CRM MVP Podcast

On December 8th, 2016, Microsoft closed its acquisition of LinkedIn and all of us on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 industry started wondering what that meant for us.

Over the last few months, we've seen the evolution of the integration between the LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement.

I wanted to talk about this evolution and this acquisition as well, so I invited my good friend Brian Galicia, who is the world-wide lead for sales force automation and LinkedIn relationship sales for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement.

Brian and I talk about:

• Evolution of Dynamics 365 Sales
• What the acquisition of LinkedIn means for Dynamics 365 customers
• The value of Relationship Selling
• Real-world examples of how organizations are using Relationship Selling today
• Value proposition of Dynamics 365 Sales vs. its competitors

Follow Brian on Twitter @briangalicia

One of the things that happens in almost every Microsoft Dynamics 365 Deployment is that you will end up with a combination of technical, and non-technical people involved in the project.

Typically we find developers at the end of the "technical spectrum", and when people can't communicate with developers correctly they can cause project delays and time and effort wasted on the wrong functionality.

Solution Architects are responsible for bridging the gap between non-technical and technical resources, but sometimes you can find yourself involved in a project where you need to communicate with a developer and your Solution Architect is nowhere to be found.

So ask yourself this question: "Do I speak 'Developer'?"

If you don't, or if you are not sure, get a notepad and get ready to take some important notes because Microsoft MVP Daryl LaBar is our guest and he dives into:

• How can you identify the kind of personality your developer has?
• How developers communicate and work together?
• What can developers do? (I.E. What you shouldn't be asking for)
• How important it is for developers to learn what can Dynamics 365 do without code?

Lastly, make sure you follow Daryl LaBar on Twitter @ddlabar

Like many of you, I always complained about the lack of resources available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM/365. That was until I realized that those resources are out there, and they are produced by the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Content Experience team led by Amy Langlois at Microsoft.

So I invited Amy to talk about documentation and all the work her team does. We discussed:

• Amy's career path at Microsoft (She authored the SDK for CRM 1.0!)
• Evolution of Dynamics 365 documentation
• Why is documentation important?
• Documentation awareness and challenges
• Who works on the documentation?
• How often are these resources updated?
• What happens to documentation from older versions?
• How can you request documentation to be written or produced?

Resources covered on this episode:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/

https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/Dynamics/crm-customer-center/dynamics-365-online-vs-on-premises-features-faq.aspx

Originally I thought about releasing this episode the weekend before eXtreme365 USA, but I was able to get a discount code for all my listeners so everyone can register and attend eXtreme365 on November 6-9, 2017 in Long Beach, CA.

We discuss:

• Why I didn't go to the first few eXtremeCRM events
• What eXtreme 365 is and who should attend
• Why I started attending in 2015 and haven't missed one since then
• Why you need to be there
• Whether customers/users can attend
• The "Executive Exchange"
• The "Innovation Challenge" and how I love challenging them with my crazy ideas
• What makes eXtreme365 unique

Visit their website at www.extreme365.com

See the agenda here: https://goo.gl/dGh8xi

Register here: https://goo.gl/J5gk26

Follow eXtreme 365 on Twitter @Extreme_365

This is a short recap of the "Best Practices when Setting up Security" session I led during the 2017 CRMUG Summit in Nashville, TN.

Best practices covered:

1. Keep it simple
2. Create your own roles
3. Use a Layered approach
4. Allow them to Deactivate
5. Show the users what matters
6. Use only one Business Unit
7. User Ownership over Team Ownership
8. Be open
9. Renamed unused security roles
10. Protect your data

Download slides for this session here: https://goo.gl/VD2rso

Follow us on Twitter @CRMMVPPodcast and @Elev8Solutions

The idea for the Dynamics CRM User Group (CRMUG) grew from the vision of a few Microsoft Dynamics users - to connect with other users and learn firsthand the best way to leverage the software they used every day.

We discuss:

• CRMUG Mission and why is it so important
• CRMUG Growth
• CRMUG Summit 2017
• Who is involved in selecting sessions and speakers?
• CRMUG Board of Advisors
• CRMUG Community Forum and events overseas
• CRMUG Medics and why you need to ask questions

www.crmugsummit.com

Follow the CRM User Group on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crmug

On this episode, we focus on Change Management, Governance, and User Adoption. We discuss the ADKAR Model, which is a framework for understanding change.

We discuss:

• Building Awareness regarding why the change is needed
• Creating Desire to implement change
• Developing Knowledge to allow users to adopt the solution
• Fostering Ability for the users to get the most out of the implemented solution
• Reinforcing Change to ensure that users don't go back to the "old way of doing things"

The book reviewed on this episode can be purchased here: HERE

Follow Clarissa on twitter @OKKiwiFlyHome

Dynamics 365 is comprised by sevaral apps. One of those apps is Field Service, and this app has a huge (and growing) market size!

Ben Vollmer is the Global Sales Director for Field Service at Microsoft, but don't let this title fool you, Ben has worked with CRM systems for over 20 years, and has held multiple positions within the Dynamics space at Microsoft.

We discuss:

- What Field Service is and how are customers using it

- Size of the Field Service Management Market from 2016-2021

- Difference between Salesforce Automation solutions and Field Service solutions

- Customer Sucess stories

- Other Microsoft Business Solutions leveraged on Field Service deployments.

Trying to keep up with all of the moving parts Microsoft is working and innovating on around Dynamics 365 would require a full time job just focused on learning what's new and what it means for customers.

Jason Gumpert did that almost 10 years ago.

He was one of the two founding members of MSDynamicsWorld.com, an online independent source of Microsoft Dynamics news and views with 60,000 registered members.

Almost 10 years ago, Jason and Adam decided to leave their corporate jobs and devote their entire time to write about Microsoft Dynamics solutions. They do an excellent job reporting on the news and interviewing industry experts, so I decided to turn the mic around and interview Jason instead.

No, this is not the "CRM Cage Match" I talked about on Episode 1, I need a SalesForce MVP to make that happen, but I reached out to a Microsoft MVP who has been blogging about SalesForce for years and we discuss their finances, their future, and what products they have to offer. We also discuss the Dynamics 365 2017 Spring Release and what we hope to see in the future.

Follow Leon on twitter @LeonTribe and if you want to read more about what we discussed in this episode, check out his blog at http://thatcrmblog.wordpress.com