Podcasts about Microsoft Dynamics

In this episode of the CPQ Podcast, Frank Sohn speaks with Rohit Chhabra, Chief Product Officer at Conga, about Conga's CPQ strategy, the role ofConga Smart CPQ, and how AI is becoming a broader part of the quote-to-cash and commercial operations landscape. Rohit shares insights from more than 25 years of business, engineering, and product leadership experience, including how his background shapes the way he works with teams, prioritizes product investments, and focuses on customer outcomes. He also discusses his involvement with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation / Breakthrough T1D and how that personal connection has influenced his views on leadership, urgency, and mission-driven work. The conversation covers Conga's two CPQ product lines: Conga Advantage CPQ and Conga Smart CPQ. Rohit explains why the solutions address different customer segments and industry requirements, and why Conga plans to continue investing in both offerings rather than forcing them into a single product path. A key topic is the role of pricing optimization and pricing explainability, especially following Conga's acquisition of PROS. Rohit also discusses Conga's broader AI approach across CPQ, pricing, contract lifecycle management, and document automation, including sales agents, redline-related AI capabilities, admin AI for rule maintenance, and a unified AI technology stack. Listeners will also hear Rohit's perspective on integration strategy, including Conga's OEM relationship with Workato, expansion beyond Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, potential HubSpot CRM support, and how Conga prioritizes its roadmap using a business-outcome-based approach. This episode is especially relevant for anyone interested in CPQ software, pricing optimization, AI in quote-to-cash, revenue lifecycle management, CLM integration, and the future direction of Conga's CPQ portfolio.

Explore how AI can make Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM more useful, proactive, and valuable across the business by supporting better decisions, streamlining everyday tasks, and improving customer experience - while also revealing why it cannot solve poor data quality or broken processes on its own. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is sponsored by Stratos Cloud Alliance. In this episode, we dive into the evolving Microsoft partner landscape and what it means for growth-minded organizations navigating CSP changes, AI adoption, and cloud strategy. The conversation explores how partners can adapt their go-to-market approach, build sustainable recurring revenue, and take advantage of new opportunities across Microsoft Dynamics 365, Business Central, and Copilot. Our guests share practical insights on aligning your business with Microsoft's direction, strengthening customer relationships, and leveraging programs like Stratos Cloud Alliance to scale more efficiently. More from Stratos Cloud Alliance: With ongoing CSP changes and increasing pressure on Direct partners, now is the time to evaluate your next move. Don't wait until requirements impact your margins or operations. Learn how the Stratos Indirect Partner Program can help you scale faster with less overhead—or explore your path to successfully transition from Direct to Indirect with the right support in place. Reach out to Scott May to learn more: Direct-Bill Recruit Book a Meeting with Scott May | Stratos Cloud Alliance

In this episode of the CPQ Podcast, Frank Sohn speaks with Parag Jagdale, Co-Founder and CEO of Unific, about the continued evolution of Quotific, Unific's CPQ and quoting solution for eCommerce-driven businesses. Parag explains how Quotific has developed since his last appearance on the podcast, including deeper integration with Shopify, support for customer-specific price lists, location-based inventory visibility, and improved product catalog search capabilities. He also discusses why Shopify's recent B2B-related enhancements are creating new opportunities for companies that need a more connected quote-to-order process. A major theme of the conversation is the growing need to reduce fragmentation between eCommerce, CRM, quoting, pricing, approval, and order management processes. Parag shares why many customers want sales teams to work primarily inside HubSpot, while still connecting quoting and ordering activity with Shopify. He also explains why Unific has chosen to focus more deeply on Shopify and HubSpot before expanding its integration efforts with platforms such as Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics. The discussion also covers common challenges in B2B eCommerce and high-ticket B2C selling, including pricing complexity, discount approvals, fragmented workflows, and the difficulty of changing sales rep behavior. Parag shares examples from customer conversations and explains why time savings, easier quote management, and a smoother buyer experience are key adoption drivers. Toward the end of the episode, Frank and Parag discuss the role of AI in CPQ, including product recommendations, customer segmentation, and the potential for AI to improve the buying experience in eCommerce-focused CPQ scenarios. This episode is especially relevant for anyone interested in CPQ, eCommerce CPQ, Shopify CPQ, HubSpot quoting, B2B eCommerce, quote-to-order automation, and the future of AI in CPQ.

See what the team at The Successful Bookkeeper has on right now → Natalia Zacharin had no bookkeeping background, no clients, and no safety net when she started Zacharin Consulting in January 2019. She was 49, a single mom, and her invoicing clerk job was being phased out. In part one of this two-part conversation, Natalia lays out exactly how she went from that starting point to building a firm that now employs 16 people, targets $4 million in revenue, and landed at number 802 on the 2025 Inc. 5000 list. Chapters [00:00] Cold open: asking the right questions [00:52] Introducing Natalia Zacharin [03:00] From invoicing clerk to business owner [07:00] Where the firm stands today [10:00] First client via LinkedIn [13:00] Self-teaching bookkeeping on YouTube [16:30] Hiring a CPA manager — lessons learned [19:00] Building the pipeline: 4 clients to 12 [23:00] Doubling down and working 7 days a week [26:00] COVID, the PPP pivot, and early burnout Starting From Zero — And Meaning It Natalia's entry into bookkeeping wasn't a career pivot she planned. Her fiancé suggested it over coffee when she couldn't find another job. She enrolled in an online course, started messaging business owners on LinkedIn in January 2019, and landed her first client on January 29th of that year — a landscaping company owner in California who is still a client today. Her prior experience as an invoicing clerk in Microsoft Dynamics and NetSuite gave her attention to detail, but she had never opened QuickBooks. YouTube as a Training Program When Natalia got into her first client's books, she found the revenue hadn't been recorded — showing a negative $2 million on the P&L. Rather than walking away, she cleaned it up herself using YouTube, watching videos second by second and refreshing the balance sheet after every change to see what happened. "That was how I learned," she says. "I taught myself how to read financials, not how to do just data entry." It was slow, it was self-directed, and it worked. The Formula for Getting Clients Early On Natalia built her first pipeline through two channels: LinkedIn outreach and a local women's business group. Her LinkedIn approach was simple — start genuine conversations, never lead with a pitch, and ask questions. "No one likes it when you just come out with a full three paragraphs of what you do. No one cares." At in-person events, she set a clear intention before walking in: she was there to get a client, not just to have lunch. By August 2019 she had 4 clients and quit her day job. By November she had 12 — enough to cover her bills. Doubling Down on What Works After quitting her job, Natalia worked 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, iterating constantly on what was generating new business. Her core principle: if something moves the needle, do more of it faster. She avoided prescriptive networking formats like BNI in favour of methods she could control and test. "Selling is psychological, it's not intuitive," she says. "I just didn't give up. I didn't feel like I had other options, so I just kept going." COVID, the PPP, and a Hard Lesson About Burnout In January 2020, Natalia called her mother — who had been helping her financially — to say she no longer needed the support. Three months later, COVID hit and her clients' revenues collapsed. She pivoted immediately to helping clients apply for PPP and EIDL loans, achieving near-perfect approval and forgiveness rates. But by August 2020, working alone under enormous pressure, she stopped exercising and started running out of energy. Part two of this series picks up there — with hard-won lessons on burnout, pricing, and scaling a team. Links Mentioned Zacharin Consulting: zacharinconsulting.com Pure Bookkeeping: purebookkeeping.com The Successful Bookkeeper: thesuccessfulbookkeeper.com About the Guest Natalia Zacharin is the Founder and Principal of Zacharin Consulting, a full-service accounting firm based in Maryland that offers bookkeeping, accounting, and fractional CFO services. She started the firm in 2019 with no formal bookkeeping training and grew it to a 16-person team tracking over $3 million in annual revenue. In 2025, Zacharin Consulting was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the United States, ranking number 802. About the hostMichael PalmerMichael Palmer is the host of The Successful Bookkeeper podcast and co-founder of Pure Bookkeeping and The Successful Bookkeeper. He started this work because of his father — a brilliant electrical contractor who worked twice as hard as he should have had to, because nobody on the financial side was in his corner. That gap is what The Successful Bookkeeper exists to close. His view: bookkeepers are the most undervalued force in small business — and every bookkeeper who builds a real business changes two families: theirs, and their clients'.

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I break down how SAP is outperforming Oracle, Salesforce, Workday, and Microsoft in the applications race. Highlights 00:03 — We saw some first-quarter numbers from SAP late last week, and I think it's fascinating to see how, in the light of these very, very strong numbers from SAP, we still seem to hear about this idea that these doomsayers are saying that AI is going to destroy the enterprise apps business. That's certainly not happening. 00:33 — The three big numbers here: cloud revenue up 27%, almost $7 billion. Within that, its Cloud ERP Suite was up 30% to $6.1 billion, and looking out at contracted business not yet recognized as revenue, it calls it current cloud backlog, up 25% to well over $25 billion. 00:57 — That's pretty healthy-looking business for one that is, you know, doomed to the apocalypse and Armageddon any day now, according to some of these wizards of smart who believe that AI is going to come in and just decimate the enterprise apps business. 01:52 — The only thing I can think of that gives them this idea that the whole industry is heading for Armageddon here, they must believe that companies like SAP are unprepared for or unable to participate in the AI revolution, but that notion ignores where the data really is. 02:28 — Agentic AI is the future. Agents need data to run, and who has more and better business data than SAP? So this just confounds me. 02:43 — We continue to see SAP outperform Oracle's applications business, Workday, Salesforce, and also the apps business part of Microsoft Dynamics 365. I think this is a very strong quarter by SAP, and the future here is very bright. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Le Gartner l'a dit : 60% des processus finance seront automatisés en 2028. Nicolas en est convaincu, avec une nuance de taille : ce sont les processus d'aujourd'hui qui disparaissent, pas les métiers. D'autres exigences vont arriver à leur place. Plus de prédictif, plus de réactivité, des analyses qualitatives que l'IA rend désormais possibles en quelques minutes. Et des délais qui se resserrent. Ce qui prenait une journée à produire devra être prêt en dix minutes.C'est là que Jonathan sort l'analogie Blackberry. Une entreprise qui dominait le marché du mobile au début de carrière de tout financier quarantenaire et qui a raté un seul virage. Pas d'une faiblesse de produit, pas d'une erreur de gestion. D'un refus de s'adapter. La marque existe encore, mais relayée en fond de panier. Jonathan pose la question directement : est-ce qu'on risque de finir pareil en finance, à être les meilleurs sur Excel et Power BI pendant que le reste du monde a déjà bougé ?Nicolas voit deux profils qui vont s'en sortir dans les cinq prochaines années. D'abord les ultra-techniques, ceux capables de valider ce que l'IA produit sur des sujets complexes, comptabilité, fiscalité, interprétation réglementaire. Ce sont des profils rares et ils le resteront. Ensuite les généralistes capables de piloter plusieurs rôles simultanément via la technologie. Un jeune financier qui sait utiliser les outils et qui aime le business peut aujourd'hui aller chercher des responsabilités beaucoup plus vite que ses prédécesseurs.Mais ce qui distingue ceux qui transforment leur pratique de ceux qui patinent, c'est une capacité précise que Nicolas a identifiée après deux ans à former des financiers à l'IA. Quand on lui montre un exemple sur Gemini avec un fichier venant de Microsoft Dynamics, la personne qui réussit est celle qui se dit immédiatement : moi j'ai Copilot, mon fichier d'inventaire vient de SAP, je peux adapter ça maintenant. Sans qu'on lui montre étape par étape. Cette capacité à transposer une méthode à son propre environnement est, selon lui, beaucoup plus rare qu'il ne le pensait. Et c'est elle qui détermine la vitesse à laquelle on progresse.Pour un DAF ou un contrôleur de gestion qui se pose la question de s'y mettre, cet extrait donne un cadre concret : où va le métier, quelles compétences vont compter, et quel profil va prendre de l'avance.Je m'appelle Jonathan Plateau. Je suis passé par EY, Valeo et Safran et j'essaye d'engager des échanges et des réflexions sur nos métiers de la finance.Ma mission : vous offrir une expérience éducative, divertissante et parfois surprenante.Ce podcast est fait pour les directeurs financiers (DAF, CFO), les contrôleurs de gestion, qu'ils soient juniors ou confirmés, et qui souhaitent profiter des échanges entre pairs pour enrichir leur pratique de la finance au quotidien et tendre vers le business partner.Joignez-vous à notre communauté passionnée qui explore chaque facette du contrôle de gestion et du business partner.N'oubliez pas que la finance, c'est aussi une question de mindset !N'hésitez pas à partager vos interrogations sur nos discussions ou sur le podcast. Vous pouvez me contacter sur LinkedIn directement.https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-plateau-1980b610/Vous aimerez cette émission si vous aimez aussi : Coonter (Les Geeks des chiffres) • CFO Radio • Une Cession Presque Parfaite • Voie des comptables • Parlons Cash • Le nerf de la guerre • Feedback by la fée • Radio KPMGHébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Manual order entry is costing manufacturing and distribution businesses far more than many realise. Time is lost rekeying emails and PDFs, errors creep in, customers wait longer and teams stay tied up with administration. We cut through the hype and focus on practical, proven ways to automate sales and purchase order processing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. This includes what works in real businesses – from AI‑driven agents that read emails and attachments, to EDI, integrated eCommerce and document capture – and how to choose the right approach for your organisation. The benefits are clear. Automation reduces errors, gets orders into the system faster, improves stock visibility and frees customer service teams to focus on complex exceptions and customer relationships rather than data entry. The bigger takeaway is future proofing your business. Rising order volumes and customer expectations make manual processing unsustainable. Businesses that automate now gain efficiency today and build a platform that can scale for what comes next. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the CPQ Podcast, Frank Sohn speaks with Rourke McCarron, founder of Kabaido, about building a modern CPQ solution for precision manufacturers. Rourke shares how his experience in the tooling industry revealed a disconnect between sales and engineering teams, which ultimately led him to launch Kabaido in late 2025.  The conversation explores how Kabaido is approaching complex quoting and product configuration for manufacturers that process high volumes of quotes. Rourke explains the company's focus on precision manufacturing, its support for 2D and 3D configuration use cases, and how its platform is designed to help companies move faster from customer request to quote and integration. He also discusses implementation timelines, customer size fit, and why adoption can matter just as much as technical deployment.  A key part of the discussion centers on AI. Rourke talks about KAI, short for Kabaido Applied Intelligence, and describes how AI is being used to support quoting, configurator logic, and integrations with tools such as Excel, Symphony CRM, and Microsoft Dynamics. The episode also touches on Kabaido's MCP-native approach, current growth stage, global team setup, and efforts to obtain SOC 2 Type 2 and related certifications.  For anyone interested in CPQ software, AI in manufacturing, product configuration, quoting automation, or the future of digital sales in complex manufacturing, this episode offers an early look at how a new vendor is approaching the market.

Ryan Pollyniak is a seasoned sales professional with a rich background in the Microsoft Dynamics space. Before joining Western Computer in 2015, Ryan spent time with an ISV in the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem, working closely with partners to sell products to other companies. Catering to medium to enterprise-sized businesses, Ryan is well-versed in ERP and CRM strategies and heavily involved in the Microsoft Dynamics Channel.   Ryan's website: https://www.westerncomputer.com/ Show notes: https://successgrid.net/sg265/ If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to https://ratethispodcast.com/successgrid Join AI Marketers Club: https://www.successgridacademy.com/3a30d0c6

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine how Business Central is transforming ERP with strong financial returns and AI-driven capabilities. Highlights 00:10 — A new Forrester report commissioned by Microsoft, entitled "The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central," has revealed some remarkable findings regarding the financial impact this standout cloud ERP is having on customers. 00:36 — And here's what it found: 209% ROI over three years, an estimated $464,000 net present value, and potential payback in just six months. The researchers aggregated the findings from interviewees and created a fictitious composite organization to develop this model. 00:58 — In their modeling, the researchers found that by year three, the composite company was experiencing a 30% reduction in monthly close time and up to 50% time savings for accounts payable, accounts receivable, and billing. It reduced audit preparation time by up to 30%. 01:19 — Consolidating outdated ERP products and systems led to more than a 10% reduction in total cost of ownership and over $170,000 in present value savings from withdrawn systems and decreased maintenance. 01:37 — Microsoft links these impressive results to how Business Central represents an AI-ready ERP foundation, enabling organizations to leverage Copilot, Power BI, and intelligent agents while emphasizing clean data, integrated systems, and standardized processes. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Dynamics 365 CRM & Power Platform 2026 wave 1 release is here and it brings a new era of intelligent automation and practical insights. This update moves CRM from being a system of record to a system of action, with AI-driven agents helping sales, customer service and field teams focus on the work that makes a difference.Over the next six months you can expect meaningful improvements, including smarter lead prioritisation, proactive research agents, clearer sales insights and more accurate sentiment analysis. Field service teams will benefit from faster scheduling and simpler mobile tools, while Power Platform users gain greater flexibility when building apps and easier ways to recover deleted records and flows.Whether you work in sales, support or operations, this wave focuses on helping you achieve more with less manual effort, powered by agents, automation and stronger data connections. Tune in for a full breakdown of what's new and how it can support your day‑to‑day work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2026 Wave 1 release plan has landed and it's packed with updates to help teams work smarter and reduce manual effort. This wave brings a fresh push towards clearer visibility, smoother day-to-day processes and smarter use of Copilot and intelligent agents, all supported by better governance and a toolkit that encourages innovation while keeping control. Over the next six months, you'll see practical upgrades across finance, operations, manufacturing and reporting. Think modernised financial reporting, easier expense management and steady improvements to purchasing and supply chain workflows. Manufacturers can look forward to stronger subcontracting tools and more reliable inventory behaviour. Retail and distribution teams will see enhancements to the Shopify connector. Sustainability and compliance are edging forward too, with early carbon footprint insights and updated localisation features. Tune in to get the full breakdown and see what's new for 2026! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today on the IC-DISC Show we're talking with Gordon Driscoll. Having spent his early career at Goldman Sachs investing tens of millions into metals companies, he kept noticing they were running their operations on Excel spreadsheets and software from the 1980s. That gap became Green Spark, a cloud-based platform now in over 900 scrap metal recycling locations. In this conversation, Gordon talks about what it took to break into an industry where relationships go back generations, why he thinks most business owners are thinking about software wrong, and how his team earned credibility by acting more like a partner than a vendor. He also shares a customer story that stuck with me about a scale operator who got his first lunch break in six years. Whether you're in scrap or not, Gordon's thinking on sustainable growth, earning the right to disrupt, and treating technology as a competitive advantage rather than a cost center is worth your time.     SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Why a Goldman Sachs investment banker left finance to build software for scrap yards The massive technology gap Gordon kept seeing in companies handling tens of millions in materials How Green Spark grew to 900+ locations by acting like a partner, not just a vendor The customer story about a scale operator getting his first lunch break in six years Why Gordon believes you have to earn the right to disrupt an industry, and what that looks like in practice The mindset shift from treating software as a cost center to using it as a competitive advantage   Contact Details LinkedIn - Gordon Driscoll LINKS Show NotesBe a Guest About IC-DISC AllianceAbout Green Spark Software   Gordon DriscollAbout Gordon TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Gordon: And I think that a lot of folks, candidly, just because they're not used to either our model or what technology can do today, they don't realize, which is changing, they still view software as a cost center. And ultimately the tools that we're seeing and the applications that we are pushing to the industry, a lot of our customers view as a competitive advantage. Dave: Good morning, Gordon. So where are you calling in from today? Gordon: Hey, Dave. Appreciate you having me on. I'm in Brooklyn, New York today. Dave: Oh, okay. That is great. So I must say, I know a lot of folks in the scrap metal industry, service providers, yard operators, brokers, but you seem to have a particularly unique background. So why don't you tell the story from the time you graduated college? Sounds like you spent some time in investment banking in New York. And what caused you to have this epiphany that you wanted to go provide software in the scrap metal industry? Gordon: Yeah, no, of course. It's worth an explanation because looking at my background on paper from finance to scrap software, it doesn't make much sense. So yeah, started my career in financial services, spent a few years in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and then moved into private equity investing, but all of that centered on natural resources, broadly speaking, but specifically the metals industry. So spent a lot of time up and down the value chain, anything from box site refineries in Australia to working with the biggest mills in the country like Cliffs or JW Aluminum or things of that nature. And then in the investing side, spent really just as much time on what I'll call the kind of conventional resource as I did the technology. And I quickly realized the businesses that we were at times giving tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars were either using Excel spreadsheets to run their business or platforms that were based in or founded in the '80s, '90s and 2000s, and ultimately saw similar patterns in the recycling industry. And by no means is using a system like that wrong by definition or inherent, but ultimately saw a massive opportunity to bring an industry that is deceptively huge that no one really pays attention to outside of the folk in the industry and folks who we saw it when we started in 2020 who are quite literally essential workers, bringing that technology to them. And it's been an awesome six years. It's been very exciting. I think that what we wanted to do, clearly the market has responded well, which I'm sure we will get into. And what's really exciting for me is not only working with the folks in this industry on a day in and day out basis, and I can talk to my relationship to the industry and general thoughts, but also specifically as technology has not really progressed linearly over the last couple years, but obviously I had some step changes with AI, being able to innovate alongside this industry and partner with our customers to bring those step changes to an industry like this. It's been super exciting. Dave: Now, well, thank you for that background recap. So let's talk about the founding of the company. So where did the name come from, Green Spark? Gordon: Yeah, great question. I unfortunately can't take credit for it. That has to be my co-founder, but we wanted to pay respect to where the industry came from in addition to one of the overlooked elements of the industry, at least from a public perception per perspective. So green in and of itself is a call to, this is the sustainability of the industry. Again, I think that metal recycling is done, especially around the work that Rema's done has done a great job over the last couple years with, let's say, public perception and really educating folks on not only the importance of this industry, but the benefits of the industry from an environmental perspective, hence the green. And Spark actually comes from something that folks used to do without XRF analyzers or without technology. And the irony is not lost on me. So 50, 60, 70 years ago, and still obviously doable today, when you spark different types of metals, the color of the spark actually denotes the greater the quality. So a yellow spark versus a red spark. So again, we wanted to, again, combine the importance of the industry with a callback to what folks used to do without all of this new technology. Dave: Okay. No, well, thank you. I was really curious about the name, and that makes a lot of sense. It's both looking at the future and still remembering the past of the industry. I like that. So you and your co-founder, did you all bootstrap this or did you tap into some of your investment banking contacts and raise money? Gordon: Yeah, so we started that way and quickly realized to do what we wanted to do at the pace that we wanted to do it would require outside capital. So yeah, we ended up talking to folks in our network in addition to capital partners that not only understood what our thesis was, which is, again, it's relatively straightforward. At GreenSpark, we want every single scrapyard and metal recycling facility on planet Earth to use our platform. It's not necessarily easy, but it is straightforward. And we realized the kind of pace that we wanted to move. And candidly, given what customers are used to in this industry, i.e., One platform that spans a large part of their business, in addition to the dynamics in the industry, which is us against folks who have been here for 20, 25, 30 years who have lazed the trail for folks like us, we realized to close that gap, we wanted to partner with folks with the capital to scale the team and scale the product relatively quickly. Dave: Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. So what, and I don't want to get too technical, but I do want to get technical enough for this to make sense. So what was the differentiator or the different approach you were taking? I'm guessing you're cloud-based instead of on- premise. Is that a safe assumption? Gordon: Yeah, 100%. And yeah, I won't get too in the weeds, but I also think it's important to understand what our thesis was. Back then, what's changed over the last couple of years just given what's happened in technology? So yeah, I think from the jump, there are a couple just clear reasons why we felt good about the idea so far. Number one, we are entirely web-based. And I think importantly, we are web or cloud-based fully natively. So rather than trying to either acquire a business that's already been existing or partner with an existing software in the industry, we built everything from the ground up. It's entirely cloud-based. And I think that outside of the benefits just to this industry, really what we've seen resonate is one, the mobility of a platform like this. So the way that we describe it is every single time you touch the material, it costs you money. So if you can distribute technology and bring it closer to the material, things like scanning licenses right from your phone, things like mobile grading and inspection, things like cloud-based driver apps. You're able to cut down on those costs because you're actually bringing technology to the material, not the other way around. Number two is integrations, increasingly, which to zoom out a little bit is certainly not true two decades ago, but was true five or 10 years ago. Increasingly, customers like ours don't have the overhead to have a full-blown IT team to have developers on staff, and you're left with a bunch of one, either one system that can't do everything perfectly. So you have one system that other does stuff well, or you have a bunch of these disconnected systems that we call it this latent integration tax. It's not something that kind of hits you over the head, but when you have four or five or six systems, you have folks spending hours a day reconciling data between those two systems, making sure that you can get information from one to the other. And from day one, GreenSpark was really built as the modern connector in the industry. And again, back to our thesis, getting in every single scrapyard in the world, we want to focus on what this industry needs, and we want that focus to be super narrow. And if someone does something better than us, we just want to integrate with it. So whether it's native integrations with ERPs like QuickBooks and NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics or CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce or even, I don't know, things like Google Maps, which kind of auto completes address and powers live navigation directly in the driver app. I'd say folks are using more technology generally speaking versus less. And what we want to do is make sure that all of those systems can push and pull in the right places together versus either having our end customer do it or having our end customer require resources to connect those systems manually. Now, over the last year or two, a lot of that's changed with the admin and increasingly the maturity of artificial intelligence. And I think that's where this gets really exciting. Obviously being built on a fully cloud-native tech stack allows us to leverage that technology very quickly. And I think that the way that our team is set up, not just on the technical side, but also on our customer facing side, our ability to rapidly iterate with our customers and rapidly get feedback from our customers on how we're applying things like AI and Agentic AI to their workflow has been really invaluable over the Dave: Last year or two. Well, that is, boy, I've got a bunch of questions. So that's great on the native interoperability or interconnectivity with other apps, but help me understand the ... Because I've seen some companies in this space that maybe have focused on trying to have as much native to the app as possible. So try to do financials within the system and other things. So give me a sense of how you describe the core features of the product and where it ends and where an integration with an ERP CRM or financial software fits in. Gordon: Yeah, that is a great question. That line always changes based on what our customers want to do, but at its base, we want folks running their entire business out of GreenSpark. The way we think about it outside of the integrated GL that is on the come, which I can touch on later, is that we want to be the customer's operational system of record. So everything that they're doing on a day-to-day basis from receiving, paying, managing inventory, managing contracts, customers, outbound shipments, invoices, documentation, both over-the-road dispatch and exports and logistics tracking, in addition to our reporting suite, we want all of that to happen directly in GreenSpark. Now, to be clear, that obviously comes with the obligation, honestly, or the need to ensure that the operational and financial systems of record move in lockstep. So again, wherever someone is already working in an accounting system or a CRM, we want to push and pull data to and from those systems, but we want to really cover as much of that workflow as possible. The product has expanded both in breadth and in depth recently, and I think that there is a desire in this industry to have everything under one hood, not just from the product capability side, but folks in this industry are used to and want to work with people that they trust and that they can rely on. And I think a really important part of anyone, especially as a relative outsider, like either our business or me personally, I think it's the obligation of any vendor in this industry to emulate how the industry operates. So outside of just product capabilities, a lot of folks want to, again, work with teams that they trust and teams that they can rely on, teams that they can pick up the phone and talk to if something's wrong, which is something that we spend a lot of time and resources doing. Dave: Okay. So let's say, and this may sound like a hypothetical question, but I see it all the time where there's consolidation in this industry that's been going on for 20 years, yet the total number of scrap yards out there seems to keep increasing. And from my own personal experience, it's because some small yard gets acquired by a big company, the people who sold get disappointed with how the integration of everything works. They get through the earnout, they set out a non-compete, and then it seems like there's two more scrapyards that populate from every one that's sold because one group goes off and starts one and one another. So say somebody was starting an operation from scratch and they said, Gordon, we want to do as much in Greenspark as we can. Can you all do financials? Can you function as a CRM? Could they really run the entire business just in your single product suite? Gordon: Yeah, 1000%. We like to ... So it's funny you mentioned that. We've seen the same thing. We probably onboard what we call startup yards. We probably onboard eight to 10 of those a quarter, which really speaks to the just kind of organic growth in the industry, broadly speaking. And the way we market it is it's you and GreenSpark. Those are the two almost full-time employees at the business as you get this off the ground, you can run everything within GreenSpark. Typically, a yard like that will use something like QuickBooks, and especially for yards that are starting out, we try to be as consultative as possible because there are so many moving pieces. And candidly, in many respects, internally, we are still a startup and we know what it's been like to see the cash in, cash out every single day to have way more problems than what you do with when you're starting a business. So candidly, we love working with folks like that, and we try to extend our reach from anything from software to the scales and cameras that you should be getting, connecting that yard with other folks in our network. But to answer your question, again, we are typically the kind of second employee that folks hire because it's such a comprehensive platform that you can run your entire business out of. The other thing that I think that folks have really benefited from is process standardization. What we try to do at GreenSpark is not only give you the tools to succeed, but really the best practices, standard operating procedures and workflows built around our product that have been hardened by hundreds of customers throughout the industry. So whether it's staying on top of inventory, working the kind of physical flow of the yard out when you're going to get different pieces of information to keep trucks moving. And ultimately, what folks in that scenario should be looking at on a day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month basis to understand the trends in their business, we try to make that as out of the box as possible versus just giving you a set of tools and saying, "Hey, go ahead and figure it out. " Dave: No, that does make sense. Okay, that's a good overview. What's your iteration cycle like? How often are you doing point releases, major releases? Gordon: Yeah, great question. I think that again, this is one of the biggest differences between us and some of the other folks, or said another way, this is one of the main benefits of being a more modern player. We're releasing daily. So literally four or five times a week, we will be releasing new updates on the platform. Sometimes you'll never know. It could be increasing storage for image capture. Other times, you 100% will. About two weeks ago, we released a fully new module that includes live container tracking for your export containers. So if you're shipping on a CIF or a CFR basis, you can see in real time where that container is on the water with live ETA updates. So we don't need to get too deep into that use case, but I think it's a good benchmark for what those releases look like. We have the ability to obviously turn on or off any of those changes for any of our customers. Change management is obviously a huge part of the industry, broadly speaking, and obviously customers' relationships with technology. So said another way, we don't really try to change for change's sake, especially when folks are running their business in very well-defined workflows. So we're really big on communication upfront for what's going to change, if anything is going to change. And we have a really robust early access period where we'll work with, in that example, we'll identify folks who are already shipping on a CIF or CFR basis, trial that live container tracking, let's say, with 20 or 30 folks beforehand before we roll it out to the rest of the group. So we like to push updates quickly, get feedback early, and then ultimately give the users or our customers the agency to opt in or opt out based on what's most important to them. Dave: No, I can really appreciate that update frequency. I've been for about five years owner of one Tesla or another. And one of the things I really appreciate is the frequent software updates. I've also owned Rivians and they also are very good. But when you compare that to the legacy automakers, they just can't do the most basic over the air update. You have to bring your car into the dealership. And so I can appreciate the benefit of that rapid iteration. So talk to me about customer support. What kind of metric and process do you all have? If a customer has an issue, how do you triage the importance of it? How do you escalate it? What's the metrics you use for response times? Just whatever there you're comfortable discussing. Gordon: Yeah, no, that is a great question. I'd say a couple things. As I mentioned, vendors in this industry need to emulate how the industry operates and people operate in different ways. Some folks want to figure something out themselves. So we have a really robust help center within GreenSpark that has over 120 articles on how the product works. That's paired with a full online academy. So we like to get ahead of any support questions by giving folks the tools they need to succeed and equip them with as much information as possible. That said, whether something goes wrong or whether they need to talk to someone, we want to create every channel available. So whether it's phone, email, or our in- app messenger, some folks don't want to speak to someone, some folks do. So we want to make sure that we're really meeting our customers where they are, depending on what they are used to. I'd say overall for support, a lot of folks in this industry and a lot of folks in software generally speaking, always look at response time. They say, all right, yeah, we want to get back to everyone within a minute or two, or we pride ourselves on acknowledging you. That's obviously important. And our response time is under a minute. It's about 56 seconds these days. So we do want to obviously emphasize that. We care about resolution though because folks don't want to be talked to. They want their problems to be solved. So the main kind of success metrics we look at on the support side, outside of just saying, "Hey, I'm seeing what you're seeing as well," which is an important part of it. We really focus on the overall resolution. We also really focus on transparency. No one wants to shoot a message or shoot an email into a black box and not know where they stand. So average response time is under a minute. If something is wrong, we typically try to keep folks updated every 15 or 20 minutes, especially if it's a critical issue. And our average resolution time is just under an hour as well. So really trying to focus on the kind of outcome in addition to making sure that folks know exactly where they stand. Dave: Okay. Wow, I don't know the numbers from the other companies, but that seems pretty remarkable. So I've been in this industry for about 20 years and I've been going to the REMA conferences for about that long. And it seems like when I go walk the trade show at REMA, that it seems like there's just a software company on every row. And so I'm curious, I would've been, if somebody asked me, "Hey, I want to start a software business or company for the scrap industry," I would've said, "Wow, it seems super crowded, lots of competition, doesn't seem like a great place." What was the opportunity you saw that what I would call a crowded space didn't scare you? Gordon: Yeah, that's a great question. I think, again, back to the original thesis, just given the vintage of our software platform relative to others, I think that at a super high level, we felt really good about our inherent competitive advantage given our modern tech stack, the ability to leverage web-based integrations, the ability to leverage the mobility that other folks candidly structurally can't do given their tech stack and given how they're set up as a business. And again, no disrespect to anyone else in the industry. The way that I think about it is they've done a lot of the heavy lifting of educating the market on the benefits of technology and candidly taking this industry from spreadsheets and DOS systems into the 21st century. But I think that there are, as I mentioned, a lot of different ways to differentiate in this industry. And I think that especially with older products, you're never in a good spot if you are a dynamic business and Scrap is a very dynamic industry using a static software product because inherently the software that you're using or the technology that you're using is not going to be able to adapt to the changes in the industry that you require as a very dynamic business. Now, over the last couple of years, obviously with artificial intelligence and what folks can do with AI, that's opened up a multitude of possibilities on how folks can use that in their business. And it's a really interesting space, I think, in the market because everyone I talk to, whether it's someone like you, whether it's the owner's son who might be taking over the business or it's a 76-year-old truck driver, it seems like everyone's used ChatGPT or some sort of tools. It could be anything from analyzing their mortgage to asking what the weather's going to be tomorrow. But I think that's a fundamental difference between, let's say, cloud computing, which has happened over the last 10 or 15 years and what's happening now. And the reason I bring that up is there are so many advantages to using AI, not just every day, but for core business applications. Folks are used to these technologies given, I don't know, they've been in the news for the last two straight years, and if folks can use them for consumer applications, and all of those advantages really accrue asymmetrically to a platform like us. So I think when you think about the kind of advantages and it being a relatively crowded market, we view things a little bit differently because when you look at the market itself, yeah, there are a lot of players and that was born out of regional and territorial compliance differences, obviously founders relationships with folks in specific territories. But when you look at businesses that can leverage that technology that you can reliably think you can use in 2050, not 2027, and folks really are thinking that long-term in this industry, given these are generational family businesses or folks are in this for the long haul, we feel really good that the number of prospective players that you could reasonably think could run your business in 2050 is actually much smaller than the overall market. Dave: Yeah. So whereas a layman, I saw crowded market, you saw market ripe for disruption, bottom line. Gordon: Yeah. And I think people love to think about disruption in technology. And I think that the way that I think about our product and what we're looking to do, you need to earn the right to disrupt an industry. And I think that we tried to come in with a lot of humility and a lot of respect for the industry. We wouldn't have succeeded if we came in and said, "Hey, I read a 50-page PDF report on the scrap industry. You guys are doing it wrong. Here's GreenSpark." That's obviously not going to work at all. So I think that what we really try to focus on again is meeting folks where they are, evolving their workflow and then being very targeted in places for disruption. So for example, let's take dispatch. Folks are used to either a whiteboard or an Excel spreadsheet or they're using some system that might not have capabilities for a mobile driver app or candidly doesn't have the power with respect to dispatch to scale integration or a modern load board where you can drag and drop trips around. That I would say is evolving someone's workflow from what they're used to to using GreenSpark. By the same token, our dispatch AI agent actually integrates directly with folks' emails and phone systems to collect that information and autonomously create tickets on user's behalfs that all they need to do is approve, modify, or reject that dispatch request. That's what I would say is something that is disruptive to that yard in a very positive sense. But I think that understanding where to evolve versus where to disrupt given what the industry's used to is a really important part of the story as well. Dave: Okay. No, that is very helpful. And it looks like you have a milestone occurring next month. Is it your five-year anniversary? Gordon: It is my five-year anniversary. So yeah, sorry, go Dave: Ahead. So I'm just curious, how's it going? Have you been able to get even one customer? How's the thesis worked out for you? Gordon: Yeah, still waiting on number one. No, kidding. Yeah. So as I mentioned, a lot of work's gone in and the market's responded, I'd say very well so far. We're in over 900 locations right now, primarily in North America, but also internationally with yards of every shape and size. So we work with folks who are doing 50 or 60 transactions a day on the retail side up to anything from 400 to 500. We have folks who are buying specifically from dealers. We have folks who have both demo and scrap operations. We have folks who have 35 locations up and down the Eastern seaboard. So it's a really fun position to be in to have access to the feedback that we have in terms of what direction to take the product. And our focus is in the overall businesses to continue scaling both with larger customers, providing the best experience for some of our single location operations and then moving internationally. And I think that, again, keeping a really narrow focus just on metal recycling and specifically just on the tools that this industry needs and being able to leverage the integrations to, again, partner with best-in-class accounting softwares, best-in-class route optimization, best-in-class CRMs has allowed us to keep that really narrow focus and serve this industry on what they specifically need, not more generalizable parts of the technology stack. Dave: Okay. No, that sounds great. So what was the question I was going to ask you? Oh, so I know when you shared your business plan with your investors, every business plan always shows the same hockey stick growth, especially in Gordon: Technology, Dave: But your growth rate seems pretty impressive. How close did it come to your projections? Was it close? Were you behind? Are you actually ahead? How's that worked out? Gordon: Yeah, no, it's a great question. And we try to stay away from hockey stick growth like that because what we want to do is, again, we want to grow sustainably in this industry and we want to make sure that, again, we're going to be here for the next four decades, not the next four years. In terms of overall projections, we obviously race to that kind of million dollar revenue mark relatively quickly. I've been able to triple that two years ago and then double that last year. And I think that, again, it's come from the reception we've gotten in the market. It's also come from our ability to scale the team to support that. So whether it's on the engineering side or on the post-sales side, I think that there's a bit of a misnomer in folks' perception of software companies, specifically when it comes to companies with outside investment that people only care about growth. Growth is obviously an important part of the story. Hopefully everyone that listens to this wants to grow their business, but ultimately the software business model breaks if we have a customer for a year. There are high customer acquisition costs in terms of sales and setting up environments, setting up instances, and ultimately our model only works if we have folks for 10, 20, 30 years. And what we try to do is create customers for life very early on in the overall cycle. So said another way, we wouldn't have been able to achieve the growth that we are achieving if our retention wasn't as high, if not higher than our kind of new business growth, and it's something that we probably ourselves on because ultimately our customers are the lifeblood of this business and no one really wants to switch software because it's a pin in the butt. But what we try to do is again, keep those customers for life so that we can grow sustainably rather than continuing to fill a leaky bucket so to speak. Dave: No, that's one of the things I really love about the scrap metal industry. As somebody who's serving that industry like you are and I am, is one that industry tends to be incredibly relationship driven and your reputation is everything in this industry because there's two degrees of separation between every person, at least in the US scrap metal space. It's like two degrees of separation and the relationships people have last decades. I have clients, and I'm sure you do too, where the grandson is buying and selling from the grandson of another company where they've been doing business together for 70 years. And I was in a client's office early on and this guy said, "Hey, I need to take this call." And he just did a deal to sell a million dollar scrap load to somebody. And it was just on the phone call. I'm like, "Oh, do you need a moment to document that? Do you need to get the contract out? " And he's like, "No, it's done." I'm like, "Well, don't you need payment?" Because literally he was like, ship the product five minutes later. He might've called somebody and said, "Hey, ships up so- and-so." I'm like, "Well, what do you mean? You don't have a contract, you don't have a PO, you didn't get payment upfront. How do you know you're going to get paid?" And they're like, "Yeah, because I've been doing a business with him for 30 years and he's reputable and he wouldn't do that. And if he did screw me, he'd be done in the scrap business because I'd just tell Gordon: Everybody Dave: I know. " So I really appreciate that because I've found that if you're a reputable long-term thinking company, it's actually easier to get traction in this kind of industry than a business that's not that way. And they all seem to think long-term, like you said, multi-generational, the relationships last decades. So yeah, so speak a bit more to that from what you've seen as far as the importance Gordon: Of the Dave: Relationships and the reputation. Gordon: Yeah, 100%. I think back to the point about getting blackballed, we always joke, a happy customer tells, I don't know, maybe three people, if we're lucky, pissed off customer tells about a hundred. So by the same token though, I always joke with my sales reps, I don't care how good you are at selling GreenSpark. If David, you owned a yard and you were excited about GreenSpark, you're going to be our best sales rep. So again, back to the retention story, it's a double-edged sword because obviously their reputation is very important in this industry. At the same time, to maintain the growth rates that we've had, this isn't really an industry where if you triple your sales team, you triple revenue because of the network effects and because of the connectivity in the overall industry. And I think that what we really try to pride ourselves on is not just being a software company, but a partner to these businesses. So I already talked a little bit about with startup businesses, we'll consult on scales and cameras and we'll send over EMAC item list so you can get started very quickly. One of our sales reps just connected Azorba buyer with one of our new shredder operations to help grow that business. Over the last three months, we've brokered six different sales of businesses that are either using Greenspark and are looking to sell or are using GreenSpark and are looking to buy in the broader market. So outside of just being a software company, again, as I mentioned, vendors in this industry need to emulate how the industry operates. And I know that I'm probably beating a dead horse with that, but understanding how our businesses operate and trying to be the best partner to them outside of just their technology layer is really important. You'll also see us at conferences, I'm probably on the road two or three times a week, either visiting existing customers or prospective customers, and whether it's our onboarding team getting onsite for go live or same thing with renewal conversations, we try to build that relationship as much as possible because as you mentioned, that's how the industry does business. And I don't think you can be successful in this industry, whether you're buying and selling scrap or selling stuff to folks who do that if that's not core to your overall business model. Dave: No, that makes sense. I can't believe how fast the time has passed. I've just got a couple more questions for you. One is share some things that your clients have told you about why they've been really happy with the software, happy they implemented. What are the kinds of things they say to you? Is it that we really appreciate that your salesman took me out for drinks three different times? What are the things they tell you that they just really appreciate about your company? Gordon: Yeah, that's a great question. It runs the gamut based on different user roles, and it's going to be different whether it's an executive or an owner, an operations manager, a commercial buyer, or someone on the logistics team. But again, typically it is around the people that work here because those relationships are so important. So I think in terms of overall feedback, I'm actually just pulling up, we do what's called a net promoter score. And so we send out ... Yeah, exactly. And I'm just going to read you the last five, honestly. We have one owner feedback of all of these, our last six are all 10s, and the inventory tracking is unbeatable. It's user-friendly and the support team Greenspark has is the greatest of all time. Yeah, we were pretty fired up with that one. Another owner in Kentucky, I like the web-based interface. I also like the progressive attitude the company has in regards to being a leader in the space. Another one out of Texas, it is so easy to use. Another owner out of Texas, the transition was smooth. The assistance for help has been great, and so far the product delivers what was promised. And I think that ... Yeah. And again, these are all of our customers on unprompted feedback when we send these emails out. So I'd say it's a really good example of that. We're getting a lot of traction from a bunch of different people within the actual yard. So anything from, again, the scale operator to the owner is looking at different reports. And I think outside of that, we take a lot of pride in helping the folks on the front lines. We had one customer down in Louisiana, I don't know, about six months ago, we were on site and the operator said to our onboarding rep, "I can't thank you guys enough. This is the first time I've had a lunch break in six years because I can finally manage all the work that I'm doing right, right at the scale." And I'm not naive enough to sit in my ivory tower and think that we're changing the world with a scrap software, but stuff like that really does matter to folks. And making a difference, not just in the overall business growth, but for the people on the ground that are using this every single day is super rewarding. Dave: That is awesome. And then so the last two more questions. One is, so what do you enjoy the most about your role within the company that just gives you the most just enjoyment, satisfaction? Yeah, Gordon: A couple things. I'm just a huge nerd, man. I love commodities. It's the coolest thing ever. The entire world's based on resource scarcity. I think we were talking about this before, whether it's what's happening in Venezuela, what's happening with tariffs, what's happening in Greenland. Everything is about resource scarcity and everything is about being as efficient with the resources you have as possible. So talking with customers, and I think not trying to have the answer all the time, but working with them to solve their problems is really fun. I don't know, two weeks ago, copper ripped to 660, and I was some of our customers first calls. They're like, "Hey, what do we do? How do we respond so quickly? Where in Greenspark can I tie things to benchmark prices so I'm covered? What are other customers doing with these movements?" And I think that it's obviously been an uphill battle, just given you need credibility, you need a reputation in this industry, but over the last six years, getting to know the industry really well, getting to know our customers really well, and candidly, being viewed as a partner in their businesses is really exciting. Internally, ramping new employees is so fun because There's always that moment of like, "Oh, I'm not sure I knew what I got myself into with this whole industry." And I think that a lot of people, whether it's on the technology side or the actual yard side, if you haven't grown up in it, you might not know the, it's called nuances, how business is done, which is super exciting. And then third, on the product side, it's a privilege to be able to not just hear feedback from our customers, but actually be able to deliver them the new technology that we're seeing in the market. Historically, product development has been very bilateral. Customer says, "Hey, I need this field for this reason on an outbound ticket software company, build that field. The field gets built and you can go on in and do your work." The paradigm shift of what we're seeing in AI just changes all of that. So now I get to sit in my seat and pretty much say, "Hey, we can take any document in your business, ingest it, and turn it into something else." Whether it's a rail car notice that we turn into a pending load, whether it's a consumer PO that you can upload and automatically create a sales order. And we get to sit here and I get to have conversations with customers all the time and say, how would you want to apply this new tool or this new technology to your business? Hey, we can use AI material recognition to better understand how good your guys are at grading quality. Hey, we can spin up a voice agent to take phone calls and immediately surface to a buyer if someone has a load over a certain size to sell. Would that be helpful? How do you want this to work? And ultimately, what value do you see to these kind of big new categories of software? It's so fun. Dave: Wow. Yeah, your enthusiasm comes through. So my last question, is there anything I didn't ask you that you wish I had? Gordon: I don't know. I don't think so. I think we're in a really fun spot and I'd say that the folks who are listening to this, what I recommend, especially with new technology is one, obviously keep an open mind, but we have a lot of folks who traditionally approach software transitions or software generally is, do I need to do this or what is the worst that would happen if I went through a transition? And I think that a lot of folks, candidly, just because they're not used to either our model or what technology can do today, they don't realize, which is changing really in real time, they still view software as a cost center. And ultimately the tools that we're seeing and the applications that we are pushing to the industry, a lot of our customers view as a competitive advantage. And they might not love me saying that, but I would because then that'll go away over time. But I would really challenge folks to think about how they can use software and technology as a competitive advantage rather than just a record keeping system. Similarly, how they want their business to run, not just today, but in 2030, 2040, 2050, and really challenge themselves to think whether or not the systems that they're surrounded with can support that. And I think that when folks apply that framework and then take a look at businesses like ours, it becomes a decision that is not super difficult. Dave: Well, I think with that, I think that's a good stopping point. Gordon Driscoll of GreenSpark Software, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Just a really lot of great information, and I know our listeners are going to enjoy it. Gordon: Awesome. Dave: There we have it, another great episode. Thanks for listening in. If you want to continue the conversation, go to icydiscshow.com. That's icy-DISCSOW.com. And we have additional information on the podcast, archived episodes, as well as a button to be a guest. So if you'd like to be a guest, go select that and fill out the information and we'd love to have you on the show. So that's it. We'll be back next time with another episode of The Icy Disc Show.Special Guest: Gordon Driscoll.

Viele mittelständische Unternehmen nutzen Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central als zentrales ERP-System – doch erst durch Schnittstellen und spezialisierte Software entfaltet es sein volles Potenzial.

In this episode of the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast, Giuseppe Ianni, host of the show, is joined by Diego Araujo, Founder and Chief AI Architect at Fusion Flow Software. Their conversation explores how enterprises are adopting AI agents and copilots within ERP environments, particularly Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations. Key Takeaways Start with a “Winning” Use Case: Successful AI adoption begins with identifying a high-impact, low-effort opportunity that delivers immediate value. Araujo stresses the importance of choosing use cases that are repeatable and measurable. He explains that organizations must deliberately identify early wins to build momentum and credibility across teams. User Adoption Determines Success: Technology alone does not guarantee successful AI implementation — user adoption does. Araujo emphasizes that fear and skepticism often prevent employees from embracing AI tools. He recommends involving subject matter experts and users early in the process so they feel ownership over the solution. Governance and Safety Must Be Built In: Enterprise AI systems require robust governance frameworks to ensure compliance, security, and control. Araujo highlights the importance of planning governance early in the process, particularly when deploying agents inside ERP environments that manage critical business processes. He cautions organizations to build mechanisms that prevent agents from causing unintended outcomes. “You don't want an agent going rogue,” he explains. Measure Value with Clear Metrics: AI initiatives must demonstrate measurable impact rather than relying on hype or novelty. Araujo stresses that organizations should identify metrics that directly tie AI capabilities to business outcomes. “Coolness is not a factor,” he explains. Instead, companies must define operational indicators such as efficiency gains or cycle time reductions. AI Agents Enable a New Workforce Model: Araujo describes a major shift in how employees interact with technology as AI agents become widely adopted. He suggests that individuals will increasingly act as managers of multiple digital agents that execute tasks autonomously. This mindset shift opens new productivity opportunities for organizations. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Viele Unternehmen nutzen täglich mehrere Gabelstapler in Lager und Produktion. Trotzdem wird das Potenzial der Staplerflotte oft nicht vollständig ausgeschöpft.

Sales is a rollercoaster: one month you're flying, the next you hit a wall because a client changes their mind, a supply chain hiccup wipes out the order, or someone inside your own organisation drops the ball. What we can control, completely, is our time, our talent, and our treasure—and that's where the real leverage sits. In a post-pandemic market (and especially as of 2025), buyers are time-poor, inboxes are brutal, and competitors are one click away. So the question is simple: are we making the most of the three things that are actually ours?   Why is a salesperson's time the most expensive asset? Time is the one asset you can't replenish, and it dictates your pipeline, your reputation, and your commission. If you spend your week "busy" but not building relationships, you're basically renting stress. As a buyer, I see it constantly: poor follow-up. And it's bizarre, because we all know acquiring a new customer costs far more than expanding an existing customer's purchase profile (land-and-expand is not a buzzword—it's survival). Yet many salespeople stop after three rejections in cold calling, then wonder why the quarter looks like a horror movie. Compare that with high-performing teams in the US and Japan who run disciplined cadence systems using Salesforce, HubSpot, or Microsoft Dynamics—touchpoints are planned, tracked, and measured like a production line at Toyota. Do now: Block recurring weekly follow-up time and treat it like a client meeting—non-negotiable. How do you stay "top of mind" without spamming people? You stay top of mind by being useful, personal, and consistent—not by blasting a weekly email and hoping for miracles. Most "newsletters" end up in junk, clutter, or the "unsubscribe and forget forever" bin. Staying top of mind takes effort, but the upside is massive—especially if your competitor is lazy. Think in terms of buyer psychology: people choose the option that costs them the least mental energy. If they already know you, trust you, and can predict your quality, you become the easy decision. This is why professional services firms—translation agencies, consultancies, training providers—win on relationship continuity. In Japan, where trust and reliability are weighted heavily in B2B decisions, sustained contact beats flashy pitch decks. Do now: Replace "email blast" with a simple cadence: 1 helpful note + 1 relevant insight + 1 human check-in each month. What does "good follow-up" look like in the real world? Good follow-up is a system, not a mood—and it works even when you're busy. The best example is when a supplier meets you once, then keeps in touch thoughtfully for years, so when you need them, they're already in pole position.  That's not luck. That's process. It's logging touchpoints, setting reminders, and sending value that matches the buyer's context: a short video, a case study, a relevant event invite, a quick "saw this and thought of you." Compare startups versus multinationals: startups often have hustle but no system; large firms have tools but suffer from internal handoffs. Your job is to combine both—human warmth plus operational discipline. Mini checklist One CRM record per decision-maker Next step dated and owned 3 channels: email + LinkedIn + one "real" touch (call/voice) Do now: Set CRM tasks immediately after every interaction—no "I'll do it later." How do you future-proof your sales talent as the market changes? Talent is time-bound—if your skills don't evolve, your results won't either. Being a Modern selling is a blend: consultative discovery, social credibility, and content that proves you can solve problems. Are you comfortable using LinkedIn, YouTube, short-form video, webinars, and a breadcrumb trail of useful insights? In 2025, buyers often "pre-qualify" you before they reply—your digital footprint becomes your silent salesperson. This is where markets differ: US sellers may lean harder into personal brand and outbound automation; Japan often rewards consistency, humility, and proof over hype. Either way, the basics still matter: questioning, listening, objection handling, and clear next steps—Dale Carnegie fundamentals don't expire. Do now: Pick one skill to upgrade this month (video, discovery, negotiation) and practise it weekly. Is investing in sales training still worth it when so much is free? Yes—free information is everywhere, but disciplined learning and application are rare. You can binge podcasts, hoard books, and still stay average if you never implement.  Back in 1939, Dale Carnegie made world-class training accessible through public classes. The logic still holds: if your company doesn't train you well, invest a microscopic part of your treasure and go get the best. Today, you've got Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Dale Carnegie programs, specialist coaching, and industry conferences across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America. The difference between top performers and everyone else isn't access—it's commitment and execution. Top sellers learn, apply, customise, refine… then repeat. Do now: Spend treasure where it changes behaviour: coaching, role-plays, and frameworks you'll actually use in live deals. What separates top salespeople from everyone else over the long run? Top salespeople don't stop learning—and they don't just "consume," they apply. They stay current through market shocks, tech shifts, and buyer behaviour changes, then tailor what they learn to their patch.  They also protect their time like a dragon guarding gold. They're intentional about: prospecting blocks, client follow-up, pipeline hygiene, and skill practice. They understand cause-and-effect: no follow-up → no trust → no deal. No talent upgrades → commoditisation → price pressure. No treasure invested → stalled growth. This is true whether you sell SaaS in Singapore, industrial equipment in Osaka, or professional services in Sydney. And as work norms shift—think hybrid work and tighter labour conditions in parts of Asia, including Japan's evolving workplace reforms in recent years—buyers want clarity, speed, and reliability. Be that person. Do now: Audit your week: cut 2 low-value activities, add 2 relationship touches, and schedule 1 learning/practice session. Final wrap Sales will always throw curveballs—clients change, supply chains wobble, internal delivery misses happen. But time, talent, and treasure are your controllables, and they compound when you manage them like a pro. Build a follow-up system, evolve your skills for modern selling, and invest in learning that translates into behaviour. Then you'll stop riding the rollercoaster with your eyes closed—and start driving. Optional FAQs Is cold calling dead in 2025? Cold calling still works when paired with a cadence (LinkedIn + email + calls) and a clear value hook, not random dialling. How often should I follow up with a prospect? Monthly is a strong default for warm prospects, with tighter weekly touchpoints during active deal stages. What's the best CRM for follow-up? The best CRM is the one you actually use daily—Salesforce, HubSpot, and Dynamics all work if your cadence is disciplined. Next steps for leaders and salespeople Build a minimum follow-up cadence and measure it weekly Run monthly role-plays on discovery, objections, and closing Set learning KPIs (hours practised, not hours watched) Coach on personal brand: one useful post per week Review pipeline hygiene every Friday Author bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and Greg has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).  Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews, followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan. 

For two decades, organisations have invested heavily in ERP and procurement platforms to digitise source-to-pay. Yet many procurement leaders still find themselves managing critical processes in Excel, chasing approvals over email, and relying on experience rather than real-time intelligence to negotiate with suppliers. The uncomfortable truth? Most enterprise systems were built for control and record-keeping, not optimisation. Unfortunately, we now live in a world increasingly defined by margin pressure, supply chain volatility, and investor scrutiny. So archaic, clunky, limited technology is no longer good enough, especially in Europe with strong economic headwinds, that will last for several years and rapid growth of AI disruption. CFOs Want Efficiency. Procurement Is Under-Resourced. Today's forward thinking CFO's are laser focused on cost discipline, working capital, OpEx/CapEx optimisation, and resilience. Global advisory firms consistently reinforce this and amplify the need for urgent digital transformation and efficient implementation of AI technology across all functions, especially procurement. McKinsey & Company highlights that digital procurement leaders can unlock 5–10% cost savings while improving speed and compliance. PwC points to AI-driven automation reducing manual effort and improving decision quality across finance and procurement. Deloitte emphasises that procurement must move from transactional processing, to insight-led value creation to meet modern CFO expectations. The ambition is there. The problem is structural. Procurement teams are often: Lean relative to spend under management Burdened with manual processes Operating across fragmented systems Dependent on legacy ERP architecture Even when CFO's fully support cost efficiency initiatives, procurement leaders struggle to execute because they lack manpower, clean data, optimal process and intelligent tooling. The ERP Illusion: Control Without Intelligence Multinational ERP platforms — such as SAP S/4HANA, Oracle ERP Cloud, or Microsoft Dynamics 365 — are incredibly powerful financial engines. But they are not purpose-built data driven intelligence platforms, especially for areas such as procurement. They: Capture transactions. Enforce controls. Process invoices. Store supplier records. What they do not do well is: Continuously benchmark pricing. Detect commercial leakage, proactively. Provide dynamic, AI-driven negotiation insights. Surface supplier optimisation opportunities automatically. Remove friction from Supplier relationships. Worse, these systems are extremely expensive and complex. Companies often pay for vast feature sets they never fully deploy, let alone understand. Customisation is costly. Implementation cycles are long and upgrades can be highly disruptive. As a result, procurement teams have no choice but to revert to: Excel models. Offline bid comparisons. Manual supplier evaluations. Email-driven approvals. Even pen and paper in parts of the workflow. The industry becomes digitally "enabled", but not digitally optimised. Even Major Procurement Suites Have Limitations Many of the major procurement platforms such as Coupa, SAP Ariba, and Jaggaer have advanced the market significantly. Yet challenges remain: Rigid workflows. Heavy configuration. Limited/Non existent contextual AI. Fragmented modules across sourcing, contracts, and P2P. High total cost of ownership. They digitise process, but often stop short of delivering continuous, embedded intelligence. Procurement becomes systemised, but not truly strategic. AI Changes the Equation Artificial intelligence shifts procurement from reactive administration to proactive optimisation. Instead of merely recording what has happened, AI answers: Where are we overpaying? Which suppliers present commercial risk? Which contracts contain value leakage? Where can we renegotiate based on real-time market data? Which spend categories are fragmented and unleveraged? AI can: Benchmark pricing at ...

Send a textThis episode demystifies AI agents, explaining how they differ from chatbots and showcasing their real-world impact in business applications. Chris Fairfax, Technical Product Manager for Industry Cloud at Hitachi Solutions, shares actionable insights on deploying agents to drive efficiency, empower employees, and unlock new value from enterprise data.Highlights:Agents are AI-powered tools that execute business processes, going beyond simple chatbots by leveraging multiple skills within platforms like Microsoft Dynamics. Automation with agents can increase productivity by 20–30%, but the focus is on augmenting—not replacing—employees through human-in-the-loop design. Practical use cases include process management, identity verification, call center workflows, and field service automation. Data quality and a modern data estate are essential for successful agent deployment and scalability. Early wins are seen in industries like insurance, with plans to expand agent capabilities for industry-specific needs.Transparency, confidence scores, and purposeful design are key to building trust and driving adoption of AI agents.global.hitachi-solutions.com

In this CPQ Podcast episode, host Frank Sohn talks with Andreas Westling, CEO and co-founder of Ignize, about how modern AI pricing and CPQ help B2B manufacturers increase EBIT, improve price fairness, and react faster to market volatility. Drawing on more than 20 years of pricing experience,  including his time as CEO of Navetti (acquired by Vendavo). Andreas explains why pricing fundamentals haven't changed, but the way manufacturers execute pricing has transformed. He also shares how Ignize supports mid-market and enterprise manufacturers with complex, multinational pricing operations that require both speed and precision. Andreas introduces Ignize's concept of Generative Precision Pricing (GPP) and the role of the Ignizer, a modern engine that turns pricing expertise into data-driven, explainable recommendations. You'll also hear how Ignize integrates with CRM systems such as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, ERP systems including SAP, Oracle, and legacy platforms, and CPQ solutions like Tacton to deliver consistent, value-based pricing across the commercial stack. We discuss why black-box AI pricing often fails in B2B manufacturing, and why explainability and transparency are essential to earn trust from pricing teams, product managers, sales, and customers. Andreas also outlines what manufacturers can expect from an Ignize implementation. From 8–12 week quick-start value phases to broader enterprise rollouts, and how modern pricing platforms help companies navigate tariffs, commodity swings, currency shifts, and other forms of market disruption. Ignize also operates on an enterprise-grade security foundation, backed by ISO 27001:2013 certification and SOC 2 Type II compliance, ensuring that sensitive pricing and commercial data is handled with the highest standards of information security and compliance. If you're interested in CPQ, B2B pricing, or how AI can strengthen price quality, win rates, and overall financial performance, this episode is for you.

This episode is sponsored by Evenica. On this episode, Evenica's Gustavo Oliveira help us unpack the fundamentals of creating a seamless, secure, and consistent checkout experiences in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce. He explains how a payment connector acts as the communication bridge between POS systems, online stores, and financial institutions to handle the orchestration that makes modern payments work. We also discuss how solutions like Evenica's e4Payment streamline the "last mile" of the customer journey, reduce friction at checkout, support loyalty and gift card systems, and unlock transaction data inside Dynamics 365. From tokenization and modern tender types to unified data for better decision-making, Gustavo highlights why payment connectors have become essential for retailers looking to modernize, scale, and differentiate. From Evenica: See how e4Payment can transform payment orchestration inside Dynamics 365. Check out the solution on Microsoft's Azure Marketplace and explore what it can do for your business.  https://marketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/product/dynamics-365-for-operations/evenicacorp1582838632446.e4payment?tab=Overview

With agents here, AI in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has moved beyond the buzz. For the first time, we're seeing a shift that doesn't just affect end-users, but also changes how Dynamics Partners deliver customisations and support. Business Central's strength has always been its flexibility. But with AI taking on more of the heavy lifting, the way we design, build and manage tailored solutions is evolving fast. In this episode, we explore how partners must adapt, the importance of properly managing AI and how Tecman is already embracing these changes to deliver more value, faster – helping customers adopt automation in a way that works for them. At Tecman, we're not just jumping on the AI bandwagon. We're reflecting on our role, embracing change and continuing to ensure we can deliver the very best for our customers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the Share PLM Podcast, we are joined by Aleksandra Matuszewska, a transformation leader with nearly two decades of experience at FLSmidth, where she most recently served as Head of Digital Transformation for Professional Services. Aleksandra has led large-scale rollouts of Microsoft Dynamics, introduced AI and remote support tools, and pioneered the use of mixed reality in service and training environments. Now moving into the next chapter of her career, she brings deep insights into what it takes to lead successful change in complex industrial organisations — and how to keep people at the heart of transformation. Aleksandra shared her career journey, leadership philosophy, and lessons learned, beginning with what was meant to be a three‑month internship at FLSmidth in Denmark. That short opportunity turned into 19 years of growth across multiple roles, each shaping her expertise and approach to transformation.⚉ From internship to the leadership⚉ Embracing change as opportunity⚉ Why people should be at the heart of transformation⚉ A blueprint for building global teams and community⚉ Securing stakeholder buy-in and communicating with top management⚉ Skills for digital transformation teams⚉ A proud achievement - Global field service scheduling tool⚉ Advice for women in tech⚉ Turning setbacks into launchpadsCONNECT WITH ALEKSANDRA:⚉ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandramatuszewska/ CONNECT WITH SHARE PLM:⚉ Website: https://shareplm.com/ Join us every month to listen to fascinating interviews, where we cover a wide array of topics, from actionable tips, to personal experiences, to strategies that you can implement into your PLM strategy.If you have an interesting story to share and want to join the conversation, contact us and let's chat. We can't wait to hear from you!

Welcome to episode 100! I'm joined by Chuck Ganapathi, Gainsight's new CEO, for a wide-ranging, candid conversation about where customer success is headed and what leaders should do right now.We start with Chuck's career through four platform eras: mainframe to client/server to cloud to AI - and how those shifts shape strategy. He shares the little-known origin story of “Customer Success” at Salesforce, Gainsight's early days, and why integrations (Salesforce, SAP CX, Microsoft Dynamics) are never “done”—they're living systems that demand clean data and constant tuning.Then we dig into Chuck's concept of Retention-as-a-Service. In a world where retention is existential, the 80/20 mindset breaks. Every dollar matters, which means every customer matters. We talk agentic AI (augmentation vs autonomy), how a “renewal agent” can cover the long tail, and why the magic is orchestration—letting agents handle the repeatable while humans lean into judgment, relationships, and value.We close with practical automation stories, a few resources Chuck follows, and a reminder that the human-to-human piece isn't going anywhere.Links in Today's Episode:Ethan Mollik: One Useful ThingSaanya OjhaJamin Ball: Clouded JudgementAndrej Karpathy on the Dwarkesh Podcast: AGI is still a decade away Support the show+++++++++++++++++Like/Subscribe/Review:If you are getting value from the show, please follow/subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and consider leaving us a review. Website:For more information about the show or to get in touch, visit DigitalCustomerSuccess.com. Buy Alex a Cup of Coffee:This show runs exclusively on caffeine - and lots of it. If you like what we're, consider supporting our habit by buying us a cup of coffee: https://bmc.link/dcspThank you for all of your support!The Digital Customer Success Podcast is hosted by Alex Turkovic

Unearth the "ghosted" features of Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM and Power Platform. From vanishing sales usage reports to the haunting deprecation of Unified Service Desk, discover which tools are disappearing into the night and some new tricks (and treats) Microsoft has in store. Beware: some features may never return from the grave! #MSDyn365 #MSDyn365BC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this CPQ Podcast episode, Frank Sohn talks with Martin Johansen, founder of Mercura, a Denmark-based CPQ vendor focused on small to mid-sized manufacturers. With a background in finance and international business, Martin started Mercura straight out of college—initially building a configurator “by accident” for a customer request—and has since grown it into a SaaS platform used across Europe. We discuss Mercura's no-code setup and short implementation cycles (often 1–2 months), its support for cost-plus pricing, and partner/distributor workflows where channel users can upload and manage their own price lists. Martin explains how Mercura's in-browser 3D visualization enables room planning, snap-to placement, and collision detection in real time. While Mercura doesn't connect directly to CAD suites, customers can supply STEP files or drawings for CPQ-side visualization. A big portion of the conversation covers integrations—especially Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Microsoft Business Central—plus experience with PIM solutions and HubSpot. Martin shares how Mercura applies AI on the admin side to speed configuration/rules setup, why headless is not a near-term priority, and the company's focus on manufacturers in sectors like playground equipment and healthcare (typical 5–200 users). We also touch on his sales mindset, weekly tennis/soccer routine, and how the book Work the System shapes Mercura's process discipline. Listen in for practical insights on delivering an easy-to-implement CPQ with modern visualization and tight Microsoft integrations.

O of elevaite365, leads a company at the forefront of AI-driven test automation for Microsoft Dynamics 365. With decades of hands-on experience in ERP implementations, he and his team built elevaite365 to solve the challenges of constant change, complexity, and testing inefficiencies in enterprise software. In this episode, Magnus joins John Siefert to define a new category, AI-powered test automation, and explore how it's transforming implementation success, business agility, and the future of cloud ERP systems.Reimagining ERP with AIThe Big Themes:AI Test Automation Is a New Software Category: AI test automation not just a better version of traditional testing, it's an entirely new approach. With frequent updates, integrations, and customizations, ERP systems outgrow static methods. Platforms like elevaite365 define a future where testing is adaptive, autonomous, and business-aligned. This shift changes how organizations approach quality assurance, transforming it from a back-end task into a front-line innovation enabler.AI Testing Drives Tangible Business Outcomes: The shift to AI-powered QA isn't just a technical improvement—it delivers real business value. Perri and Siefert explore outcomes like faster go-lives, lower project costs, reduced QA workload, and quicker time-to-value. These results matter to senior executives, who face mounting pressure to drive both innovation and efficiency. Elevaite365's platform supports these goals by automating repetitive tasks, reducing errors, and scaling effortlessly. What used to be a cost center (testing) is now a growth lever.AI Test Automation Builds Ecosystem-Wide Agility: AI testing isn't just about IT: It transforms the entire enterprise ecosystem. When testing improves, so does everything connected to it: systems integration, customer experience, compliance, internal workflows, and delivery speed. The agility gained through elevaite365 extends beyond QA teams. It empowers cross-functional teams to move faster and take more calculated risks.The Big Quote: “What truly sets elevaite365 apart isn't just that it's faster or more robust… it's that we eliminate the typical roadblocks—there are no limits on users, scripts, or environments." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

“The days of the old virtual bot type of experiences are slowly going away. End consumers will now experience a more personalized, human-touch type of interaction with AI,” said Chang Chang, Sr. Director of Product, Cloud CX Solutions at Webex. At WebexOne, Chang joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, to share how Cisco is transforming customer experience (CX) with AI-driven innovation. Chang explained that Webex AI is designed not to replace human agents but to augment their productivity—from enabling 24/7 support to providing suggested responses, wellness tools, and sentiment analysis. Unlike chatbots, the new Webex AI Agents are fully autonomous, able to perceive context, manage interruptions, and respond empathetically in natural conversation. A highlight of the announcements was Webex AI Quality Management, a breakthrough that applies to both AI and human agents. “You can't scale quality management with humans listening to every call,” Chang said. “AI makes it possible to review 100% of interactions, score them, and recommend improvements—bridging a long-standing quality gap.” Chang also addressed broader themes of future-proofing, emphasizing Cisco's vision of Connected Intelligence that integrates AI at the edge, in the cloud, and in control systems to create seamless, secure, and scalable CX. Integrations with Microsoft Dynamics and other open-platform partnerships reinforce Webex's commitment to meeting customers wherever they are. “Ultimately, it's about sweating the entire end-to-end experience for the consumer,” Chang noted. “AI isn't a trend—it's fundamental to future-proofing customer experience.” More at Webex.

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In this CPQ Podcast episode, host Frank Sohn speaks with Tarak Patel, Sr. Vice President of Product and Technology at Aleran Software, about how Aleran is bringing sustainable innovation to Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) and digital commerce. Aleran's Connected Commerce platform is designed for mid-size manufacturers ($20M–$1B) and their channel partners. Built on headless, API-first, cloud-native architecture, the platform integrates with leading ERP systems(SAP, Epicor, Microsoft Dynamics, Infor, Acumatica and more) and CRM solutions (Salesforce, SugarCRM). It also offers native eCommerce, pre-built connectors, Avalara tax, payment gateways, and shipping integrations—helping companies move beyond spreadsheets and home-grown tools. Tarak explains how Aleran supports CTO and ETO products, with a feature- and rules-based configuration engine, plus AI-driven guided selling and automated product content generation. With low-code/no-code flexibility and an average 2-month implementation, manufacturers can achieve fast ROI. Beyond technology, Tarak shares insights on trust-based leadership, Aleran's rapid growth, and how his philosophy of “sustainable innovation” drives both the company and his personal life—including golfing with his two teenage sons.

“CRM shouldn't suck—but for too many companies, it does,” says Christopher Smith, Founder of Empellor CRM. “The good news is, when implemented correctly, it can finally deliver on its promise of productivity.” At the MSP Summit in Orlando, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Smith about why so many organizations feel burdened by CRM systems—and how Empellor CRM helps MSPs and their customers unlock real value. Smith, who has spent nearly 20 years implementing CRM, explained that the technology itself isn't the problem. Instead, it's often misaligned with business goals, poorly integrated, and treated as a silo. Sales teams end up spending hours entering data that benefits leadership reporting, but not the seller—leading to widespread frustration and weak ROI. To address this, Smith authored the book CRM Shouldn't Suck and is giving away 2,000 copies to help businesses “unsuck” their CRM strategies. His approach emphasizes aligning CRM with strategic goals, cleaning data, and tailoring implementations to real business needs. Smith pointed to Microsoft Dynamics 365, integrated with Copilot AI, as the platform that is finally delivering on CRM's original promise. Features like automated meeting summaries, instant follow-up emails, and task creation free sales teams from hours of manual updates, enabling them to focus on relationships and revenue growth. “CRM is finally able to deliver on its promise of improved productivity,” Smith said. “With Dynamics 365 and Copilot, nothing falls through the cracks—and salespeople get their evenings back.” Learn more at empellorcrm.com.

 Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily cloud news and commentary show. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the cloud.In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I take a closer look at SAP's Q2 cloud performance—24% revenue growth and a 22% rise in current cloud backlog—slower than past quarters, but still dramatically outpacing rivals like Highlights00:13 — One of the leaders in the Cloud Wars Top 10, SAP, has been the fastest-growing enterprise apps company for several straight quarters, far outperforming all of its competitors, which include Oracle, Workday, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics 365. And they reported recently—SAP did—a very strong Q2. But there were a couple wrinkles in there.01:02 — The cloud revenue was up 24% to $6 billion. But in Q1, the growth rate was 25%, so a slight dip in the growth rate in Q2. Current cloud backlog in Q2 was 22%; that 22% is well down from Q1's 28%. It expected the backlog growth to moderate through the rest of the year. But this is a pretty big drop. It saw a re-emergence of uncertainty in the market in the second quarter.AI Agent & Copilot Summit is an AI-first event to define opportunities, impact, and outcomes with Microsoft Copilot and agents. Building on its 2025 success, the 2026 event takes place March 17-19 in San Diego. Get more details. 02:08 — He noted in the U.S., in the public sector, the DOGE impact has slowed things down a little. On the flip side, Klein said, Now, we've got some mega deals that are out there. He said, I don't think they're going to disappear, but they have been postponed . . . There's a little more rigor in getting approvals for those. But he said, I think that will come through.03:20 — I would also say that at the size that SAP is at now, it's a $24 billion run rate,r 24% growth is quite good. And this current backlog growth of 22% in itself is also very strong. But a couple of quarters ago, its backlog grew 32%, then 25%, now 22%. So it's fair to say, is a trend.04:10 — Overall, it is an interesting time now for buyers, I think more broadly, since some of this uncertainty that Klein referred to around tariffs—I think a lot of that uncertainty is going away. We just heard this announcement of the U.S. and Japan in a $550 billion deal. I think this is going to alleviate some of the concern that SAP customers expressed and that Klein referred to. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

In this episode of the Office of the CFO Podcast, John Siefert hosts Rob Ashe, VP of North America, SignUp Software, and Blaine Grzegorek, Senior Solution Architect, Sikich, for a conversation on the benefits of partnering with ISVs, top considerations when selecting an ISV, and the impact of AI agents.Key Takeaways:  Risks of building your own solutions: One major risk that's becoming more prominent is having the expertise in-house to build custom solutions. Another hurdle is the upfront costs compared to subscription costs associated with many ISVs. Oftentimes, Ashe notes, "You have to spend a lot of capital on new tools...to make this new solution or change a process." Grzegorek suggests a third challenge which is meeting compelx needs. Oftentimes, industry expertise is also required, as you may be able to build the technology but might not be ready to translate the business needs to the ERP.Benefits of partnering with an ISV: A big reason organizations turn to ISVs is that they develop purpose-built solutions to address multiple different situations and multiple industries. "That's what I've found clients like about it, there might be a core functionality out of the box but it doesn't really handle every scenario," Grzegorek says. Working with ISVs provides expertise in various industries to consult with to address specific issues and needs.Considerations: Because ISVs work on these types of projects regularly, they are aware of more elements to take into consideration. For instance, Ashe describes how ISVs look at the landscape within Dynamics 365. It's important to consider how the solution will integrate with existing systems, how it will impact security, where data is being sourced from, and more.Selecting an ISV: When selecting an ISV, there are some qualities you should look for to ensure unexpected situations are taken care of. "The documentation they have, that speaks a lot to what they're able to contribute on an ongoing basis," Grzegorek says. Clients are looking for partnership, and working with an ISV is a partnership. You want to be confident that you can reach out to your ISV and get answers right away. "It's hard to see that before you actually start that partnership, so I go to that documentation of what the solution has, what it solves, and if that stuff is detailed...that is a huge indicator." Initial interactions with them are also a good sign of this.Multiple ISV solutions from a single vendor: It's always beneficial to have an ISV that can provide multiple solutions in different areas. One thing to look out for, Grzegorek highlights, is to make sure that the ISV has good alignment internally. Integration time is also a major focus, considering whether you have to integrate or if it's embedded in the system.AI agents and Microsoft Dynamics 365: While the solutions themselves are very powerful, AI agents can add a new level of efficiency. Ashe shares an example of how individuals are now running teams of agents to automate various functions. There are agents fulfilling individual functions within Dynamics 365 that customers are already using, so SignUp Software is like an extension of the platform and the workload. "We feel like we have a really strong value proposition to bring back to Microsoft to leverage the strength and the roadmap of the platform, but then also have immediately valuable solutions that they can take advantage of now," Ashe says.This episode is sponsored by SignUp Software. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/691    What happens when cybercrime becomes as organized—and profitable—as a Fortune 500 company? In this episode, Louis Arthur-Brown, a cybersecurity leader and solutions partner at CodeStone, pulls back the curtain on the evolving threat landscape. From ransomware-as-a-service to deepfake deception, Louis shares real-world insights and practical strategies for defending your organization in an AI-accelerated world. Whether you're a tech leader or a curious professional, this conversation will sharpen your security instincts and help you build resilience where it matters most. KEY TAKEAWAYS Cybercrime is industrialized: Ransomware-as-a-service and affiliate models make it easy for anyone—even non-technical actors—to launch attacks for as little as $50. AI is amplifying threats: A 1,300% rise in phishing emails last year is just the beginning. Deepfakes and voice cloning are reshaping social engineering tactics. MFA and basic hygiene go a long way: Implementing multi-factor authentication and conditional access can block up to 92% of cyberattacks. Zero Trust is essential: Organizations must move beyond the “walled garden” mindset and adopt a “never trust, always verify” approach to access and data. Data strategy is security strategy: Tools like Microsoft Purview and Windows 365 help classify, protect, and monitor sensitive data—especially in AI-enabled environments.   RESOURCES MENTIONED

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/690    What does it take to rise from limited access to tech resources to becoming a globally recognized Microsoft MVP? In this episode, Pascal Burume shares his remarkable journey from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the global tech stage. With grit, community leadership, and a passion for Microsoft technologies, Pascal reveals how he overcame language barriers, built impactful solutions with Power Platform, and inspired a new generation of tech professionals. If you're looking for a roadmap to grow your skills and make a difference—no matter where you start—this episode is for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS Persistence Pays Off: Pascal failed multiple times before becoming a Microsoft Student Ambassador—but each setback sharpened his strategy and resilience. Power Platform in Action: He used Power Apps and Power BI to build real-world solutions that improved decision-making at the UNDP. Community as a Catalyst: Building and leading tech communities helped Pascal grow his skills, visibility, and impact. Learning Without Limits: Despite infrastructure challenges, Pascal leveraged blogs, Microsoft Learn, and open-source tools to stay ahead. From Local to Global: His story proves that with the right mindset and tools, you can build a global tech career from anywhere. RESOURCES MENTIONED

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/689 In a world where AI is reshaping how we build, lead, and learn, standing still is no longer an option. In this episode, the Ecosystem Show team dives into the evolving role of Microsoft partners, the rise of “vibe coding,” and the critical mindsets needed to thrive in tech's next chapter. Whether you're navigating AI adoption, rethinking your Power Platform strategy, or simply trying to stay relevant in a fast-changing landscape, this conversation offers clarity, challenge, and a roadmap forward.  KEY TAKEAWAYS AI demands new mental models: Success in the AI era requires critical thinking, constant learning, and a willingness to challenge assumptions—even those served up by machines. Power Platform is evolving fast: It's no longer just low-code—it's becoming the enterprise-grade “vibe coding” platform, integrating seamlessly with advanced tools and governance systems. Trustworthy AI is non-negotiable: Leaders must embed safety, transparency, and validation into every AI practice. Microsoft's internal frameworks offer a strong starting point. The partner landscape is shifting: The best Microsoft partners are transforming their culture, offerings, and delivery models to meet the demands of AI-native enterprises. Your career is your responsibility: In a time of layoffs and disruption, professionals must take ownership of their growth by developing adaptive, future-focused mindsets. RESOURCES MENTIONED

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/688 What happens when AI stops being a tool and starts becoming a teammate? In this episode, Ashish Bhatia, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, unpacks the shift from traditional automation to intelligent agents—and what it means for the future of work. From the myth of “autonomous agents” to the real-world challenges of memory, trust, and productivity, this conversation dives deep into the evolving landscape of AI. Whether you're building with Copilot or planning your next AI strategy, this episode will sharpen your perspective on where the tech is headed—and what's still missing.KEY TAKEAWAYS Agentification is the next evolution of apps: We're moving from reactive chatbots to proactive assistants that can take meaningful action—but we're still early in that journey. Memory is the missing link: Long-term context retention is essential for agents to become truly useful. Expect major strides in this area by 2025. Autonomous agents are still a myth: Most current “agents” are glorified automations. True autonomy requires reasoning, adaptability, and trust. Model selection will soon be invisible: Expect model routing to become standard, optimizing for cost and performance without user intervention. AI isn't saving time—yet: While AI boosts output quality, it still requires human oversight. The next leap is reducing the need for constant review. RESOURCES MENTIONED

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/687 What happens when a finance professional clicks a mysterious purple icon in Excel and discovers a whole new world? For Mate Tóth, that moment sparked a journey from spreadsheets to becoming a Microsoft MVP. In this episode, Mate shares how curiosity, community, and a passion for learning transformed his career. From building his first Power App in production to leading Hungary's Power Platform user group, Mate's story is a masterclass in grassroots tech leadership and the power of showing up.KEY TAKEAWAYSStart Small, Think Big: Mate's Power Platform journey began with a single Excel task—proof that big transformations often start with small curiosities. Community as a Catalyst: His involvement in Toastmasters and local tech groups helped him grow as a speaker and leader, eventually leading to his MVP nomination. Localization Matters: Language barriers and cultural nuances shape tech adoption—Mate shares how he's bridging gaps in Hungary's tech scene. AI with Purpose: While enthusiastic about AI, Mate emphasizes ethical considerations and the importance of understanding each model's strengths. From Goals to Impact: Ironically, Mate became an MVP the year he stopped chasing the title and focused solely on helping others. RESOURCES MENTIONED

The suggestions and support offered by AI are helpful only if they're relevant. On today's episode, Walter Sun, senior vice president and global head of artificial intelligence at SAP, joins Sam and Shervin to share how his organization is helping employees get smarter about artificial intelligence through the company's AI Days. Additionally, Walter gives specific examples of support that AI agents could provide to an end user, and makes the case that small language models (fine-tuned large language models) can be built to assist in decision-making. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: Walter Sun is senior vice president and global head of artificial intelligence at SAP, where his team applies AI across applications for improved automation, natural human-machine interaction, and augmentation of decisions. Sun joined SAP in 2023 from Microsoft, where he was vice president of Copilot Applied Artificial Intelligence. While there he founded Bing Predicts, which leveraged anonymized and aggregated data for predictive analytics. He also delivered many AI features for the Bing search engine, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform. Previously, Sun worked at BlackRock Financial Management and at Apple as a senior software engineer. Sun has taught at Seattle University and the University of Washington, and he is currently an advisory board member at Georgia Tech and the University of Rochester, and an MIT Tech Review Global Insights panelist. He obtained his bachelor's from Georgia Tech and his Ph.D. and master's from MIT. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the executive producer is Allison Ryder. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders or by following Me, Myself, and AI on LinkedIn. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVMFULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/686  Simon Hudson shares his fascinating journey from medical device inventor to tech entrepreneur, exploring how information architecture transformed his approach to SharePoint, Teams, and AI ethics.TAKEAWAYS• Started his career in physics and medical devices, developing two patents for chronic wound dressings• Founded Cloud2 and developed Hadron, possibly the first SharePoint-based "intranet in a box" solution• Recognized that 90% of organizational information needs are the same across companies• Initially skeptical about Teams but had a "road to Damascus moment" when realizing its potential for structuring collaboration• Companies that adopted his Teams approach transitioned seamlessly during the pandemic• Believes AI won't eliminate jobs overall but will disadvantage those who don't learn to use it• Working on how to build ethics directly into AI rather than just creating guardrails around it• Concerned about AI agents making autonomous decisions without proper moral frameworks• Sees data quality as a critical challenge for effective AI implementation in organizations• Envisions personal AI "doppelgangers" that can handle routine tasks while embodying our ethical frameworksListen now to explore how information architecture might just be the key to more ethical, efficient, and empowering technology. This year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world. DynamicsMinds is a world-class event in Slovenia that brings together Microsoft product managers, industry leaders, and dedicated users to explore the latest in Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Copilot.Early bird tickets are on sale now and listeners of the Microsoft Innovation Podcast get 10% off with the code MIPVIP144bff https://www.dynamicsminds.com/register/?voucher=MIPVIP144bff Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge We've helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/684 The technological landscape is shifting beneath our feet, and those who fail to adapt risk being left behind. This stark reality forms the backbone of our latest episode, where we explore the concept that "AI is coming for the unmotivated" - perhaps the most crucial wake-up call of our professional generation.TAKEAWAYS• Recent experiences at ColorCloud event in Hamburg and during Spain's massive power outage• Chris announces his new role at Cloud Lighthouse and ANS• Microsoft Build conference schedule reveals heavy emphasis on AI with minimal business apps content• The rise of "digital workforce" as a concept at major tech companies• "AI is coming for the unmotivated" - why continuous learning is crucial for survival• How an entire app was built using only AI prompts during a recent prompt-a-thon• The concept of "information communism" illustrated through a real-world translation service example• How professionals resist technological change rather than adapting their business models• The need for "tragic imagination" to honestly confront the challenges ahead• Why mundane, repetitive jobs will be the first to be replaced by digital workersDon't hesitate to share your perspective with us. Stay connected for more innovative ideas and strategies to enhance your software estate. Until next time, keep pushing the boundaries and creating value.This year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world. DynamicsMinds is a world-class event in Slovenia that brings together Microsoft product managers, industry leaders, and dedicated users to explore the latest in Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Copilot.Early bird tickets are on sale now and listeners of the Microsoft Innovation Podcast get 10% off with the code MIPVIP144bff https://www.dynamicsminds.com/register/?voucher=MIPVIP144bff Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge We've helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/683Danielle Moon shares her journey founding Women in Power, a community that grew from noticing just eight women among 80 professionals at a Microsoft event to a thriving global network of 930+ members in less than a year.TAKEAWAYS• Starting with vulnerability and a "just start" mentality rather than waiting for perfect conditions• Building a community focused on connecting women across geographical boundaries who often experience isolation in their tech teams• Creating mentoring rings, skill-building opportunities, and networking events worldwide• Addressing the tendency for women to operate as "lone wolves" rather than leveraging collective strength• Evolving beyond the Power Platform to emphasize soft skills that remain valuable in an AI-centered world• Encouraging cross-learning between technical experts and those with relationship-building strengths• Celebrating small victories while aiming for world domination Whether you're a Power Platform professional seeking community or someone interested in building more inclusive tech spaces, this conversation offers valuable insights on creating tables where everyone can thrive. How might you apply these community-building principles in your professional sphere?OTHER RESOURCES:

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/681   The team explores the ethical implications of teaching AI jailbreaking techniques and conducting red team testing on large language models, balancing educational value against potential misuse. They dive into personal experiments with bypassing AI safeguards, revealing both creative workarounds and robust protections in modern systems.  TAKEAWAYS • Debate on whether demonstrating AI vulnerabilities is responsible education or potentially dangerous knowledge sharing • Psychological impact on security professionals who regularly simulate malicious behaviors to test AI safety • Real examples of attempts to "jailbreak" AI systems through fantasy storytelling and other creative prompts • Legal gray areas in AI security testing that require dedicated legal support for organizations • Personal experiences with testing AI guardrails on different models and their varying levels of protection • Future prediction that Microsoft's per-user licensing model may shift to consumption-based as AI agents replace human tasks • Growth observations about Microsoft's Business Applications division reaching approximately $8 billion • Discussion of how M365 Copilot is transforming productivity, particularly for analyzing sales calls and customer interactions Check out this episode for more deep dives into AI safety, security, and the future of technology in business.This year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world. DynamicsMinds is a world-class event in Slovenia that brings together Microsoft product managers, industry leaders, and dedicated users to explore the latest in Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Copilot.Early bird tickets are on sale now and listeners of the Microsoft Innovation Podcast get 10% off with the code MIPVIP144bff https://www.dynamicsminds.com/register/?voucher=MIPVIP144bff Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge We've helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/680 Microsoft's AI landscape has evolved into three distinct categories: Copilot for Microsoft 365 (M365) applications, Copilot Studio for low-code chatbot development, and Azure AI Foundry (formerly AI Studio) for pro-code flexibility with AI models. Join Nanddeep Nachan on today's Power Platform Show to learn more. TAKEAWAYs• Declarative agents provide the simplest approach to extending Copilot functionality without complex licensing• Teams toolkit in Visual Studio Code offers an easy way to create declarative agents using simple JSON configurations• Copilot Studio gives business users a drag-and-drop interface for creating virtual assistants quickly• Azure AI Foundry provides comprehensive tools for developers and data scientists building advanced AI solutions• Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pattern bridges the gap between LLMs and organization-specific data• Contract management use cases demonstrate how AI can extract insights from millions of documents• Graph RAG pattern enables "global queries" that deliver insights across entire document collections• AI Foundry solutions can be deployed directly to websites, Teams apps, or Microsoft 365 Copilot• Despite impressive personal productivity gains, many organizations still struggle to find compelling enterprise-level use cases for CopilotThis year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world. DynamicsMinds is a world-class event in Slovenia that brings together Microsoft product managers, industry leaders, and dedicated users to explore the latest in Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Copilot.Early bird tickets are on sale now and listeners of the Microsoft Innovation Podcast get 10% off with the code MIPVIP144bff https://www.dynamicsminds.com/register/?voucher=MIPVIP144bff Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge We've helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVMFULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/678  We dive deep into the journey of Wim Coorevits, Microsoft's Community Lead for Business Apps, exploring his evolution from Belgian developer to global Microsoft innovator and the changing landscape of business applications.TAKEAWAYS• Started career as a developer in a marketing agency, discovering his passion for bridging technology and business• Became a .NET trainer surrounded by MVPs who inspired his community involvement• Earned MVP status in the Dynamics CRM space through sharing knowledge and expertise• Transitioned to pre-sales, leveraging broad Microsoft technology knowledge to solve business problems• Joined Microsoft as a Partner Technology Strategist before making the leap to product marketing• Relocated from Belgium to the US for a role with Office 365 before finding his way to Power Platform• Became known for creating demos shown "on every single stage in the world" during Power Platform's early days• Now leads the Business Apps community team overseeing evangelism, community forums, advocacy programs, and events• Team builds demos for keynotes and major events, focusing on real customer scenarios rather than fictional companies• Currently developing an event tiering strategy to objectively determine how to support the many community events worldwideToday, Wim's team not only builds the demos you see in major keynotes and launch events but also manages the forums, advocacy programs, and community engagement that sustain the vibrant Business Apps ecosystem. His insights into how Microsoft determines which community events to support and the challenges of scaling community engagement provide a rare glimpse into the strategy behind Microsoft's community presence. This year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world. DynamicsMinds is a world-class event in Slovenia that brings together Microsoft product managers, industry leaders, and dedicated users to explore the latest in Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Copilot.Early bird tickets are on sale now and listeners of the Microsoft Innovation Podcast get 10% off with the code MIPVIP144bff https://www.dynamicsminds.com/register/?voucher=MIPVIP144bff Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge We've helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/676  Andrew Welch, Chris Huntingford, and William Dorrington explore the gap between marketed AI capabilities and technical reality, highlighting how "autonomous agents" often lack true orchestration and memory needed for genuine autonomy.TAKEAWAYS• Home gym innovation with resistance training that uses AI to adjust to your goals and fatigue levels• Analysis of the US AI policy focusing on "US-made AI" compared to more detailed EU and UK frameworks• The increasing fracturing of the global technology landscape with nations prioritizing domestic innovation• Calling out marketing hype around "autonomous agents" that are merely deterministic automation with fancy names• The critical need for memory capabilities in AI to enable true contextual understanding• How delegation skills will become essential as we move toward more capable AI systems• Creative workflows using Copilot for structuring ideas while preserving unique voiceThis year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world. DynamicsMinds is a world-class event in Slovenia that brings together Microsoft product managers, industry leaders, and dedicated users to explore the latest in Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Copilot.Early bird tickets are on sale now and listeners of the Microsoft Innovation Podcast get 10% off with the code MIPVIP144bff https://www.dynamicsminds.com/register/?voucher=MIPVIP144bff Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge We've helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/675The conversation takes a fascinating turn as we explore the future of meetings in a hybrid world. Jeff Hardison shares insights from Calendly's research showing growing excitement about AI's role in making meetings more effective, while also noting the pendulum swing between asynchronous communication and the irreplaceable value of human connection.   Scheduling software Calendly has evolved from a simple time-finding tool into a comprehensive platform for building meaningful business relationships with over 20 million users worldwide.TAKEAWAYS• Calendly was founded by Tope Awotona, who wanted to solve the problem of coordinating meetings across different schedules and time zones• The platform has expanded beyond basic scheduling to offer team-based coordination, automated notifications, and integration with payment systems like Stripe• Calendly positions itself as "neutral Switzerland" between different platforms, integrating with Microsoft, Google, Zoom, Teams, and various CRM systems• 54% of people surveyed are excited about AI's potential role in making meetings more effective• The future of meetings will balance asynchronous communication tools with synchronous human connection• Video communication skills are increasingly essential as remote work and freelancing continue to grow• Microsoft-specific integrations include Outlook, Teams, Dynamics CRM, and Power AutomateCheck out the Calendly for Microsoft webinar and integration page to learn more about connecting your Microsoft ecosystem with Calendly's scheduling capabilities.This year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world. DynamicsMinds is a world-class event in Slovenia that brings together Microsoft product managers, industry leaders, and dedicated users to explore the latest in Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Copilot.Early bird tickets are on sale now and listeners of the Microsoft Innovation Podcast get 10% off with the code MIPVIP144bff https://www.dynamicsminds.com/register/?voucher=MIPVIP144bff Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge We've helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/674Amber Bell shares her journey from receptionist at a GP partner to Microsoft MVP, discovering her passion for training and documentation along the way.TAKEAWAYS• Starting as a receptionist at a Microsoft Great Plains partner in San Diego• Moving up through certifications and discovering a love for training instead of programming• Founding Training Dynamo nine years ago to focus on empowering users through education• Helping clients bridge from GP to Business Central through process review and data cleanup• Finding value in community connections with mentors like Kim Peterson and Anya Jucherski• Emphasizing the importance of involving accounting teams in system transitions• Growing from imposter syndrome to recognizing the value of specialized training skills• Living near the beach in Connecticut with a love for making Mexican food and gardeningIf you have not checked it out already, I do a YouTube series called How to Become an MVP. The link is in the show notes.OTHER RESOURCES:

Jeffrey Goldstein, Managing Director of Queue Associates, unveils exciting insights on how Microsoft Dynamics and AI tools like Microsoft Copilot are reshaping ERP systems. He shares his vision for a future where AI advancements redefine CRM and ERP terminologies, and underscores the importance of partnering with innovators like Microsoft. Jeffrey's journey through the early adoption of cloud technology gives a compelling perspective on maintaining a competitive edge in today's fast-paced industry landscape. Equip your sales team with powerful methodologies as we explore the essentials of establishing credibility through comprehensive product knowledge. By leveraging the Microsoft suite, we empower our team to offer authentic client recommendations, weighing the benefits of cohesive integrated systems over a best-of-breed approach. The conversation unfolds the value of minimizing operational risks by choosing systems that communicate seamlessly, ultimately offering more value than disparate top-tier solutions. Leadership shines under the spotlight as we focus on the power of positivity and leading by example. Discover how happiness and joy can motivate teams, and why transparency and decision-making are crucial components of effective leadership. The episode wraps up with an exploration of personal goal setting in sales, showcasing how visualizing aspirations and celebrating team achievements can drive success. Balancing CRM strategies to align with business goals emerges as a theme, illustrating the challenges and freedoms within these systems. Jeffrey Goldstein is Co-Founder and Global Managing Director of Queue Associates. Jeffrey has and continues to play a pivotal role in driving the growth and success of the company through his strategic insights and leadership. Since originating Queue Associates in July of 1992, Jeffrey has developed a deep understanding of information systems, driven innovation, and ensured client satisfaction. Jeffrey holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Management Information Systems from PACE University (1980-1984), as well as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Management Science from Ioana University (1986-1989). Jeffrey's talents extend beyond his professional commitments, actively participating in industry associations, events, and sponsorships. He served as a past President of the IAMCP Americas, further dedicating his time towards promoting excellence and collaboration within the technology industry.  Among his proudest achievements with Queue Associates was the company's recognition as worldwide Microsoft Dynamics SL Partner of the Year. The company's accolades continue to increase as Queue expands operations across the globe.    Quotes: "In the evolving world of ERP, AI tools like Microsoft Copilot are not just enhancements; they're game changers that redefine the way businesses operate."  "Success in today's fast-paced industry isn't just about having the right technology; it's about having the right people and partnerships."  "Choosing happiness and leading by example aren't just personal philosophies; they're essential leadership strategies that motivate and inspire teams."  "In sales, establishing credibility starts with comprehensive product knowledge and the ability to offer genuine, informed recommendations."    Links:  Jeffrey's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreylgoldstein/ Queue Associates - https://queueassoc.com Find this episode and all other Sales Lead Dog episodes at https://empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog/