The Intelligence Age

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/246

• Meet Phil Topness and learn more about where he lives and his family background 
• How Phil spends his time does when not working 
• Talks about his travels and career background 
• Phil’s journey into technology 
• Find out more about Phil as a Microsoft business applications MVP 
• What Phil earned being an MVP and his area of specialization 
• Learn with Phil about his role at Microsoft 
• A discussion about Phil’s Dynamics Practice journey 
• Power Platform journey and how did Phil get into the Power Platform 
• Phil’s transition from Dynamics Practice to Power Platform and how it started? 
• How do the CAT team offer help to their customers? 
• Phil talks about the CAT team’s future. 
• Describes Phil’s day-to-day activity as part of the CAT team 
• Microsoft Oakdale Project 
• Phil’s thoughts in the next 18 months about the growth in the technology area  
• Advice to people in a consulting industry having a Dynamics background who haven't pursued on the Canvas Apps, Oakdale, Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents 
• Discover the frivolous Apps Phil has created 
• The role of the CAT team within Microsoft 
• What do they do? 
• What are their responsibilities? 
• Who are their main customers? 
• How do they deliver an outcome to customers?

RESOURCES

How to get started: https://learn.microsoft.com
PowerCAT's big list of resources: https://aka.ms/powerappsresources
Power CAT Architect's Series: https://aka.ms/pparchseries 

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/245

• A brief introduction about Kuldeep Gupta’s life – where he lives  
• The good place to visit and famous food in India  
• Talks about the history of Mumbai, India  
• Kuldeep’s area of specialization in Microsoft Business Applications  
• A conversation about Kuldeep’s Involvement with Project Service Automation (PSA) 
• Learn more about Kuldeep’s eBook – Dynamics 365 PSA E-Book  
• A discussion about the changes that happened in Project Service Automation  
• The reason why PSA is getting obsolete  
• Discusses what Project operation is and the history  
• The difference between Microsoft Project and Project operations  
• Journey to becoming a Microsoft MVP  
• Kuldeep’s expectation after becoming an MVP 

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/244

• A Brief Introduction about Lars Peterson’s life and career background  
• Lars’ work situation amidst the COVID pandemic  
• A discussion about Lars’ role before he got connected to Reliable Electric  
• What is Reliable Electric, and what do they specialize in?  
• Talks about Lars’ job position and his role in Reliable Electric?  
• How Lars’ started working with Microsoft technologies  
• Lars’ journey into Power Platform   
• The problems and gaps Lars’ are trying to fill with using the old system   
• Discover the first Power Apps Lars created 
• With the use of the Power Apps Lars created, how did he solve the problem?  
• A conversation about Lars’ discovery of Power Apps   
• How many Apps is Lars working on right now?   
• What made Lars’ decide to incorporate Power Apps into business processes   
• What other tools does Lars use for reporting?  
• What can you do with Microsoft’s SQL that you cannot do on CDS?  
• The feedback from the staff with the adoption of the new technology?  
• The benefits Lars gained in using Power Platforms and other tools. 

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/243

• Learn more about David Musgrave’s as he talks about his origin story  
• As a Microsoft Business Applications – David’s involvement in the GP world  
• How Microsoft Dynamics GP ecosystem looks like right now  
• The history of Microsoft Dynamics GP world  
• Discussions about Microsoft project green  
• A conversation about Microsoft branding  
• David’s journey from being a Microsoft employee to becoming part of the MVP Program
• Talks about David’s involvement in the MVP community  
• David shares an article about the history of GP logos  
• Being a Microsoft MVP – What it means to David   
• Advice to people on how to become a successful Microsoft MVP  
• David’s journey to becoming a Microsoft MVP 

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/242

• Meet Mary Thompson and learn more about her origin story – family life  
• Career background of Mary Thompson 
• How Mary started having an interest in Microsoft technology – her journey 
• What led Mary into the Dynamics community 
• How D365 Saturday and Up and A Day Training in New York help her grow her career 
• The benefits and how has the community have helped Mary  
• The significant learnings and Mary’s experiences from engaging in the community 
• Talks about the textable tribe she has created in the community 
• Discusses the power of networking that the community was able to open for Mary 
• The impact of COVID-19 on Mary’s career 
• A conversation about the lessons Mary learnt from the Coronavirus pandemic  
• Talks about the toughest trials Mary had to face in her career and her most golden triumphs 
• A discussion about WorldMaximation 
• How did Mary come up with the idea of the WorldMaximation? 
• A discussion about where people can go and how they can start learning Public Speaking 
• Mary’s advice to people who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic 

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/241

• Talks about Lisa Crosbie’s podcast  
• Lisa’s journey to becoming a Microsoft MVP  
• A conversation about her passion for teaching people  
• The key highlights that have impacted Lisa’s life since becoming an MVP – being part of the community.  
• The impact of the COVID19 crisis 
• Lisa’s motivation to becoming an MVP  
• How Lisa got into the MVP Program  
• Talks about Power Virtual Agent Education for indigenous women  
• A discussion with Lisa about her career journey  
• Lisa’s advice to people wanting to work in pre-sales space  
• How Lisa manages to learn without overloading herself continually  
• Find out Lisa’s career plan and dream  
• Lisa shares how it feels having Microsoft Blue Badge 
• Who inspires Lisa’s life to be better?  

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/240

• Meet Jeff York and learn more about his life, how he spends his time with his family and what he does when not working  
• Talks about Jeff's journey to Microsoft  
• A discussion about how Jeff got involved with Dynamics 365 and the Business Applications  
• Jeff's role and responsibilities in Microsoft?  
• Being in Business Applications for some time, what are the changes Jeff had seen in the business before James Philips led the engineering team.  
• Talks about how FY20 went from Jeff's perspective  
• Jeff's thoughts for FY21  
• What does the acquisition landscape look like for Business Applications?  
• Discusses how has COVID19 impacted business  
• What Jeff's hearing from analysts?  
• Jeff's thoughts on where Microsoft events are going from in-person to digital  
• What is the impact the Microsoft Business Applications community having on business?  
• Introduction to Softomotive  
• Jeff's thoughts about the growth for the year 2021  
• A conversation about the new CVP to replace Hayden?  
• Jeff's views on the impact of community engagements, groups and events 

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/239

• Meet Ulrik Breval Carlsson - the CRM Chart Guy 
• Ulrik’s involvement with Power BI 
• A conversation about the issues in Power BI at present 
• The solutions to fix technical issues under Power BI 
• The benefits being a Microsoft MVP 
• Ulrik’s origin story – originally from Denmark 
• Personal and Career background of Ulrik 
• How Ulrik started having an interest in CRM 
• What took Ulrik a long time to consider the MVP Program 
• A discussion about Ulrik’s journey to becoming a Microsoft MVP 
• The processes involved in joining the MVP Program 
• Advice or recommendations to people who want to become a Microsoft MVP 

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/238

• A brief introduction to Kent Weare’s life - family and hobbies 
• Talks about Microsoft’s Power Customer Advisory Team, also known as Power CAT 
• The role and responsibilities of Power CAT in Microsoft 
• Kent’s journey to becoming a Microsoft MVP   
• A discussion about Kent’s involvement in BIZTALK 
• How Kent got started working with Microsoft  
• What led Kent to his current position 
• A discussion about Kent’s journey to Udemy  
• As the author of three books and instructor 
• Kent’s experience with course creation 
• Introduction to Softomotive's WinAutomation Platform – what does it do 
• The benefits of using Softomotive's WinAutomation Platform 
• How will the Softomotive acquisition enhance Power Automate? 
• What are the strengths of Softomotive's WinAutomation Platform? 
• What are the use cases where Softomotive's WinAutomation Solution really compliments your existing offerings?  
• How did Kent start working with customers on RPA and the convergence of their platform? 
• Discusses Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process Automation Software 
• Why would people choose RPA?  
• Why is RPA different and why will people consider RPA? 

RESOURCES

Personal Blog/Website https://middlewareinthecloud.com/ 

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/237

• Meet Sheila Shahpari and learn more about her origin, life, family background 
• What she does when not working – hobbies 
• Talks about Sheila’s interest in music 
• Sheila’s educational background 
• A conversation about social justice 
• Talks about human right issues 
• Sheila’s thoughts on how people can start pro-actively educate their selves 
• Discussions about how people can take pro-active action 
• A conversation about Sheila’s first job 
• Introduction to racial profiling software 
• Recommendation to people who are wanting to become a Microsoft MVP 
• What Sheila thought about becoming a Microsoft MVP 

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith