Podcast appearances and mentions of joel lindstrom

Send us a textForrester's 2024 US Health Insurers Customer Experience Index Rankings highlighted the continuing decline the industry has been facing for several years with a noticeable area of decline being digital experiences. Despite this trend, many organizations are shifting their focus from customer experience to broader strategies that emphasize revenue goals and technology transformation.In this episode of Exchanges, host Hannah Story joins guests Rich Hackenberg and Dave Horstein, as they discuss the opportunity health insurers have in front of them as they face the challenge of declining CX and the opportunity that comes with transformation.In this episode, you'll hear from Rich and Dave as they discuss:The role of personalization and data in enhancing experiences and generating revenueAligning strategic business goals with technology investmentsHow mapping the member journey can lead to successglobal.hitachi-solutions.com

Send us a textHear from the Hitachi Solutions Team on All Things AI CES is the world's largest electronic exhibition in the world. And the number one topic on everyone's mind is AI. In the acres upon acres of technology – from robotic coffee makers and vans with built-in helicopters, to the latest solar solutions and video games – the topic of AI is inescapable. AI is everywhere you turn in this massive event, including at the Hitachi booth at 8317 in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, where our team of data and AI experts are on hand, showcasing the latest in data, AI, and Microsoft technology. Two members of that team, by Sr. Technical Product Manager Dr. Michael Green and Stuart Morris, Director of Research and Development, took the time in our Exchanges podcast to share what they're hearing on the exhibition floor, and how Hitachi Solutions is solving them with the latest technology.global.hitachi-solutions.com

Send us a textIn this episode of Exchanges, host Hannah Story joins guests Jonathan Yundt, Industry Director, Healthcare & Insurance at Hitachi Solutions, and Andrew Montgomery, Director, Business Applications at Microsoft, as they discuss the transformation occurring in the contact center.In this episode, you'll hear from Jonathan and Andrew as they discuss:The agentic experience and why it's a buzzword for 2025 How Microsoft Copilot is empowering agents and benefiting customers Why it's important to make sure you don't ignore AI in your contact centerglobal.hitachi-solutions.com

Send us a textIn this episode of Exchanges with Hitachi Solutions, host Laurel Greszler dives into the newly launched Databricks MVP program and its significance for Hitachi Solutions' customers. Hear from Hitachi Solutions Sr. Technical Product Manager Dr. Michael Green, a recent Databricks MVP, and Databricks experts Jeff Lipkowitz and Alex Baur as they discuss how the MVP program recognizes top talent and fosters innovation, helping companies like yours leverage cutting-edge data technology for maximum impact. Tune in to discover how this elite program is driving business success and hear real-world examples of transformative results.global.hitachi-solutions.com

Send us a textFabCon Europe 2024 is in the books! With experts on the ground in Stockholm, we take some time to walk the dog on the conference news and offer perspective for Microsoft Fabric top takeaways for business leaders considering or already integrating Fabric for their analytics estate. With MVP Sandeep Pawar, who also presented at FabCon. global.hitachi-solutions.com

Send us a textHear industry experts, Adam Piercy from Hitachi Solutions and Peter Goth from Microsoft, discuss how financial services organizations can harness the power of Microsoft Copilot and Dynamics 365 for transformative business impact. global.hitachi-solutions.com

Send us a Text Message.Join our host and advisory expert Dave Horstein, alongside low code expert Joel Lindstrom, as they delve into "Rapid Value Delivery." This thoughtful and fun episode unpacks how low code tools can enhance daily efficiency — from automations to apps, and AI-assisted solution development.Leveraging low code to adapt to AI offers organizations a safe entry into its efficiency benefits, evolving the way we work.Discover why Hitachi Solutions' innovative AI integration earned us the Microsoft "Partner of the Year" award for low code app development. With our dedicated team of Power Platform experts, Hitachi Solutions is a game-changer for customers.Meet Us in Vegas!Don't miss us at Microsoft's Power Platform Conference from Sept 18-20 at the MGM in Vegas. Our team will deliver several presentations and be available at our booth for one-on-one discussions.global.hitachi-solutions.comglobal.hitachi-solutions.com

Tune into this episode of Hitachi Solutions Exchanges, as low-code experts Joel Lindstrom and Will McLendon have fun discussing enterprise low-code maturity and scaling up Microsoft Power Platform usage for better business returns.global.hitachi-solutions.com

"Doing More with Less" is the theme of the times, but how to organize the motto into action is what keeps executives up at night. Join our experts Joel Lindstrom along with Em D'Arcy and Wes Seward to learn what "fusion" is all about, and how to leverage low code and pro code development with your people & processes to solve for your enterprise.global.hitachi-solutions.com

Power Platform expert Joel Lindstrom introduces our January edition of INSIGHTS, a monthly update from our tech hub of experts on what's happening in and around Microsoft, how our customers are solving with rapid solution development, and our ongoing customer recommendations to leverage this ever-evolving platform.global.hitachi-solutions.com

In this episode of Exec's Guide to Tech, Dave Horstein talks with Power Platform Expert Joel Lindstrom on how to unpack Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for your business, including understanding the ins and outs, the ROI, how Microsoft Power Platform can efficiently upgrade outdated automation platforms, how it seamlessly integrates with all those benefits, and how it effects people and processes. We learn not only how to define RPA, but how to execute on the opportunity for better business returns. Check out our recent RPA blog post here: https://global.hitachi-solutions.com/blog/rpa-low-code/ 

In this episode of EXCHANGES, Power Platform expert Joel Lindstrom walks through Hitachi Solutions' Top 10 takeaways and favorite new features in Microsoft's October wave release with Power Platform Senior Consultant Matthew Devaney and Dynamics 365 Customer Service Director Eric Lin. They talk about not only how to absorb the dense content, but also what the wave release means for customers, and how best to navigate the news and what it means for your business. 

When do you use pro-code? Low-code? Can you use both? Direct from Hitachi Solutions Tech Hub of Power Platform Experts, Joel Lindstrom and Em D'Arcy talk about this month's edition of INSIGHTS and answer some common customer questions on Microsoft Power Platform. 

Much has changed in the past six months, and Rome Maynard and Joel Lindstrom are here to talk about it. Joel's fear of eyeballs Why Joel's sister is now known as Evie from Finland Joel gets elected to public office Beekeeping Rome gets ejected from the office Teen drivers

FULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/355 An introduction about Joel Lindstrom and his passion Joel shares his story on his career journey  Joel talks about his thoughts on the idea that Power Platform is just like xRM with a new look and feel A discussion about how the consulting landscape is currently changing  His thoughts about people becoming app makers from Dynamics 365 background The top 3 qualities that he is looking for when hiring for Power Apps makers Joel shares his thoughts on the roles of UX and UI specialists as part of the Power App teamAgileXRM AgileXRm - The integrated BPM for Microsoft Power PlatformSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/nz365guy)

This is a special thank you episode from Daryl where he thanks 10 individuals that have made a significant impact on the XrmToolCast.  Thank you to all that you do and have done!  Best wishes to 2022 for all of you! Tanguy Touzard - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanguytouzard/  Jonas Rapp - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rappen/ Scott Durow - https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottdurow/ Linn Zaw Win - https://www.linkedin.com/in/linnzawwin/ Danish Naglekar -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/danishnaglekar/ Guido Preite - https://www.linkedin.com/in/guidopreite/ Julie Yack - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julieyack/ Gus Gonzalez - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ggonzalez2/ Joel Lindstrom - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joellindstrom/ Matt Barbour - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-barbour-02702b1/  Got questions? Have your own tool you'd like to share? Have a suggestion for a future episode? Contact Daryl and Scott at cast@xrmtoolbox.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and @XrmToolCast for updates on future episodes. Don't forget to rate and leave a review for this show at Podchaser. Your hosts: Daryl LaBar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daryllabar | @ddlabar Scott Durow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottdurow | @ScottDurow Editor: Linn Zaw Win: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linnzawwin  | @LinnZawWin Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Joel Lindstrom's journey to Datastream is a PERFECT example of following your passions. Ever since he was young, he's loved computers—even built them sometimes. He and John talk about calendar management, Kolbe scores, and how to get the boss to let you bring your dog into the office. Soak in all the wisdom, Noobs! Follow John on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/johnsterling_ Facebook: facebook.com/johnsterlingsales Twitter: twitter.com/johnsterling_ TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnsterling_

In this episode of CRM Audio, George Doubinski and Joel Lindstrom discuss the business case for Dataverse for Teams. Who is it for and what does it mean for people who already have Dataverse and Dynamics 365? 

In today's podcast, Joel Lindstrom and George Doubinski talk about Dataverse, the new name of Common Data Service. Microsoft has also renamed some of the CDS components. Entities are now tables, Option Sets are now choices, and fields are not columns. These new names may be confusing for long time platform users, but they move the platform to be more consistent with other platforms and will help makers moving from SharePoint to Dataverse, as the naming is now consistent.

It's autumn in the the US, the leaves are falling, and we are back with another episode of CRM Audio. In today's episode, Joel Lindstrom, George Doubinski, and Shawn Tabor talk about George's new in-line code editor function for Power Automate--how does it work, why would you want to use it over plain expressions, and is it secure? We also get into Oakdale, the new light version of Common Data Service included in Microsoft Teams. After using it for several weeks, how does it compare with full CDS? Are there any performance differences? And what about storage capacity?

Microsoft released a public preview of Connection References, which store Power Automate (and some Power App) connections in solutions, and prompt for connection when the solution is moved to another environment. This is a big deal because currently connections are not moved with solutions, which means that Power Automate flows are not connected after the solution is moved, and editing flows in Production environments are tedious and cause problems with ALM processes. This change is also significant because it brings the value of solutions and ALM to non-CDS connected flows. Since Sharepoint, SQL, and custom connections can be automated using connnection references, deployment automation and CI/CD can now appply to connections other than CDS. Listen to today's podcast as George Doubinski, Joel Lindstrom, and Shawn Tabor discuss connection references. We also touch on environment variables and how these changes work with environment variables. And we celebrate Shawn "Hobbit" Tabor's 50th birthday!

In this episode we interview MVP Hardit Bhatia to talk about his brand new tool, "Power Apps Formula Reference".  We dive into the app, why it was created, how it's structured, and how it's intended to be used.  We also go off topic in few areas: Never let Joel Lindstrom introduce himself first Jonas wants more responsive functionality Daryl and the rest of Americans have it easy Logical names fore the win!   Hardit's Info: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harditbhatia/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepoweraddict Forum Profile: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/88116 Blog: https://thepoweraddict.com/blog/ Email: Hardit.bhatia@thepoweraddict.com Power Apps Formula Reference: https://thepoweraddict.com/power-apps-formula-reference/ Power Apps Formula Reference direct download link: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Community-App-Samples/Power-Apps-Formula-Reference/m-p/650191#M595   Got questions? Have your own tool you’d like to share? Have a suggestion for a future episode? Contact Daryl and Jonas at cast@xrmtoolbox.com. Your hosts: Daryl LaBar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daryllabar/ @ddlabar Jonas Rapp: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rappen/ @rappen Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

It’s been my observation that with a few notable exceptions, people in the Power Platform community primarily focus on Power Apps or on Power Automate. Lots of people will use both, but generally, people are more “app people” or “flow people.” I don’t have a strong preference between the two, and I regularly use and enjoy both platforms, but I’ve had conversations with people in the community that say something along the following lines: Flow Person: “I love Power Automate, but Power Apps (canvas apps) are confusing.” Apps Person: “I can write canvas apps all day long but you need to be a developer to use Power Automate.” I’ve also noticed that if you suggest a flow solution in the Power Apps forum or an app solution in the Power Automate forum at powerusers.microsoft.com, people will give you funny looks. Intrigued by this phenomenon, I interviewed some of my friends in the Business Applications community to see what they thought was behind this divide. Why does one tool seem accessible and easy to some while difficult to others? In today's podcast (and on Power Platform Tip Of The Day) George Doubinski and Joel Lindstrom explore this phenominon and what makes people gravitate toward Power Automate or Power Apps?

MVP's Shawn Tabor and Joel Lindstrom review the top announcements in the Power Platform and Dynamics 365 Release Notes Wave 2. Power Apps Portals PCF Controls Model-driven search enhancements Canvas pages Power Automate Power Virtual Agent Dynamics 365 Sales Dynamics 365 Marketing Customer Insights Dynamics 365 Service

At Build 2020, Microsoft highlighted Microsoft Teams as a platform, and announced lots of new enhancements to the integration between Power Platform and teams, including making it easier to build Power Automate flows for Teams and integrate model-driven apps with Teams, and more easily publish Power Virtual Agents with Teams. https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2020/05/27/spotlight-on-teams-as-a-platform-at-virtual-microsoft-build-2020/#12ce03631f14 On today's episode of CRM Audio, Shawn Tabor and Joel Lindstrom talk about why Teams+Power Platform matters, and how embedding apps within Teams can remove friction from user adoption of Power Apps. We also revel in our recent victory in the Power Platform Virtual Pub Quiz.

This is a special episode of CRM Audio with MVP's Gus Gonzalez, Neil Benson, and Joel Lindstrom. In this episode we dig into what the role of solution architect means and how it has changed in Power Platform projects with the shift to agile deployment methodologies. This episode is being simultaneously released on their podcasts, the CRM MVP Podcast and Scrum Dynamics, and I encourage you to subscribe to both. See full show notes at https://customery.com/50.

Depending on where you work as a Solution Architect you might be expected to be involved with a project from begining to end, or maybe just for bits and pieces during the project execution. Neil Benson, a Microsoft MVP and Agile Implementation expert invited me and Joel Lindstrom to discuss the role of a Solution Architect within the projects we normally implement. From small to large enterprise implementations, roles and responsibilities vary so we wanted to share what we've seen over the years. Is your company leveraging you as a Solution Architect the right way? It's time to find out! Hosts: Neil Benson: https://twitter.com/customery Gus Gonzalez: https://twitter.com/GusGonzalez2 Joel Lindstrom: https://twitter.com/JoelLindstrom

I'm joined by Gus Gonzalez and Joel Lindstrom to discuss the role of solution architects in agile teams implementing Microsoft Business Applications. For full show notes visit: https://customery.com/50.

Episode 89 of the #MVPbuzzChat series. Conversation between Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC, and 12-time Business Applications MVP Joel Lindstrom (@JoelLindstrom), a Principal Architect for Power Platform at Hitachi Solutions, Microsoft Certified Trainer, and podcaster based in Greer, South Carolina. Joel is the creator and editor of CRM Audio, the leading Dynamics CRM podcast (crm.audio), is an editor and frequent contributor to the Hitachi Solutions blog at http://us.hitachi-solutions.com/blog/ and is the co-creator of the CRM Tip of the Day blog which you can find at www.crmtipoftheday.com. Recorded in April 2020. In this episode, Joel and I talk about the beginnings of the Dynamics CRM platform, and its role in the Business Applications and Power Platform ecosystem. As a 12-time MVP, Joel has been there from the beginning, and is one of the leading community voices on CRM as well as the Common Data Service, which is Microsoft's premier data repository for the Power Platform. We talk about the evolution of the Dynamics space, growth of the Business Applications category, and some of our observations from the MVP community. You can watch this entire episode on the CollabTalk YouTube page at https://youtu.be/ynwsyJ_S1qE

In this episode, 4 Microsoft MVPs walk through the Top 10 things they hate in our industry. We talk about things we hate to see other MVPs, Microsoft, Partners, ISVs, and even ourselves doing! No one is safe. Guests: Daryl LaBar: https://twitter.com/ddlabar Joel Lindstrom: https://twitter.com/JoelLindstrom Gustaf Westerlund: https://twitter.com/crmgustaf

This episode is brought to you by Inogic and their new Kanban Board for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. James Phillips recently wrote a blog post "Our commitment to customers to help ensure business continuity" where he detailed plans to delay mandatory end of support and deprecation deadlines to remove pressure from customers and partners during this stressful time. 2020 Wave 1 will still be released in April, but mandatory updates will be delayed until May or June. Team member license enforcement is delayed until September, and deprecation of classic UI is delayed until late autumn US. Joel Lindstrom, George Doubinski, and Shawn Tabor discuss these delays and what they mean to you, as well as the following topics: virtual MVP summit update Goodbye Outlook client (again) and parity with App for Outlook Remote assist and remote assit guides Backup and restore (as long as you don't use SalesForce) Component libraries PCF controls vs components Links: Salesforce discontinues data recovery services: https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000322731&type=1&mode=1&language=en_US Revamping the date picker: https://thepoweraddict.com/revamping-the-date-picker-control-v2/

In today's episode of ProdCast, (brought to you by Inogic), Matthew Anderson and Joel Lindstrom share their tips for working from home and review some recent updates to their favorite productivity tools, including on how PowerPoint can help improve your speaking skills through AI. Discussed on the show: Uplift desks Jabra GN PowerPoint Coach To-Do "My Day" view Quickly create tasks from Outlook Web 

This episode is brought to you by Inogic and their new Kanban Board for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Wave 1 2020 for Power Platform and Dynamics 365 is right around the corner. In today's episode, Joel Lindstrom and Shawn Tabor cover what you need to know and how to prepare for the update. Topics covered: Team member license enforcement Dynamics 365 Sales Product visualize Dynamics 365 Customer Service Dynamics 365 Field Service Dynamics 365 Marketing Power Apps Power Automate Check out the deck from this presentation  at https://ptdrv.linkedin.com/h80j3i2

This episode is brought to you by Inogic. Check out their new Kanban visualization for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Learning is important. Joel has started a bi-weekly LinkedIn newsletter about learning--why it is important to be a life-long learner, choosing a learning goal, and tools to help learning. On the podcast we discuss our learning goals. Matthew Anderson has also been pursuing certification, and he talks about his strategies for learning and test-taking. Other topics in the episode: Smart pens: Neo Smart pen and Moleskine Pen +. https://www.amazon.com/smartpen-N2-Bluetooth-Digital-Smartphones/dp/B00ST8GT8W/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=Neo+smartpen&qid=1582039395&sr=8-4 Edge collections: https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2019/08/20/collections-now-available-microsoft-edge-preview/ Microsoft certification poster that shows the intersection of all Microsoft certifications: http://aka.ms/TrainCertPoster Taking certification exams: how to read the questions and scenarios to optimizing finding the correct answers. Going to testing center vs. online proctored exams Show notes:   [00:00:23] And Matthew. How are you doing day, Joel?   [00:00:27] I am excellent. Welcome to 2020.   [00:00:29] A little bit late in a little bit. Yeah, yeah. But we've been so productive we haven't had time for a podcast.   [00:00:36] Exactly. it's prioritization. And I think we both had that silent agreement that we have some things we're focused on right now.   [00:00:44] Well, actually, last week on my My Analytics for the first time I hit 42 percent of time for focus.   [00:00:53] Oh, congrats on that. I feel like I've graduated to new level.   [00:01:00] Yeah, I can say I have that much focused time scheduled. I am not hitting it, but I am getting more and more people to respect that time that I've got out there. So it's a it's a process. We'll say that.   [00:01:17] Right. So I've been putting a focus for 2020 on learning, trying to get some certifications as well as learn some other other things. I find that, you know, sometimes you get a little stale and you need to update your skill set, especially working with technology. You can do anything with learning in 2020.   [00:01:37] Yeah, absolutely. So the most recent certification I earned is the Azure A.I. Engineer Associate Certification.   [00:01:47] That's the A.I. 100. It was the exam. The core exam behind that one.   [00:01:53] So is this like super deep data science stuff for what is it?   [00:01:58] So it is a collection of cognitive services, including language, understanding and prediction, translation, and getting into machine learning pipelines. And how do you actually build and structure those services together to be able to meet the need for some sort of end user use case?   [00:02:22] Cool. So what what made you decide on that one versus all the other many things you could study?   [00:02:31] Yeah, so I had a stretch goal for myself around kind of getting outside of the business applications kind of silo within our product cloud, the different solution areas, I wanted to do something in Azure and I looked toward what are those things that are that I talk about the concept of in the biz app platform a lot, but I'd like to be able to go deeper and, you know, chat with folks about what's going on behind the scenes, talk intelligently around what some of those capabilities are and what really comes up a ton. Is these things around cognitive services and kind of improving those experiences using prediction automation around that. So it seemed like a really good fit. And then with the advent of the A.I. Builder Capabilities and power platform and some of what we have inside of customer insights and being able to make predictions about this kind of super set of information about customers, it just seemed like a really appropriate place to put some of that learning effort into.   [00:03:43] Definitely a hot area there. So how much time did you allocate to preparing for it?   [00:03:53] Yeah, so I have had this on my radar for about the last four and a half, maybe five months. I've been trying to go through some of the Microsoft learn capabilities or rather the learning paths that they have around that just to get familiar. But I really got serious about it when I put the I put my money where my mouth was and I scheduled the certification exam two months out. So it was mid-December. I made the decision to schedule it out for middle of February or rather early February. And just kind of use that as a way to pressure myself and really ratchet up the prep and training work that I was doing. And labs. Yeah.   [00:04:41] So that's that's key, I think. And I've been I've been writing a series of Linked-In articles about learning, because my focus has been on that since last year. I got the sales and customer service and marketing Dynamics 365 certifications and he first power platform certification. I didn't have to study at all for those because I've been doing it so long that I could just walk in and pass, maybe with just a cursory review, but the one I haven't had is field service because I just don't have as much experience with field service. I've dealt with it and worked with it. But I've never I've never taken the certification test on it before. So that was sure that was my goal. And my goal with this is just to broaden my reach outside of the normal projects that I work with. So with (the field service exam), that was kind of the first one I really had to study. And like you, I set myself a pretty aggressive goal of actually scheduling the exam. You put some teeth behind it. I've got people that are on my team or my mentor and they set a goal that “I want to get certified in xyz,” and then they never do it because they don't have a date. You got to have a date.   [00:05:59] What was going through my head the night before the exam, I was just panicking and saying I don't know if I'm actually ready. I went in and I was one click away from canceling the exam that I had for the next day. I didn't. Partially because I don't want to pay twenty two bucks to cancel this within the window. It's like five business days or something like that. You know what? I've done this much. I've put in the effort and I go take it even if I don't feel 100 percent ready. And I came out on the other side feeling pretty glad that I didn't spend the money to defer on something or I was going to pass it anyway.   [00:06:50] Right. I think when you take the more of those exams you take, you kind of recognize patterns. Not that taking more exams makes you more likely to pass another one, but it could. I've developed my own approach to taking a certification exam that helps me be more sure that I'm getting closer is the right answer. Doesn't always give me the right answer, but it gets me closer. I read the question backwards because the questions generally are set up with a scenario and a question. So the question is last and sometimes the scenario gives you extra details that you don't really need. So if you read the question, read it backwards. Read the bottom section to get the questioner and then look for the details in the scenario. You can be a lot more focused and avoid having the extra details throw you off. And then look at the scenario and then I look at the answers. And if it's not if I'm not really, really, really sure of which one's the right one, I start weeding out the distractors, and those are the ones that aren't right. And if you can weed out the ones that you know aren't right, then you have  a 50/50 chance and then you can pretty much narrow down if you if you have a cursory knowledge of the topic.   [00:08:26] I have a variation on that approach that I use quite a bit. And I think that definitely that that concept of narrowing down the field of possible answers to what's important and also not getting hung up on a bunch of potentially extraneous information is really important. And that's consistent even on the exam that I just took here recently, as well as certainly some of the dynamics ones that I certainly know well, just given my history with the platform and most of those questions you can get rid of to maybe sometimes three and you barely have to read the whole range of what it's going to be.   [00:09:18] And the new ones have introduced case studies, which is sometimes a lot of text to then get to the questions. And that can be kind of intimidating. You have, you know, the scenario, the requirements, the details. You've got half a dozen different tabs on that thing. Then you have questions. Here's one thing I found is on the and this is this is for the what is it Pearson view or whatever Microsoft uses for the testing centers as well as the proctored exams. You can ctrl+f to search the text. That's a little tip I found to where if you have a question about “what should the sales managers do” and you go to the scenario, do a ctrl+f to search for “sales manager” and if you find it. That usually leads you to the answer or enough detail to get the answer.   [00:10:13] Yeah, that's a good one, I was not familiar that you could actually do that. Very cool.   [00:10:19] Do you go to the test center or do you do the the proctored exam at home?   [00:10:25] I am a firm believer in going to the test center. That is the way I like to do it. There is no worry of someone walking into the room. I don't have to have the anxiety that comes off like shining a camera around to show that I don't have any cheating materials or anything I'm going to cheat with. And it's just one less thing that I have to deal with. Also, it feels official. I can actually protect that time. I don't have a. Now I have to travel to physically get to the test center so I can tell people, no, I need to be done with this call at 9 o'clock because my exam starts at 9:30 and I have to physically leave and get there. And I like having that little bit of buffer. How about you?   [00:11:15] I am the opposite. I do all my exam as online proctored exams, and a year ago when they first started doing it, it was kind of rough because you'd have to have a webcam to show all around the room. They've changed a little bit now where you they text you a little app or a Web page on your phone and you just take pictures of what you're facing, what's behind you. I've got to unplug my my external monitor and flip it around.   [00:11:44] But generally, that goes that goes very well. I lock my door. I do it from my house so I don't have co-workers walking in if my wife or kids are home. I make them swear that they will not try and get in the room because otherwise I'll fail. And maybe in Minnesota you have really nice testing centers. Frankly, the ones around me are all like dumps with computers that are 10 years old with desks that are falling apart.   [00:12:16] And I've had technical problems going to my local test center, so I think I trust it more doing it from home. And I get more flexibility. Like I have a meeting cancelled tomorrow. I'm going to take a take a certification exam and have more flexibility than when I do a testing center, usually it seems to only have availability a week out..   [00:12:39] Yeah, I'm I'm definitely scheduling mine more in advance, so that part's not an issue. Pearson is headquartered in Minnesota. So we have a million testing centers around here. There there's one that’s a ten minute drive from my house. Then I'm going to be moving soon, and the place I'm moving to there's a testing center one mile from the house. You know, I can walk there in under 20 minutes if I really needed to. And like all of them they have been reasonably nice.   [00:13:12] I mean, it's not crazy. You know, hardware quality of the machines that I'm on, but they've physically worked.   [00:13:19] The only argument or complaint that I have is I did try to take my customer service exam, which I just for whatever reason, hadn't taken previously. And this was in mid-January. And there was the threat, the threat of snow in Minnesota. Now, it hadn't actually started snowing yet.   [00:13:40] So that's like every day in the winter, right?   [00:13:43] Right. They were concerned that there was going to be snow later in the day. So they canceled at 8:00 in the morning. All the exams that they had. Now, my exam was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. I showed up at 8:45. They said, sorry, it's been canceled. You know, it's supposedly you get, I don't know, 210 minutes or something like that. Ridiculous amount of time for that exam at least.   [00:14:07] I'd never personally taken that long just because I have worked with the material so long. So I literally would have been out there out of there, even if I took that full time, by noon. Not a flake of snow fell from the sky until about 2:00 in the afternoon. I was just I was very, very frustrated with that. That was the biggest chink in the armor for going to an actual testing center.   [00:14:42] And people like Shawn Taber have this elaborate routine where he goes to the same Starbucks before he takes his exam and feels like if he doesn't do this he will fail. I don’t have this routine myself, I schedule and just jump in and take it.   [00:14:58] Sure. So I don't quite have that rigorous of a of a series of things I have to go through. It's not that regimented. I have a couple of different test centers I go to. I try to make it there about 15 minutes early. But beyond that, I just focus that energy on knowing the material and having that carry me through.   [00:15:21] Right. So the series I'm writing on LinkedIn has been a departure from the normal kind of content that I usually write. But it's been kind of an experiment because I got in on a preview of a new LinkedIn feature called newsletters. I like it because it's basically articles that are grouped into a series and people can subscribe to the series of articles. And currently I'm limited to just one newsletter, but I can see once this gets released then that I will probably have newsletters on different topics. And the really cool thing is I have people following the series that don't follow me or aren't connected to me. So it seems to have a little bit more of a life than just writing individual articles or LinkedIn posts. I created both like a WordPress blog and the LinkedIn articles. And by far, the LinkedIn newsletter is getting more traction than the blog version. So I really like that new feature of LinkedIn.   [00:16:31] Yeah, it's been great. I. As soon as I saw Joel Lindstrom is starting a newsletter, I said, oh, give it away. I'll try that out. See what it's all about. And yet I've continued reading.   [00:16:42] I don't know when they're going to release it as more of a general feature, but I would imagine it's coming soon. Once they do, I think you'll really like it. I think the problem with articles is they've just been kind of one off things. They have good findability because you can find them through Google and other places. But, you know, it seems like this is the missing piece to make articles a little bit more sticky.   [00:17:09] Yeah. If you have a topic where you have some authority or want to be able to communicate a lot without just doing a novel in a single post. It gives a way to be able to chunk that out and get good feedback from people, because when you are managing your own blog and that type of thing, you know how many people are going and leaving meaningful comments or interacting or sharing their views. If it's within LinkedIn and doing that, I think it will be a pretty cool feature. I'll take advantage of it once it is a little more prime time.   [00:17:50] So you mentioned you're moving. Where and why are you moving, Matthew?   [00:17:54] So I am moving within Minnesota. This is not weather driven. Actually, it will only be about a 10, 15 minute drive from where we are now.   [00:18:10] But so my kids are going to be in school age, coming up in the near future here. And we wanted to try to think through where do we want to be for them to go through all of their schooling and hopefully, depending on what happens, not have to move because of you need to go to a different school or not thinking that that far ahead. So we started the search. It was about eight months ago at this point that we started casually looking with a timeline of within the next couple of years, we want to try to move in. Sure enough, we found one that we were really excited about, with a good school district that we're excited about there. And a little more space. We like what we have. But as the kids start to get and a little bit more space to themselves, it'll give them that that space that they need.   [00:19:17] Great. I'm going to bring back a feature that we haven't done for for a while, which is “is that productive.”   [00:19:34] So for today's is that productive, I'm going to review my smart pen. This is something I have been using for over a year. I intentionally wanted to live with it for a while before I reviewed it. We have talked about Evernote and OneNote, and we have talked about physically writing your journal versus electronic notes. The idea of a smart pen is the merging of the two: a physical pen that can easily be transitioned into digital notes. So the pen that I started with is the Neo Smartpen N2, which is a pen that uses a specially coated paper. You can buy notebooks, such as the Moleskin notebooks, the ones that look a little bulbous, the paper sticks a little bit. It works with them. And the idea is you take notes like you would normally take notes, but you can sync those notes to your phone, to your computer, to your iPad, to almost any device. It will sync and OCR your notes. You can sync directly to OneNote or Evernote. And it's something that I found pretty indispensable. And I said my original pen because I broke my original path. I somehow damaged the sensor.   [00:21:04] I think I pushed the pen part too far in or something. And so I had to replace it because it actually got in 2018, it was out of warranty. So there's also the Moleskine version, which is the Pen+, which is basically the Neo Smatpen N2 and branded Moleskin. They're shaped a little bit differently. The N2 is more rounded where the Moleskin is kind of flatter. They have the same technology in them. But I find the Moleskine version feels better to hold In some ways, but either one are not are not bad.   And I had terrible handwriting. One of my goals has been, over the last year and a half, to improve my handwriting. And I've been successful with that. But it successfully transcribes my handwriting.   I'll give you a for instance, I was in a meeting where we were doing discovery and then transitioning the notes into user stories into Azure DevOps. So I intentionally just wrote in my Moleskine with Moleskine Pen + notebook rather than typing them into my computer. Then I was able to very quickly sync my notes, take the text transcrption, wordsmith it, and then copy and paste it into stories.   [00:22:26] And it it went very quickly. So I find it I find it extremely effective. Not every note I want to keep, but it's kind of per page I can choose. There's als a little checkbox. If you want email the notes to somebody, you can just check it. And when you sync with the app, it will email it. And what I find very useful about it is I can go into meeting and don't have to fire my laptop. I can be writing in my notebook and it saves me a ton of time transitioning that into OneNote, sharing the notes with other people, or taking an OCR of the notes. There are other things like the Rocket Notebook, where you use a regular notebook with specially designed paper to scan it with the phone. I find that the smart pen is better and there's other smart pens like I think there's one called the live scribe or something. I haven't tried those. But as for the Neo N2 or the Moleskine Pen +, which is basically N2, I would say that for me it is productive and saves me a ton of time.   [00:23:32] All right. Well, that's cool. I don't know. I mean, I still like my pen and paper for both journaling and for planning. And I'll call it more limited note taking. And my go to is still the Office Lens app to be able to pull that in, push directly into a OneNote notebook. And I can choose from either my work or my personal one notes or drop it into PDF or any of those kind of things. So that's that's still my go to I haven't graduated to trying that digital pen.   [00:24:13] Right. When (the digital pen) syncs, I don't know how it does it, but if I have a red notebook and a black notebook and if I write in the red notebook and I write in the black notebook, it knows which notebook that I'm I'm writing it in. So I don't have to deal with each page necessarily. I can just sync the pen. I've actually got three or four different notebooks, one to use for more of a journal, one I use for just personal to do type things, and one I use for meeting notes, And it keeps them separate. So you could you could do the same thing with Office Lens or whatever. So I’m not saying you have to use a digital pen. I'm just saying for me, it's very productive.   [00:25:03] The pen and multi notebook combo. Exactly.   [00:25:09] So kind of kind of related to that. Have you tried the collection feature in the chromium Edge Dev?   [00:25:19] So I have not tried that yet.   [00:25:21] I did write about that in one of my articles on my learning series, and it is something I find to be a very useful learning tool. Specifically, you can have multiple collections, you can drag and drop text and images. It's basically like the clip to OneNote, but having it in the browser and being able to build the collection, and then you can send the whole collection to OneNote or whatever you want to.   [00:25:45] I found that useful, especially for learning, because you go through Microsoft Learn, or whatever learning content you want and  just grab these snippets, put them in the collections, arrange it the way you want to, and then copy that to OneNote. It could be from different pages versus sending each snippet to one note. It's kind of easier to arrange it the way you want and build the build the collection, then send it somewhere.   [00:26:14] Sure. Now, as you're using that, are you finding that you get stuff that's like partially done in transition, sitting in that collection and hot? How do you not have orphaned content that sits out in those collections?   [00:26:32] I don’t have orphaned content. For example, when I'm studying for my field service exam, I have a collection for resource scheduling. So as I go through the multiple articles about resource scheduling, I'm grabbing sections or lists, such as the statuses of work items, because I know that's probably going to be on the exam.   [00:27:00] And then there's a diagram of the stages of work and I'll drag that over. And so then you can rearrange those pieces, drag them up, drag them down, delete them, whatever. What I'm building is kind of a study sheet that has all that detail that I want to remember on it.   [00:27:24] Got it. OK.   [00:27:25] And it's live. So if you have part of a Web site on there, you can click on it to go directly to that section of the webpage. Right in the browser.   [00:27:37] Yeah, I do like that concept, though, I feel I would have to try it, but I would still be worried that it would be one other thing to manage. I'd be trying to think back to where is that content stored, and I won't necessarily remember it was part of my learning that I was doing there. I'll try to go search one note. It's not there. It's one where I think I'd have to get hands on to figure out what the actual workflow would look like for me. That’s not a judgment, good or bad. I just can't see how that's going to land. Or I've maybe tried too many of those things and thought “oh, this is going to be great.” But it turns out it's just one more place to have to go look for something later.   [00:28:25] I don't think I'd make it my permanent home for anything. That's not what I did. I used it when I'm in a session learning things and collecting pieces about them. But I then moved it to OneNote.   [00:28:38] Yeah. And that's like a staging area.   [00:28:41] But also, I was recently researching mattresses, for example, and going to different pages that had different models and pages like Consumer Reports. Besides learning, I found Collections to be very helpful when compiling research amongst different pages for something you want to purchase as a way to collect all that information arranged the way you want. Maybe you're not keeping it permanently, it might just be for that specific focused time, then delete the collection. But I think if I was going to keep it in perpetuity and come back in and be able to find it a year from now, I would agree with you. I wouldn't keep it there permanently.   [00:29:27] Yeah. So it's important then to have that habit of actually moving it somewhere if you want to be able to get it, get it later. Otherwise, you have that challenge of one more place of contact. So either stick a fork in it because it's done or move it forward to a more permanent repository.   [00:29:45] The thing about me and taking notes. They're not so much for perpetuity. I have very few notebooks that I need to keep for long term.  

This episode is brought to you by Inogic. Check out their new Kanban visualization for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Learning is important. Joel has started a bi-weekly LinkedIn newsletter about learning--why it is important to be a life-long learner, choosing a learning goal, and tools to help learning. On the podcast we discuss our learning goals. Matthew Anderson has also been pursuing certification, and he talks about his strategies for learning and test-taking. Other topics in the episode: Smart pens: Neo Smart pen and Moleskine Pen +. https://www.amazon.com/smartpen-N2-Bluetooth-Digital-Smartphones/dp/B00ST8GT8W/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=Neo+smartpen&qid=1582039395&sr=8-4 Edge collections: https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2019/08/20/collections-now-available-microsoft-edge-preview/ Microsoft certification poster that shows the intersection of all Microsoft certifications: http://aka.ms/TrainCertPoster Taking certification exams: how to read the questions and scenarios to optimizing finding the correct answers. Going to testing center vs. online proctored exams Show notes:   [00:00:23] And Matthew. How are you doing day, Joel?   [00:00:27] I am excellent. Welcome to 2020.   [00:00:29] A little bit late in a little bit. Yeah, yeah. But we've been so productive we haven't had time for a podcast.   [00:00:36] Exactly. it's prioritization. And I think we both had that silent agreement that we have some things we're focused on right now.   [00:00:44] Well, actually, last week on my My Analytics for the first time I hit 42 percent of time for focus.   [00:00:53] Oh, congrats on that. I feel like I've graduated to new level.   [00:01:00] Yeah, I can say I have that much focused time scheduled. I am not hitting it, but I am getting more and more people to respect that time that I've got out there. So it's a it's a process. We'll say that.   [00:01:17] Right. So I've been putting a focus for 2020 on learning, trying to get some certifications as well as learn some other other things. I find that, you know, sometimes you get a little stale and you need to update your skill set, especially working with technology. You can do anything with learning in 2020.   [00:01:37] Yeah, absolutely. So the most recent certification I earned is the Azure A.I. Engineer Associate Certification.   [00:01:47] That's the A.I. 100. It was the exam. The core exam behind that one.   [00:01:53] So is this like super deep data science stuff for what is it?   [00:01:58] So it is a collection of cognitive services, including language, understanding and prediction, translation, and getting into machine learning pipelines. And how do you actually build and structure those services together to be able to meet the need for some sort of end user use case?   [00:02:22] Cool. So what what made you decide on that one versus all the other many things you could study?   [00:02:31] Yeah, so I had a stretch goal for myself around kind of getting outside of the business applications kind of silo within our product cloud, the different solution areas, I wanted to do something in Azure and I looked toward what are those things that are that I talk about the concept of in the biz app platform a lot, but I'd like to be able to go deeper and, you know, chat with folks about what's going on behind the scenes, talk intelligently around what some of those capabilities are and what really comes up a ton. Is these things around cognitive services and kind of improving those experiences using prediction automation around that. So it seemed like a really good fit. And then with the advent of the A.I. Builder Capabilities and power platform and some of what we have inside of customer insights and being able to make predictions about this kind of super set of information about customers, it just seemed like a really appropriate place to put some of that learning effort into.   [00:03:43] Definitely a hot area there. So how much time did you allocate to preparing for it?   [00:03:53] Yeah, so I have had this on my radar for about the last four and a half, maybe five months. I've been trying to go through some of the Microsoft learn capabilities or rather the learning paths that they have around that just to get familiar. But I really got serious about it when I put the I put my money where my mouth was and I scheduled the certification exam two months out. So it was mid-December. I made the decision to schedule it out for middle of February or rather early February. And just kind of use that as a way to pressure myself and really ratchet up the prep and training work that I was doing. And labs. Yeah.   [00:04:41] So that's that's key, I think. And I've been I've been writing a series of Linked-In articles about learning, because my focus has been on that since last year. I got the sales and customer service and marketing Dynamics 365 certifications and he first power platform certification. I didn't have to study at all for those because I've been doing it so long that I could just walk in and pass, maybe with just a cursory review, but the one I haven't had is field service because I just don't have as much experience with field service. I've dealt with it and worked with it. But I've never I've never taken the certification test on it before. So that was sure that was my goal. And my goal with this is just to broaden my reach outside of the normal projects that I work with. So with (the field service exam), that was kind of the first one I really had to study. And like you, I set myself a pretty aggressive goal of actually scheduling the exam. You put some teeth behind it. I've got people that are on my team or my mentor and they set a goal that “I want to get certified in xyz,” and then they never do it because they don't have a date. You got to have a date.   [00:05:59] What was going through my head the night before the exam, I was just panicking and saying I don't know if I'm actually ready. I went in and I was one click away from canceling the exam that I had for the next day. I didn't. Partially because I don't want to pay twenty two bucks to cancel this within the window. It's like five business days or something like that. You know what? I've done this much. I've put in the effort and I go take it even if I don't feel 100 percent ready. And I came out on the other side feeling pretty glad that I didn't spend the money to defer on something or I was going to pass it anyway.   [00:06:50] Right. I think when you take the more of those exams you take, you kind of recognize patterns. Not that taking more exams makes you more likely to pass another one, but it could. I've developed my own approach to taking a certification exam that helps me be more sure that I'm getting closer is the right answer. Doesn't always give me the right answer, but it gets me closer. I read the question backwards because the questions generally are set up with a scenario and a question. So the question is last and sometimes the scenario gives you extra details that you don't really need. So if you read the question, read it backwards. Read the bottom section to get the questioner and then look for the details in the scenario. You can be a lot more focused and avoid having the extra details throw you off. And then look at the scenario and then I look at the answers. And if it's not if I'm not really, really, really sure of which one's the right one, I start weeding out the distractors, and those are the ones that aren't right. And if you can weed out the ones that you know aren't right, then you have  a 50/50 chance and then you can pretty much narrow down if you if you have a cursory knowledge of the topic.   [00:08:26] I have a variation on that approach that I use quite a bit. And I think that definitely that that concept of narrowing down the field of possible answers to what's important and also not getting hung up on a bunch of potentially extraneous information is really important. And that's consistent even on the exam that I just took here recently, as well as certainly some of the dynamics ones that I certainly know well, just given my history with the platform and most of those questions you can get rid of to maybe sometimes three and you barely have to read the whole range of what it's going to be.   [00:09:18] And the new ones have introduced case studies, which is sometimes a lot of text to then get to the questions. And that can be kind of intimidating. You have, you know, the scenario, the requirements, the details. You've got half a dozen different tabs on that thing. Then you have questions. Here's one thing I found is on the and this is this is for the what is it Pearson view or whatever Microsoft uses for the testing centers as well as the proctored exams. You can ctrl+f to search the text. That's a little tip I found to where if you have a question about “what should the sales managers do” and you go to the scenario, do a ctrl+f to search for “sales manager” and if you find it. That usually leads you to the answer or enough detail to get the answer.   [00:10:13] Yeah, that's a good one, I was not familiar that you could actually do that. Very cool.   [00:10:19] Do you go to the test center or do you do the the proctored exam at home?   [00:10:25] I am a firm believer in going to the test center. That is the way I like to do it. There is no worry of someone walking into the room. I don't have to have the anxiety that comes off like shining a camera around to show that I don't have any cheating materials or anything I'm going to cheat with. And it's just one less thing that I have to deal with. Also, it feels official. I can actually protect that time. I don't have a. Now I have to travel to physically get to the test center so I can tell people, no, I need to be done with this call at 9 o'clock because my exam starts at 9:30 and I have to physically leave and get there. And I like having that little bit of buffer. How about you?   [00:11:15] I am the opposite. I do all my exam as online proctored exams, and a year ago when they first started doing it, it was kind of rough because you'd have to have a webcam to show all around the room. They've changed a little bit now where you they text you a little app or a Web page on your phone and you just take pictures of what you're facing, what's behind you. I've got to unplug my my external monitor and flip it around.   [00:11:44] But generally, that goes that goes very well. I lock my door. I do it from my house so I don't have co-workers walking in if my wife or kids are home. I make them swear that they will not try and get in the room because otherwise I'll fail. And maybe in Minnesota you have really nice testing centers. Frankly, the ones around me are all like dumps with computers that are 10 years old with desks that are falling apart.   [00:12:16] And I've had technical problems going to my local test center, so I think I trust it more doing it from home. And I get more flexibility. Like I have a meeting cancelled tomorrow. I'm going to take a take a certification exam and have more flexibility than when I do a testing center, usually it seems to only have availability a week out..   [00:12:39] Yeah, I'm I'm definitely scheduling mine more in advance, so that part's not an issue. Pearson is headquartered in Minnesota. So we have a million testing centers around here. There there's one that’s a ten minute drive from my house. Then I'm going to be moving soon, and the place I'm moving to there's a testing center one mile from the house. You know, I can walk there in under 20 minutes if I really needed to. And like all of them they have been reasonably nice.   [00:13:12] I mean, it's not crazy. You know, hardware quality of the machines that I'm on, but they've physically worked.   [00:13:19] The only argument or complaint that I have is I did try to take my customer service exam, which I just for whatever reason, hadn't taken previously. And this was in mid-January. And there was the threat, the threat of snow in Minnesota. Now, it hadn't actually started snowing yet.   [00:13:40] So that's like every day in the winter, right?   [00:13:43] Right. They were concerned that there was going to be snow later in the day. So they canceled at 8:00 in the morning. All the exams that they had. Now, my exam was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. I showed up at 8:45. They said, sorry, it's been canceled. You know, it's supposedly you get, I don't know, 210 minutes or something like that. Ridiculous amount of time for that exam at least.   [00:14:07] I'd never personally taken that long just because I have worked with the material so long. So I literally would have been out there out of there, even if I took that full time, by noon. Not a flake of snow fell from the sky until about 2:00 in the afternoon. I was just I was very, very frustrated with that. That was the biggest chink in the armor for going to an actual testing center.   [00:14:42] And people like Shawn Taber have this elaborate routine where he goes to the same Starbucks before he takes his exam and feels like if he doesn't do this he will fail. I don’t have this routine myself, I schedule and just jump in and take it.   [00:14:58] Sure. So I don't quite have that rigorous of a of a series of things I have to go through. It's not that regimented. I have a couple of different test centers I go to. I try to make it there about 15 minutes early. But beyond that, I just focus that energy on knowing the material and having that carry me through.   [00:15:21] Right. So the series I'm writing on LinkedIn has been a departure from the normal kind of content that I usually write. But it's been kind of an experiment because I got in on a preview of a new LinkedIn feature called newsletters. I like it because it's basically articles that are grouped into a series and people can subscribe to the series of articles. And currently I'm limited to just one newsletter, but I can see once this gets released then that I will probably have newsletters on different topics. And the really cool thing is I have people following the series that don't follow me or aren't connected to me. So it seems to have a little bit more of a life than just writing individual articles or LinkedIn posts. I created both like a WordPress blog and the LinkedIn articles. And by far, the LinkedIn newsletter is getting more traction than the blog version. So I really like that new feature of LinkedIn.   [00:16:31] Yeah, it's been great. I. As soon as I saw Joel Lindstrom is starting a newsletter, I said, oh, give it away. I'll try that out. See what it's all about. And yet I've continued reading.   [00:16:42] I don't know when they're going to release it as more of a general feature, but I would imagine it's coming soon. Once they do, I think you'll really like it. I think the problem with articles is they've just been kind of one off things. They have good findability because you can find them through Google and other places. But, you know, it seems like this is the missing piece to make articles a little bit more sticky.   [00:17:09] Yeah. If you have a topic where you have some authority or want to be able to communicate a lot without just doing a novel in a single post. It gives a way to be able to chunk that out and get good feedback from people, because when you are managing your own blog and that type of thing, you know how many people are going and leaving meaningful comments or interacting or sharing their views. If it's within LinkedIn and doing that, I think it will be a pretty cool feature. I'll take advantage of it once it is a little more prime time.   [00:17:50] So you mentioned you're moving. Where and why are you moving, Matthew?   [00:17:54] So I am moving within Minnesota. This is not weather driven. Actually, it will only be about a 10, 15 minute drive from where we are now.   [00:18:10] But so my kids are going to be in school age, coming up in the near future here. And we wanted to try to think through where do we want to be for them to go through all of their schooling and hopefully, depending on what happens, not have to move because of you need to go to a different school or not thinking that that far ahead. So we started the search. It was about eight months ago at this point that we started casually looking with a timeline of within the next couple of years, we want to try to move in. Sure enough, we found one that we were really excited about, with a good school district that we're excited about there. And a little more space. We like what we have. But as the kids start to get and a little bit more space to themselves, it'll give them that that space that they need.   [00:19:17] Great. I'm going to bring back a feature that we haven't done for for a while, which is “is that productive.”   [00:19:34] So for today's is that productive, I'm going to review my smart pen. This is something I have been using for over a year. I intentionally wanted to live with it for a while before I reviewed it. We have talked about Evernote and OneNote, and we have talked about physically writing your journal versus electronic notes. The idea of a smart pen is the merging of the two: a physical pen that can easily be transitioned into digital notes. So the pen that I started with is the Neo Smartpen N2, which is a pen that uses a specially coated paper. You can buy notebooks, such as the Moleskin notebooks, the ones that look a little bulbous, the paper sticks a little bit. It works with them. And the idea is you take notes like you would normally take notes, but you can sync those notes to your phone, to your computer, to your iPad, to almost any device. It will sync and OCR your notes. You can sync directly to OneNote or Evernote. And it's something that I found pretty indispensable. And I said my original pen because I broke my original path. I somehow damaged the sensor.   [00:21:04] I think I pushed the pen part too far in or something. And so I had to replace it because it actually got in 2018, it was out of warranty. So there's also the Moleskine version, which is the Pen+, which is basically the Neo Smatpen N2 and branded Moleskin. They're shaped a little bit differently. The N2 is more rounded where the Moleskin is kind of flatter. They have the same technology in them. But I find the Moleskine version feels better to hold In some ways, but either one are not are not bad.   And I had terrible handwriting. One of my goals has been, over the last year and a half, to improve my handwriting. And I've been successful with that. But it successfully transcribes my handwriting.   I'll give you a for instance, I was in a meeting where we were doing discovery and then transitioning the notes into user stories into Azure DevOps. So I intentionally just wrote in my Moleskine with Moleskine Pen + notebook rather than typing them into my computer. Then I was able to very quickly sync my notes, take the text transcrption, wordsmith it, and then copy and paste it into stories.   [00:22:26] And it it went very quickly. So I find it I find it extremely effective. Not every note I want to keep, but it's kind of per page I can choose. There's als a little checkbox. If you want email the notes to somebody, you can just check it. And when you sync with the app, it will email it. And what I find very useful about it is I can go into meeting and don't have to fire my laptop. I can be writing in my notebook and it saves me a ton of time transitioning that into OneNote, sharing the notes with other people, or taking an OCR of the notes. There are other things like the Rocket Notebook, where you use a regular notebook with specially designed paper to scan it with the phone. I find that the smart pen is better and there's other smart pens like I think there's one called the live scribe or something. I haven't tried those. But as for the Neo N2 or the Moleskine Pen +, which is basically N2, I would say that for me it is productive and saves me a ton of time.   [00:23:32] All right. Well, that's cool. I don't know. I mean, I still like my pen and paper for both journaling and for planning. And I'll call it more limited note taking. And my go to is still the Office Lens app to be able to pull that in, push directly into a OneNote notebook. And I can choose from either my work or my personal one notes or drop it into PDF or any of those kind of things. So that's that's still my go to I haven't graduated to trying that digital pen.   [00:24:13] Right. When (the digital pen) syncs, I don't know how it does it, but if I have a red notebook and a black notebook and if I write in the red notebook and I write in the black notebook, it knows which notebook that I'm I'm writing it in. So I don't have to deal with each page necessarily. I can just sync the pen. I've actually got three or four different notebooks, one to use for more of a journal, one I use for just personal to do type things, and one I use for meeting notes, And it keeps them separate. So you could you could do the same thing with Office Lens or whatever. So I’m not saying you have to use a digital pen. I'm just saying for me, it's very productive.   [00:25:03] The pen and multi notebook combo. Exactly.   [00:25:09] So kind of kind of related to that. Have you tried the collection feature in the chromium Edge Dev?   [00:25:19] So I have not tried that yet.   [00:25:21] I did write about that in one of my articles on my learning series, and it is something I find to be a very useful learning tool. Specifically, you can have multiple collections, you can drag and drop text and images. It's basically like the clip to OneNote, but having it in the browser and being able to build the collection, and then you can send the whole collection to OneNote or whatever you want to.   [00:25:45] I found that useful, especially for learning, because you go through Microsoft Learn, or whatever learning content you want and  just grab these snippets, put them in the collections, arrange it the way you want to, and then copy that to OneNote. It could be from different pages versus sending each snippet to one note. It's kind of easier to arrange it the way you want and build the build the collection, then send it somewhere.   [00:26:14] Sure. Now, as you're using that, are you finding that you get stuff that's like partially done in transition, sitting in that collection and hot? How do you not have orphaned content that sits out in those collections?   [00:26:32] I don’t have orphaned content. For example, when I'm studying for my field service exam, I have a collection for resource scheduling. So as I go through the multiple articles about resource scheduling, I'm grabbing sections or lists, such as the statuses of work items, because I know that's probably going to be on the exam.   [00:27:00] And then there's a diagram of the stages of work and I'll drag that over. And so then you can rearrange those pieces, drag them up, drag them down, delete them, whatever. What I'm building is kind of a study sheet that has all that detail that I want to remember on it.   [00:27:24] Got it. OK.   [00:27:25] And it's live. So if you have part of a Web site on there, you can click on it to go directly to that section of the webpage. Right in the browser.   [00:27:37] Yeah, I do like that concept, though, I feel I would have to try it, but I would still be worried that it would be one other thing to manage. I'd be trying to think back to where is that content stored, and I won't necessarily remember it was part of my learning that I was doing there. I'll try to go search one note. It's not there. It's one where I think I'd have to get hands on to figure out what the actual workflow would look like for me. That’s not a judgment, good or bad. I just can't see how that's going to land. Or I've maybe tried too many of those things and thought “oh, this is going to be great.” But it turns out it's just one more place to have to go look for something later.   [00:28:25] I don't think I'd make it my permanent home for anything. That's not what I did. I used it when I'm in a session learning things and collecting pieces about them. But I then moved it to OneNote.   [00:28:38] Yeah. And that's like a staging area.   [00:28:41] But also, I was recently researching mattresses, for example, and going to different pages that had different models and pages like Consumer Reports. Besides learning, I found Collections to be very helpful when compiling research amongst different pages for something you want to purchase as a way to collect all that information arranged the way you want. Maybe you're not keeping it permanently, it might just be for that specific focused time, then delete the collection. But I think if I was going to keep it in perpetuity and come back in and be able to find it a year from now, I would agree with you. I wouldn't keep it there permanently.   [00:29:27] Yeah. So it's important then to have that habit of actually moving it somewhere if you want to be able to get it, get it later. Otherwise, you have that challenge of one more place of contact. So either stick a fork in it because it's done or move it forward to a more permanent repository.   [00:29:45] The thing about me and taking notes. They're not so much for perpetuity. I have very few notebooks that I need to keep for long term.  

What would happen if we tasked a veteran salesperson and world-class Dynamics 365 and Power Platform implementer with overhauling the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales App? Well, 12x Microsoft MVP Joel Lindstrom shares his vision for what the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales App should look like. Hosted by: Joel Lindstrom: https://twitter.com/JoelLindstrom

Full show notes available https://www.nz365guy.com/155

We are podcasting from the Ignite podcast booth this week. You could win Surface earbuds--register at https://aka.ms/PodcastSweepstakes for your chance to win. Today Ben Vollmer from Microsoft joins Shawn Tabor, Sarah Jelinek, and Joel Lindstrom to talk about how AI in the Power Platform has advanced and exploded into all areas of the Power Platform and Dynamics 365. Discussed on this episode: Power virtual agent Use cases for mixed reality Product visualize Customer Service Insights Customer Insights How to get started with AI Common thread of AI across the platform Watch the Ignite Vision Keynote with Satya Nadella | Microsoft Ignite 2019 ... Join us later this week for episodes about Power Automate and Power Apps.      

This episode is brought to you by Maplytics by Inogic. Next week is User Group Summit 2019, and to help get ready we have Nick Doelman, Darly LaBar, Jonas Rapp, Jim Novak, and Sara Lagerquist join Joel Lindstrom and George Doubinski to talk about their sessions. Even if you aren't attending the conference, you will learn something from this episode, as each panelist shares some of the tips that they are going to present in their sessions. Sessions mentioned on this episode: Unit Testing for C# Dynamics 365 CE/CRM/CDS Developers (https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/summit-orlando/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=566088) Monday, October 14 8:00 AM – 5:00 PMDEV07 - Creating a Plugin With Unit Tests From Scratch (https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/summit-orlando/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=583252) Thursday, October 17 9:30 AM – 10:30 AMDEV09 - Ask the Experts, CRM Developer Edition! (https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/summit-orlando/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=583254) Thursday, October 17 4:15 PM – 5:15 PMADM23 - Top 10 Free Tools for CRM Admins and Functional Consultants (https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/summit-orlando/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=583255) Friday, October 18 1:15 PM – 2:15 PMUI10 - Deep Dive into Model Driven Forms JS for Non Developers(https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/summit-orlando/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=583253) Friday, October 18 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM DEV03 - Developing XrmToolBox Tools https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/summit-orlando/fsPopup.asp?embedded=true&pfp=D365CEcrm&Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=583336 DEV08 - Working With Liquid Templates in Dynamics Portals https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/summit-orlando/fsPopup.asp?embedded=true&pfp=D365CEcrm&Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=583335 PP11 - Building Canvas Apps - Time to Jump on the Bandwagon https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/summit-orlando/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=583381   NAAP06 - 5 Steps to Create PowerApps for Any Device https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/summit-orlando/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=583382   EXCE03 - Let's Build an XrmToolBox Tool! https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/summit-orlando/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=583380   DEV07 - Creating a Plugin With Unit Tests From Scratch https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/summit-orlando/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=583252 ADM15 - Improve Your Dynamics 365 Data Quality With a PowerApp https://cdmcd.co/Rz6Z4   UI04 - Tips to Help Drive an Aggressive CRM Roadmap at Your Organization https://cdmcd.co/baqKJ Music: Ben Vollmer Song

Rome Maynard and Joel Lindstrom celebrate Batman Day 2019. Topics discussed: What is Batman Day? If Batman was really 80 years old "How To" by Randall Munroe Chattanooga Tn Obsolete technology Moving furniture

Time for a CRM Audio episode with George Doubinski, Shawn Tabor, and Joel Lindstrom (brought to you by ClickLearn). In this week's episode we talk about the following topics: George's new Tesla Death of classic UI Wave 2 release schedule Getting ready for Power Platform 24 Dealing with information overload Upcoming conferences Differences between CDS connector and Current Environment connector  

In today's episode, Rome Maynard and Joel Lindstrom seek deeper meaning in inspiring others, songs about African precipitation, and look for subliminal messages in Slim Whitman music. Topics in today's episode: Inspirational pep talks Bad career advice You can be whatever you want* Karaoke night Africa by Toto Pooch selfie Celebrity death Blade Runner Bruce Lee Harry O David Janssen Murderous blimps Iconic theme songs Llac Evol Naidni

Welcome to CRM Audio Live, brought to you by KingswaySoft. Today Mark Christie, Iain Connolly, Shawn Tabor, Andrew Bibby, and Joel Lindstrom finish their discussion about the latest release plan. In today's episode we cover the following areas of the next release: Field Service Unified Interface PowerApps Flow The death of task flows Common Data Service You can download the release plan here. Got any feedback or suggestions for future episodes? Email us at voice@crm.audio.  

This episode is brought to you by KingswaySoft. Today Business Applications MVP's Ulrik Carlsson, Megan Walker, Andrew Bibby, and Joel Lindstrom are not at the Business Applications Summit, but they have the wave 2 release plan, and in this episode they review some of the highlights of the massive document. Topics: D365 for Marketing Customer Insights segments in marketing Quick sends Sales Business card scanning Configurable system dialogs Unified queues Chat integration Assistant studio AI builder Music: www.purple-planet.com

In today's Power Platform Daily Brief (brought to you by Maplytics by Inogic), Brad Koontz reviews Satya Nadella's keynote from Build and Joel Lindstrom delivers a recap of the announcements from Build.  

It's a busy week on If You're Like Me as Rome Maynard and Joel Lindstrom discuss: Preparation for Cannon night Farm Boy Nero Wolf Lonesome Dove Lee Horsley Are we over-exposed to Star Wars? Review of weird roadside attractions in the state of Minnesota Small town life Creepy child statues at the Greenville Spartanburg Airport The new Twilight Zone Alfred Hitchcock Presents The man from the south The Glass Eye

Dermot’s picked up his Professional Scrum Master II and Professional Scrum Product Owner certifications. Good timing, Dermot, because our first question was from Dick Clark at eBECS who has a client project who wants to get certified in Scrum. Neil has recorded the Scrum Guide as an audio stream on SoundCloud to help Dermot get to sleep at night, and they debate whether holding a Scrum certification or having experience is more important for scrum masters. Squads, Tribes, Chapters and Guilds. Dermot gives Neil a primer on the types of groups Scrum teams use to organise themselves as they scale. It might be called the Spotify Model, but not if you ask Spotify. Joel Lindstrom drops in to admit his Scrum teams have a problem right-sizing stories to fit within a sprint. The response involves splitting the epic user story into vertical slices that can still be demonstrated to the product owner at the end of each sprint even if the feature isn’t ready for release for several sprints. Dermot also provides Neil with some advice on helping his new Scrum squads define their definition of ready, definition of done and social contract at the beginning of a new Dynamics 365 project.

In today's episode (brought to you by KingswaySoft), Joel Lindstrom and Stephan Smith tackle learning: what you should be learning, how you should do it, and where to start. Topics discussed in this episode: Learning new technologies and skills Deciding what to learn The demise of the DLP and CustomerSource Where do you start Don't just learn, do Give yourself a deadline Learn by teaching others Are MOOCs effective The side hustle Links: Mark Smith's blog listing new OpenEDX courses https://www.nz365guy.com/microsoft-dynamics-365-power-platform-training-and-exams-2019/ Microsoft Learn Business Applications content https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/browse/?products=dynamics%2Cpower-platform&resource_type=learning%20path

Today on CRM Audio brought to you by mscrm-Addons.com, Joel Lindstrom installs the April '19 preview for Dynamics 365 while he and Shawn Tabor discuss the following topics: Shawn Tabor prepares for Dynamics 365 F&O certification F&O inventory vs CE product catalog Power Platform in the real world How to embed a canvas app in Dynamics 365 CE The three categories of Power Platform projects Permissions required to be an approver in Flow Advanced condition builder in Flow Save Data and Load Data with PowerApps Different types of features and connectors in Power Platform Knowledge management Links: Power Platform Admin Center: https://admin.powerplatform.microsft.com Advanced condition builder https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/build-more-powerful-conditions-in-flows-and-more/ Embedding canvas apps in Dynamics 365 https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/enrich-your-model-driven-forms-with-embedded-canvas-apps-public-preview/

This episode is brought to you by Kingswaysoft and mscrm-addons.com. In today's personal productivity episode, Joel Lindstrom and Matthew C. Anderson discuss lifelong learning, and why you should be self-taught. Joel's five tips for learning a subject: 1. Read a variety of types of literature 2. Make connections 3. Read books that are 5-10+ years old 4. Make a list (maybe) 5. Set a deadline Matthew talks about building a "fudge factor" into estimation and scheduling for both professional and personal tasks, and we end the podcast with a discussion about paper towel productivity. This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Player.FM, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, or YouTube. You can also listen via our app on iOS or Android. Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

This episode is brought to you by Kingswaysoft and mscrm-addons.com. In today’s personal productivity episode, Joel Lindstrom and Matthew C. Anderson discuss lifelong learning, and why you should be self-taught. Joel’s five tips for learning a subject: 1. Read a variety of types of literature 2. Make connections 3. Read books that are 5-10+ years old 4. Make a list (maybe) 5. Set a deadline Matthew talks about building a “fudge factor” into estimation and scheduling for both professional and personal tasks, and we end the podcast with a discussion about paper towel productivity. This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Player.FM, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, or YouTube. You can also listen via our app on iOS or Android. Music: https://www.purple-planet.com This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC.

This episode is brought to you by mscrm-addons.com. When you are writing, blogging, podcasting, or some other creative endeavor, one of the most difficult things can be coming up with ideas for content and translating those ideas to a presentation or article. In today’s episode, Matthew Anderson and Joel Lindstrom discuss techniques that they use to create content. Topics discussed: Finding ideas from your life experiences Overcoming common fears Self-imposed deadlines Minimum level of proficiency Stages of competence Being comfortable with what you don’t know Outlining a topic Being authentic Links: Scrivner https://www.literatureandlatte.com

This episode is brought to you by mscrm-addons.com. When you are writing, blogging, podcasting, or some other creative endeavor, one of the most difficult things can be coming up with ideas for content and translating those ideas to a presentation or article. In today's episode, Matthew Anderson and Joel Lindstrom discuss techniques that they use to create content. Topics discussed: Finding ideas from your life experiences Overcoming common fears Self-imposed deadlines Minimum level of proficiency Stages of competence Being comfortable with what you don't know Outlining a topic Being authentic Links: Scrivner https://www.literatureandlatte.com

In this episode (brought to you by D365UG), Joel Lindstrom and Ulrik Carlsson discus what you need to know about Interactive charts and dashboards in Dynamics 365 Unified Interface. Topics discussed in this episode: What can you do with interactive dashboards that you can't do with classic UI dashboards? Drill down filters Dashboard date filters Single vs. multiple streams Entity level dashboards Number of widgets on a dashboard Specifying color of option set values in charts Advanced chart editing limitations Got feedback or suggestions for a future episode? Email voice@crm.audio

In this episode (brought to you by D365UG), Joel Lindstrom and Ulrik Carlsson discus what you need to know about Interactive charts and dashboards in Dynamics 365 Unified Interface. Topics discussed in this episode: What can you do with interactive dashboards that you can't do with classic UI dashboards? Drill down filters Dashboard date filters Single vs. multiple streams Entity level dashboards Number of widgets on a dashboard Specifying color of option set values in charts Advanced chart editing limitations Got feedback or suggestions for a future episode? Email voice@crm.audio

In today's episode (brought to you by KingswaySoft), Brian Galicia from Microsoft joins Joel Lindstrom and Steve Mordue to talk about LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Discussed in this episode: The value of LInkedIn Sales Navigator Sales Navigator and Sales AI Who Knows Whom Individual vs team subscriptions for Sales Navigator Experience when sales reps leave your company Experience in Online vs On-Premise Experience in Dynamics vs competing CRM systems Leveraging Sales Navigator controls outside of the widget InMail and spam LinkedIn best practices This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

In this episode (brought to you D365UG) George Doubinski and Joel Lindstrom review Dynamics 365 v9 On Premise. Why does On Premise still matter? What are the functionality differences bertween V9 Online and On Premise? Is Unified Interface available? Are virtual entities available? Using V9 On Premise in your cloud migration strategy Difference between the Online and On Premise maker experiences Why D365 Online is more intelligent Links: Download Dynamics 365 v9 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=57478 System requirements https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2016445 Installation instructions https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2016540  New features in D365 v9 On Premise https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/get-started/whats-new/customer-engagement/dynamics365-on-premises-features  This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.  

Yes, I know, I made up a new term, "Currentcy". I am sure there is a better word for what I am thinking, but I have already typed this one, and changing it at this stage of the game, would simply require too much effort. But probably not as much effort as writing this whole paragraph to justify it, but now I've gone and done that, so there is really no going back now. So let's talk about Currentcy. The other side of the Mirror I have been spouting off quite a bit lately, about the evolution of Microsoft Business Applications, and partners needing to get up-to-speed. No small topic to be sure, and one that will be crucial to Microsoft's success with growing our mutual customer base. What I have not spoken about as much, is the view of all of this massive "change", from the existing customers standpoint. It seems they are not nearly as excited as we are. Congratulations! You've been force upgraded from Hamburger to Lobster! But I'm allergic to shellfish! The concept of keeping instances current, and ultimately everyone on the same version, has clear value to Microsoft and its Partners. With the rapid advancement of the platform, supporting old versions is just not an area where any of us wants to invest our precious time and resources. I mean, we're in a damn race here... against... well... everybody. For new customers, the "story" looks pretty amazing, for existing customers... not so much. I feel the earth move under my feet When Microsoft launched Dynamics CRM Online back in 2011, a fair number of customers jumped on the bandwagon. The growth trajectory has been pretty steady since. Customers paid us, and other partners, a lot of money to customize their instances to fit their needs over the years. But I don't know that enough of them grasped the difference between on-premise vs. SaaS, beyond the subscription vs. perpetual cost aspects. I don't think they fully appreciated what "out of their control" means. Many customers invested large sums of money, building mission critical applications, on top of a tectonic plate. This is not a Microsoft issue, it is a SaaS issue, and the entire world is racing to SaaS as fast as they can. Businesses today, will need to have flexible knees. Buyer's Remorse You know that feeling you get, when you see the new model of your 3 year-old car, at a stoplight? Wow! They completely redesigned it! It looks so modern; faster and more powerful, yet with better gas mileage, and the new tech they added is incredible. Suddenly looking back at your car, it seems like a piece of shit, even though you were perfectly happy with it.... yesterday! That's it, I'm trading it in on a new one. But wait a minute, I am upside-down on mine... damn, I'm stuck. Maybe in a year or two... This is where a segment of on-premise customers are sitting today. They are envious of the features, but have not yet recovered their prior investments. It takes a pretty confident person to march into their bosses office and ask for more money, when they said "This is all we will ever need" the last time they asked. Just Stay On-Premise? That is certainly an option, and one that many are electing apparently. You already own the software, it's functioning adequately for your business, and you spent a buttload of money getting it the way you want... so why are Microsoft and your partner hammering you to move to the cloud all the time? Is there really a compelling reason? A reason that is compelling enough to jump from the static world of on-premise, to the continuous motion word of SaaS? It depends. Don't you hate when people say that? You just want a black and white, yes or no answer, but instead you get an "It Depends". Maybe we should review the pros of each, which also are mostly the cons of the other. Pro On-Premise You own the software, unless you also purchased Software Assurance, your ongoing cost to Microsoft is zippo. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. After all the pain and expense of getting it exactly "right" for your organization, the system is finally running like a well-oiled machine, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. There is a person, or persons, who are being paid to keep that system humming, and they have job security. If something goes haywire, you have direct access to the database as an option to fix it. You can write SSRS reports using SQL, since you can access it directly You finally got all of your finicky integrations working. You can utilize a large amount of cheap additional storage. Its works fast, even with lousy, or no internet connection. You can continue to use the "Classic UI" indefinitely. Some third-party solutions you depend on don't have a SaaS version. Plus 50 more reasons that are unique to you. Pro SaaS All future development of any consequence by Microsoft, will be on the SaaS products. You are not "Frozen in Time". Scale up and down as needed without buying infrastructure that sits idle. Servers will always be patched as soon as possible, meaning the security will be at least as good as on-premise and probably a lot better. Disaster Recovery is baked in. Create Customer, Partner or Community facing web portals. Consistent and known back-end, to simplify partner development and support. Advanced AI capabilities and Relationship Insights Dynamics 365 for Marketing, Field Service and Project Service Automation capabilities. Access to the full suite of Citizen Developer "Power Platform" tools, so you are not completely hostage to your partner, or the one person on your staff who built everything. Never have to Upgrade again... Period. Microsoft support has full telemetry on your SaaS instances allowing then to more quickly fix your issues. The same telemetry allows Microsoft to fix issues before you are even aware of them. Depending on your size, Microsoft will foot the bill to move your ass over. Plus 50 more reasons that are unique to you. I have to give credit to several MVPs who helped me flesh out the above lists, Nick Doelman, Mike Ochs, Aiden Kaskela, Joel Lindstrom and Andrew Butenko. The Price of Currentcy Back to the topic of this post, as I think about it, there is obviously a cost to keeping current, but there is also a cost to not keeping current. Some of these costs have nothing to do with Microsoft, but rather are specific to your own industry, competition or customer expectations. For example, let's say that you and your primary competitor, are both using Dynamics on-premise. You hear through the grapevine, that your competitor is moving to the SaaS version. Would that concern you? I would venture to guess that your on-premise system aligns to the description often provided by the leader of the Dynamics Engineering team, James Phillips, as a "Forms over Data, reporting system". As long as your competition was limited to the same capabilities, no problem. But what if they add everything under the Pro SaaS column above to their arsenal? Uhoh! Maybe you want to explore doing this first! Let's assume you are on the SaaS version... and for those that aren't, this will be a peek at what they get to deal with. Updates every six months. That sounds scary as hell! It is scary, and it is bumpy, but getting less so with each update. Updates bring new capabilities, and if you are on-premise you might not know what those are, but you don't necessarily have to activate them immediately. In theory, new "potentially disruptive" features and capabilities are off by default, so you should not have to worry about your users running around like the house is on fire every six months. I say "in theory", because some things will not be off by default, or they won't stay off indefinitely. Updates are probably the biggest issue that we all need to worry about. They will add some angst to your life every six months, even if they go perfectly smoothly. If they don't, then you will find yourself scrambling for a little while grabbing the loose wires and reconnecting them. You should also prepare to be frustrated, when Microsoft makes available a robust new feature in an update, that you just paid dearly to have custom developed. Maybe you can ask your developer for a refund. The real price of currentcy, is "Change Management", a term that seems to have risen in prominence with the SaaS revolution. In the on-premise world, it reared its head every several years, or for some customers, once a decade. In the SaaS world it is now a minimum every six months, and maybe more often than that. "Change Management" is a bitch. The biggest appeal to moving to SaaS, are the promised gains in productivity, efficiency, engagement, analytics, etc., but none of those are automatically "realized", they are just made "available". In fact, Change Management is such a big topic, I think I'll save it for another post.  

In this episode (brought to you by Maplytics by Inogic), Joel Lindstrom and Shawn Tabor recap what we learned at Ignite 2018. Dynamics 365 for AI Mixed Reality Layout and Remote Assist Dynamics 365 for Customer Service Power Platform news Unified Interface by default Microsoft Learn AI for Good Open Data Initiative How you can experience Ignite if you weren't there Links AI for Good Microsoft Learn MyIgnite--watch videos from Ignite sessions Recommended Videos: Vision Keynote Portals roadmap Customer Service roadmap Automate creation of Teams and Channels in Microsoft Teams Field Services Best Practices Intro to Microsoft Remote Assist Dynamics 365 Update Cadence Moving to Unified Interface Apps Introducing the October 2018 Release This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

I've been thinking about this episode for a while. I wanted to take some time and talk about those confrontational situations that happen once in a while during Dynamics 365 Implementations and what is the best way to manage them or diffuse them. Years ago when I was a "young Solution Architect" I was lucky enough to be mentored by someone who had been working with Dynamics CRM since its Beta days, and who I consider the best in the world at dealing with confrontation in Dynamics 365 Implementations. So, when I thought about recording an episode featuring the Top 10 confrontational situations we find on Dynamics 365 Implementations, I knew I had to get him on the show. His name is Patrick Lewis, and he joined me on this episode to talk about how he deals with these situations: The project lead on the customer side was not involved in the sales process and now wants something different The executive sponsor of the project is on the IT side and none of the users care what he/she thinks because they are sales people You realize that a task that is needed on a project will take twice or three times to accomplish than what was calculated before stating the project You find out that someone assigned to your project team does not have the necessary skills or experience to perform tasks assigned to her/him The customer was told something by your sales team before they signed the contract that you know it’s impossible now that the project started, and the contract is signed. Time wise or functionality wise. Dysfunctional organizations where the business and IT hate each other The customer is taking forever to get their data Personality conflicts/people who bring personal issues to work The awkward situation where Microsoft functionality gets dropped between the sales process and project completion Working with ISV vendors that are unresponsive or have poor collaboration Special thanks to Joel Lindstrom for suggesting some of these situations. You can reach Patrick at: patrick.lewis@fullscope.com Links:  businessThink: http://a.co/cQ7P6xP Sandler Selling: http://a.co/8Z5URUt The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: http://a.co/glaaVpZ    

Today Rome Maynard and Joel Lindstrom (without Heath) talk about the American justice system and dystopian fiction. Discussed in this episode: Rome's experience as a temp dad Adventures in jury duty Why read dystopian literature? Brave New World by Aldus Huxley Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Why does Neil Gaiman introduce everything? Dune by Frank Herbert Did Dune inspire Star Wars? Cannon: The Stewardess Strangler Listen below or subscribe on Apple Podcasts

There are a lot of opinions floating around the Dynamics 365 channel today. Talk to any partner and they will say things like "If it were up to me, I would do this or that... but don't tell anybody I said that". Seems to me, if we don't tell anybody what we think, we should not be entitled to complain about any results! "Microsoft wouldn't listen to me" This is the most common response I get, when I suggest to someone that they should share their opinions with Microsoft. Whispering to each other in the corners is not going to accomplish anything. If you have built a practice that is dependent on Microsoft, you have an obligation to yourself and your company to make yourself heard; and I have found that Microsoft is not just willing to listen, but is usually eager to hear! That does not mean that they will act on your particular suggestion, but as a Partner Led company, partner opinions are core to everything they need to accomplish. If they built some thing that no partner liked or agreed with, then no partner would sell it! In fact, Microsoft has significant motions in place to get this exact kind of Feedback, from the MVP Communities to Partner Advisory Councils, and more, including the Dynamics 365 Strategy Simulator. Pilot for a Day You know those flight simulators that they train pilots in, so Microsoft has a secret one, 24 levels below a non-descript building on campus. What if James Phillips were to say to you, "Okay smart guy, you take a turn in our "D365 Strategy Simulator". Umm... it is one thing to voice an opinion about some particular aspect that impacts your particular footprint, we could all do that pretty easily. But that is only navigating for your practice, at the end of the day, even if a course could be plotted that satisfied every partners' viewport, it would crash and burn. While Microsoft may be Partner-Led, partners are not the customers. So, let's try that again, but this time, don't solve for partners, solve for customers. The Invite So I get this email from Phillips, "Steve, we have identified you as an opinionated know-it-all, and wanted to invite you and some other opinionated know-it-alls, to spend a day in our Dynamics 365 Strategy Simulator. Be on campus this Friday at 5AM at bus stop #12452". So I arrive at exactly 5AM and there are already several other partners, that we all know very well. We all get on the bus, and the blindfolding process seems to take longer than it should, but we are eventually underway. After about 30 minutes the bus stops, and I can hear a big garage door closing. We are all led, still blindfolded, down a corridor and guided into an elevator, as the door closes, we are told we can remove our blindfolds. The elevator has only one button, and Phillips pushes it and we start to go down. The ride takes a full 3 minutes, but stops smoothly and the door opens to a cavernous room. In the middle of the room is a large capsule, with a door on the back of it, sitting on a bunch of metal arms and levers. I snuck a photo of it when Phillip's back was turned. Pre-Flight We are ushered into a small auditorium, and sent down two rows to sit, I am in the back row. The first problem is that I am sitting right behind James Crowter, and he's pretty tall so I have to crane my neck to see. I look to my right to see who is talking, when we are supposed be be quiet, of course... Joel Lindstrom. Anyway, on the stage stands Phillips, and right behind him from left to right are Marko, Param and some AX guy I don't know. Above their heads are three large monitors, side by side. Each monitor is displaying various data about a particular platform like pricing, structure, licensing, functionality, etc. From left to right the monitors are NAV, CRM and AX. As Phillips opens his mouth to speak, George Doubinski jumps up from his seat and says "I am the only real developer here... just saying" and sits back down. Phillips looks at him for a few seconds, and then continues, "Behind me you will see an overview of the items that you will be able to control in the simulator. Each of you will have full control over every aspect of these items". I hear Mark Smith say, just loud enough for everyone to hear: "Brilliant!". Then I notice that Marko is kind of tipping his head, and darting his eyes up, motioning towards the NAV monitor. Phillips catches this out of the corner of his eye, and turns to Marko, who smiles sheepishly and stops. Param rolls his eyes, but the AX guy didn't notice. I also see Alysa Taylor, over by the door, whispering to some guy I have not met before, his name tag says, "Hi, I'm Hayden". We will be taken, one at a time from here to the simulator, and Crowter goes first. He stands and passes Sarah Critchley, who I can see is laser focused on her phone, I lean forward to see what is so important, at a time like this, and see she is editing a new cat emoji. The Simulator About an hour passes, and Crowter re-enters the auditorium. I can't tell from his face, whether he passed or failed, and he is not letting on. Before I get a chance to lean in and ask him how it went, my name is called. "Right Now Mordue!" Ugh. Phillips leads me into the main room, and the door is opened on the back of the capsule, and a staircase unfolds. He motions for me to enter, apparently I was climbing the stairs too slowly, because he kinda pushed me over the last one, and then slammed the door shut. It is quite dark, just a red glow, enough where I can make out shapes. There's a chair in front of me that looks like Captain Kirk's Star Trek chair, and I circle around and sit in it. As I sit, a metal seat-belt comes out of the left side and crosses my stomach and clicks into the right side. I look at the armrests, and it looks like almost all of the padding has been scratched off, and even the metal underneath has what looks like claw marks. Suddenly, I am awash in bright light as three monitors fire to life, in the same orientation as the auditorium. Below each monitor are switches, levers and dials to adjust what is on them. Below the middle monitor is a small LED that says "Mission One: Solve for Enterprise". It flashes a few times and then says "Begin", I feel a slight jolt as the simulator comes to life. Mission One Hmm, Solve for Enterprise... not my area of expertise, but I'll take a shot, because it doesn't look like I can skip it. First, I reach to the left, under the NAV monitor. I am remembering Marko saying that NAV can be used for SMB, all the way up to Enterprise, but most of the NAV partners I know, are not focused on Enterprise. I don't know AX that well either, but understand it to be a more complex product aimed at enterprise. So I turn off all of the NAV capabilities, and on the right, I crank up all of the AX levers. In the middle, where the CRM label has been crossed through with a sharpie, and Customer Engagement has been hand written below, I also start turning up levers. Field Service: On, Project Service: On, anything marked "Insights": On. A new monitor lights up below, that I had not noticed before, it is not very tall, but it spans across and under all three of the big monitors, and flashes CDS before showing a whole bunch of other dials, and I see a new set of levers below it. I flip them all on. I sit for minute... thinking... looking at the glowing green button on the right armrest labeled "Start Simulation"... I press it. I hear laughing erupt outside of the capsule, apparently the crew has seen this configuration before, I fear that I won't do well, but hey, this is not my area of expertise. I have no doubt that Joel will crush my score on this one. The capsule rocks around for a bit and then stops, all monitors go dark, the LED says "Simulation Completed". It did not say "Mission Accomplished", so I have no idea what happened, but before I can even think further about it, the LED flashes, "Mission Two : Solve for SMB". Mission Two Now we're talking, SMB is my wheelhouse. The three big monitors light up again, the same as they started in the first simulation. The first thing I do, is turn everything on the right (AX) side off. When Microsoft says SMB, I assume they are really meaning upper small to middle sized companies, as nobody makes any money on the 5 seat deals, so that is the lens I am thinking about. I look at CRM, ugh, I mean Customer Engagement next, as that is what I know. First thing, turn off Field Service and Project Service. My goal is to solve for the meat of the SMB market, not the fringes, so I go ahead and turn off Customer Service for now also. This is going to focus on Sales, the door that 90% of SMBs enter from. Insights? Too complex for most SMBs, at least to start, so I push those levers down, but not all the way. Appsource? Yes, yes, that one goes full to the top, SMB would rather buy than build any day. Plus, some of the enterprise features I turned off, will be filled by SMB focused products from Appsource. As I make adjustments, new windows appear, based on the selections I have made, a new one pops up in the corner now, it is labeled Business Edition in a crossed through font with a question mark next to it. I know that regardless of that they end up calling it, this is the simplified UI, so I push all of those levers to the top. A box flashes at the bottom of the window, "Do you want to change the default price of $40/user?", I check "No". I lean back, feeling pretty good about this configuration, I let me head loll to the left, and I am facing the NAV monitor. Hmm, NAV, I am not an NAV partner, but something is telling me that is is important for this simulation. I look down to the LED and it is flashing: "Create a branch of this simulation?" I think about this. Many customers that I have encountered in the SMB space have been looking for just a sales solution. Is that because they are not interested in an end-to-end solution, or because I do not know enough to offer one? If I did, and I offered it, wouldn't that give me an even stronger competitive advantage? I decide to create a branch of what I started and find out. I look at the NAV monitor... it does not say Tenerife yet, but that just came out and the guy with the Sharpie hasn't got to it yet. I see a lot of items on the screen that I do not understand, and the levers look foreign also, but I do recognize a few. One says SaaS on the top and on-premise on the bottom. I place it to about 80% SaaS, because I know there will still be some customers who are ignorant to the cloud. I tweak a few other levers that I really don't understand, but I need to move them somewhere, as I am sure the defaults are not what I want. I notice another lever that says "re-factor platform?" Looking down at the LED, I see that I can create yet another branch of the simulation from here. I press it. When I select "re-factor platform" for my new branch, I notice some new grab handles on the windows. I had just talked to Crowter the other day, and he floated an idea by me as a CRM guy, for my opinion. Hoping he did not notice the "Create a Branch" option, I am going to steal it and see if can beat him in this simulation with his own idea... I'm not proud. I take the grab handle at the top of the NAV screen, and drag the entire screen over to the middle one, and drop it on top of the XRM box. What if NAV were actually a CRM App built on XRM? That would take care of any integration challenges. I know we have CDS, but would this not be easier. One UI, a platform within a platform instead of next to it... I'm liking this idea, thanks Crowter, ya sucker. A box appears, "Do you want to change the default price of "TBD?" Hmm, this is a good question. Knowing that in the App model, different users could use different things, and I already accepted the $40 price for Sales only, I decide that for this NAV App a good price would be $75/user. It does not give me an option to create a price for Sales and NAV, but that may not come up that often anyway. I press the button on the armrest to start all simulations. The capsule rocks back and forth for what seems like a long time, and then everything goes dark again, just the red glow. Nothing is happening. The seat belt slides back open, so I assume I'm done. I stand and turn towards the door and it opens, I squint from the light and I see Phillips waving me out. He leads me back to the auditorium, and as I enter I hear, "Right Now Lindstom!" Post Flight As my eyes adjust, I notice Crowter sitting in front of me. I lean in and say "James, did you see the branching option?", and he says "what branching option?". I lean back and smile. Several hours pass, and finally everyone has returned to the auditorium. The last one to return is Chris Cognetta, he is backing into the room, still turned towards the simulator, I think he is explaining to the simulator crew how simulators work. It's quiet now, but I can hear George grumbling about a lever in the simulator that was sticking, and obviously not well designed. Marko, Param and the AX guy are nowhere to be seen. Alysa is still whispering to "Hi, I'm Hayden", and pointing at some of us, although I can't tell who. Phillips clears his throat, and says "Thank you for your participation, the crew will re-blindfold you and return you to the bus stop". Before I can stop myself, I blurt out "Wait!! Who won?", Phillips shoots me a glance, pauses, and says, "Hopefully, we all did". Next steps for you As you can clearly see, Microsoft is extremely willing to take feedback from partners. The next time you see Phillips, Marko, Param, Alysa, "Hi I'm Hayden", or the AX guy. Tell them you want to crack at the Dynamics 365 Strategy Simulator. They will probably deny its existence, and I will probably get some serious heat from them for exposing it. But don't take no for an answer.

In this episode of ProdCast (sponsored by  Maplytics by Inogic), Matthew C. Anderson and Joel Lindstrom talk about staying productive during extended times off from work. Other topics in this episode; Retrace your steps with Google Maps Timeline view Update on organizing OneNote notebooks Manage and control your mobile data usage with Datally Links discussed in this episode: Google Maps Timeline view: https://www.google.com/maps/timeline?pb Datally (Android): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.freighter&hl=en_US Disconnect Privacy Pro (IOS): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/disconnect-pro/id1057771839?mt=8 Google Podcasts: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.podcasts&hl=en_US This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 

In this episode of ProdCast (sponsored by  Maplytics by Inogic), Matthew C. Anderson and Joel Lindstrom talk about staying productive during extended times off from work. Other topics in this episode; Retrace your steps with Google Maps Timeline view Update on organizing OneNote notebooks Manage and control your mobile data usage with Datally Links discussed in this episode: Google Maps Timeline view: https://www.google.com/maps/timeline?pb Datally (Android): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.freighter&hl=en_US Disconnect Privacy Pro (IOS): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/disconnect-pro/id1057771839?mt=8 Google Podcasts: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.podcasts&hl=en_US This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This episode is brought to you by KingswaySoft. We are live at the Hitachi Solutions Customer Conference 2018.  In the first half, Joel Lindstrom, Shawn Tabor, and Scott LeFante talk about "the power of the 3." Field Service, Project Service, and Customer Service are each great, but they get really powerful when you combine them together. In the second half, Leah Bowling joins us to talk about her adventures in D365 presales, and how she stays up to date in the rapidly changing world of Dynamics 365. This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Back on Episode 15, fellow CRM MVPs Chris Cognetta and Joel Lindstrom walked through the best practices and details behind preparing for and migrating to Dynamics 365 Online. Unfortunately, Chris and Joel ran out of time and could not cover what happens once the Migration has been completed. This episode closes the series as we dive into the best practices and details behind a completed Migration. We discuss the following topics: Training, Testing, and Readiness Changes to the Microsoft Outlook client and the Mobile apps Leveraging technology that wasn't available On-Premise but it is now is available Online Dynamics 365 Upgrades and how to prepare for them If you haven't listened to Episode 15 or "Part 1" of this series, I recommend you to enjoy that episode first and get the foundation you need to successfully move to the cloud: http://crmmvppodcast.com/episode-15-moving-to-the-cloud-hosted-by-chris-cognetta-and-joel-lindstrom Follow us: https://twitter.com/CRMMVPPodcast Follow Joel: https://twitter.com/JoelLindstrom

On this episode, Chris Cognetta and Joel Lindstrom dive deep into Migrating to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Online. They will tackle areas regarding preparation, data, customizations, tools, Microsoft FastTrack, and readiness, to name a few. CRMUG Q3 2017 Magazine: https://goo.gl/B4pgiQ Microsoft FastTrack info: https://technet.microsoft.com/library/mt812191.aspx Follow us: https://twitter.com/CRMMVPPodcast Follow Chris: https://twitter.com/ccognetta Follow Joel: https://twitter.com/JoelLindstrom  

In this episode (sponsored by KingswaySoft), Matthew C. Anderson and Joel Lindstrom discuss Evernote vs. Microsoft OneNote. While they may seem similar, there are differences between their approach to organization and how to optimally use them. Which is better for work? Which is better for personal notes? Tagging and organization We also ask “is taking a nap productive?” Whether you are a regular napper, or you don’t take naps, we hope you will enjoy this episode. This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts.

In this episode Matthew C Anderson and Joel Lindstrom discuss how to do a weekly self-evaluation planning session. How effectively are you meeting your goals? Prioritizing what's important You're not as busy as you think you are The Systems Mindset by Sam Carpenter That's not productive: too many subscriptions

Many people hate meetings, but they are an unavoidable part of work life. And if they are conducted effectively, meetings can be very productive. In this episode, Matthew C Anderson and Joel Lindstrom cover their top tips for running productive meetings. In “that’s not productive” Matthew talks about his experience designing a board game for the Game Crafter Big Box Challenge. Matthew’s game “Whistle Blower,” a stealthy game of strategy, secrets, and scandal in the statehouse, is available for purchase at https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/whistle-blower. This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the  CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts.

In this week’s episode, Rome Maynard and Joel Lindstrom are all business as they discuss what to do during conference calls, the Plutonians, the Martians, and the latest Batman v Superman trailer.