Our guest on this episode, Elif Item, founder of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations training firm , Item by Item, has worked with AX and D365FO for more than a decade and recently took her years of consulting and project-based work and translated them into a new video-based training platform designed to offer smaller, digestible units of educational content for companies deploying D365FO.
We talk about Elif's history in the Dynamics channel, her new company, and D365FO customers' training needs.
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We welcome back Gus Gonzalez, founder and CEO of Elev8 Solutions and a Microsoft MVP, to chat about his recent article discussing Microsoft's decision to open up access to the Dynamics Learning Portal, or DLP, making it free for partners and customers with premier support. The article generated some responses from readers, so we dive into the DLP discussion in more detail, taking on those issues as well as more of a comparison of what DLP offers versus other types of training and why more open access to DLP should serve as a competitive advantage for Microsoft in the marketplace.
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On this episode we talk with Josh Greenbaum (@josheac) of Enterprise Application Consulting. Josh has covered Microsoft and other major players in the enterprise business solutions space for many years now and was at Microsoft's recent Business Applications Summit as part of an analyst briefing that coincided with the event.
Josh chats with us about the state of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations in the context of the competitive landscape, and he shares his latest new perspective on where some of the technology cycles are at more broadly in areas including citizen developer trends, integration, and automation.
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On this episode our guest is Julie Yack, a Microsoft MVP and Dynamics 365 CRM expert. When she's not helping to lead Colorado Technology Consultants, you're like to find Julie active in another role in the Microsoft ecosystem like organizing the XRM Virtual community, training customers, or participating at a conference.
On this episode, we talk conferences, training, including the new online training venture Julie is involved with, and keeping up with the Dynamics 365 product roadmap.
Topics include:
With the publication of its hefty new release notes document for fall 2018 release wave, Microsoft has made it clear that business applications partners and customers will stay busy through October figuring out what and how to prioritize their learning and deployment decisions across Dynamics 365 solutions, PowerApps, Flow, and Power BI.
On this episode of the podcast we check in with Steve Mordue, a Microsoft MVP and founder of RapidStartCRM to talk about where the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem finds itself coming out of a busy two weeks in July that included the Inspire 2018 partner event and the new Business Applications Summit.
We discuss the events themselves and what some of the highlights will mean for customers. We also discuss key decisions that will start impacting Dynamics 365 partners in the near term like Microsoft's commitment to twice yearly updates, the maturing PowerApps development model based on XRM, and progress on the Unified interface that is quickly broadening its reach on the D365 customer engagement apps.
The MSDW editorial team brings you another news roundup edition of the podcast, this one following two big events – Inspire 2018 and the Microsoft Business Applications Summit. We look back at the headlines from Las Vegas and Seattle, respectively, and more. Topics include:
Welcome to the MSDW Podcast, I'm Jason Gumpert, editor at MSDynamicsWorld.com. On this episode I talk with Eric Kimberling of Third Stage Consulting. As an independent advisor, Eric keeps his eye on multiple ERP solutions and vendors, so he sees the ERP selection and deployment process from a unique angle. We discuss the competitiveness of Dynamics 365 solutions compared to other vendors' cloud solutions, trends in project planning, and how buyers are dealing with their legacy IT investments in today's marketplace.
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On this episode we welcome back Jeff Bacon and Elliot Fishman of Catapult ERP. Elliot recently published a two part piece on MSDW that explains how his firm will adapt its business model to serve clients in a SaaS era that no longer aligns with older time and materials or fixed price models for services delivery. Cloud adoption, a preference for subscription pricing, and a trend away from customization in favor of packaged add-on solutions all lead Fishman and Bacon to the conclusion that services firms that want to survive in this era must rethink their engagement model from the ground up.
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On this episode we talk with Kyle McKie and Iain Wicks of RocketCRM. They co-founded the company less than a year ago to deliver Dynamics 365 CRM consulting services, but they both have years of experience with both CRM and education of various sorts.
Iain recently published a two part article series on MSDW featuring 22 tips for delivering CRM training, and if you've ever had to plan software training, you'll relate. We discuss enterprise software training in general, what Dynamics 365 CRM user adoption and training looks like today, and where they are focusing their own consultancy's efforts.
On this episode we chat with two veteran Dynamics developers for some more perspective on the impact of Microsoft's decision to buy GitHub last week. The deal, for 7.5 billion dollars in stock, updates Microsoft's overall profile in the software development landscape, but it also promises to keep the status quo in many ways.
Our Guests:
Nicholas and Eric talk about their own experience with git the technology, GitHub the service and platform, Microsoft's image in the developer community, including with Dynamics NAV, CRM, and 365, why the deal matters to Dynamics product-focused developers, and why you need source control.
The MSDynamicsWorld.com editorial team brings back the Dynamics community news roundup on this episode, with a little of everything, from Dynamics 365 product plans to partner challenges to leading edge tech and community profiles. And we introduce MSDW assistant editor Eamon Mcarthy Earls to the podcast.
Show Notes:
This joint episode of the MSDW Podcast and the Dynamics Podcast was recorded at Summit EMEA 2018 in Dublin with Tommy Skaue and Fredrik Sætre. As the event wrapped up, we grabbed a quiet spot at the convention center to look back at some of the event highlights. Upgrades and cloud deployments were top of mind, as were some of the recent announcements like the acquisition of new D365FO IP and the nearing end-of-life of AX 2009.
Stay tuned for an extended version of this episode going up on the Dynamics Podcast YouTube channel soon, too. Many thanks to Fredrik and Tommy for helping make this one happen!
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Microsoft's spring wave of new Dynamics 365 customer experience apps includes both the long-awaited Marketing app and the lighter featured and lower priced sales app known as Sales Professional. For partners focused on the SMB, the arrival of these products is a welcome relief after more than a year of forecasts and updates. But, as is typical with brand new Microsoft business solutions, there are a lot of important details for customers and partners dissect to really understand how to turn the stock solution into something of value to a user base.
Perhaps no one has explored the possibilities and limitations of these new apps more so far than Microsoft MVP and Forceworks founder Steve Mordue. His recent blog posts on the Marketing app and Sales Professional have been tough on Microsoft at times, but they've proved popular within the community for their constructive criticism. We catch up with Steve on this episode of the MSDW Podcast to talk first impressions of the products, licensing, and how firms like Forceworks are working to take advantage of the new Microsoft offerings.
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Coming on the heels of general availability for Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics ERP veterans and Microsoft MVPs AJ Ansari of InterDyn BMI, Rod O'Connor of BriWare Solutions, and Mark Polino of FastPath, joined us to discuss the details and reaction thus far.
After the initial announcement of the new brand name for the previously code-named Tenerife, the Dynamics community lit up with heated debate and candid opinions. Our panel discusses topics including the end of the NAV name and the quest for brand stability in the future, dischord among SMB ERP veterans, the updated roadmap, and the very real challenges Dynamics SMB partners will face in building a business model around an increasingly SaaS-based product suite.
Related articles:
Editor's Note: This episode is the third and final segment of our mini-series with Catapult ERP exploring Dynamics 365 cloud services and strategy.
Dan Ditomaso and Jeff Bacon join Elliot Fishman to discuss Microsoft Azure. What is it, how is it different from other cloud offerings, and what are the opportunities to use it in context of Dynamics solutions.
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Editor's note: This is part 2 in a 3 part series exploring the presenta nd future of Dynamics 365 cloud services.
Going beyond the high level vision for Dynamics in the cloud, the crew digs into a finer level of granularity to look at Dynamics 365’s origins, its capabilities, and how the solutions differ from the legacy Dynamics products.
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We kick off a new podcast mini-series with the team at Catapult ERP exploring the current and future opportunities for Dynamics ERP and CRM users in the Microsoft cloud.
In part 1, Blair Hurlbut, Jeff Bacon, and Elliot Fishman start the series off by exploring Microsoft’s vision for the cloud. They cover how the cloud has changed delivery of enterprise software capabilities, its impact on both customers and partners, and the reasoning behind changes to the Dynamics brand.
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This time on the MSDW Podcast we catch up with two of the leaders at Real Dynamics, an enterprise software consultancy with expertise in Dynamics AX and 365, BI, and the vertical of mergers & acquisitions. Yogesh Kasat and Jason Weidenbenner share some of their experiences working with AX customers at various stages of solution ownership, why BI is such a key part of D365 projects at go-live, their recent D365 implementation book, and some of the complexities that organizations deal with during a sale or acquisition.
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R ”Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Constellation Research, Inc., author of Disrupting Digital Business: Create an Authentic Experience in the Peer-to-Peer Economy, and longtime enterprise software blogger was on hand at this week’s Microsoft Business Applications Analyst Forum, the first such event from Microsoft in several years. He shared many observations on the fly over the course of the event’s two days and recently published an event report. Among the key findings, he wrote, was an updated Microsoft strategy focused around five key areas, at top of which was a “digital feedback loop” approach that frames technology around customers, people, and products, with data and intelligence at the center. It’s an ambitious vision, though one that the company might not yet have fully realized, Wang tells us.
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21:20 – What does Microsoft leave analysts with as they look across the broader cloud and enterprise software market space?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing is now on track to reach general availability by April, and principal program manager Kishan Chetan joins MSDW editor Jason Gumpert and Forceworks founder and Microsoft MVP Steve Mordue to talk about the newly revealed plans and the application’s role as “the front end of the sales cycle”.
The product is now in public preview and, as Kishan explains, partners, customers, and prospects will see in the solution much of the latest tech related to the recent “CRM v9” release of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement. Topics of this interview include:
Rod O’Connor, CEO and founder of Briware Solutions, has been taking stock of a year living with SaaS business applications, both for his own company and some clients. Rod is an ERP and accounting software veteran based in Ontario and who has been a reseller and user of of Dynamics GP for many years. But last year he tried something different - he migrated his own business from GP to what was then known as Dynamics 365 Financials, now known as Finance and Operations Business Edition, and soon it’s likely to have yet another brand name.
Rod talks to us about what the adoption of SaaS has meant for his company, what it will mean for other SMB VARs who are still entrenched in the on-prem ERP world, and the evolution of Dynamics 365 and its add-on solution market so far.
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Chris de Visser, North American GM at Sana Commerce joins the MSDW Podcast to discuss a new report measuring B2B businesses’ attitudes around e-commerce and digital transformation. Among the findings was importance of customer experience in B2B and companies’ attitudes toward investing to achieve digital transformation. The discussion includes findings from Sana’s report and the broader outlook for eCommerce in the Dynamics 365/ERP channel, including trends around integration, different industries, and the challenges of B2B versus B2C commerce.
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Pablo Peralta joins us this week to talk about his current endeavor, Comunidad365, and about the business, technology, and community changes over time that have helped him reach this point in his career.
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Leon Tribe is a Microsoft MVP who is serious about Dynamics 365 and CRM, but still enjoys having some fun with the industry in which he has made his professional home. So when he isn't busy delivering complex enterprise solutions to customers, he might be found breaking down a new analyst report or simply trying to break the latest technology.
Leon is the author of a long-running CRM blog, and his recent writings provided a great starting point for this conversation on Microsoft, Salesforce, agile projects, Flow, and more.
Show notes:
In this week’s Microsoft and Dynamics Channel news roundup, we’ll look at some compelling Azure news – why are Microsoft and SAP cozying up? We look at VMWare migrations, along with an outsider’s view on what NAV developers are excited about, GDPR regulations, standing up a Dynamics 365 practice in a hurry, the bumpy road to becoming an ISV, and more.
Notes