board Room to get setup for the Become More Dexterous at Dexterity Development breakout session - a panel style session - which we would be hosting along with David Eichner with ICAN Software, Mark Rockwell with Rockton Software, and Microsoft MVP Leslie Vail. Unfortunately, Leslie was ill and could not present along with us, but we were able to get Patrice Bremond-Gregoire with BGE, Inc to fill in for Leslie. Patrice is a long time Microsoft Dexterity developer and runs a successful Microsoft Dynamics GP ISV firm in Canada.

This session was particularly cool, because no one on the panel prepared anything and it became totally interactive. There was no short of questions from the attendees and I believe we all had quite a bit of fun delivering some of our own tips and tricks to the audience.

Next up was our long awaited session, The Support Debugging Tool for Advanced Users. We were treated to a standing room only session, which is usually the way we like it.

SDT for Advanced Users
Courtesy of Dawn Prigmore

Although we had quite a bit of material to cover, the session went on with just some minor hiccups and everyone chanting YES IT CAN!, to the sometimes butchered question "Can the Support Debugging Tool do it?". Some of the topics covered in this session included the Automatic Debugger Mode feature with log traces, SQL Execute, Runtime Execute, and the (still in beta) Database Validation tool.

David showing off the Database Validation Tool
Courtesy of Dawn Prigmore

The session wrapped up and we spent a few additional minutes taking pictures and saying goodbyes to a number of attendees who walked up to greet us. After grabbing a box lunch at the meal room, we ran off to a Development Collaboration meeting at the Microsoft Campus. As this meeting was under NDA there's nothing I can discuss here. After the meeting, we were chauffeured by Emily Halvorson to the all too famous Carol Widman's Candy Company to get some Chippers (chocolate covered potato chips).

We returned to the Holiday Inn to drop off our stuff, then meet at the bar for a drink or two before dinner. Dinner had been pre-arranged at Passage to India with Jivtesh and Rubal Singh, Leslie Vail, John Lowther, Belinda Allen, Sheila Ochoa, Sheila Jefferson-Ross (the birthday girl!), and Emily Halvorson. We ordered a number of dishes to share among all of us and spent quite some time conversing and laughing while enjoying our meal.

Left Side: Leslie Vail, Sheila Jefferson-Ross, Mariano Gomez, Rubal Singh, John Lowther
Right Side: Jivtesh Singh, Belinda Allen, David Musgrave, Emily Halvorson, Sheila Ochoa

It's hard enough when you can't count American money.
Paying the bill took the better part of 10 minutes while David sorted through the notes

After dinner, we returned to the Holiday Inn, where surely one more drink was warranted after the delicious meal. As is customary, it was time for the now all too famous Tim Tam Slams, courtesy of David Musgrave. For a description of the all too embarrassing process, please visit this old post over at Developing for Dynamics GP.  However, when you are surrounded by characters such as Craig Klapman (Mekorma), John Lowther (Njevity), and Mike McDowell (Mekorma) doing Tim Tam Slams, you are bound to enjoy the show while handing out a few napkins. Stay tuned to David Musgrave's new blog as I am sure he will be posting pictures on this.

For my part, I was sitting on another table talking to my buddy Corey Clay, Sr. Tech Consultant with NexTec Group in Canton, OH. Corey had another day to spend in Fargo attending a couple of post conference training classes. Since him and I go way back, it was just about fitting to catch up after a long 3 days of conference, though he attended a couple of my sessions.

It was now time to call it a night as the following morning I would initiate my journey back home.

---

As is customary, please wait for my conference wrap up post with links to all the presentation materials for our sessions. This was a very exciting conference and I really hope to see more partners joining Dynamic Partner Connections and attending these type of events. The wealth of information is simply to die for.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Intelligent Partnerships, LLC
http://www.intelligentpartnerships.com/

Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 2

Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 2

Unknown   November 18, 2014   Comment  

Oh goodness, what happened last night? Well, it's true that if you are going to party into the wee hours of the morning, you must still get up to go to the conference and so I did.

Today was the first full day of breakout sessions, but David and I won't start our first session until the afternoon. I got up and downloaded Project Siena for the live demo I would be conducting during our session on building a Windows 8.1 App so I had just a few hours to learn the product. After obtaining the GP service XML configuration file from my buddy Kevin Racer the day before, the idea was to replicate the demo Kevin and Errol conducted on stage during the General Session.

David and I met at the Microsoft Campus around 10:30 AM and sat for a bit to go over some of the logistics of the interaction between the two of us during the session. As with all our presentations, the improv factor helps more with having a fun and relaxed time. So David went off to another session, while I decided I was too hungry, so I went and order some nice Indian food at the Microsoft Commons restaurant.

It was 2:30 PM and it was time for Service-based Architecture and Building Exciting New Customer Applications and Integrations. During the session we provided an abstract of the new Service-Based Architecture in Microsoft Dynamics GP and proceeded to talk about the different architectural patterns, and Dex serviceable components, without going into the details covered by previous SBA sessions and more looking at the possibilities from a developer's standpoint. The Siena demo went without a hitch and we also demoed the .NET interop capabilities in Dexterity through a Trigonometric functions example which can be found in my article Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015 Developer's Preview: .NET Framework Interoperability - Part 3.

After completing our session at 3:30 PM we wondered off campus and back to the Holiday Inn to relax for a bit before heading out to the Fargo Theater for the keynote speech.

---

The frigid afternoon would take us down to the Fargo Theater for the keynote speech featuring Doug Burgum, founder of Great Plains Software and former Sr. VP Microsoft Business Solutions.

Fargo Theater

At the theater, we grabbed a few popcorns and some adult beverages and went to find a seat close to the stage.

Jen Kuntz and David Musgrave

The evening had one more surprise for us. Prior to Doug taking the stage, the MC was no one other than Matt Gustafson, a.k.a., The Fabulous Matt G. For those of you new to the channel, you can read about Matt G in the farewell post over at Developing for Dynamics GP. Matt G, in his unique brand of humor, recruited Errol Schoenfish and

Matt Gustafson
"The Fabulous Matt G"

I will spare you the details on Doug's session, but suffice to say, it was another one of those exceptional keynotes that only Doug can deliver, full of historical references around the life and miracles of American inventor Clarence Birdseye, considered by many to be the inventor of frozen food. Doug expanded into the development and expansion of suburbia and how this phenomena has given way to dilapidated downtowns across America. However, the sustainability issues associated to the suburban expansion are giving way to considerations on reclaiming downtowns across the nation, given the newer generations' desire to stay close to their places of work.

Doug Burgum

After Doug's speech, I went up to take a picture and to thank him for (indirectly) providing me the opportunities I have had around Microsoft Dynamics GP. As a matter of anecdote, I visited Fargo in 1996 where I had the opportunity to talk to Doug one-on-one in several different occasions, as I helped my company back then to establish a product and a presence in Latin America.



A picture for the ages
From left to right: David Musgrave, Mariano Gomez, Doug Burgum, Leslie Vail, and Sheila Jefferson-Ross

Following the keynote, I headed down to Dempsey's Public House for my first stop in the tour through the bars and eateries selected by the sponsoring partners. Drinks at Dempsey's were sponsored by Microsoft partner Njevity.

I had pre-arranged dinner plans with the Barlett, Pringle and Wolf, LLP technology consulting team at Mezzaluna Fine Dining, which was right behind Dempsey's, one of the stops in the bar trail attendees could follow throughout the evening. Intelligent Partnerships - my company - and BPW have collaborated on a few challenging projects and are looking forward to more.

The atmosphere at Mezzaluna was eclectic with a hint of European flair. While I only had the bacon wrapped bison meatloaf, I must say that by far I consider it to be a fantastic dish - to the point where almost everyone on the table ordered it.

Dinner with Barlett, Pringle and Wolf Consulting Group
From left to right: Mariano Gomez, Ross Appenzeller, Michael Weaver, Stephen Korosy, and David Musgrave

The service was impeccable and certainly would recommend anyone visiting Fargo to head down to this place for dinner.

Next stop: HoDo Lounge, a part of the Hotel Donaldson. Drinks at HoDo were sponsored by eOne Business Solutions. As the temperature dropped even more, it was time to find the bus to return to the Holiday Inn and call it a night.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Intelligent Partnerships, LLC
http://www.intelligentpartnerships.com/

Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 1

Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 1

Unknown   November 17, 2014   Comment  

November 10, 2014

After my pleasant trip to Fargo on the previous day, it was time to check in and complete the registration process with the lovely ladies from Dynamic Communities. It helps to have a reputation in the community as my badge was handed to me without showing an ID.

Registration Desk

After registration and catching up the Dynamics Community folks I was off to get some breakfast. I quickly caught up with some of the most special people who have a big hand in making these events happen.

Amy Alley, Shanna Hensch, Andy Hafer

After grabbing some food and making it to my table, I caught up with my co-presenter David Musgrave, with whom I would be reviewing and fine-tuning the last bits of our presentations. The 11,000 miles separating us do not always cooperate with making things smooth from a delivery perspective. At the table, I also had a chance to catch up with MVPs Belinda Allen and Leslie Vail, while also sharing some stories with Sheila Jefferson-Ross and Jen Kuntz. Pam Misialek popped in before her conference opening session and it was all downhill from there. The opening session was animated by Jesse Byam who did an excellent job at keeping the room animated before the opening session.



From left to right: Pam Misialek, Belinda Allen, David Musgrave, Jennifer Kuntz, Sheila Jefferson-Ross, Leslie Vail

The General Session offered a unique opportunity to view some of the cool new functionality to be released in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015, while revisiting the Microsoft Dynamics GP product roadmap and the different milestones for each 6 month release cadence.

Pam Misialek kicks off the General Session

Joe Carroll with Dynamics Communities joined Pam on stage to welcome everyone to Stampede to Fargo - ehem, reIMAGINE 2014! Joe sported on of his first Stampede to Fargo outfits and went on to reminisce about the past while offering insights into how far we have come as a community standing behind the Microsoft Dynamics GP product.


Pam Misialek and Joe Carrol

Next on were Jeff Trosen and Errol Schoenfish to demo the brand new cross-platform Business Analyzer application on the Apple iPad. Errol and Jeff reiterated Microsoft's commitment to develop applications that can be used across any platform on any device while taking advantage of the recent investments of the new service-based architecture components. Business Analyzer can now be downloaded from the Apple Store (via iTunes), Google Play, and the Windows Store.


Jeff Trosen and Errol Schoenfish

Next up were Jen Ranz and Chad Sogge. Jen and Chad did a role playing scenario where they were both wife and husband running a small business company taking advantage of the new service based architecture components via Office 365 and Yammer.

Jennifer Ranz and Chad Sogge

Following Jen and Chad's presentation, Jodi Christiansen and Brian Meier took the stage to talk about the more than 120 new features being incorporated into Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015. The truth is, there are so many of these that it's easier to refer you to the Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP blog site, maintained by the Product Management team for a day-by-day look into the new features.

Jodi Christiansen and Brian Maier

Next up were Errol Schoenfish and Kevin Racer to show off Errol's development skills. Kevin referred to Errol as "the least technically inclined individual on the Product Management team" and it sure made for a great intro, as Errol would move into creating a quick Windows 8.1 application with Microsoft's Project Siena development tool.



Errol Schoenfish and Kevin Racer

After the General Session, it was time for me to finally attend some sessions for once in the last 5 years at a conference and I was determined this would be it. First on my list was the Service Based Architecture Overview session with Kevin Racer and Chris Rudolph. { I'm finally convinced that Chris Rudolph's IQ is off the charts, but that's besides the point and probably not a subject for this blog, though I'll try to interview him soon for this blog! } - did I just use a Dexterity comment brace? Chris and Kevin delivered a very concise session on the SBA platform architecture components and how each component relates to each other: The GP Service, the Dex Service Controller and the different Dex processes that are spun up as a result of consuming the services.

My next stop would be the Enhanced .NET Interop session with Alice Newsam and Rob Anderson. Alice and Rob explained the Dexterity IDE enhancements to support .NET interop, as the basis for the new service architecture. Their session included various demos showing a host of possibilities, including a random line generator on a .NET instantiated WinForm, a Slideshow app, which, once given a path to some pictures, it's able to cycle these on screen, and finally a Speech generator, which uses the speech library to synthetize some text.

Next up was Michael Hammond and Yuri Mikeev to talk about Building Multi-device Mobile and Companion Apps. This session mainly focused on the development tools and components available in today's market to assist with mobile and companion applications development that would allow developers to take advantage of the current service architecture components. The guys conducted a review on tools such as Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova,

I finally soaked in the Service-Based Architecture: Deploying and Managing session with Crash Collison and Chris Rudolph. This session focused on the tools available to administer the service components, including the Microsoft Dynamics GP Security Tasks window and the new Management Console (formerly Web Management Console).

As you can imagine, by now (5:00 PM) my brain was cooked, so after all this SBA stuff it was time to find me some food and a party. So what better to head to the evening reception down at the Microsoft Campus. After some good food and some drinks, the party would continue at Shotgun Sally's courtesy of eOne Business Solutions. The name of the party? Smartner Party. If you missed the promotional video, here it is: