Podcasts about microsoft partners

Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ The Shift from Attention to Trust In this compelling episode, Ashleigh Vogstad, CEO of Transcends, joins Vince Menzione to discuss the tectonic shifts occurring in the global partner ecosystem. Ashleigh shares her firsthand experiences studying AI at Oxford, the rise of the “Trust Economy,” and the controversial Amazon vs. Perplexity lawsuit. They dive deep into the practicalities of becoming a “Frontier Firm,” the importance of building proprietary AI agents, and the ways Gen Z and AI-driven marketplaces are revolutionizing the buyer journey. Whether you are looking to win Microsoft Partner of the Year or navigate the demise of traditional SaaS, this conversation provides a strategic roadmap for leading through the AI revolution. Key Takeaways The economy is shifting from a focus on human attention to a foundation of verified trust. Future commerce will involve “selling to machines” as AI agents begin making purchasing decisions on behalf of humans. Microsoft is prioritizing “Frontier Firms” that integrate AI into every customer interaction and internal process. Gen Z buyers are prioritizing product value and “dupes” over traditional brand names, with 75% of buyers expected to be Gen Z by 2030. To win Partner of the Year, organizations must publicly celebrate “better together” stories with validated customer wins. Modern leaders should transition from a “growth mindset” to a “frontier mindset” to keep pace with rapid technological change. https://youtu.be/xJmd43NvfnI If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags Trust Economy, Selling to Machines, Amazon vs Perplexity Lawsuit, Frontier Firm, AI Agents, Copilot Studio, Anthropic Claude, Microsoft Partner of the Year, B2B Marketplaces, Gen Z Buyer Behavior, Digital Freedom, AI Therapy, Ray Kurzweil Singularity, Substack Growth, Co-selling Partnerships, MCI Funding, Azure Accelerate, Agentic AI, Transcending Tech, Ashleigh Vogstad. Transcript Asleigh Vogstad Audio Podcast [00:00:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: The attention economy is about selling to human beings. Now, if you look at something like the Amazon versus Perplexity lawsuit, the whole underlying premise is around the shift of no longer selling to humans directly, but of selling to machines. [00:00:19] Vince Menzione: We just finished Ultimate Partners Winter Retreat here in beautiful Boca to a sold out crowd. Today I’m joined by Ashley Waad. The CEO of transcends for this compelling discussion. Ash, welcome back to the podcasts. [00:00:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s so good to be here, Vince. Thank you. Uh, [00:00:37] Vince Menzione: so well, we’re back in Boca again and we were just here yesterday for the Ultimate Partner Executive Winter Retreat in person. [00:00:44] Vince Menzione: What a great event we had together. [00:00:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: It was phenomenal. Thank you so much for having us there and on stage and, and genuinely the community is like a family, so seeing so many familiar faces and spending some quality time was just great. [00:00:57] Vince Menzione: It has really, truly become like family. It really, I’m, I’m, I’m having so much fun with this and getting to watch. [00:01:04] Vince Menzione: Not just our business grow and our community grow, but to see all of our friends and, uh, organizations like Transcends that have been with us since the beginning, since the very first ultimate partner acting even before the first ultimate partner. And, uh. We were just talking about. I’d love to catch up with what you’ve been doing. [00:01:22] Vince Menzione: Like you just came, you’ve been on a whirlwind. I mean, you’re always, every time like it’s, where’s Ash? She’s, uh, she’s on a plane again, or she’s on, she’s on the slopes. But tell us where you were just this week. [00:01:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. The week started in a snowstorm, actually transporting myself from Whistler. I didn’t know if I would make it to the airport, but then down to Silicon Valley and [00:01:45] Vince Menzione: Nice. [00:01:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: Wow, that place is just inspiring and eyeopening. I mean, seeing the Nvidia campus, a MD, it’s really just other worldly and it had me reflecting on, it’s [00:02:00] Vince Menzione: not Whistler. Yeah, it’s [00:02:02] Ashleigh Vogstad: definitely not Whistler. Definitely not Whistler [00:02:05] Vince Menzione: about, [00:02:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: um, yeah, it just had me reflecting on being down there. I used to spend a lot of time in the Valley around 2017 and. [00:02:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: In this theme of AI and kind of what’s really coming, I was, I was thinking about, I had met this woman, Julia Moss Bridge, who’s a neuroscientist studying ai. She had a project called Loving Ai, and I was down there when they had borrowed Sophia, this humanoid robot from S and Robotics. [00:02:32] Vince Menzione: Oh yes. Yes. [00:02:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: Really interesting. [00:02:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Sophia’s actually a citizen of Saudi. Mm-hmm. First, first robot to actually be made citizen of a country. So they had Sophia set up and the part that was just mind boggling at the time was that Sophia was hosting in real life therapy sessions with actual human beings sitting across the table. And what really struck me as. [00:02:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: Kind of just, you know, that was only eight, nine years ago. And that was esoteric. Wacky and [00:03:05] Vince Menzione: eerie. [00:03:05] Ashleigh Vogstad: Weird. [00:03:05] Vince Menzione: Eerie at the time. [00:03:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: Incredibly eerie. Yeah. I mean, a, a human getting, uh, you know, therapy sessions from a robot sitting across the table. Yeah. And it just had me thinking how far we’ve come today. In 2025, Harvard Business Review said that therapy is actually the number one use case for ai. [00:03:26] Vince Menzione: I’ve heard that. That is striking. I go back to COVID. We were having this conversation last night at at the dinner for the Ultimate Partner event, and I think that COVID allowed us to transcend, [00:03:42] Ashleigh Vogstad: mm-hmm. [00:03:42] Vince Menzione: No pun intended there, but actually accelerate where we are today, that the acceptance of AI and the acceleration, or the ability to accept change so quickly. [00:03:56] Vince Menzione: Started with COVID because we were so, so we were forced on whatever it was, March 10th I think, here in the United States to shut down everything and move to this remote life. [00:04:08] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm-hmm. [00:04:09] Vince Menzione: And I think we’ve been shocked by that. I think our systems have all been shocked by that. And then here comes chat GBT in November of 2022 and we’re like. [00:04:20] Vince Menzione: Shocked in some respects, but like really everyone has embraced it in such a strong way, and now we’re getting. It’s almost daily update. You know, we’re gonna talk, I know we’re gonna talk about Anthropic and some of the things that’s been happening just in this last month that are striking and changing that have a lot of organizations trying to navigate, which is what, you know, you, you help organizations do. [00:04:43] Vince Menzione: But it feels like this is happening so fast and will continue to happen so fast. And as I said yesterday, I don’t know what this world’s gonna look like by 2030. [00:04:53] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, and I think the thing is, is that nobody knows what the world is gonna look like in 2030. I’ve been reading Ray Kurz Well’s, the Singularity is nearer, so the original book, the Singularity is near and he’s known to be a very accurate predictionist on the future. [00:05:11] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. But even with someone like that, you know, there, there nobody really knows what the world is gonna look like. And when you talk about COVID. At transcends, we have a value of digital freedom. So I founded the business in 2018, which was pre COVID. I as a fully remote organization, and at the time that was, you know, more groundbreaking, but then very quickly with CI that, that became the so-called new normal. [00:05:37] Ashleigh Vogstad: But we’re always thinking about. You know, remote first doesn’t mean remote only, and I think in this tide of what you’ve talked about, technological change being more acceptable and the pace of change. One of the interesting things that we see as a go-to-market agency is that in-person events are increasing. [00:05:56] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:05:57] Ashleigh Vogstad: People want and crave the face-to-face. Just like with the ultimate partner series. [00:06:02] Vince Menzione: I felt it. So it was striking yesterday. It, it seems like it’s, again, this was event number nine for us, but to see the, um, uh, receptiveness isn’t the right term, but it was this, uh, people, the, the embracing. Of seeing each other and hugging each other and being in the same room with each other. [00:06:22] Vince Menzione: And even people that didn’t know each other, like by the, the, as the day evolved, this, uh, connection that they all seemed to have with one another during the sessions and participating, everyone actively participated in the sessions. And, um, I said this in the beginning, we’re not a Slack channel and we’re not like some post on LinkedIn. [00:06:43] Vince Menzione: Uh, we’re there, there’s no playbook that’s set today around partnerships or even go to markets and marketing that we could espouse and say, this is the playbook for the next year. Right. It’s, it’s changing so rapidly. [00:06:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: So rapidly, [00:06:57] Vince Menzione: and you’ve embraced it. And I, and what we’re gonna talk about right now, I mean, I, I, you know, you’ve embraced AI in such a strong way. [00:07:04] Vince Menzione: Um, personally and with your business, I want to, I wanna dive in here a little bit. First of all, a couple things For those of those who are listening who don’t know you, I think maybe just a moment about transcends and your role, and then I wanna dive in on how you’re thinking about ai because I know you’re doing some things personally. [00:07:22] Vince Menzione: I want you to share that with, with our listeners and viewers today. [00:07:25] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, great. And I just wanna comment that it was a cool moment yesterday being up on stage with yourself and Mark Monday from ServiceNow and having the audience so engaged and active and Nina Harding from Microsoft stepping up and entering the conversation. [00:07:40] Vince Menzione: So cool. [00:07:41] Ashleigh Vogstad: It just made for such a collaborative experience, which was a cool moment, but yeah. Um, so. I founded this business, transcends a go-to-market agency after being at Microsoft myself. And really our differentiation is deep strategic partnerships with hyperscalers, whether that’s AWS, Google, Microsoft, and you know, that. [00:08:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: It comes with a challenge to be on the leading edge of technology. [00:08:08] Vince Menzione: Yes, [00:08:09] Ashleigh Vogstad: it, it’s really an imperative for our business and we are an AI first firm. Microsoft talks a lot about Frontier Firm, and I’ll take a, a different kind of angle on it. You know, when I think about Frontier. I now think about it as instead of the growth mindset, I now think about a frontier mindset. [00:08:28] Vince Menzione: Frontier mindset. You have to change my principles. [00:08:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, maybe, like you said, the world is changing so rapidly. Yeah, it’s [00:08:36] Vince Menzione: changing rapidly. [00:08:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: And what a frontier mindset means is that as we’re approaching work for our clients, we are thinking about AI innovation in every single customer. Interaction, customer innovation. [00:08:49] Ashleigh Vogstad: So today we’re building AI agents into much of the work that we’re delivering for clients. And as a business owner and leader, I’ve been challenged to also think critically around how I’m choosing to run the company. And right now we’re going through a huge overhaul of where we have data sitting in silos and different applications. [00:09:09] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yep. And getting that into one place with one view so we can start layering on more insight. AI innovation. [00:09:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And data’s such an critical part, part of this, as we, we talked about yesterday. But you know, even the, what you said, which is, would, would’ve been striking a year ago to say, we’re an AI first, uh, agency isn’t as striking anymore. [00:09:32] Vince Menzione: Uh, we heard Nina when we were having this conversation on stage yesterday, say that it’s an imperative at Microsoft that the agencies that they choose to work with, the third party vendors that they work with have to be an AI first organization. I have to be a frontier firm, and so I’m a, I am sensitive to the word frontier firm. [00:09:53] Vince Menzione: I understand why Microsoft uses it and I understand the value of what we used to call, you know, customer zero or back in the day we used to say eating your own dog food, but essentially being an organization that has leaned in, in a way, and with ai. Even more so, so important to do it. So tell us, I know you’ve done some things personally as well, but tell, tell us what you’ve done with the organization. [00:10:18] Vince Menzione: Uh, you talked about data and making data available and having, having a true data state as opposed to silos of data, but then you also made some personal investments and sacrifices. I would say. [00:10:30] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. [00:10:30] Vince Menzione: Yeah. In terms of what you’re doing around ai, [00:10:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: so I mean, let’s start on the personal side. I’m the CEO of my organization, and you can read in books or news articles that it is critical for AI transformation to start at the C-suite and specifically in the CEO seat. [00:10:46] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:10:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: And that really. Landed for me and so I’m personally leading in About two weeks ago, I built an agent, just end-to-end on my own, got into copilot studio. Wow. Got comfortable with the interface. You know, I was clunky moving around in there at first, chose my model. You know, I went with one of the anthropic Claude models for this particular project and built up an agent that can deliver executive communications like. [00:11:14] Ashleigh Vogstad: Thought leadership blogs, uh, LinkedIn posts, but in a particular human being’s voice by ingesting things like their social profiles, their SharePoint sites, where they live and work. And it has been so surprising doing an ab test between just what a chat GBT or a copilot could produce. [00:11:32] Yeah. [00:11:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: In comparison with the authenticity of the voice coming from the agent. [00:11:37] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, it was just a really cool experience to roll up the sleeves and get in there. But also I think the, the investment that you’re referring to is, I made a big decision to return to school and uh, got accepted to go to Oxford. [00:11:52] Vince Menzione: Wow. [00:11:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: And I’m studying artificial intelligence there. [00:11:54] Vince Menzione: That is incredible. That is incredible. [00:11:57] Vince Menzione: Oxford, uh, we’ve heard of that school before here in the United States. [00:12:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, it’s been a really great experience. It’s in person, so I’m traveling there about every 60 to 90 days and living on campus. I mean, really, Oxford isn’t. Formally a campus, it’s sort of a, a city and a university all, all ruled into one and the experience has been really powerful. [00:12:21] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yes. One of the things I wanted to get outta the program was a more global perspective, and it’s been fascinating to me that about half the faculty so far, or or professors, guest lecturers that have been coming into the program have been from China or very direct experience working in the Chinese market. [00:12:38] Vince Menzione: That is fascinating. [00:12:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s been a completely different view. Or for example, you know, really digging into some of the legal cases that are driving precedence for how AI is interacting with corporations. [00:12:51] Vince Menzione: Mm. [00:12:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: One of the big ones for me has been looking at Amazon versus p perplexity. This is still a live case that’s happening right now. [00:12:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: And you know, I think it was Forbes magazine that the headline was the End of Commerce for this case because it’s really about. How human beings are being replaced with machines and hearing some of the world’s leading thinkers, leading AI researchers on these topics has just been really expansive. [00:13:19] Vince Menzione: It’s fascinating. [00:13:20] Vince Menzione: I mean, it’s, this started a couple years ago with, uh, Hollywood, in fact. Suing the industry or suing the technology companies with regards to, uh, employment, right? Mm-hmm. About the, the, uh, copyright infringement and what’s gonna happen in the entertainment industry. And I think that was just a one very small example. [00:13:40] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, voice people think about DeepFakes. Yeah. And they think about video, but actually voice is a big issue. And you look at the, um, you know, the what happened between Scarlett Johansson and her voice in her, and then open AI rolling out a voice that sounded identical. Sounds like her. [00:13:59] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:13:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: To Scarlett Johansen and, and where that went. [00:14:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s, it, this is a new ground for, for everybody that we’re going through right now. [00:14:07] Vince Menzione: It is. We can dive and go in so many different directions, but let’s talk about marketing and advertising since that’s kind of. Transcends core, and a lot of the people that watch and listen to us are in the partnership world. [00:14:22] Vince Menzione: They’re leading organizations, they own organizations, the the chief executives or CVPs of organizations. Let’s talk about advertising and where that’s going. [00:14:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, great. [00:14:33] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:14:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean, uh, I love Marshall McCluen. He’s a Canadian theor, uh, media theorist, and in 1964, he very famously said, the medium is the message. [00:14:43] Ashleigh Vogstad: And what that really means when you peel back the layers is that every type of communication medium has these inherent biases. And I think what we’re experiencing right now is this new medium of artificial intelligence, and I’m really interested in exploring what that means for the media world. So. If I gonna take you back to 1997, there’s this really famous, the Innovator’s Dilemma. [00:15:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yes. Kind of a classic business 1 0 1 type book by Clayton Christensen. Yes. And he talks about this theory of disruption where new technologies, emerging technologies start at the low end of the market. They gain this momentum and they eventually displace incumbents. And you know, sometimes seemingly out of nowhere. [00:15:28] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And Microsoft was a good example of this at that time. [00:15:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: Def, [00:15:32] Vince Menzione: yeah. [00:15:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: All the big players. All the big players. I mean, Google go for search as well, right? So that’s one of the classic examples. And so. If we look at storytelling technology, you have things like chat, GBT and Sora entering the scene. And in the beginning, you know, they’re producing a shitty first draft. [00:15:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, you know, it’s things like post-apocalyptic dogs with five finger human beings. Yeah. Things like this. But, you know, and they really lacked emotional resonance. But as we all know. That’s not the case anymore. No, it’s [00:16:05] Vince Menzione: not. [00:16:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: AI is increasingly producing content that is very powerful and is starting to resonate with people. [00:16:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, I’m definitely not a neuroscientist, but if we, we look into the neuroscience, it’s your cortical sal circuit that. Kind of is responsible for pattern recognition and it compares what you’re seeing in the real world with what you expect to see. So when you take this into a space of advertising, you know, if there’s an ad that is AI generated, that is just weird and kind of. [00:16:38] Ashleigh Vogstad: Tweaking for you. [00:16:39] Vince Menzione: Like that robot we were talking about earlier, [00:16:41] Ashleigh Vogstad: like the robot we were Exactly, yeah. Like Sophia, you enter what psychologists call the uncanny valley, so it’s like what you’re looking at isn’t exactly what you’re expecting to see and the Spidey sense is, is tweaking. You know, that’s a low place of emotional resonance. [00:16:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: This world is changing really, really quickly and we’re seeing AI generated media make huge impacts in the market Now, tools like Luma Dream Machine, I mean, it’s incredible what they can achieve today. [00:17:11] Vince Menzione: It’s fascinating. We see it in, you know, I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. That’s sort of the world of our business community, and you can very easily detect when someone is doing a post. [00:17:22] Vince Menzione: Or they’re writing an art, whatever they’re doing. Right. Some type of draft of something. Uh, and you can tell when it’s ai, I mean, it’s so easy to tell, and even people are generating reports and claiming that their research papers or studies or whatever they call them, uh, and it’s AI generated and it’s just the authenticity isn’t there. [00:17:39] Vince Menzione: The, the sense that this is real. That it can be trusted is not there. And I think trust is what we’re talking about here too, as well. [00:17:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. I mean, let’s go to authenticity ’cause that’s super important. Yeah. And I know a lot of your listeners, you come from the hyperscaler world of partnerships. You need to have that differentiated, better together story. [00:17:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. It’s really important to have an authentic voice in market. And I think about that also in terms of platforms and channels. We’re seeing a decrease in certain major social media platforms, and yet Substack spiked 48% in monthly active users last month. [00:18:15] Vince Menzione: That’s [00:18:16] fascinating. [00:18:16] Ashleigh Vogstad: Um, you know, and I think that one of the reasons is it’s viewed as a more authentic channel where you’re getting thought leadership from people that you’re, you know, genuinely interested in hearing their, their points of view. [00:18:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: And I think that’s really an important piece in here. [00:18:31] Vince Menzione: Yeah, you mentioned this yesterday and you had me thinking about it as well because we have used LinkedIn for everything internally, our newsletter, which has been around for six or seven years now. But that Substack is really, and I go to Substack too, to, if I really wanna dig in on a topic. [00:18:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:18:47] Vince Menzione: And there’s a particular author that I like their point of view, I’ll follow, I’ll follow them on Substack. [00:18:53] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. I mean, and this comes, maybe brings us around to who is the buyer and who is the audience, and who do we need to be thinking about when we’re designing sales and marketing programs. And really we’re, we’re shifting into the place of the Gen Z buyer by 20 30, 70 5% of buyers are gonna be Gen Z. [00:19:12] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re gonna control 12 trillion in. Spend [00:19:16] Vince Menzione: by 2030. ’cause we, we’ve been, we’ve been saying that the millennial is the new buyer the last three years. I think Jay said it right here at this stage. [00:19:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:19:24] Vince Menzione: Um, so now it’s Gen Z. [00:19:27] Ashleigh Vogstad: And they’re buying online. Yeah, they’re buying in marketplaces. Yeah. So a stat recently was that roughly half of them made purchases on the social platforms of YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok in the last month. [00:19:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean, that buyer behavior of being inside. Social type application and directly making a purchase. And I think in the B2B world, we need to take lessons from here and start thinking more front and center than we even have been around marketplaces. I mean, part of my reason for being in Silicon Valley this week was to celebrate a $12 million transaction that happened via Marketplace and two years ago that would’ve been a huge deal. [00:20:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: Huge, [00:20:07] Vince Menzione: huge. [00:20:07] Ashleigh Vogstad: And, and it still is a really big deal, but these things are becoming. More and more common experiences. Very much so. We need to be there and in that conversation. [00:20:16] Vince Menzione: So how are you thinking about it? How are you directing your clients to behave or act around it? What are you, what are you doing exactly that we could take to this community perhaps and share with them. [00:20:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: I’ll bring it back to the authenticity piece because you need to have a product that delivers value first and foremost. There is, there is no substitution for that. Yeah, and what I would say is. One of my professors at Oxford, Eric Zow, he has this theory that I’m really digging into and finding very fascinating, which is that for the last several decades we’ve been in the attention economy, and that’s shifting to the trust economy. [00:20:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: Now the attention economy is about selling to human beings. Yeah. It’s about the, the business model is essentially that you need human being eyeballs on lists of recommendation links. Yeah. Whether that’s from Google or from, you know, searching, shopping on Amazon, you get this list of recommendation links and the economic engine that drives that business model is advertising. [00:21:19] Ashleigh Vogstad: Now, if you look at something like the Amazon versus Perplexity lawsuit, the whole underlying premise is around the shift of no longer selling to humans directly, but of selling to machines, or in other words, agents who are making purchases, s on behalf on your behalf. And an agent isn’t going to be razzle dazzled by some inauthentic story. [00:21:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:21:44] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re gonna be looking for third party validation on Exactly. You know, they need to be sure that they’re making the right decision. [00:21:51] Vince Menzione: They’re gonna look at surveys, they’re gonna look at customer comments. Like if I went through my Amazon site and I was looking to see what people said about the purchase or the product and specifically Exactly. [00:22:01] Vince Menzione: The agent’s gonna do this on my behalf, is what you’re saying. [00:22:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: This is what I’m saying. Yeah. And, and. I believe that to layer on top of, you know, Eric Z’s philosophy, I’ve been thinking about this in terms of the hyperscaler world, and I think that this is the time to lean into co-selling partnerships. [00:22:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, because being third party validated by somebody like AWS Microsoft and having all that co-sell data, what are your recent wins? Yes, that’s really high integrity, trusted data source for an agent to make a purchasing decision, and marketplaces are a key part of that. [00:22:35] Vince Menzione: So we’ll move from AI will take a, a more active role in the marketplace. [00:22:40] Ashleigh Vogstad: I definitely believe so. [00:22:42] Vince Menzione: Which makes total sense. I, you know, we’ve been doing this for nine or 10 years now, and when I was at Microsoft, we started co-selling. In fact, it was, uh, Aaron Feiger was up on stage yesterday talking about it. Right? January of 2016, co-selling began. [00:22:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:22:56] Vince Menzione: And there were only a few companies doing it. [00:22:59] Vince Menzione: Right. So she worked with one of the very first ones that were doing it. Uh, the challenge we have today is there are tens of thousands of partner organizations in the marketplace that are all trying to get the attention of the Microsoft sellers. Hmm. As, or the Google sellers or the AWS sellers and tell their story. [00:23:19] Vince Menzione: And a seller only has so many minutes in a day, they have a quota that they have to hit. These quotas are tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars of annual quota of cloud consumption. And I wanna sell my $50,000 widget, whatever it is. Yeah. Right. And I, I don’t understand why I’m not getting a callback. [00:23:38] Vince Menzione: And this, this is the dilemma we’ve faced because of, because of this, uh, scarcity of time and this over overwhelming of tech, you know. Tech, tech buyers trying to make this all happen, so now the AI can come in and help me solve for it as a seller, right? [00:23:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: The AI is definitely acting as an interface to make recommendations to field sellers in different organizations and. [00:24:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: To, to kind of take this on a, a tangent. Dupes. So a dupe. I know people of my generation, we’d think about this like a knockoff Right. You know, a knockoff handbag. [00:24:15] Vince Menzione: Yep. [00:24:15] Ashleigh Vogstad: Dupes have exploded. [00:24:16] Vince Menzione: Fake. Fake Rolexes. [00:24:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: Exactly. The fake Rolex for sure. And I think it was in December, P WC rolled out a survey. 81% of Gen Z were planning to purchase a dupe this holiday season. [00:24:29] Vince Menzione: That’s wild. [00:24:30] Ashleigh Vogstad: Dupes can be, you know, we gave luxury, good examples, but Louis [00:24:34] Vince Menzione: Vuitton and yeah. So, [00:24:35] Ashleigh Vogstad: but furniture, these sorts of things. And the important takeaway here for tech is the same principle will land, is that people are looking for value out of a product, not necessarily a name brand. AI is accelerating this whole process, and agents are gonna be looking at the same thing. [00:24:56] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re looking for that authenticity in terms of the actual product value. So, you know, beware there’s lots of disruption happening in the market right now with this dupe mentality, which is actually a cultural shift talking about I appreciate value over a superficial. Brand name. In some cases, there’s also a, a small contrary trend where certain luxury goods are rising because yes, things are never that simple. [00:25:22] Vince Menzione: So you work with a lot of these tech companies, a lot of SaaS companies, is we, we call them ISVs, we also call them, uh, software development companies. Now we keep changing these acronyms around. Uh, there’s been a lot of, uh, consternation in that segment, I would say, around ai. Right, because a lot of them are getting told that they’ll be outta business in a few years. [00:25:43] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. I think Satya Nadella famously said this last year that SAS will go away. Right? He’s predicting the demise. How do you help some of these organizations to differentiate? And there’s some of these are huge value organizations. We have have them in the room with us, ServiceNow and Veeam and Adobe. [00:26:01] Vince Menzione: Um, how do you help them achieve their results? ’cause that’s what you, you know, your organization is really helping these organizations to achieve their pinnacle as a partner. What do you, what do you say to them now and how do you help them through this time? [00:26:16] Ashleigh Vogstad: I’m on the side of the fence that I really can’t see an organization ripping out something like Salesforce, Adobe, ServiceNow. [00:26:24] Vince Menzione: Agreed. [00:26:24] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean that the amount of change management and. The extent to which these, these platforms are embedded, actually running and operating organizations. I personally, if, if we’re calling those companies, SaaS companies, I don’t agree that that layer is gonna go away. I mean, we’re seeing these organizations lean into AI in a huge way to borrow Microsofts. [00:26:50] Ashleigh Vogstad: Term, you know, they’re all becoming frontier firms. [00:26:54] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:26:54] Ashleigh Vogstad: So where I would go to, to answer that question, we do work with many, you know, organizations on that caliber, on things like their marketplace strategy on how to light up the fields of different hyperscalers. It really does come down to things like having a strong drumbeat with the Microsoft field, celebrating your win stories. [00:27:15] Ashleigh Vogstad: Maybe that’s where I’ll land as Please do the marketer, because it sounds so simple, and I don’t know why we kind of continue to come back to this, but we’re talking about that third party validation and really, um, in order to have that, like what the hyperscalers want is you jointly celebrating success. [00:27:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: Here’s the kicker. Publicly. [00:27:38] Vince Menzione: Publicly, [00:27:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: you know, you need a customer story on your website, a press release that contains a quote from your customer. Ideally, also a quote from an executive at one of the hyperscalers. Like, actually lean in to live the value of your better together story. And when you do that, when you, when it comes around to partner of the year time, and we talk to you about, okay, what client stories are we gonna feature? [00:28:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: We’re even gonna know because when we Google you, we can see the public press of the joint wins that you’ve been celebrating. And I can tell you that that is a huge indicator on whether or not you’re well-placed to be in the 4% of partners who actually win Partner of the Year award’s. [00:28:20] Vince Menzione: Fascinating to me. [00:28:21] Vince Menzione: ’cause to me it would feel like table stakes maybe ’cause where we sit is ultimate partner and where this room sits with all the top partners that I just assume that everybody follows that. That, that guidance. [00:28:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:28:34] Vince Menzione: And so this is really impactful and I want to get here because I know you spent a lot of time here and we’ve talked about it before, but I think the partner of the year awards, when we first met many years ago, that was a you, you’ve expanded the business, but that’s still a core mission and and value that you bring to the community and to the partner ecosystem is helping them through this process. [00:28:55] Vince Menzione: So I know that that’s gonna be coming up soon, so I thought maybe we’d spend a couple moments on that. [00:29:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: Partner of the Year awards, regardless of which partner, I mean, Salesforce has their own awards there. There’s more and more award programs coming out, and they’re a great way to celebrate the incredible work that your organization has done. [00:29:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: Jay McBain is brilliant on this. He’ll talk a lot about the increase in valuation. Yeah. The, the increase in stock valuation or the likelihood that if you’re looking to be acquired, that you’re acquired within 12 months of a partner of the year win it. It’s really impressive. There is strong business value there. [00:29:33] Vince Menzione: He like, he likes, he likes to tell the story of that when the award is handed to them and they go back into the audience, that the private equity people are all over them right then and there and making offers. I mean, that’s the visual that you get [00:29:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: and it’s very powerful. Yeah. Very powerful. It’s very powerful and it, it can make it worthwhile to invest in the process, but don’t invest in the process if you haven’t been investing in the process for the 12 months. [00:29:57] Ashleigh Vogstad: Prior, [00:29:58] Vince Menzione: exactly. [00:29:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: The Microsoft field or you we’re talking about Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards. They need to know about your win that that needs to be top of mind for them. Yeah. How much Azure revenue is it driving? Was it a huge marketplace? Build sales and. You know, one of the questions I get asked a ton, everybody wants to know how do we get money out of the hyperscalers? [00:30:20] Ashleigh Vogstad: How do I get access to marketing development funds or all these different programs? Yeah. You know, at Microsoft, some of these programs are like EI and customer investment funds or Azure Accelerate, you know, and there’s millions and millions and millions of dollars in these, these buckets of funds, but. [00:30:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: An interesting point of view is that it’s actually a scorecard metric for many people at Microsoft who have partnership roles for you to be drawing down those funds. [00:30:45] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:30:45] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, your interests are actually aligned here, and so again, when it comes to Partner of the Year awards, how much money have you pulled down? [00:30:54] Ashleigh Vogstad: How much have you been an activating partner of key Microsoft programs that they’re pushing? What are you doing with marketplace rewards? How are you resing? Those into your business. These are the types of things that you really wanna be thinking about. Sitting it. You know, this time of year we probably will get the awards were likely be due in July. [00:31:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: They haven’t officially announced timelines, but you’ve got a few months to start moving these pieces into place. [00:31:18] Vince Menzione: And there are quite a few of them. And to your point, Nina, when she was up on stage here yesterday, there were at least 10 or 12 award. Uh. Funding categories that were on her, that were on her slide. [00:31:31] Vince Menzione: Her partner, her partner slide. So, [00:31:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: and what great looks like for a partner is that you understand your end-to-end funnel as it is mapped to Microsoft’s SEM model, the Microsoft customer Engagement model. Mm-hmm. The first stage there, inspire and design. That’s really the marketing space of lead generation. [00:31:50] Ashleigh Vogstad: So how are you generating leads with webinars, in-person, event activations, digital campaigns, and then at the very end, in the fifth column, you have the Microsoft outcomes that you’re driving. Yes. Whether that’s Azure consumed revenue, marketplace build sales, co-pilot, monthly active usage, these sorts of things. [00:32:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: And in each of those SEM swim lanes. There’s Microsoft funding associated to it. And that’s one of the things that Nina Harding was showing yesterday. When and where does it make sense to make requests for EA funds versus Azure accelerate the MCI funding? There’s different workshop proof of concept funding, and those all fall at specific stages in that EM model. [00:32:33] Vince Menzione: And what you’re also pointing out in this conversation is that the co the partners need to understand that mm, they need to understand MM. We talked about it years ago. I’ve had, haven’t had anybody on stage recently talk about m You could probably take us through that if we wanted to devote some time here, uh, and then understand all of those categories and how to access those funds. [00:32:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, it’s critical and. The number one place we point partners, if you want a quick overview of what that looks like is to Microsoft’s FY 26 solution playbooks. Nice. They’re available on the web for download. There’s, well, there used to be three, but they’ve added a few agen being, being one. So, so there’s a handful of, they had [00:33:11] Vince Menzione: simplified it, now they’re, now they’re expanding it back again. [00:33:14] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, exactly. I think there’s now a breakout for security as well. Yes. So take a look at those playbooks. It will map programs and incentives very specifically to each solution area and to each sales play that are gonna be available to you. And then we’re always happy to guide people through the details [00:33:32] Vince Menzione: as well. [00:33:32] Vince Menzione: I love that. I love that. And reach out to the. Ashley is just amazing at this process. I’ve, I’ve watched her for years now, work with some of the top, what have become the pinnacle partners of Microsoft and with the award season coming up. So we wanna make sure we have a plug there. But I also wanna talk about like, podcasts with you. [00:33:50] Vince Menzione: Um, you’ve been on this podcast multiple times, been in the studio before doing this, and I understand you have your own podcast now. So tell us about that. [00:33:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, Vince, I just wanna say. As a friend and a mentor. You’ve been so inspiring. Thank you. And I think from years ago when we met, there was this seed in my brain of, you know, I, I should really get out there. [00:34:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: And you talk a lot about growth mindset and fear setting is, is one of Tim Ferriss’s terms? Yes. And models. [00:34:21] Vince Menzione: I love Tim Ferris. I’ve been, been a fan of his for 10 years now. So that’s settled. We all got started with this. Sorry. Sorry, I [00:34:26] Ashleigh Vogstad: interrupt. No, no, not at all. [00:34:27] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:34:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: And. I think it’s just been, it’s been back there. [00:34:31] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. That I’m really passionate around having voice is how I think about it. And as a marketing agency, we’re really amplifying the voice, um, or helping companies to find their voice, particularly in hyperscaler partnerships. And what better way to assist, you know, authentically the amazing people in our network, in our community and our clients than with our own channel where we can celebrate their stories and success? [00:35:00] Vince Menzione: Very cool. [00:35:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: So the podcast is called Transcending Tech. It’s about [00:35:06] Vince Menzione: very cool transcending tech. Just so you don’t [00:35:08] Ashleigh Vogstad: transcending tech. [00:35:08] Vince Menzione: It’s out there now. [00:35:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: It, we just released our first episode. Okay. I think two days ago. [00:35:13] Vince Menzione: So by the time we’re live, yes. We’ll, we’ll be able to access it. Good. [00:35:17] Ashleigh Vogstad: You will be able to access it. [00:35:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: The first episode is with Alyssa Fit. Patrick from Elastic. [00:35:21] Vince Menzione: Oh my goodness. [00:35:22] Ashleigh Vogstad: And the concept of the podcast, it’s long form and it’s really about getting to the people behind the platforms. [00:35:29] Vince Menzione: Very cool. [00:35:29] Ashleigh Vogstad: And to the stories that transcend technology. So we’re here to get to know the human beings behind. Agents. [00:35:38] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:35:38] Ashleigh Vogstad: And taking the time to, to go in deep and really explore that. [00:35:43] Vince Menzione: So I am excited to see all the developments here with the, with the podcast. And you’re gonna be joining us again. You were just here, you in Boca. But you’ll be joining us again in Bellevue. Not too far a little bit. Closer ride or travel, uh, for you to come to Bellevue. [00:35:57] Vince Menzione: We’re gonna be hosting the first ultimate partner live, which is our larger events in this beautiful facility, this new Intercontinental hotel, which is fabulous. And, uh, you’re gonna be taking a more active role. Your leadership around AI is. Palpable and we’re gonna love to have you on stage and talking through some of the changes. [00:36:17] Vince Menzione: I, I suspect by the time we get to Bellevue we’ll have a lot more to talk about. That hasn’t even happened yet. [00:36:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, I’m really excited. I’ll have been through my next cohort at at Oxford, kind of coming out hot from there back to the Pacific Northwest, and really excited to just share the learnings and Awesome. [00:36:35] Ashleigh Vogstad: Genuinely. It’s also helping me in my own research, really formulate particularly around the role of ag agentic AI in hyperscaler partnerships. [00:36:43] Vince Menzione: That’s so cool. And then what I’ll say is this, and I don’t know, we on the space perspective, and I’ll, the team will probably hang me for this because we haven’t done it yet, but if you wanna bring the podcast along with you, there might be, we’ll see if we can find an extra room for you to set up. [00:36:58] Vince Menzione: If you wanna do some interviews while you’re. In, at the event. So [00:37:02] Ashleigh Vogstad: you’re so generous, Vince. [00:37:03] Vince Menzione: That’s [00:37:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: amazing. [00:37:04] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Again, I can’t say for certainty yet, but, uh, let’s see, let’s see what happens with that. So, uh, let, let’s, uh, you know, I always, we, we have known each other for years and I just assume everybody knows this amazing Ashley sda. [00:37:19] Vince Menzione: But, um, we always, I like to ask this question because it helps us kind of dig in a little bit about you personally. And it’s my favorite question. I ask all my guests this question now, and it’s, um, you’re hosting a dinner party, Ashley, you are, pick a pace, place, you wanna have this dinner. We could talk about parts of the world. [00:37:36] Vince Menzione: You’ve traveled all extensively. Uh, and you can invite any three people, guests from the present. Or the past to this amazing dinner party you’re throwing. Whom would you invite and why? [00:37:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s a beautiful question, Vince and. Instantly I go to a place in terms of the location, since you asked that part, which was surprising. [00:38:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: I, I like that is my home. I, I love where I live up in Whistler, Canada and [00:38:08] Vince Menzione: I hear it’s beautiful. I haven’t been yet, [00:38:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: it’s so gorgeous and it’s, it’s my own sanctuary. You know, I live on a plane 75% of the time and coming back to that place is really grounding for me. Yes. So, so I would love to have it at, at my home and to invite. [00:38:24] Ashleigh Vogstad: Pippa Malrin would be one. She, Pippa [00:38:26] Vince Menzione: Malrin. [00:38:27] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. She’s sure. I get an advisor to the White House for many administrations. Okay. She’s an economist and she just has really interesting perspective on geopolitics. Uh, I follow her on Substack ’cause she’s a big substack. Okay, now [00:38:41] Vince Menzione: I need to look. This is awesome. [00:38:42] Vince Menzione: The [00:38:43] Ashleigh Vogstad: mal, she’s fantastic. I would say Dr. Lisa Sue, the CEO, Dr. Lisa of a md. [00:38:49] Vince Menzione: Okay. Yes, yes. I know a little bit about her. [00:38:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: So she was one of Time Mag, I think she was the only woman in Time Magazine’s, group of people of the year, which was basically this AI cohort in including, you know, the Elon Musks of the world. [00:39:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, it’s just so impressive what she’s doing with leadership in a MD. I don’t think it’s as public as. Anybody else who is on the cover of that magazine, but it’s incredibly powerful. [00:39:14] Vince Menzione: Yeah, they’ve made a com uh, turnaround’s probably not the right word, but it seems like they’ve made a tremendous, uh, gains turnaround probably in the last few years. [00:39:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: I would say that many would say turnaround. And then lastly is Dr. Fefe Lee, who. For those in the AI space, particularly AI research space. I mean, she’s arguably number one. Um, she’s leading at Stanford currently. [00:39:37] Vince Menzione: Wow. This is gonna be a heady conversation, but you know, I love conversations. So if you don’t mind, maybe I’ll bring dessert and come, come in for a few moments, maybe do some podcast interviews there. [00:39:48] Vince Menzione: How’s that? [00:39:49] Ashleigh Vogstad: That sounds absolutely perfect, Vince, [00:39:50] Vince Menzione: so, so good. So good to have you here today. So great. Good to have you in the studio again, and, uh, excited for transcends and all the great work you’re doing. Um. This time with ai. I think you, uh, we talked about this a little bit last night. I think you’ve made some really wise, personal and professional decisions about how to lead and how to take this forward and not kind of rest on your laurels, which you see so many organizations do People fear change [00:40:17] Ashleigh Vogstad: Hmm. [00:40:18] Vince Menzione: And you embrace it, which is just, it’s astounding to me that you do that and, um. I look forward to working with you in the future and for years and years to come. So I will ask you one more question though, because we are still at the precipice of these tectonic shifts and we’re still early in 2026. And so for our listeners and our viewers today, what would be the one thing you would tell them that they need to go do now that possibly they haven’t done yet as they prepare for 2026 and beyond? [00:40:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: The generic phrase would be, be curious, but if we want an action, it would be go build an agent. [00:40:59] Vince Menzione: Go build an agent [00:41:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: if, if you haven’t already. Yeah. And, and I’m, yeah. Speaking hopefully to like a business audience, you know, to, to anyone. Yeah. Really, um, find something that is interesting that you’re passionate about. [00:41:12] Ashleigh Vogstad: A, a use case that it doesn’t have to be some big thing. It could be quite mundane, but just something that’s gonna help you in your role. It’s, you know, what is creativity is an interesting question, and I can tell you that sitting down and hands-on keys and actually creating something is, is a beautiful, powerful experience. [00:41:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Awesome. All right. We’re all gonna go create agents this weekend, so thank you for listening. Thank you for viewing the Ultimate Guide to partnering on our YouTube channel, ultimate Partner, and on each end of your platforms at the Ultimate Guide to partnering. Thank you for being with us and supporting us all these years. [00:41:50] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Don’t forget, ultimate Partner Live is coming soon, May 11th through the 13th in beautiful Bellevue, Washington. I hope to see you there.

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this exclusive interview, Vince Menzione sits down with Darryl Peek, Vice President for Partner Sales (Public Sector) at Elastic, to decode how Elastic achieved the rare “triple crown”—winning Partner of the Year across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud simultaneously. Darryl breaks down the engineering-first approach that makes Elastic sticky with hyperscalers, reveals the rigorous metrics behind their partner health scorecard, and shares his personal “one-page strategy” for aligning mission, vision, and execution. From leveraging generative AI for cleaner sales hygiene to the timeless lesson of the “Acre of Diamonds,” this conversation offers a masterclass in building high-performance partner ecosystems in the public sector and beyond. https://youtu.be/__GE0r2fPuk Key Takeaways Elastic achieved “Pinnacle” status by aligning engineering roadmaps directly with hyperscaler innovations to become essential infrastructure. Successful public sector sales require a dual approach: leveraging resellers for contract access while driving domain-specific co-sell motions. Partner relationships outperform contracts; consistency in communication is more valuable than only showing up for renewals. Effective partner organizations track “influence” revenue just as rigorously as direct bookings to capture the full value of SI relationships. Generative AI can automate sales hygiene, turning scattered meeting notes into actionable CRM data and reducing friction for sales teams. The “Acre of Diamonds” philosophy reminds leaders that the greatest opportunities often lie within their current ecosystem, not in distant new markets. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Keywords: Elastic, Darryl Peek, public sector sales, hyperscaler partnership, Microsoft Partner of the Year, AWS Partner of the Year, Google Cloud Partner, partner ecosystem strategy, co-sell motion, partner metrics, channel sales, government contracting, Carahsoft, generative AI in sales, sales hygiene, Russell Conwell, Acre of Diamonds, open source search, observability, security SIM, vector search, retrieval augmented generation, LLM agnostic, partner enablement, influence revenue, channel booking, SI relationships, strategic alliances. Transcript: Darryl Peek Audio Episode [00:00:00] Darryl Peek: I say, I tell my team from time to time, the difference between contacts and contracts is the R and that’s the relationship. So if you’re not building the relationship, then how do you expect that partner to want to lean in? Don’t just show up when you have a contract. Don’t just show up when you have a renewal. [00:00:13] Darryl Peek: Make sure that you are reaching out and letting them know what is happening. Don’t just talk to me when you need a renewal, right? When you’re at end of quarter and you want me to bring a deal forward, [00:00:23] Vince Menzione: welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi. Own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. [00:00:34] Vince Menzione: We just came off Ultimate Partner live at Caresoft Training Center in Reston, Virginia. Over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room, this episode brings you right to the edge of what’s next. Let’s dive in. So we have another privilege, an incredible partner, another like we call these, if you’ve heard our term, pinnacle. [00:01:00] Vince Menzione: I think it’s a term that’s not widely used, but we refer to Pinnacle as the partners that have achieved the top rung. They’ve become partners of the year. And our next presenter, our next interview is going to be with an organization. And a person that represents an organization that has been a pinnacle partner actually for all three Hyperscalers, which is really unusual. [00:01:24] Vince Menzione: Elastic has been partner of the Year award winner across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud, so very interesting. And Darrell Peak, who is the leader for the public sector organization, he’s here in the Washington DC area, was kind enough. Elastic is a sponsor event, and Darryl’s been kind enough to join me for a discussion about what it takes to be a Pinnacle partner. [00:01:47] Vince Menzione: So incredibly well. Excited to welcome you, Darryl. Thank you, sir. Good to have you. I love you. I love your smile, man. You got an incredible smile. Thank you. Thank you, Vince. Thank you. So Darryl, I probably didn’t do it any justice, but I was hoping you could take us through your role and responsibilities at Elastic, which is an incredible organization. [00:02:08] Vince Menzione: Alright. Yeah, [00:02:09] Darryl Peek: absolutely. So Darrell Peak vice President for partner sales for the US public sector at Elastic. I’ve been there about two and a half years. Responsible for our partner relationships across all partner types, whether that’s the system integrators, resellers, MSPs, OEMs, distribution Hyperscalers, and our Technology Alliance partners. [00:02:26] Darryl Peek: And those are partners that aren’t built on the Elastic platform. In regards to how my partner team interacts with our team. Our ecosystem. We are essentially looking to further and lean in with our partners in order for them to, one, understand what Elastic does since we’re such a diverse tool, but also work with our field to understand what are their priorities and how do they identify the right partners for the right requirements. [00:02:50] Darryl Peek: In regards to what Elastic is and what it does elastic is a solution that is actually founded on search and we’re an open source company. And one of the things that I actually did when I left the government, so I worked for the government for a number of years. I left, went and worked for Salesforce, then worked for Google ran their federal partner team and then came over to Elastic because I wanted to. [00:03:11] Darryl Peek: Understand what it meant to be at an open source company. Being at an open source company is quite interesting ’cause you’re competing against yourself. [00:03:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah, that’s true. [00:03:18] Darryl Peek: So it’s pretty interesting. But elastic was founded in 2012 as a search company. So when you talk about search, we are the second most used platform behind Google. [00:03:28] Darryl Peek: So many of you have already used Elastic. Maybe on your way here, if you use Uber and Lyft, that is elastic. That is helping you get here. Oh, that is interesting. If you use Netflix, if you use wikipedia.com, booking.com, eBay, home Depot, all of those are search capabilities. That Elastic is happening to power in regards to what else we do. [00:03:47] Darryl Peek: We also do observability, which is really around application monitoring, logging, tracing, and metrics. So we are helping your operations team. Pepsi is a customer as well as Cisco. Wow. And then the last thing that we do is security when we’re a SIM solution. So when we talk about sim, we are really looking to protect networks. [00:04:03] Darryl Peek: So we all, we think that it’s a data problem. So with that data problem, what we’re trying to do is not only understand what is happening in the network, but also we are helping with threat intelligence, endpoint and cloud security. So all those elements together is what Elastic does. And we only do it two ways. [00:04:18] Darryl Peek: We’re one platform and we can be deployed OnPrem and in the cloud. So that’s a little bit about me and the company. Hopefully it was clear, [00:04:24] Vince Menzione: I’ve had elastic people on stage. You’ve done, that’s the best answer I’ve had. What does Elastic do? I used to hear all this hyperbole and what? [00:04:32] Vince Menzione: What? Now I really understand what you do is an organiz. And the name of the company was Elasticsearch. [00:04:36] Darryl Peek: It was [00:04:37] Vince Menzione: elastic at one time when I first. Worked with you. It was Elasticsearch. [00:04:40] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. Yeah. So many moons ago used to be called the Elk Stack and it stood for three things. E was the Elasticsearch which is a search capability. [00:04:48] Darryl Peek: L is Logstash, which is our logging capability. And Cabana is essentially our visualization capability. So it was called Elk. But since we’ve acquired so many companies and built so much capability into the platform, we can now call it the elastic. Platform. [00:05:00] Vince Menzione: So talk to me about your engagement with the hyperscalers. [00:05:02] Vince Menzione: You’ve been partner of the Year award winner with all three, right? I mentioned that, and you were, you worked for Google for a period of time. Yes. So tell us about, like, how does that work? What does that engagement look like? And why do you get chosen as partner of the year? What are the things that stand out when you’re working with these hyperscalers [00:05:19] Darryl Peek: and with that we are very fortunate to be recognized. [00:05:23] Darryl Peek: So many of the organizations that are out there are doing some of the same capabilities that we do, but they can’t claim that they won a part of the year for all three hyperscalers in the same year. We are able to do that because we believe in the power of partnership, not only from a technology perspective, but also from a sales perspective. [00:05:39] Darryl Peek: So we definitely lean in with our partnerships, so having our engineers talk, having our product teams talk, and making sure that we’re building capabilities that actually integrate within the cloud service providers. And also consistently building a roadmap that aligns with the innovation that the cloud service providers are also building towards. [00:05:56] Darryl Peek: And then making sure that we’re a topic of discussion. So elastic. From a search capability, we do semantic search, vector search, but also retrieval augmented generation, which actually is LLM Agnostic. So when you say LLM Agnostic, whether you want to use Gemini, Claude or even Chad, GBT, those things are something that Elastic can integrate in, but it actually helps reduce the likelihood of hallucination. [00:06:18] Darryl Peek: So when we’re building that kind of solution, the cloud service provider’s you’re making it easy for us, and when you make it easy, you become very attractive and therefore you’re. Likely gonna come. So it becomes [00:06:28] Vince Menzione: sticky in that regard. Very sticky. So it sounds like very much an engineer, a lot of emphasis on the engineering aspects of the business. [00:06:35] Vince Menzione: I know you’re an engineer by background too, right? So the engineering aspects of the business means that you’re having alignment with the engineering organizations of those companies at a very deep level. [00:06:44] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. So I’m [00:06:45] Vince Menzione: here. [00:06:45] Darryl Peek: Yeah. And being at Elastic has been pretty amazing. So coming from Google, we had so many different solutions, so many different SKUs, but Elastic releases every eight weeks. [00:06:54] Darryl Peek: So right before you start to understand the last release, the next release is coming out and we’re already at 9.2 and we just released 9.0 in May. So it’s really blazing fast on the capability that we’re really pushing the market, but it’s really hard to make sure that we get it in front of our partners. [00:07:10] Darryl Peek: So when we talk about our partner enablement strategy, we’re just trying to make sure that we get the right information in front of the right partners at the right time, so this way they can best service their customers. [00:07:19] Vince Menzione: So let’s talk about partner strategy. Alyssa Fitzpatrick was on stage with me at our last event, and she Alyssa’s fantastic. [00:07:25] Vince Menzione: She is incredible. Yes, she is. She was a former colleague at Microsoft Days. Yes. And then she, we had a really interesting conversation. About what it takes, like being in, in a company and then working with the partners in general. And you have, I’m sure you have a lot of the similarities in how you have to engage with these organizations. [00:07:42] Vince Menzione: You’re working across the hyperscalers, you’re also working with the ecosystem too. Yes. ’cause the delivery, you have delivery partners as well. Absolutely. So tell us more about that. [00:07:50] Darryl Peek: So we kinda look at it from a two, two ways from the pre-sales motion and then the post-sales. From the pre-sales side. [00:07:56] Darryl Peek: What we’re trying to do is really maximize our, not only working with partners, because within public sector, you need to get access to customers through contract vehicles. So if you want to get access to some, for instance, the VA or through GSA or others, you have to make sure you’re aligned with the right partners who have access to. [00:08:12] Darryl Peek: That particular agency, but also you want domain expertise. So as you’re working with those system integrators, you wanna make sure that they have capability that aligns. So whether it is a security requirement, you wanna work with someone who specializes in security, observability and search. So that’s the way that we really look at our partner ecosystem, but those who are interested in working with us. [00:08:30] Darryl Peek: Because everybody doesn’t necessarily have a emphasis on working with a new technology partner, [00:08:36] Vince Menzione: right? [00:08:36] Darryl Peek: So what we’re trying to do is saying how do we build programs, incentives and sales plays that really does align and strike the interest of that particular partner? So when we talk about it I tell my team, you have to, my grandfather to say, plan your work and work your plan. And if you fail a plan, you plan to fail. So being able to not only have a strong plan in place, but then execute against that plan, check against that plan as you go through the fiscal year, and then see how you come out at the end of the fiscal year to see are we making that progress? [00:09:01] Darryl Peek: But on the other side of it, and what I get stressed about with my sales team and saying what does partners bring to us? So where are those partner deal registrations? What is the partner source numbers? How are we creating more pipeline? And that is where we’re now saying, okay, how can we navigate and how can we make it easier? [00:09:17] Darryl Peek: And how can we reduce friction in order for the partner to say, okay, elastic’s easy to work with. I can see value in, oh, by the way, I can make some money with. [00:09:25] Vince Menzione: So take us through, have there been examples of areas where you’ve had to like, break through to this other side in terms of growing the partner ecosystem? [00:09:33] Vince Menzione: What’s worked, what hasn’t worked? Yes, I’d love to learn more about that. [00:09:36] Darryl Peek: I’ll say that and I tell my team one, you partner program is essential, right? If you don’t have an attractive partner program in regards to how they come on board, how they’re incentivized the right amount of margin, they won’t even look at you. [00:09:49] Darryl Peek: The second thing is really how do you engage? So a lot of things start with relationships. I think partnerships are really about relationships. I say I tell my team from time to time, the difference between contacts and contracts is the R and that’s the relationship. So if you’re not building the relationship, then how do you expect that partner to want to lean in? [00:10:07] Darryl Peek: Don’t just show up when you have a contract. Don’t just show up when you have a renewal. Make sure that you are reaching out and letting them know what is happening. I like the what Matt brought up in saying, okay, talk to me when you have a win. Talk to me when you have something to talk about. [00:10:22] Darryl Peek: Don’t just talk to me when you need a renewal. When you’re at end the quarter and you want me to bring a deal forward, that doesn’t help ab absolutely. [00:10:28] Vince Menzione: So engineering organizations, sales organizations, what are, what does a healthy partnership look like for you? [00:10:35] Darryl Peek: So I look at metrics a lot and we use a number of tools and I know folks are using tools out there. [00:10:41] Darryl Peek: I won’t name any tools for branding purposes, but in regards to how we look at tools. So some things that we measure closely. Of course it’s our partner source numbers, so partner source, bookings, and pipeline. We look at our partner attached numbers and pipeline as well as the amount or percentage of partner attached business that we have in regards to our overall a CV number. [00:11:00] Darryl Peek: We also look at co-sell numbers, so therefore we are looking at not only how. A partner is coming to us, but how is a partner helping us in closing the deal even though they didn’t bring us the deal? We’re also looking at our cloud numbers and saying what amount of deals and how much business are we doing with our cloud service providers? [00:11:15] Darryl Peek: Because of course we wanna see that number go up year over year. We wanna actually help with that consumption number because not only are we looking at it from a SaaS perspective, but also if the customer has to commit we can help burn that down as well. We also look at influence numbers. [00:11:27] Darryl Peek: Now, one of the harder things to do within a technology business is. Capturing all that si goodness. And saying how do I reflect the SI if they’re not bringing me the deal? And I can’t attribute that amount of deal to that particular partner, right? And the way that we do that is we just tag them to the influence. [00:11:44] Darryl Peek: So we’re able to now track influence. And also the M-S-P-O-E-M work that we are also tracking and also we’re tracking the royalties. And lastly is the professional service work that we do with those partners. So we’re looking to go up into the right where we start them out at our select level, we go to our premier level and then our elite level. [00:12:00] Darryl Peek: But left and to the right, I say you gotta go from zero to one, one to five, five to 10, and then 10 to 25. So if we can actually see that progression. That is where we’re really starting to see health in the partnership, but also the executive alignment is really important. So when our CEO is able to meet with the fellow CEO of the co partner company that is really showing how we are progressing, but also our VPs and others that are engaged. [00:12:20] Darryl Peek: So those are things that we really do measure. We do have a health score card and also, we track accreditations, we track certifications as well as training outcomes based on our sales place. [00:12:30] Vince Menzione: Wow. There’s a lot of metrics there. Yeah. So you didn’t bring, you didn’t bring any slides with that out? [00:12:35] Darryl Peek: Oh, no. I’m not looking at slides, by the way. [00:12:40] Vince Menzione: Let’s talk about marketplace. [00:12:42] Darryl Peek: All right? [00:12:42] Vince Menzione: Because we’ve had a lot of conversations about marketplace. We’ve got both vendors up here talking about marketplace and the importance of marketplace, right? You’ve been a Marketplace Award winner. We haven’t really talked about that, like that motion per se. [00:12:55] Vince Menzione: I’d love to s I’d love to hear from you like how you, a, what you had to overcome to get to marketplace, what the marketplace motion looks like for your organization, what a marketplace first motion looks like. ’cause a lot of your cut a. Are all your customers requiring a lot of direct selling effort or is it some of it through Marketplace? [00:13:14] Vince Menzione: Like how does it, how does that work for you? [00:13:15] Darryl Peek: So Elastic is a global organization. Yeah. So we’re, 40 different countries. So it depends on where we’re talking. So if we talk about our international business, which is our A PJ and EMEA business we are seeing a lot more marketplace and we’re seeing that those direct deals with customers. [00:13:28] Darryl Peek: Okay. And we’re talking about our mirror business. A significant amount goes through marketplace and where our customers are transacting with the marketplace and are listing. On the marketplace within public sector, it’s more of a resell motion. Okay. So we are working with our resellers. [00:13:39] Darryl Peek: So we work our primary distribution partner is Carahsoft. So you heard from Craig earlier. Yes. We have a strong relationship with Carahsoft and definitely a big fan of this organization. But in regards to how we do that and how we track it we are looking at better ways to, track that orchestration and consumption numbers in order to see not only what customers we’re working with, but how can we really accelerate that motion and really get those leads and transactions going. [00:14:03] Vince Menzione: Very cool. Very cool. And I think part of the reason why in, in the government or public sector space it has a lot to do with the commitments are different. Absolutely. So it’s not government agencies aren’t able to make the same level of commitments that, private sector organizations were able to make, so they were able to the Mac or Microsoft parlance and also a AWS’s parlance. [00:14:23] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:14:24] Darryl Peek: definitely a different dynamic. Yeah. And especially within the public sector. ’cause we have Gov Cloud to work with, right? That’s right. So we’re working with Microsoft or we’re working with AWS, they have their Gov cloud and then we Google, they don’t have a Gov cloud, but we still have to work with them differently. [00:14:35] Darryl Peek: Yeah. Within that space. That’s [00:14:36] Vince Menzione: right. That’s right. So it makes the motion a little bit differently there. So I think we talked through some of this. I just wanna make sure we cover our points [00:14:43] Darryl Peek: here. One thing I’ll do an aside, you talked about the acre of diamonds. I’m a big fan of that story. [00:14:47] Vince Menzione: Yeah, let’s talk about Russ Con. Yeah, [00:14:49] Darryl Peek: let’s talk about it. Do you all know about the Acre Diamonds? Have you all heard that story before? No. You have some those in the audience. [00:14:55] Vince Menzione: I, you know what, let’s talk about it. All [00:14:56] Darryl Peek: See, I’m from Philadelphia. [00:14:57] Vince Menzione: I didn’t know you were a family. My daughter went to Temple University. [00:14:59] Vince Menzione: Ah, [00:15:00] Darryl Peek: okay. That’s all I know. So Russell Conwell. So he was, a gentleman out of the Philadelphia area and he went around town to raise money and he wanted to raise money because he believed that there was a promise within a specific area. And as he continued to raise this money, he would tell a story. [00:15:14] Darryl Peek: And basically it was a story about a farmer in Africa. And the farmer in Africa, to make it really short was essentially looking to be become very wealthy. And because he wanted to become very wealthy, he believed that selling his farm and going off to a long distant land was the primary way for him to find diamonds. [00:15:28] Darryl Peek: And this farmer didn’t sold us. Sold his place, then went off to to this foreign land, and he ended up dying. And people thought that was the end of the story, but there was another farmer who bought that land and one time this big, and they called him the ot, came to the door and said you mind if I have some tea with you? [00:15:43] Darryl Peek: He said, all right, come on in. Have a drink. And as he had the drink, he looked upon the mantle and his mouth dropped. And then the farmer said what’s wrong? What do you say? He says, do you know what that is? No. He said no. Do you know what that is? He says, no. He said, that’s the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen, and the farmer goes. [00:16:01] Darryl Peek: That’s weird because there’s a bunch right in the back where I go grab my fruits and crops every day. So the idea of the acre diamonds and sometimes that you don’t need to go off to a far off land. It is actually sometimes right under your feet, and that is a story that helped fund the starting of Temple University. [00:16:16] Vince Menzione: I’m gonna need to take you at every single event so you can tell this story again. That’s an awesome job. Oh, I love it. And yeah, they founded a Temple University. Yeah. Which has become an incredible university. My daughter, like I said, my daughter’s a graduate, so we’re Temple fan. That’s great story. [00:16:31] Vince Menzione: That is a very cool, I didn’t realize you were a Philadelphia guy too, so that is awesome. Go birds. Go birds. All right, good. So let’s talk, I think we talked a little bit about your ecosystem approach, but maybe just a little bit more on this, like you said, like a lot of data, a lot of metrics but also a lot of these organizations also have to under understand the engineering side of things. [00:16:53] Vince Menzione: Oh, yeah. There’s a tremendous amount to become. Not everybody could just show up one day and become an elastic partner [00:16:58] Darryl Peek: absolutely. Absolutely. So take us [00:16:59] Vince Menzione: through that process. [00:17:00] Darryl Peek: Yeah. So one of the things that we are trying to mature and we have matured is our partner go to market. [00:17:06] Darryl Peek: So in order to join our partner ecosystem, you have to sign ’em through our partner portal. You have to sign our indirect reseller agreement. ’cause we do sell primarily within the public sector through distribution. And we only go direct if it is by exception. So you have to get justification through myself as well as our VP for public sector. [00:17:21] Darryl Peek: But we really do try to make sure that we can aggregate this because one thing that we have to monitor is terms and conditions. ’cause of course, working with the government, there’s a lot of terms and conditions. So we try to alleviate that by having it go through caresoft, they’re able to absorb some, so this way we can actually transact with the government. [00:17:36] Darryl Peek: In regards to the team though we try to really work closely with our solution architecture team. So this way we can develop clear enablement strategies with our partners so this way they know what it is we do, but also how to properly bring us up in a conversation. Also handle objections and also what are we doing to implement our solutions within other markets. [00:17:55] Darryl Peek: So those are things that we are doing as well as partner marketing. Top of funnel activity is really important, so we’re trying to differentiate what we’re doing with the field and field marketing. So you’re doing the leads and m qls and things of that nature also with partner marketing. So our partner marketing actually is driven by leads, but also we’re trying to transact. [00:18:10] Darryl Peek: And get Ps of which our partner deal registration. So that is how we align our partner go to market. And that is actually translating into our partner source outcomes. [00:18:18] Vince Menzione: And I think we have a slide that talks a little bit about your public sector partner strategy. [00:18:23] Darryl Peek: Oh yeah. Oh, I share that. So I thought maybe we could spin it. [00:18:25] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. [00:18:25] Vince Menzione: I know you we can’t see it, but they can. Oh, they can. Okay. Great. [00:18:29] Darryl Peek: There it’s there. [00:18:30] Vince Menzione: It’s career. [00:18:31] Darryl Peek: One thing, I think this was Einstein has said, if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. So that was the one thing. So I always was a big fan of creating a one page strategy. [00:18:39] Darryl Peek: And based on this one page strategy one of the things when I worked at Salesforce it was really about a couple things and the saying, okay, what are your bookings? And if you don’t have bookings, what does your pipeline look like? If you don’t have pipeline, what does your prospecting look like? [00:18:51] Darryl Peek: Yeah. If you don’t have prospecting what does your account plan look like? And if you don’t have an account plan, why are you here? Why are you here? Exactly. So those are the things that I really talk to my team about is just really a, it’s about bookings. It’s about pipeline. It’s about planning, enablement and execution. [00:19:05] Darryl Peek: It’s about marketing, branding and evangelism, and also about operational excellence and how to execute. Very cool. So being able to do that and also I, since I came from Salesforce, I talk to my team a lot about Salesforce hygiene. So we really talk about that a lot. So make, making sure we’re making proper use of chatter, but also as we talk about utilizing ai, we just try to. [00:19:21] Darryl Peek: How do we simplify that, right? So if we’re using Zoom or we’re using Google, how do we make sure that we’re capturing those meeting minutes, translating that, putting that into the system, so therefore we have a record of that engagement with that partner. So this is a continuous threat. So this way I don’t have to call my partner manager the entire time. [00:19:36] Darryl Peek: I can look back, see what actions, see what was discussed, and say, okay, how can we keep this conversation going? Because we shouldn’t have to have those conversations every time. I shouldn’t have to text you to say, give me the download on every partner. Every time. How do we automate that? And that’s really where you’re creating this context window with your Genive ai. [00:19:53] Darryl Peek: I think they said what 75% of organizations are using one AI tool. And I think 1% are mature in that. But also a number of organizations, it’s 90% of organizations are using generative AI tools to some degree. So we are using gen to bi. We do use a number of them. We have elastic GPT. Nice little brand there. [00:20:11] Darryl Peek: But yeah, we use that for not only understanding what’s in our our repositories and data lakes and data warehouses, but also what are some answers that we can have in regards to proposal responses, RP responses, RFI, responses and the like. [00:20:23] Vince Menzione: And you’re reaching out to the other LLMs through your tool? [00:20:26] Darryl Peek: We can actually interact with any LLM. So we are a LLM Agnostic. [00:20:29] Vince Menzione: Got it. Yep. That’s fantastic. And this slide is we’ll make this available if you don’t have a, yeah, have a chance. We’ll share it. I [00:20:36] Darryl Peek: am happy to share, yeah. And obviously happy to talk, reach out about it. Of, of course. I simplified it in order to account for you, but one of the things that I talk about is mission, vision of values. [00:20:45] Darryl Peek: And as we start with that is what is your mission now? How is anybody from Pittsburgh, anybody steal a fan? Oh wow. No, there’s a steel fan over [00:20:54] Vince Menzione: here. There’s one here. There’s a couple of ’em are out here. So I feel bad. [00:20:57] Darryl Peek: The reason why I put immaculate in there is for the immaculate reception, actually. [00:21:00] Darryl Peek: Yes. And basically saying that if you ever seen that play, it was not pretty at all. It was a very discombobulated play. Yeah. And I usually say that’s the way that you work with partners too, because when that deal doesn’t come in, when you gotta make a call, when you’re texting somebody at 11 o’clock at night, when you’re trying to get that at, right before quarter end. [00:21:17] Darryl Peek: Yeah. Before the end of it. It really is difficult, but it’s really creating that immaculate experience. You want that partner to come back. I know it’s challenging, but I appreciate how you leaned in with us. Yes, absolutely. I appreciate how you work with us. I appreciate how you held our hand through the process, and that’s what I tell my team, that we have to create that partner experience. [00:21:32] Darryl Peek: And maybe that’s a carryover from Salesforce, Dave. I don’t know. But also when we talk about enhancing or accelerating our partner. Our public sector outcomes that is really working with the customer, right? So customer experience has to be part of it. Like all of us have to be focused on that North star, and that is really how do we service the customer, and that’s what we choose to do. [00:21:48] Darryl Peek: But also the internal part. So I used to survey my team many moves ago, and I said, if we don’t get 80% satisfaction rate from our employees how do we get 60% satisfaction rate from our customers? Yeah. So really focus on that employee success and employee satisfaction. It’s so important, is very important. [00:22:03] Darryl Peek: So being able to understand what are the needs of your employees? Are you really addressing their concerns and are you really driving them forward? Are you challenging them? Are you creating pathways for progression? So those are things that I definitely try to do with my team. As well as just really encouraging, inspiring, yeah. [00:22:19] Darryl Peek: And just making sure that they’re having fun at the same time. [00:22:21] Vince Menzione: It shows up in such, I, there’s an airline I don’t fly any longer, and it was a million mile member of and I know it’s because of the way they treat their employees. [00:22:29] Vince Menzione: Because it cascades Right? [00:22:30] Darryl Peek: It does. Culture is important. [00:22:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Absolutely. [00:22:32] Darryl Peek: What is it? What Anderson Howard they say what col. Mark Andresen culture eat strategy for [00:22:37] Vince Menzione: breakfast. He strategy for breakfast? Yes. Very much this has been insightful. I really enjoyed having you here today. Really a great, you’re a lot of fun. You’re a lot of fun. [00:22:43] Vince Menzione: Darry, isn’t you? Amazing. So thank you for joining us. Thank you all. Thank And you’re gonna be, you’re gonna be sticking around for a little while today. I’m sticking around for a little while. I’ll be back in little later. I think people are gonna just en enjoy having a conversation with you, a little sidebar. [00:22:55] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. I’m looking forward to it. Thank you all for having me. Glad to be here. And thank you for giving the time today. [00:23:01] Vince Menzione: Thank you Darryl, so much. So appreciate it. And you’re gonna have to come join me on this Story Diamond tool. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for tuning into this episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering. [00:23:12] Vince Menzione: We’re bringing these episodes to you to help you level up your strategy. If you haven’t yet, now’s the time to take action and think about joining our community. We created a unique place, UPX or Ultimate partner experience. It’s more than a community. It’s your competitive edge with insider insights, real-time education, and direct access to people who are driving the ecosystem forward. [00:23:38] Vince Menzione: UPX helps you get results, and we’re just getting started as we’re taking this studio. And we’ll be hosting live stream and digital events here, including our January live stream, the Boca Winter Retreat, and more to come. So visit our website, the ultimate partner.com to learn more and join us. Now’s the time to take your partnerships to the next level.

Send us a textIn this episode of The Wireless Way, host Chris Whitaker engages in an insightful conversation with Dennis Osha, founder and chairman of Mobile Mentor. The discussion delves into Dennis's journey from working with Nokia in the 1980s to establishing Mobile Mentor in 2004. Dennis shares how his company has become a global leader in modern endpoint management and security, earning multiple Microsoft Partner of the Year recognitions. The episode covers various stages of the company's evolution, including its pivot during the global financial crisis, partnership with Microsoft, and focus on Intune. Dennis also offers an in-depth analysis of current challenges and future trends in endpoint management, cloud security, and AI integration, underscoring the importance of unlocking the full potential of Microsoft 365 for optimal business outcomes.00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction01:33 Dennis Osha's Background and Mobile Mentor's Origins03:05 Transition from Engineering to Business Focus05:21 Challenges and Pivotal Moments12:14 Evolution of Mobile Mentor and Partnership with Microsoft16:57 Current Trends and Future Directions20:54 Challenges in AI Implementation21:08 Data Security and Initial Findings21:33 Skillset and Training for AI Tools21:45 Board's Inquiry and ROI Model22:31 Types of Companies and AI Adoption23:35 Future of Device Management and Security Tools26:33 Proliferation of AI Tools27:31 Ideal Customer Profile33:20 Sales Cycle and Marketing Strategies36:36 Final Thoughts and ReflectionsMore on DenisMore on Mobile Mentor Support the showCheck out my website https://thewirelessway.net/ use the contact button to send request and feedback.

In this episode, host Nene Glenn Gianfala sits down with Greg Endicott, a seasoned valuation professional and technology innovator, to discuss the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on the valuation industry.  Greg shares practical insights and a detailed 8-step framework for successfully integrating AI into valuation practices—whether you're part of a large firm or a solo practitioner there are opportunities for efficiency, automation, and market expansion. Key takeaways AI Is transforming every aspect of valuation Transparency, auditability, and professional standards are critical risks A structured, 8-Step framework for successful AI implementation Guest: Greg Endicott, CPA/ABV. ASA, Managing Director, Strategic Value Group, LLC and Founder and President of ValueVision, Inc. a Microsoft Partner developing an AI-enabled valuation workflow and knowledge management platform. Host:  Nene Glenn Gianfala, CPA/ABV, Senior VP and Shareholder, Chaffe & Associates, Inc.  Please share your thoughts about the episode - click here to leave us a review   Want to get involved with future FVS conferences, committees, task forces, or the standing ovation program? Send a message to infoFVS@aicpa-cima.com RESOURCES FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION If you're using a podcast app that does not hyperlink to the resources, please visit our podcast platform to access the show notes with direct links.  JOIN:  The FVS Engage365 Member Community to collaborate with fellow AICPA® members, exchange ideas, and shape the future of the profession together. EARLY CAREER GUIDANCE:  Welcome to a career in forensic and valuation services Guidelines for Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Forensic and Valuation Services Engagements Exclusive content available with AICPA FVS Section membership: Click here to join this active community of your FVS peers. You will get 16 credits of complimentary CPE and access to rich technical content The state of AI and machine learning in financial instrument valuation | FVS webcast archive The FVS Valuation Podcast archives Using AI in Your Valuation Practice – Part 1 Using AI in Your Valuation Practice – Part 2 ESOPs: Preserving Culture, Valuation and Empowering Employees LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FOLLOWING AICPA CREDENTIALS: Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV®) – Visit the home page and check out the ABV infographic Certified in the Valuation of Financial Instruments (CVFI®) – Visit the home page and check out the CVFI infographic Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF®) - Visit the home page and check out the CFF infographic This is a podcast from AICPA & CIMA, together as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. To enjoy more conversations from our global community of accounting and finance professionals, explore our network of free shows here. Your feedback and comments are welcomed at podcast@aicpa-cima.com      

In this episode, host Nene Glenn Gianfala sits down with Greg Endicott, a seasoned valuation professional and technology innovator, to discuss the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on the valuation industry.  Greg shares practical insights and a detailed 8-step framework for successfully integrating AI into valuation practices—whether you're part of a large firm or a solo practitioner there are opportunities for efficiency, automation, and market expansion. Key takeaways AI Is transforming every aspect of valuation Transparency, auditability, and professional standards are critical risks A structured, 8-Step framework for successful AI implementation Guest: Greg Endicott, CPA/ABV. ASA, Managing Director, Strategic Value Group, LLC and Founder and President of ValueVision, Inc. a Microsoft Partner developing an AI-enabled valuation workflow and knowledge management platform. Host:  Nene Glenn Gianfala, CPA/ABV, Senior VP and Shareholder, Chaffe & Associates, Inc.  Please share your thoughts about the episode - click here to leave us a review   Want to get involved with future FVS conferences, committees, task forces, or the standing ovation program? Send a message to infoFVS@aicpa-cima.com RESOURCES FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION If you're using a podcast app that does not hyperlink to the resources, please visit our podcast platform to access the show notes with direct links.  JOIN:  The FVS Engage365 Member Community to collaborate with fellow AICPA® members, exchange ideas, and shape the future of the profession together. EARLY CAREER GUIDANCE:  Welcome to a career in forensic and valuation services Guidelines for Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Forensic and Valuation Services Engagements Exclusive content available with AICPA FVS Section membership: Click here to join this active community of your FVS peers. You will get 16 credits of complimentary CPE and access to rich technical content The state of AI and machine learning in financial instrument valuation | FVS webcast archive The FVS Valuation Podcast archives Using AI in Your Valuation Practice – Part 1 Using AI in Your Valuation Practice – Part 2 ESOPs: Preserving Culture, Valuation and Empowering Employees LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FOLLOWING AICPA CREDENTIALS: Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV®) – Visit the home page and check out the ABV infographic Certified in the Valuation of Financial Instruments (CVFI®) – Visit the home page and check out the CVFI infographic Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF®) - Visit the home page and check out the CFF infographic This is a podcast from AICPA & CIMA, together as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. To enjoy more conversations from our global community of accounting and finance professionals, explore our network of free shows here. Your feedback and comments are welcomed at podcast@aicpa-cima.com      

Vodafone Business has announced it has won the prestigious 2025 Microsoft Telco Partner of the Year Award. The company was honoured among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. With over 2.4 million customers in Ireland, Vodafone is the leading tech and connectivity partner to six in ten Irish businesses, supporting SMEs, large, and public services. Vodafone Ireland, in partnership with Microsoft, enables businesses of all sizes to unlock the full potential of Microsoft 365. We drive Copilot adoption, strengthen security with Microsoft Defender, and deliver unique Teams Phone Mobile integration to support secure, connected hybrid workforces. Our Microsoft service offerings extends to Azure cloud migration and managed services, ensuring compliance, performance optimisation, and peace of mind. Combined with Vodafone's industry-specific connectivity solutions, we empower organisations to thrive in a secure, connected, and future-ready environment. "When two technology leaders come together, we can make a real difference to our customers." said Marika Auramo, CEO Vodafone Business. "Winning this accolade is a real testament to our exceptional sales and technology teams, who work tirelessly to build industry leading services that deliver value. Our partnership with Microsoft sets the blueprint for combined scale, expertise and offers a diverse product portfolio to empower small businesses to thrive in a digital world." The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognise Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered outstanding Microsoft Cloud applications, services, , and AI innovation in the past year. Awards were classified in various categories with honourees chosen from more than 4,600 nominations across more than 100 countries. Vodafone Business was recognised for providing outstanding solutions and services in telecommunications. Also welcoming the award, Director of Vodafone Business in Ireland, Jo Gilfoy said: This global recognition reflects the investment we've made in our Microsoft business, both locally and globally, and our commitment to helping customers embrace digital transformation with confidence. Whether it's AI-driven tools, cybersecurity, cloud, or telephony, our combined expertise empowers businesses to unlock growth and resilience in a rapidly changing market." The award highlights Vodafone's ability to secure scalable Microsoft solutions for Irish businesses, backed by global expertise. Recent initiatives include enhanced managed services for Microsoft 365 and Teams integration tailored for SMEs and enterprise customers in Ireland. This commitment is backed by significant investment in local expertise - with Vodafone Ireland contributing to the expansion of Microsoft-certified professionals across the business, to ensure best-in-class support for Irish businesses. Leading to Vodafone Ireland also recently being awarded Microsoft's Infrastructure designation for Azure. "Congratulations to all the winners and finalists of the 2025 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards," said Nicole Dezen, Chief Partner Officer and Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. "This year, our partners have harnessed the transformative power of Microsoft's Cloud and AI platforms to deliver transformative solutions that redefine the boundaries of innovation. The energy and ingenuity across our ecosystem continue to inspire us. The 2025 honourees exemplify what's possible when technology and vision unite to empower customers around the world." The 2025 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards are announced ahead of Microsoft Ignite, which was held in San Francisco between the 18th to 21st of November. For more information on the award, please visit: Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards 2025 See more stories here. More about Irish Tech News Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's ...

Constellation Energy will use the loan to refurbish a reactor it idled in 2019. Microsoft has agreed to buy the power once the facility reopens in 2028. Also, Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clem Delangue says all the attention is on LLMs, but smaller, specialized models will make sense in many use cases going forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plus: Google announces a $5.8 billion data center investment in Belgium. And Ferrari plans to unveil its first fully electric car in 2026. Zoe Kuhlkin hosts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's MadTech Daily, Dot discusses Apple opposing the EU's regulations, Google taking its Epic case ruling to the Supreme Court, and Microsoft partnering with OpenAI rival, Anthropic. 

Overview: In this episode of the SMB Community Podcast, hosts Amy and James discuss a variety of tech topics relevant to IT professionals. They start by sharing personal anecdotes about their preferences for coffee and tea before diving into recent changes in the Microsoft Partner Program, emphasizing the importance of meeting revenue requirements. The conversation then shifts to Oracle's headquarters' growth, AI investments, and its significant role in database management. They also highlight leadership changes aimed at making Kase AI-focused. The discussion covers Apple's recent product announcements, stressing their new features in health tech and their surprising decision to maintain pricing. The episode wraps up with a talk on upcoming regulations to protect minors from harmful online content, reflecting on the importance of such regulations.  --- Chapter Markers: 00:00 Introduction and Hosts' Banter 01:52 Microsoft Partner Program Updates 06:10 Oracle's Revenue Surge and AI Potential 08:31 Kaseya's AI-First Strategy 09:52 Apple's Latest Announcements  17:37 Regulations on Social Media Content for Minors 20:10 Conclusion and Listener Engagement --- New Book Release: I'm proud to announce the release of my new book, The Anthology of Cybersecurity Experts! This collection brings together 15 of the nation's top minds in cybersecurity, sharing real-world solutions to combat today's most pressing threats. Whether you're an MSP, IT leader, or simply passionate about protecting your data, this book is packed with expert advice to help you stay secure and ahead of the curve. Available now on Amazon! https://a.co/d/f2NKASI --- Sponsor Memo: Since 2006, Kernan Consulting has been through over 30 transactions in mergers & acquisitions - and just this past year, we have been involved in six (6). If you are interested in either buying, selling, or valuation information, please reach out. There is alot of activity and you can be a part of it. For more information, reach out at kernanconsulting.com

CoreWeave, a cloud provider backed by NVIDIA, secured a $6.3 billion order for AI computing capacity, with NVIDIA agreeing to buy any unused supply through 2032. The deal highlights CoreWeave's reliance on NVIDIA, its sole GPU supplier and investor, while boosting its role in powering AI workloads. Despite strong growth—$1.21 billion in Q2 revenue, up 207% year-over-year—the company remains unprofitable, losing $290.5 million. Major contracts, including an $11.9 billion deal with OpenAI, have fueled demand and pushed CoreWeave's market value above $58 billion.Time Stamps: 0:00 - Cold Open0:25 - Welcome to the Tech Field Day News Rundown1:20 - Tarboro Data Center Rebuff Tests North Carolina's Development Future5:17 - Broadcom and OpenAI Team Up for AI Chips8:53 - OpenAI and Microsoft Restructure Deal12:20 - Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters is shutting down14:59 - Google Sued by Rolling Stone Owner for AI Summaries18:26 - Anthropic Report Reveals Misuse of Claude in Cyberattacks21:31 - CoreWeave and NVIDIA Strike $6.3 Billion Cloud Deal24:44 - Microsoft Partners with Nebius in AI Cloud Deal29:16 - The Weeks Ahead31:16 - Thanks for Watching the Tech Field Day News RundownFollow our hosts ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tom Hollingsworth⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alastair Cooke⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stephen Foskett⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow Tech Field Day ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X/Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Oracle Corporation has made headlines with its ambitious revenue projections, forecasting a dramatic increase in its cloud server rental business from $10 billion in fiscal 2025 to $144 billion by fiscal 2030. This growth is attributed to a significant rise in new contracts and a 359% boost in business backlog, largely driven by partnerships with major AI firms. Despite the excitement surrounding these projections, analysts express caution, noting that a decline in enterprise AI adoption could jeopardize Oracle's plans. Recent data indicates that 95% of companies using AI have not seen new revenue, raising questions about the sustainability of Oracle's aggressive investment strategy.The latest statistics reveal a concerning trend in AI adoption among large companies, which has dropped from nearly 14% to under 12% in just a few months. This decline is particularly alarming for investors who have heavily invested in AI technologies, expecting them to revolutionize business operations. As companies reassess their reliance on AI, many are beginning to rehire human workers, acknowledging that the technology has not met earlier expectations. Gartner predicts that while AI will play a significant role in IT departments by 2030, the current reality shows that a substantial percentage of CIOs are not seeing a return on their AI investments.In response to the evolving landscape, a new licensing standard called Really Simple Licensing (RSL) has emerged, aimed at empowering web publishers to set terms for how AI developers can use their content. Supported by major brands like Reddit and Yahoo, this initiative seeks to create a fair compensation model for content creators amidst ongoing legal disputes over AI data scraping. The RSL standard allows site owners to charge fees for AI bots crawling their sites, potentially providing smaller publishers with a mechanism to assert the value of their work.Meanwhile, Microsoft is taking steps to diversify its AI offerings by partnering with Anthropic to enhance its Office 365 applications, reducing its reliance on OpenAI. This move comes as Microsoft bundles its sales, service, and finance copilots into a single offering at a lower price, making AI tools more accessible to users. Additionally, the launch of MSPcentric aims to address the challenges of professional services automation integrations within the IT channel, highlighting the ongoing need for efficiency in the industry. As these developments unfold, the focus remains on how AI can deliver tangible benefits to businesses and the workforce. Four things to know today 00:00 Oracle bets $35B on AI future, projecting $144B cloud growth despite slowing adoption signals03:39 AI adoption stalls as ROI disappoints, but workforce shifts show upskilling is key06:41 From content licensing to trillion-parameter models: RSL, Microsoft's Anthropic pivot, and global AI competition reshape the field11:27 Microsoft Bundles Copilots, Colin Knox Launches MSPCentric: Two Moves Aiming to Simplify Tech for MSPs  This is the Business of Tech.    Supported by: https://syncromsp.com/ All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Specializing is scary. But focusing on one high-growth niche can take your agency to multiple seven figures without working harder.If committing to one niche feels risky, Erica's story will show you what's possible on the other side.This week, I'm joined by Erica Hakonson, CEO of Maven Collective Marketing, an agency that went all in on one niche: Microsoft Partners.And here's the wild thing…Once they declared that focus, clients didn't hesitate, they started saying: “How have we not heard of you yet?”This episode is packed with real talk about what it takes to go narrow, go deep, and build trust that actually compounds. Erica shares how they became the go-to marketing partner in the Microsoft Partner ecosystem, and how research, relationships, and restraint have fueled their growth.Here's what we cover:Why declaring a single niche was the turning pointHow proprietary research changed the gameWhat it takes to deeply onboard and upskill a teamThe upside of saying no to wrong-fit clients and hiring before you feel readyIf you're wrestling with whether going all in on a niche is “too limiting,” this episode will shine light. 

AP correspondent Haya Panjwani reports on an iconic French landmark getting a digital twin

#162. Unlocking hidden Microsoft partner benefits? Now that's my kind of secret! In this episode, I spill the beans on how Dynamics 365 and Power Platform partners can get their teams Scrum trained and certified — on Microsoft's dime, without touching your training budget, thanks to Microsoft Incentive co-op funds.I walk you through what co-op funds are, how to check your eligibility, and exactly how to claim full reimbursement for my Successful Scrum for Microsoft Business Apps course. The course is tailored specifically for your teams building Microsoft business apps, not just any software project. I share stories from the trenches, like $4 million Dynamics implementations and global customer service transformations, to show the practical impact of genuine Scrum on delivery teams, customer satisfaction, and project profitability.You'll hear testimonials from consulting partners and students who have used these tactics to become Microsoft Partner of the Year winners—and happier, lower-stress teams as well.There's even an Exam Pass Guarantee (so your team can certify with confidence), plus step-by-step instructions on using those mysterious co-op funds before they expire.Curious if it really works? Microsoft themselves give it the green light—and I'll show you how to make it happen. Listen to this episode to discover how to turn unused partner benefits into highly skilled, adaptable delivery pros, and set your practice apart. Ready to build amazing apps, supercharge your team, and let Microsoft foot the bill?Book a call with NeilScrum for Microsoft Business AppsHow to get your training investment reimbursed

Why you should listenLearn how poor positioning and generic messaging quietly kill your deals before the first call.Erica shares what to do when word of mouth plateaus—and how to attract buyers who don't know you yet.Discover how to be “AI-findable” and get found in marketplace searches before your competitors.If your marketing sounds just like every other partner's, it's already costing you deals. In this episode, I'm joined by Erica Hakonson, CEO of Maven Collective Marketing, to show you how to fix that. Erica has helped hundreds of Microsoft partners elevate their positioning, build credibility, and generate leads that don't rely on referrals. We dig into the messaging traps most partners fall into, why AI is changing how you show up online, and how to stand out even in the most crowded categories. If you're serious about scaling in 2025, this is one of the most important marketing episodes you'll hear.About Erica HakonsonErica Hakonson is the award-winning CEO and Founder of Maven Collective Marketing, a premier B2B digital marketing agency recognized across North America for its excellence in driving strategic marketing success for Microsoft Partners. With nearly 20 years of experience, Erica has built a powerhouse agency that has earned over 200 awards, including Best Firm to Work With, B2B Agency of the Year and Top Digital Marketing Company.Erica is a results-driven marketing strategist known for transforming complex technology narratives into compelling marketing strategies that elevate brand authority and accelerate revenue growth. Since founding Maven Collective Marketing in 2012, she has led high-impact campaigns for global clients, helping them outperform in competitive B2B markets through data-driven performance, distinctive positioning, and strategic content marketing.A recognized thought leader, Erica is a sought-after speaker on marketing leadership, entrepreneurship, and women in business. She has been featured in The Globe & Mail and honored with titles such as Female Entrepreneur of the Year and SME National Business Awards Editor's Choice.Resources and LinksMavencollectivemarketing.comErica's LinkedIn profile2024 Microsoft Partner Benchmark ReportSubscribe to Maven Collective Marketing's LinkedIn Newsletter: Partner Marketing BytesMaven Collective Marketing's Youtube channel: Maven Collective MarketingErica on ​​Bluesky: ‪@ericahakonson.bsky.social‬Maven Collective Marketing on Instagram: @mavencollectivemarketingPrevious episode: 609 - RevOps Reimagined: AI, Agility, and the End of Cold Outreach with Jacki LeahyCheck out more episodes of the Paul Higgins PodcastSubscribe to our YouTube channel:

Sunrise Technologies, a Microsoft solutions partner, launches an AI assessment to help retail, manufacturing, and distribution companies evaluate Copilot and Dynamics 365. The assessment empowers businesses to thrive in the digital age and map out their path forward with a digital transformation. Sunrise Technologies City: Winston-Salem Address: 525 Vine St Website: https://sunrise.co Phone: +1-336-722-6741

Per is an experienced software architect and developer with more than 19 years of experience in designing, developing, and testing software. He is currently serving as a Distinguished software developer at Delegate, a Microsoft Partner in Denmark.   Topics of Discussion: [3:02] More about Per's background in nearly two decades in .NET and Azure consulting. [6:11] The concept of a boutique consultant. [7:00] Founding ATC-Net to share common .NET libraries and avoid duplicative coding. [10:02] Building trust with customers by open-sourcing “generic” components. [11:50] Creating a connector to run Olama (local LLMs) with Semantic Kernel. [20:08] Why Per “fell in love” with Semantic Kernel's abstraction layers and extension possibilities. [21:44] The role of vector stores (like Azure Cognitive Search) in retrieval-augmented generation. [24:33] What do we mean by “vector” in the AI space? [26:39] What is a “text chunker”? [31:43] Azure AI search. [34:07] Finding the right tool for the right task.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net. Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo atc-net GitHub Per Kops LinkedIn Per Kops GitHub   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

As AI continues to reshape industries—including the nonprofit sector—how can we ensure that technology serves people, rather than the other way around? In this episode of Nonprofit Nation, we dive into the intersection of artificial intelligence and human-centered work with Tim Lockie, founder of The Human Stack and creator of the AI for Anyone course. With over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit technology space, Tim has helped organizations transition from being tech-resistant to tech-resilient.Tim shares his insights on leveraging AI in a way that enhances human connection, decision-making, and impact. Whether you're skeptical of AI or eager to integrate it into your work, this conversation will provide practical strategies for maintaining a people-first approach in an increasingly digital world.What You'll Learn in This Episode:Why AI is a tool, not a replacement for human connectionHow nonprofits can use AI without losing their core missionThe biggest challenges organizations face when adopting AIPractical tips for using AI ethically and effectivelyInsights from Tim's AI for Anyone course and how it empowers people to engage with AI confidentlyAbout Tim Lockie:Tim Lockie is a nonprofit technology expert and the founder of The Human Stack, an organization dedicated to helping nonprofits develop tech resilience. He created AI for Anyone, a course designed to make AI accessible to people at all technical levels. With a background as a former Salesforce MVP and Microsoft Partner, Tim has guided thousands of professionals in using technology to create positive social impact.Resources & Links:Tim Lockie's Website: The Human StackAI for Anyone Course: Enroll hereConnect with Tim on LinkedIn: Tim Lockie on LinkedInFollow The Human Stack on Twitter: @TheHumanStackCassidy: https://www.cassidyai.com/?via=thehumanstack

The Super Bowl can mark the pinnacle of a team's journey—but when the final whistle blows, another game begins: the game of transition.For NFL players, the end of a season isn't just about the scoreboard—it's about identity, loss, and what comes next. Some teams prepare for this reality. Others ignore it, only to face the reality later.In this episode of The Game Inside The Games, Dr. Mike and NFL legend Brandon Marshall pull back the curtain on the psychological weight of the season's end—and how elite teams, like Pete Carroll's Seahawks, used emotional intelligence, team culture, and mental preparation to thrive under pressure.Brandon opens up about the hidden struggles of post-career transitions, the mistakes most players make, and how studying at Harvard changed his approach to life after football. Plus, Michael shares never-before-heard stories from the Seahawks' Super Bowl run—including why a locker room fight days before the game wasn't a crisis, but a sign that the team was right where they needed to be.Because whether you're an athlete, a leader, or anyone navigating major life shifts—transitions define us.

For two weeks, players are surrounded by relentless media, soaring expectations, and the weight of a lifetime of preparation. Some rise under the pressure. Others crumble.In this episode of The Game Inside the Games, Dr. Michael Gervais and Brandon Marshall unpack what makes the Super Bowl build-up so uniquely intense—and how the best athletes train their minds to handle the noise. From managing anxiety to creating a mental bubble, they reveal what it takes to stay locked in when the whole world is watching.Brandon shares his own experiences from the NFL, opening up about mental health, confidence, and the hidden psychological battles of high-performance sports. Because at the highest level, winning isn't just about talent—it's about mastering the mind.Whether you're an athlete, a leader, or just someone looking to perform at your best under pressure, this episode is packed with powerful insights on mental resilience, confidence, and the mindset needed to thrive when everything is on the line.Subscribe now and follow along with Finding Mastery all week as we unlock the mindset of high-performance athletes on the world's biggest stage. Get The Game Inside The Games on Youtube, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts.…This episode is brought to you by…Microsoft CopilotTry Copilot for yourself → https://rb.gy/u8xr9z Find the right Microsoft Partner for your organization → https://rb.gy/xb3kgt Mack WeldonGet 20% off orders $100+ with code FINDINGMASTERY → https://rb.gy/8gsani See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Super Bowl isn't always won by the best team—it's won by the team that adapts when everything falls apart.In this episode of The Game Inside the Games, Dr. Michael Gervais and Greg Olsen break down the hidden battle of the Super Bowl—the fight to stay mentally agile when the game doesn't go as planned. Greg shares firsthand insights from Super Bowl 50, where he faced Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, revealing what happens when strategy collides with chaos.Later, Pittsburgh Steelers legend Cam Heyward joins the conversation to talk about how elite athletes handle pressure, quiet the noise, and mentally adjust when the stakes are at their highest.Because in the Super Bowl—and in life—it's not about having the perfect plan. It's about knowing what to do when the plan is gone.Subscribe now and follow along with Finding Mastery all week as we unlock the mindset of high-performance athletes on the world's biggest stage. Get The Game Inside The Games on Youtube, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts.…This episode is brought to you by…Microsoft CopilotTry Copilot for yourself → https://rb.gy/u8xr9z Find the right Microsoft Partner for your organization → https://rb.gy/xb3kgt Mack WeldonGet 20% off orders $100+ with code FINDINGMASTERY → https://rb.gy/8gsani See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For the players on the field, the Super Bowl is the ultimate test of skill and composure. But just above them, in the broadcast booth, another high-stakes performance is unfolding—one with no second chances, no instant replay, and no room for error.In this episode of The Game Inside the Games, Dr. Michael Gervais sits down with Greg Olsen, former NFL star turned Emmy-winning broadcaster, to unpack the relentless preparation, mental discipline, and pressure that comes with calling the biggest game in sports.Greg shares why broadcasting the Super Bowl was more nerve-wracking than playing in one, the mental traps sportscasters must avoid, and the game-day routines that helped him deliver when millions were watching. He opens up about self-doubt, trusting his instincts in the booth, and the mindset shifts that allowed him to rise to the top of the broadcasting world.This episode is a masterclass in handling pressure, preparation, and performing at your best—whether you're on the field, in the booth, or in any high-stakes moment of life.Subscribe now and follow along with Finding Mastery all week as we unlock the mindset of high-performance athletes on the world's biggest stage. Get The Game Inside The Games on Youtube, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts.…This episode is brought to you by…Microsoft CopilotTry Copilot for yourself → https://rb.gy/u8xr9z Find the right Microsoft Partner for your organization → https://rb.gy/xb3kgt Mack WeldonGet 20% off orders $100+ with code FINDINGMASTERY → https://rb.gy/8gsani See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Super Bowl is more than just a game—it's a test of mindset, resilience, and the ability to perform under the brightest lights. In this special Game Inside the Games series, Dr. Mike is joined by NFL legends Greg Olsen and Brandon Marshall to explore the unseen psychological battles that define champions. Kicking off the series, Mike breaks down one of the most pivotal moments in Super Bowl history—Malcolm Butler's game-winning interception—and reveals how mental preparation, not luck, made it happen.Subscribe now and follow along with Finding Mastery all week as we unlock the mindset of high-performance athletes on the world's biggest stage. Get The Game Inside The Games on Youtube, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts.…This episode is brought to you by…Microsoft CopilotTry Copilot for yourself → https://rb.gy/u8xr9z Find the right Microsoft Partner for your organization → https://rb.gy/xb3kgt Mack WeldonGet 20% off orders $100+ with code FINDINGMASTERY → https://rb.gy/8gsani See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Tianyi Jiang (TJ) co-founded AvePoint in 2001 and has served as the organization's Chief Executive Officer since 2005. A recipient of Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year award in New Jersey in 2010, TJ received both B.S. and Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University, and a Master of Philosophy and Ph.D. in Data Mining from the Department of Information Systems, Operations Management, and Statistics, Stern School of Business, New York University. About AvePoint A five-time winner of the Microsoft Partner of the Year award, AvePoint offers the only full suite of SaaS solutions to migrate, manage and protect data in Microsoft 365. More than 8 million cloud users rely on our solutions to make organizations more productive, compliant and secure. Our SaaS solutions are also available to managed service providers, so they can better support and manage their small and mid-sized business customers. Our multi-tenant solutions are available from over a dozen distributors in more than 100 cloud marketplaces worldwide. In 2001, our founders were busy preparing to bring our first product to market — a backup solution for Microsoft's email service, Exchange. Shortly after, their focus quickly turned to providing a backup solution for a new Microsoft product that offered site-based collaboration: SharePoint 2001. Today, our full suite of data management solutions for Microsoft 365 is hosted across 13 global datacenters for unmatched scalability, and to support data sovereignty requirements. Our cloud platform is certified against leading security accreditations and boasts one of the largest SaaS userbases in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. We have pushed the boundaries of enterprise digital collaboration with first-to-market technologies for two decades. More than half of our workforce – including our senior leadership team – are technologists.

Μπορείτε να υποστηρίξετε το GameOver.gr κάνοντας donate στο παρακάτω link: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=PZGZV6CJBD7UJ * -Κάντε subscribe στο κανάλι GameOverGR Plus στο YouTube https://tinyurl.com/GameOverGRplus * -Επισκεφθείτε το site μας στο https://gameover.gr/ * -Βρείτε μας στο Discord https://discord.gg/YpGqTf4 * -Βρείτε μας στο facebook https://bit.ly/2EaKvAY * -Βρείτε μας στο instagram https://bit.ly/2L8uBsc * -Βρείτε μας στο twitter https://bit.ly/2Ep0FYk Μουσική τίτλων αρχής: Red Soil Redux by Dj CUTMAN

The Today in Manufacturing Podcast is brought to you by the editors of Manufacturing.net and Industrial Equipment News (IEN).This week's episode is brought to you by Sikich. Download 7 Key Areas for Modernizing Distribution to unlock seven key areas of supply chain management that enterprises can leverage to retain their market share and stay ahead of disruptions. Every week, we cover the five biggest stories in manufacturing, and the implications they have on the industry moving forward. This week:- Ford Patent Could Protect You from Accidentally Smuggling Drugs- Proposed Bill in Brazil Would Require Automakers to Sell Amphibious Cars- UAW Workers Near Strike at Ford Factory- Three Mile Island Could Soon Reopen to Power Microsoft Data Centers- 3D-Printed Shark Pipes Beat Out Tesla Valves in One Direction FlowIn Case You Missed It- The World's First At-Scale Indoor Vertical Berry Farm- Andruril, Microsoft Partner to Help Soldiers See Realtime Threats- Flexiv's Robot Fish Fillet Shaping Solution Automates Cod ProductionPlease make sure to like, subscribe and share the podcast. You could also help us out a lot by giving the podcast a positive review. Finally, to email the podcast, you can reach any of us at David, Jeff or Anna [at] ien.com, with “Email the Podcast” in the subject line.

How do we power the rise of AI?  The answer at the moment seems to be nuclear power. Microsoft has partnered with a shuttered nuclear power plant called Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania to bring back its Unit 1 facility. It was shut down in 2019 because of increased competition from cheaper sources such as natural gas, solar, and wind power.  Microsoft says it'll purchase all the power from the plant for 20 years. So, Constellation says it'll spend $1.6 billion to get it back up and running by 2028 – as long as the regulators allow it.   You may know the name Three Mile Island because of a nuclear meltdown at the "Unit 2" site, in 1979.  The US Government could soon force cars to have AM radio  With the rise of internet connected electric vehicles, AM radio has been phased out. Tesla, BMW and Volkswagen promised to remove AM radio saying the electric engines can interfere with the sound of AM radio.   Plus, why do you need it if you can stream Spotify, Pandora, or iHeart? Well, what happens if you're out of a coverage area? What happens if there's an issue with the communications systems? How do you get emergency information? Well, US lawmakers believe the answer was, and is, AM radio. It's got a huge coverage area, even in rural areas, and is integrated with emergency alerting systems. The AM for Every Vehicle Act was overwhelmingly approved by a house committee and will now go before the house for a vote and, if successful, will go to President Biden to sign.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/586 How do you navigate from a career in manufacturing to becoming a celebrated Microsoft Dynamics MVP? Join us as we chat with Alicia Keener, a director at RSM, whose remarkable journey in the tech industry is nothing short of inspiring. From her early days in the apparel and textiles industry to her impactful work with Frito-Lay and marketing firms, Alicia's story is a testament to resilience and innovation. You'll hear about her transition to the tech world in 2009, her passion for life sciences, and the freedom she found as an independent consultant. Discover how her team's groundbreaking project with Quanta Dialysis Technologies led them to win the 2023 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award.Alicia also shares personal anecdotes, including balancing her professional life with raising twin daughters and her love for adventurous eating. We'll explore RSM's holistic "one Microsoft" strategy, which integrates various Microsoft tools and AI to offer comprehensive solutions for clients. Alicia's dedication to leveraging technology to make a meaningful impact is palpable throughout our discussion. Whether you're considering a career shift or looking for inspiration from a tech leader, this episode is packed with valuable insights and advice from someone who has truly walked the walk.OTHER RESOURCES: Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP  90 Day Mentoring Challenge 10% off code use MBAP at checkout https://ako.nz365guy.comSupport the Show.If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Rob Fegan joins Michael Askins to discuss selling with Microsoft.There are many nuances to being a Microsoft Partner and Rob helps partners focus on the unknown, the overlooked, and the often dreaded requirements of partnering.Stalk Rob on Linkedin:    / robfegan  Visit Venvito:  https://www.venvito.net/Visit ITPro https://www.ma-itpro.com

Back up your data with confidence. Microsoft 365 Backup offers lightning-fast restorability, ensuring business continuity. On this episode, guest host, Brad Gussin from the SharePoint engineering team, provides an overview of the core offering. You'll then hear an interview with our valued partner, Karinne Bessette from Veeam, about the Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 solution.   Read this episode's corresponding blog post. Plus, click here for transcript of this episode.   Karinne Bessette | LinkedIn | @Veeam  [guest] Brad Gussin | LinkedIn [co-host] Mark Kashman |@mkashman [co-host] SharePoint | Facebook | @SharePoint | SharePoint Community Blog | Feedback Learn more about Microsoft 365 Backup (adoption.microsoft.com) Learn more about Veeam's Microsoft 365 Backup solution "Microsoft Announces General Availability of Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Backup Storage" by Zach Rosenfield [July 31, 2024]  Watch "The Ins and Outs of Microsoft 365 Backup & Archive" Microsoft Docs - The home for Microsoft documentation for end users, developers, and IT professionals.  Microsoft Tech Community Home Stay on top of Office 365 changes Upcoming events: TechCon365 - DC | Aug. 12-16, 2024 |Washington, DC  CollabDays Hamburg | Hamburg, Germany | August 31, 2024  Microsoft Power Platform Conference | September 18-20, 2024 | Las Vegas, NV CollabDays Portugal Porto 2024 (previously CollabDays Lisbon)| Sept. 21 Venue: Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto CollabDays New England | October 18-19, 2024 | Burlington, Massachusetts TechCon365 - Dallas | Nov. 11-15, 2024 | Dallas, TX Microsoft Ignite (+ more info) | Nov 18-22, 2024 | Chicago, IL  ESPC | European SharePoint Conference | Dec 2-5, 2024 | Stockholm, Sweden + always review and share the CommunityDays.org website   Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at aka.ms/microsoft/podcasts. Follow The Intrazone at aka.ms/TheIntrazone.

Ergo, one of Ireland's leading IT services providers, has achieved the Microsoft Modernise Endpoints specialisation, a recognition given to Microsoft partners globally who demonstrate deep knowledge, extensive experience, and proven success in delivering holistic solutions designed for the hybrid workplace. As the world of work changes and businesses continue to operate hybrid models of working, organisations need to manage and enable secure access to corporate resources across mobile, desktop, and virtual endpoints to better enable their workforce and set them up for success. This includes devices users need, operating systems that are secure by design, endpoint management solutions, and collaborative applications that are accessible from anywhere. Microsoft Capabilities The Ergo team works to embed a culture of collaboration and secure hybrid working inside global multi-site organisations, using Microsoft solutions such as Microsoft Intune, Microsoft 365, Windows Autopilot, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Entra and Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop Infrastructure to bring disparate workforces together for a seamless experience. Speaking on the recognition, Gerry Hampson, Client Management Practice Lead at Ergo, and Microsoft MVP, said: "In a world where workplaces are increasingly disparate, it is essential that organisations are set up for success when managing teams across multiple locations and geographies." "This achievement is testament to the hard work and dedication of the team here in Ergo, who are steadfast in their commitment to ensuring that our customers are set up for success through preparing them for today, while planning for tomorrow." Paul Chawke, Partner Development Manager at Microsoft said: "Ergo has a longstanding, 30-year long history with Microsoft achieving technological advancements and innovation in Ireland. This achievement recognises the work that Ergo are carrying out when it comes to equipping organisations for success through Modernize Endpoint solutions." Ergo has extensive knowledge and capabilities in the area of modern work, with one of the largest Microsoft practices in Ireland and five Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals, the highest accolade a Microsoft engineer can be awarded), three of whom contribute to modern work areas such as Microsoft 365 Development and Enterprise Mobility. Ergo is also a Microsoft Solution Partner for Modern Work with specialisations in adoption and change management, meetings and meeting rooms for Microsoft Teams, and Modernise Endpoints. This expertise was recognised as Ergo took home the Microsoft Partner of the Year Award 2024. This is the sixth time Ergo has won the Country of the Year Award making it the most recognised Microsoft Partner in Ireland. See more stories here.

Send us a Text Message.Hosted by Advisory Director Dave Horstein with Tom Galambos, President and Global CEO of Hitachi Solutions & Microsoft Global Alliance Executive for HitachiKey Discussion Points:Hitachi Solutions Wins Partner of the Year for Low Code!What does the new partnership between Microsoft and Hitachi Ltd mean for our customers?The establishment of a three-year agreement with Microsoft emphasizes deeper integration across Hitachi's broad ecosystem.The partnership aims at enhancing collaboration on solutions, especially revolving around operational technology (OT), information technology (IT), and Generative AI.Focus on Generative AI (Gen AI):Discussion on how Gen AI is central to the partnership and technology developments.Microsoft and Hitachi Solutions aim to infuse Gen AI into every aspect of technology and solutions provided.Emphasis on upskilling tens of thousands of individuals within Hitachi on Gen AI.Employee Upskilling and Efficiency:Process efficiencies and upskilling for employees were discussed, including the use of innovative tools for tasks like user testing, significantly reducing time and cost.Internal reflection and optimization using AI to deliver more value to customers.Future Direction:Vision to establish Hitachi Solutions as an AI-led company.Leveraging AI to radically improve value delivery both internally and for customers.Continued alignment with Microsoft and investment in industry-specific solutions.global.hitachi-solutions.com

Microsoft has revealed that Ruth McGuinness, Head of Data and AI at Kainos, headquartered in Belfast has won the Microsoft Power Women Award 2024 in Ireland. The Microsoft Power Women Awards are part of Microsoft's ongoing commitment to inspire, promote and invest in a new generation of women tech talent. The awards shine a spotlight on some of the amazing women spearheading greater diversity and inclusion throughout the Microsoft Partner network. In the second year of the awards, the programme expanded its reach covering Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, with nearly 400 applications from exceptional women who have made significant contributions to technology, and diversity and inclusion. McGuinness is a prominent leader in the field of AI, overseeing one of Ireland's largest AI teams with 150 members generating millions of pounds annually through delivery of AI technology programmes in both public and private sector organisations across Ireland, the UK, Europe, and North America. Her focus includes developing AI tooling that is robust, explainable, and trustworthy and advocating for ethical AI adoption. Passionate about bridging the gap between academic research and industry, McGuinness is also the primary industry partner of the AI Research Centre (AIRC) at Ulster University, supporting 100+ AI researchers in trusted AI applications. She also supports the development of more diverse AI talent as a curator of AI CON, Ireland's largest annual AI conference, while being a strong advocate for the robust regulation of AI across other public forums, both local and international. Accepting the award, Ruth McGuinness said, "I'm very grateful to Microsoft Ireland for honouring me with this prestigious award. It is humbling to be included among such an incredible and inspiring cohort of powerhouse women in the Microsoft ecosystem across Western Europe. "I also welcome the opportunity of accepting an award for my career during a period of extended maternity leave with my second child - it's great to see how much progress has been made in terms of gender equity despite how much more we need to achieve! "Women face a multitude of barriers when trying to have children and a career. While we know that only 26% of technology roles are held by women, further data shows that women often then depart those technology careers at this important stage in their lives, due to inadequate parental leave benefits, expensive childcare systems and a lack of access to good quality flexible working. "The IT industry needs to continue to do more, to not only attract, but also to retain young women, through ensuring job roles come with an inclusive culture, flexible working hours, flexible roles, equity and fairness. "I feel passionately about the mantra that "you can't be what you can't see" and believe that elevating diverse role models for women - such as through Microsoft's Power Women Award - plays an incredibly important role in empowering others coming into the industry" - said Ruth McGuinness, Head of Data and AI at Kainos. McGuinness will join the other 18 winners at the Microsoft Women's Leadership Program 2nd Edition, a customised programme developed by Professor Jennifer Petriglieri at the INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau, France. Details of the Microsoft Power Women Awards can be found at: https://aka.ms/MicrosoftPowerWomenAward.

Microsoft Ireland has revealed the winners of its Partner of the Year Awards 2024, announced at the prestigious gala awards ceremony held at the Mansion House, Dublin. The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards annually recognise and celebrate the achievements and excellence within Microsoft's Irish partner network. The awards honour partners who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, innovation, and impact in delivering Microsoft solutions to customers across various categories, solution areas, industries, business transformation and social impact. The recognitionhighlights the strength and diversity of Microsoft's Irish partner ecosystem, which plays a vital role in empowering organisations and individuals to achieve more. Globally, Microsoft has a 400,000-strong partner ecosystem which plays a pivotal role in making new technology accessible for Microsoft customers, particularly in today's AI-driven world. In addition to recognising partners for their impact in each award category,Microsoft also recognises partners from over 100 countries and regions around the world as part of the Country Partner of the Year Awards. Martina Naughton, Microsoft Ireland's Partner Director, said: "We are delighted to recognise the outstanding achievements of our partners in Ireland, who have demonstrated excellence and innovation in delivering solutions for our customers. The past year has been challenging and uncertain for many businesses, but our partners have shown resilience and adaptability in helping them navigate the digital transformation journey in this new era of AI. "I extend my gratitude to our partners for their continuous innovation, which has helped Irish organisations embrace new technology and become digital pacesetters. Our partners play a crucial role in Microsoft's ongoing effort to enable every individual and organisation worldwide to accomplish more. We are proud to work with such a talented and diverse partner ecosystem, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration in the future." The full list of award categories and recipients are listed below: Category Winner Overall Country Partner of the Year Ergo Azure Analytics Codec Migration to Azure Logicalis Building with AI Tekenable Modernizing Applications Spanish Point Dynamics 365 Business Central Tekenable Dynamics 365 Sales & Customer Insights Ergo Low Code Application Development Avanade Employee Experience Spanish Point Secure Productivity (NEW) eir evo Compliance CWSI Security Threatscape Education Spanish Point Government Codec Nonprofit Bearing Point Independent Software Vendor (SV) Innovation (NEW) Softco Global Systems Integration Partner EY AI Innovation (NEW) EY Enterprise Copilot Partner Accenture/Avanade SMC (Small Medium Corporate) Copilot Partner eir evo Community Response Kainos See more stories here.

News William Dorrington

Join Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they explore the most critical developments in the world of education technology this week:

We recently announced that public safety technology leader, Rob Wolf, joined Auror as Senior Director of Public Safety Solutions.  On this episode, Rob joins the podcast to discuss all things law enforcement and public safety technology, diving into his interesting career background and entrepreneurial journey in this space.  Prior to joining Auror, Rob led a company focused on building 911/CAD and RMS systems for small and mid-sized agencies. He is also the founder and former president of a software company that helped manage large-scale national security events and disasters, once recognized as Microsoft Partner of the Year. Jump into the conversation: [00:00] An introduction to Rob [05:39] Rob's career journey [12:39] How retail crime rings impact us all financially [14:25] Technology in law enforcement streamlines data for officers, aiding crime-fighting [18:38] Auror focuses on bringing retail crime capabilities to law enforcement through license plate recognition [20:44] Why a career is about people and teams Resources: Rob's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpwolf/ Alaina's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaina-kring-cpht-93108390/ Auror's website: https://www.auror.co/

Join public safety and law enforcement veterans, Rob Wolf and Raul Aguilar, as they discuss the future of crime intelligence and answer questions from the crowd in this previously recorded LPF webinar. Raul Aguilar is the Senior Director of Law Enforcement Partnerships at Auror. Prior to joining Auror, Raul served as the Deputy Assistant Director for the Countering Transnational Organized Crime, Financial and Fraud Division for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – the principal investigative component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Rob Wolf is the Senior Director of Public Safety Solutions at Auror. Prior to joining Auror, Rob led a company focused on building 911/CAD and RMS systems for small and mid-sized agencies. He is also the founder and former president of a software company that focused on helping manage large-scale national security events and disasters, once recognized as Microsoft Partner of the Year. Jump into the conversation: [00:0] Discussing the nexus between retail and law enforcement [07:00] Rob Wolf's background  [10:13 How disruptive technology will impact law enforcement operations [20:28] How retail crime poses challenges for law enforcement [23:54] Law enforcement success story in Midwest fusion center [31:12] Retailers can now easily send reports/evidence to law enforcement [34:50] How retailers and police collaborate to combat crime

When you're focused on building a $100 million business with a co-founder, what could possibly make you peel off to become a Soloist? Consultant Rob Fegan shares how he pivoted from his first business to a highly profitable (and life-enhancing) Soloist consulting practice:Why he transitioned from co-founding and growing their potentially $100 million business to become a Soloist.The value of experimenting and failing—or succeeding—fast.How he 5x'ed his prices in a single quarter by focusing on the value he was delivering to his ideal clients.When to shoot for big leaps vs. incremental growth (and why you don't necessarily need a big audience to build a 6-7 figure Soloist business).How a failed experiment convinced him to double-down on his genius zone.LINKSRob Fegan Website | LinkedInRochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | InstagramBIORob Fegan is an author, speaker and the founder of Venvito Consulting. He is a highly sought-after expert and leading authority for Microsoft Partners. Rob is on a mission to help founders and individual contributors demystify the success formula to become a go-to partner working with Microsoft. BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH ROCHELLERESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS10 Ways To Grow Revenue As A Soloist (Without Working More Hours): most of us have been conditioned to work more when we want to grow revenue—but what if we just worked differently?The Soloist Women community: a place to connect with like-minded women (and join a channel dedicated to your revenue level).The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

In this episode, we delve into the partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft as they unveil their collaboration on the Stargate supercomputer data center. Join us as we explore the potential of this cutting-edge technology in advancing AI research and accelerating breakthroughs in computational capabilities. Get on the AI Box Waitlist: ⁠⁠https://AIBox.ai/⁠⁠ AI Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/739308654562189 Conor's AI Newsletter: https://www.ai-mindset.ai/ Podcast Studio Network: https://PodcastStudio.com/

Embracing Technology to Harness the Power of AI for Small Business Success is covered in this podio, along with the following subjects: - Productivity and efficiency - Automating customer service - Analyzing data ************************************************************************************** Harnessing the power of AI can greatly enhance small business productivity and efficiency. With the advancements in artificial intelligence technology, small businesses now have access to tools and solutions that were once only available to larger enterprises. By leveraging AI, small businesses can save time and resources, allowing them to focus on growth and innovation. Whether it's automating customer service or utilizing machine learning algorithms to analyze data, AI is revolutionizing the way small businesses operate and compete in today's fast-paced digital landscape. Carl Mazzanti is a top-tier IT guy with personality—and the ability to assemble a world-class crew to solve business problems. Camped on the leading edge of business technology, Carl knows it, lives it, loves it, and labors passionately to see that clients prosper with it. A lifelong partnership is more important to him than the transaction. Carl's firm, eMazzanti Technologies, is all about delivering powerful, efficient outsourced IT services, such as computer network management, proactive 24/7 monitoring and support, retail IT infrastructure, payment technology and POS, PCI DSS compliance, cloud hosting and backup, affordable DRaaS and IaaS solutions, business continuity and disaster recovery, managed print, mobile workforce technology, information security, and business information optimization. His firm manages over 400 active accounts ranging from professional services firms to high-end global retailers. eMazzanti has been recognized as a 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012 Microsoft Partner of the Year, a 5X WatchGuard Technologies Partner of the Year, and has made the Inc. 5000 list seven years running. Despite all that, eMazzanti Technologies is fun, innovative, and professional. As likable as he is knowledgeable, Carl will shake 10,000 hands a year speaking at conferences and attending industry events. He is family-first and super loyal. His son accumulated 300,000 frequent flyer miles traveling to 7 countries, and 28 states by the time he was 5… Carl takes him along. Carl is a graduate of Georgetown University, with a triple major in Finance, New and Small Business Management, and International Business. Jennifer, his wife and business partner, is smarter. His interests include snowboarding, sailing, and minor-league baseball, but mostly he works and takes the kids on outings.

Microsoft introduced three tiers of new partner benefits packages in January 2024 that were designed for partners to purchase to help meet different types of channel needs. Our guest on this episode, Microsoft MVP AJ Ansari of DSWi, has been looking closely at these benefit levels and joins us to share some of his observations about the elements of each offer, the value of different options, and how different kinds of organizations might be able to use them to their advantage. We also discuss what these offers say about Microsoft's channel engagement priorities today and how they differ from other programs and incentives.   Events and resources mentioned: Comparing partner offerings Directions North America DynamicsCon Live DynamicsMinds Days of Knowledge Central BCTechDays

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute. Here are today's top stories shaping the retail landscape:Wendy's Dynamic Pricing Initiative: Wendy's plans to introduce dynamic pricing at its company-owned restaurants in 2025, investing $20 million in digital menu boards to enable live price changes. This move aims to enhance value during slower periods by adjusting prices based on factors like demand and weather conditions.Amazon Expands Smart Shopping Carts: Amazon expands its pilot of smart shopping carts to a Whole Foods store in San Mateo, California. These carts utilize sensors to streamline the checkout process, allowing customers to log in with their Amazon or Whole Foods account and automatically charge them upon exiting.Microsoft Partners with Mistral AI: Microsoft announces a partnership with French startup Mistral AI to diversify its sources for chatbots and generative AI beyond its reliance on OpenAI. This collaboration aims to leverage Mistral AI's innovative AI systems and marks Microsoft's strategic move to broaden its AI ecosystem.Macy's Store Portfolio Changes: Macy's announces significant changes to its store portfolio, including the closure of approximately 150 stores deemed unproductive. The company plans to invest in enhancing customer service and revitalizing remaining stores while pursuing strategies like opening smaller suburban locations.Stay tuned daily with Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute for updates on the latest retail innovations and transformations and don't forget to use our code "OMNITALK" to save on Shoptalk! #RetailInnovation #DynamicPricing #SmartCarts #AI #StorePortfolio

In this episode, we explore the latest strategic moves in the tech industry with Microsoft's partnership with Mistral AI, the exciting innovations from MWC 2024, and insights from Berkshire Hathaway's annual report. Discover how these developments are shaping the future of AI, mobile technology, and investment strategies.For more on these topics:Microsoft partners with MistralMobile World Congress 2024Berkshire Hathaway stock hits recordPerplexity is the fastest and most powerful way to search the web. Perplexity crawls the web and curates the most relevant and up-to-date sources (from academic papers to Reddit threads) to create the perfect response to any question or topic you're interested in. Take the world's knowledge with you anywhere. Available on iOS and Android Join our growing Discord community for the latest updates and exclusive content. Follow us on: Instagram Threads X (Twitter) YouTube Linkedin

Orrin Klopper (Co-founder & CEO of Netsurit)  After 24 years Netsurit has 350+ brilliant individuals across 5 office HQs working hard to help companies like Galderma, Private Wealth Management, RCS (BNP Paribas), Eurolux and more achieve their dreams. Orrin leads all culture, strategy, vision, and direction for the company, working closely with the Leadership team. Orrin is Head of the Dreams Programme, Netsuit's signature program to help employees dream bigger than they ever have. He is always innovating for new ways of work. His people-focused leadership leads his team's incredible, aspirational culture and their dream program. He is a passionate Microsoft Partner and committed to serve both employees and clients by nurturing and realizing their dreams.

Meet Orrin Klopper, the CEO of Netsurit, a thriving Managed Service Provider (MSP) firm with a remarkable journey of growth. Under his leadership, Netsurit has evolved into a $40 million enterprise, boasting a team of over 100 professionals. What sets Orrin apart is not just his impressive business acumen but also his commitment to fostering a unique company culture. He's the driving force behind the globally awarded Dreams program, an integral part of Netsurit's aspirational ethos. As a Microsoft Partner, Orrin has successfully orchestrated three acquisitions, further solidifying Netsurit's position in the industry. What truly sets him apart, however, is his resilience and determination, shaped by his childhood experiences of attending nine different schools, with a few detours along the way. With a track record of turning challenges into opportunities, Orrin's story is both inspiring and emblematic of the entrepreneurial spirit. GROWTH FOR MSPs In the world of Managed Service Providers (MSPs), growth is the ultimate goal. Many MSPs strive to expand their businesses and reach new heights. One strategic approach to achieve this growth is through acquisitions. But for entrepreneurs looking to sell their MSPs, the decision to join a larger organization like Netsurit isn't just about the deal; it's about finding the right fit and value proposition. In a recent podcast interview, Orrin Klopper, CEO of Netsurit, shed light on what makes Netsurit an attractive option for MSP owners considering the next chapter in their journey. NETSURIT'S CRITERIA Netsurit has a specific set of criteria for MSPs it considers for acquisition. These criteria help ensure that the acquired MSPs align with Netsurit's strategic goals and culture. Here are the key criteria: 1. Leadership Retention: Netsurit places a high value on retaining the key leaders of the MSP being acquired. 2. EBITDA Range: Netsurit typically targets MSPs with EBITDA ranging from $500,000 to $2-3 million. 3. Recurring Revenue: A minimum of 60% recurring revenue in the MSP's business model is a crucial criterion. 4. People-Oriented Culture: Netsurit values MSPs with a strong people-oriented culture. A harmonious and engaged workforce is essential for continued success and scalability. 5. Microsoft Expertise: Netsurit is predominantly a Microsoft-focused business. MSPs that have expertise in Microsoft technologies and serve clients with similar technology needs are a strong fit. THE VALUE OF EQUITY Orrin emphasized that Netsurit's approach to offering equity as part of the deal isn't just a benefit for the seller; it's also a strategy they themselves embrace. This alignment of interests means that Orrin and his team are willing to roll over their equity when the time comes for Netsurit to have a liquidity event (such as bringing in a private equity partner). This underscores their commitment to protecting the culture and essence of the businesses they acquire. CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRIVATE EQUITY PARTNER Orrin acknowledged that this decision is not to be taken lightly. When determining the suitability of a PE firm, Netsurit considers various factors: 1. Alignment of Values: Netsurit looks for a PE partner whose values align with their own culture and philosophy. 2. Performance Track Record: A PE firm's track record in terms of achieving return on investments (ROIs) and managing portfolio companies is a crucial factor in the selection process. 3. Cultural Fit: Maintaining the soul and culture of the acquired businesses is paramount. Netsurit seeks a PE partner who shares this commitment and isn't solely focused on rapid change and cost-cutting. 4. Long-Term Vision: Netsurit values PE partners with a long-term vision for their portfolio companies. In the dynamic world of MSP acquisitions and private equity investments, Netsurit's journey provides valuable insights. The careful consideration of deal structure, the recognition of the value of equity, and the selection of the right private equity partner all play pivotal roles in the success of these endeavors. As the MSP industry continues to evolve, these strategies and insights will remain essential for companies looking to thrive in this competitive landscape. • • • FOR MORE ON ORRIN KLOPPER: https://www.linkedin.com/in/orrinklopper/ https://netsurit.com/en-us/ Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator, and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author, and professional speaker. He is deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast. If you want to start getting yourself deal-ready, check out the DealQuest Podcast with Corey Kupfer each week. Featuring industry leaders and newcomers as guests alike, the DealQuest podcast has something for everyone.

With Microsoft Inspire only a few days away, I'm bringing back this fantastic episode to help you better understand from a Microsoft Partner's Chief Brand Officer. If you wish to hear from this amazing leader, please join us on July 20th for his panel session where he will teach us about effective brand marketing with Microsoft and the Ecosystem.

Carson Heady is a best-selling author, award-winning seller, recognized thought leader, and podcast host. Carson joins this podcast to help you learn, how can Microsoft Partners achieve their greatest results co-selling.

A single event can change everything for you and your business. We were fortunate to join other Microsoft Partners and Stakeholders at the First Black Partner Growth Initiative (BPGI) Summit at Microsoft's HQ in Redmond, Washington. In partnership with the Black Channel Partner Alliance (BCPA) and AppMeetup, tech leaders throughout the country came together for an interactive experience focused on driving innovation and business growth.The depth of support and commitment from Microsoft and other leading organizations to the growth, development, sales acceleration, and success of the Black partner was amazing. The events of the week included:Partner ReceptionSummit featuring talks and workshops from industry leaders, as well as Senior Microsoft executives.Accelerator Catalyst GraduationBCPA Golf ClassicStrategic NetworkingBecome a supporter of this vision:Go to Microsoft's website and searching for the Black Partner Growth Initiative (BPGI)Visit bcpalliance.comVisit bcpalliance.comVisit AppMeetup.comDiversity and Inclusion matters. Join this movement. Ignite the fires of innovation and watch out for the endless possibilities. --- more ---If you are looking to learn the art of audience engagement while listening for methods to conquer speaking anxiety, deliver persuasive presentations, and close more deals, then this is the podcast for you.Twins Talk it Up is a podcast where identical twin brothers Danny Suk Brown and David Suk Brown discuss leadership communication strategies to support professionals who believe in the power of their own authentic voice. Together, we will explore tips and tools to increase both your influence and value. Along the way, let's crush some goals, deliver winning sales pitches, and enjoy some laughs.Danny Suk Brown and David Suk Brown train on speaking and presentation skills. They also share from their keynote entitled, “Identically Opposite: the Pursuit of Identity”.Support and Follow us:YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCL18KYXdzVdzEwMH8uwLf6gInstagram: @twinstalkitupInstagram: @dsbleadershipgroupTwitter: @dsbleadershipLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/twins-talk-it-up/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/dsbleadershipgroup/Facebook: facebook.com/TwinsTalkitUpFacebook: facebook.com/dsbleadership/Website: dsbleadershipgroup.com/TwinsTalkitUp