Microsoft Innovation Podcast

FULL SHOW NOTEShttps://podcast.nz365guy.com/175Aaron Back on The MVP Show – find out more about Aaron's lifeA discussion about Aaron's career backgroundLearn about Aaron Back’s journey to becoming a Microsoft MVP GP World, Dynamics and Power Platform – does Aaron see integration happening? Aaron’s focus point when it comes to Microsoft Business applications How he started having an interest in becoming an MVP A discussion about his involvement in the community Talks about the user group summit conference Aaron’s standards when creating blog posts – his foundation in creating blog content.  How Aaron maintains the list of ideas and topics when creating a blog post  What does he consider when writing a blog post?   Aaron’s way of introducing information and tools to customers The best feedback he has ever received in writing a post  The best thing about becoming an MVP Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTEShttps://podcast.nz365guy.com/174Personal and career background of David Kohar   David Kohar's first interviewThe significant highlights of 2019 in the field of Power Platform and Dynamics 365   What leads to CRM 1.2 release?   During David's time at Ascentium – what's his role and responsibilities   Find out more about the people in a team he worked with at Ascentium   David's thoughts on the XRM story and a short discussion on XRM history   Shares his thoughts on how the technology has evolved from the Ascentium days The most significant changes happened with Microsoft's technology from the period 2010 to 2015     What is David looking forward to this year (2020) when it comes to technology?   Talks about what David thinks will be the breakthrough that will happen this year (2020)?   Have they changed who they are hiring as consultants? Or have they changed their way of going into the market?   How does David see the space in the next 5-10 years for now?   What is it like being a Microsoft Partner for the longest time?   A discussion about the value and opportunities of being a Microsoft partner  Satya's influence in all of this?   Alysa Taylor, Hayden Stafford and James Philips – David's thoughts on these three individuals   How does David see the partnership role evolving?   As a consultant in Microsoft partners, what's David's advice and recommendations to become successful?   How will they drive the SI and ISV partners to the next phase? Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTEShttps://podcast.nz365guy.com/173An introduction to where Colin lives, work and how he spends his free timeColin’s origin story  Discussion about Colin’s Educational and Career background  Find out about ADOXIO Company   The type of industry where ADOXIO get most of their work from  Talks about KPMG in Canada, as a Microsoft Partner  Why Unicorn is featuring in Colin’s life so much and how it started?  Does KPMG Canada integrate all work a lot with the other KPMG’s around the world?  Colin’s thoughts on becoming a Microsoft MVP   What Colin thinks about what activities he will be doing regarding being a Microsoft MVP in the year 2020?   Colin’s involvement with ALM  Describes the most significant accomplishment Colin is most proud of Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTEShttps://podcast.nz365guy.com/172A Brief introduction about Satish Thomas' life – Personal, Educational and Career Background – started as an intern in Microsoft  Discussion about his interests, hobbies and the great things about Botswana, Southern Africa  Find out about the book Satish wrote and what he learnt from that experience   Satish's involvement in Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services and how it started  The methodologies involved in Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS)  Satish's journey to working with Microsoft  An overview of Microsoft Customer Insights  What Satish thinks about Microsoft AppSource   If Satish is going to re-build AppSource today, would he do anything differently?   The portfolio Satish is currently responsible for – what would a partner be working with and what will the customer see in the market now  Learn more about what a customer data platform (CDP) is and how does it help your business  The reasons why Microsoft built Customer Insights and its origin   The type of industries who are using this technology particularly the Microsoft Customer Insights  What kind of data sets people commonly use  Companies and industries that are taking advantage of Microsoft Customer Insights   System wise, where do these data coming from?  ISV Story for Microsoft Customer Insight products  What excites Satish about the Wave 1 announcement  Resources and training materials available for the community to access – Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Customer Insights in a day workshop   Books and ResourcesBooks – https://www.amazon.com/Satish-Thomas/e/B00AVRC7DU%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Blogs – https://community.dynamics.com/365/aicustomerinsights/b?PostSortBy=MostRecent&pifragment-98081=1Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTEShttps://podcast.nz365guy.com/171Steven Weaver talks about his hometown   What Steven does for entertainment outside of work  Steven’s MVP journey  What’s involved with MVP nomination in the past years  Steven’s contributions to the MVP Community  The story behind AdamRoue   Changes Steven has seen in the program over the years  Steven’s thoughts on people in the space moving to the cloud platform or does he still see a lot of on-premise software  Benefits of the Cloud platform over On-premise Software  Being 15 years as a Microsoft MVP in Business Applications, what’s Steven’s opinion, does he still value it? Is he still on it?  How do you become an MVP?  How important is the Microsoft Summit in building a relationship with fellow MVP’s?  What will Steven miss the most if he decides to leave the program finally?  What can he recommend to the MVP program to help the community?  Steven’s advice to people who are wanting to be part of MVP in finance and supply change management Resources:Company Website: https://www.columbusglobal.com/en-gb/Dynamicsuser.net: https://dynamicsuser.net/Microsoft Dynamics Community: https://community.dynamics.com/ Columbus global: https://www.columbusglobal.com/en/ Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTEShttps://podcast.nz365guy.com/170Eric McKinney’s personal life – where he lives, where he calls home and what he does when he’s not working Eric’s favourite spot in Ohio How Eric get into the Microsoft space and what’s the story Eric’s current role in the organization he is working for What motivates him to take his organization forward from an innovation perspective In the early days, what’s Eric deciding factors in going to Microsoft Techwise How much does the Digital Transformation feature brought Eric’s organization to where they are today? The impact of Digital Transformation feature in their company. The feedback from those people who are now using the Apps rather than the OneNote or paper? Has it changed their perception of their skills, who they are and their role in their company? What Apps their organization is using Power BI – Who are the main roles in their organization that are consuming those dashboards or reports? How Eric incorporate citizen developers in their organization How have these technologies impacted the way people do every day in business? Eric’s tips and advice to people who are in the same role as him, specifically around Power Platform The best advice Eric has ever received  Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTEShttps://podcast.nz365guy.com/169Kunal Tripathy was born in India, grew up in East India and moved to Canada which he now calls his home  Kunal’s Dynamics 365 and Platform JourneyHow he works with other parts of KPMG around the worldHow long he has been an MVP   Kunal’s journey to becoming an MVP  Changes that happened to him since becoming an MVP  Becoming an MVP, did he get more connections with the other MVPs in the Community?Kunal’s big plan for Y2020What he thinks about the outcome of the event coming up to people  Kunal’s recommendation to people who are wanting to become an MVP Kunal’s first speaking engagement Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTEShttps://podcast.nz365guy.com/168Find out more about David Gersten – based in Southern California, lives in Northern Orange County and what he loves to do during his free time How David get into the technology ERP? the tools he had used to have a better understanding David’s area of specialization and his focus area  CRM projects, Is David doing it for customers or just for in house use? Talks about the organization he is working for at present and his role The core things about the practice management Discussions about their go-to-market strategy Shares what Business Central Segments he focuses on What makes Dynamics Consulting different from other firms that also offer Dynamics 365 Business Central?  Talks about their strong relationship with Microsoft The strategies he thinks works for his career in terms of marketing What he considers as SMB and how he classifies an SMB?  What he has discovered to be effective when it comes to sales game plan An introduction about what GP is  Discusses what Dynamics Community GPUG User Group is How did he start getting involved with the User Group? The formula for running a successful local User Groups  As a Partner Advisory Committee, what's involved   Introduction to Channel Marketing Alliance How does the Channel Marketing Alliance help people in the Dynamics Community? Talks about IAMCP and what it does  What makes David so into the community David’s thoughts on the importance of communities in the Dynamics 365 space Where does David see all of this in the future? Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTEShttps://podcast.nz365guy.com/167A brief introduction about Aung Khaing a.k.a AK, originally from Myanmar and presently residing in New Zealand A discussion about his personal and family life What is so special about Myanmar What is the best thing about living in Wellington and what AK and his family enjoy doing together?Aung Khaing's journey to becoming an MVP  Discussion about his involvement with the PowerApps Component Framework (PCF) AK’s recommendations to people who want to get involved in PCF  The type of language should they be good at to create PCF Controls Resources, training materials and tools available for people to see examples of how they can use PCF – Create and build PCF, PCF Gallery, PCF CommunityWhat's AK doing actively as part of his community engagement  Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTEShttps://podcast.nz365guy.com/166Getting to know Michael Vakoc – from the Czech Republic, who now lives in the US and how he met his wife  Michael’s favourite thing about Prague and what brought him from Prague to the United States  Michael’s transition from Microsoft teams to Power Virtual Agents  A discussion on how he got started working with Microsoft  Michael’s role and his involvement with Power Virtual Agents  An Introduction to what a Power Virtual Agent (PVA) The expectations and what the interest is from a customer’s perspective like in the market How Power Virtual Agent is built, features, and the benefits people can get from using it The relationship between Power Virtual Agent and Power Automate The story of CDS – do we need it for Power Virtual Agent? What's the support model for finished apps from Dynamics 365? The type of personas they see working with Power Virtual Agents The type of industries that can adapt and use this technology How much does AI Play in the Power Virtual Agents Product? How do microservices (275 prebuilt connectors) work with Power Virtual Agents?  Talks about the product pricing for Single App and Unlimited App Minimum requirements for licensing The ability of the Power Virtual Agent to hand-off to a real agent Does Microsoft have their own live agent? How can people access it and use it?  Ways to capture issues when a bot does not have an answer Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith