The Intelligence Age

FULL SHOW NOTES
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/176

• Meet Ashvini Sharma, born in India, moved to Dubai, Middle East, at the age of 12.   
• Ashvini's educational background 
• Talks about Ashvini's interests and hobbies 
• Microsoft journey of Ashvini Sharma – from BI Business group to Microsoft Business Applications team 
• Lessons Ashvini has learnt from his 20years of experience from BI – was he able to apply it to Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Power Automate 
• A brief introduction to Robotic Process Automation  
• The type of technologies Robotic Process Automation is using  
• A discussion about the history and goal of RPA and who's involved  
• The systems or technologies that RPA does not support  
• Tools and key building blocks of Microsoft RPA implementation 
• The best practices or patents of RPA Implementation 
• Office 365 and CDS scenarios with Power Automate – Robotic Process Automation area 
• Level of coding knowledge RPA requires 
• The reason why Microsoft decided to go on this journey with RPA 
• How do RPA and AI work together? 
• Resources, tools and materials available for RPA 
• Ashvini's favourite quote – My heart is in the work by Andrew Carnegie 

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/175

• Aaron Back on The MVP Show – find out more about Aaron's life
• A discussion about Aaron's career background
• Learn 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 

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/174

• Personal and career background of David Kohar   
• David Kohar's first interview
• The 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? 

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/173

• An introduction to where Colin lives, work and how he spends his free time
• Colin’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 

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/172

• A 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 Resources

• Books – 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=1

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/171

• Steven 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/ 

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/170

• Eric 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  

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/169

• Kunal 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 Journey
• How he works with other parts of KPMG around the world
• How 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 Y2020
• What 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 

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/168

• Find 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? 

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/167

• A 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 Community
• What's AK doing actively as part of his community engagement  

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

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith