Podcasts about power automate

In this episode of The Low Code Approach, hosts Sean Fiene and Jocelyn Panchal sit down with Christy Jefson to explore the evolving landscape of automation through desktop flows and the integration of generative AI. Together, they unpack how Power Automate is transforming repetitive tasks, what's new in the world of RPA, and how generative AI is reshaping the way we build and optimize low-code solutions. Whether you're a seasoned maker or just getting started, this conversation offers practical insights and forward-looking perspectives on building smarter, faster, and more intuitive automation experiences.

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven BartlettMicrosoft 365 Copilot Gets Smarter - Big Changes Ahead by Lisa CrosbieSpring Release of Microsoft 365 Copilot by Femke CornelissenCRM will Die — Benioff admits it, Microsoft is building the replacement by Steve MordueMicrosoft Copilot Studio ❤️ MCP | Power Platform Developer BlogEngineered Code - Blog - Power Pages: Depending on jQuery Power Pages Actions in Visual Studio Code by Nick DoelmanGit Integration is Generally AvailableSet regarding any table in Power Automate without complex conditions by Amey HoldenMaking the Move from Outbound to Realtime Marketing by Megan V. WalkerOne form to rule them all: Reuse Marketing Forms Across Pages with Javascript by Pauline KoldeAnnouncing new computer use in Microsoft Copilot Studio for UI automation by Charles Lamanna Automate, agentify, or nothing? by Ana Inés UrrutiaRevolutionizing Digital Workflows: Traditional Automation vs. AI-Powered Agents by Carsten GrothSelf-Service Disaster Recovery for Power Platform and D365 by Andrew LyMicrosoft Power Platform and Copilot Studio Architecture CenterBe sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode of Power Platform BOOST!Thank you for buying us a coffee: buymeacoffee.comPodcast home page: https://powerplatformboost.comEmail: hello@powerplatformboost.comFollow us!Twitter: https://twitter.com/powerplatboost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerplatformboost/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/powerplatboost/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090444536122 Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@powerplatboost

In dieser spannenden Episode von 365 Checkpoint nimmt dich Daniel Rohregger (Cloud Architect & Microsoft 365 Copilot MVP) mit auf eine Reise durch die Welt der KI-Agents im Microsoft 365 Copilot Studio. Erfahre Hintergrund: Wie aus Plugins und Connectors mächtige, standardisierte Agents wurden Anatomie eines Agents: Detaillierte Erklärung von System Prompt (Persona), Topics (Fachgebiete), Actions (Automatisierungen) und Triggers (Ereignisauslöser) Praxisbeispiele: Dokumenten-Reviews, Kalender-Management, Lead-Qualifizierung und Helpdesk-Automation Multi-Agent-Orchestrierung: So koordinierst du mehrere Agents, um komplexe Prozesse vollständig zu automatisieren Chancen & Risiken: Effizienzgewinne versus Governance- und Datenschutz-Herausforderungen Erste Schritte: Pilot-Projekt, Governance-Framework, Team-Workshops und kontinuierliche Optimierung Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio Agents, KI-Agenten, Multi-Agent Orchestrierung, Automatisierung, Cloud Architect, Power Automate, Graph API.

Welcome to the CanadianSME Small Business Podcast, hosted by Maheen! In today's episode, we explore the power of custom software, the potential of Microsoft's Power Platform, and AI in driving business innovation. We're joined by Dan Carmichael, President of Whitecap Canada, a premier provider of custom and platform software solutions. With over 27 years of experience in the tech industry, Dan shares his expertise in leveraging custom solutions for competitive advantage and operational efficiency.Dan discusses the unique advantages of custom software in a SaaS-dominated world, how businesses can use Microsoft Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and AI to drive innovation, and lessons learned from over two decades of building successful tech solutions. He also shares a powerful example of Whitecap's impactful work with the Canadian Cancer Society.Key Highlights:Custom Software in a SaaS World: Why custom solutions are still a valuable investment for businesses.Leveraging Microsoft's Power Platform & AI: How businesses can use Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate to innovate and enhance operations.Lessons from 25+ Years in Tech: Insights and experiences from over two decades of delivering successful technology projects.Impactful Project with the Canadian Cancer Society: How Whitecap's tech solutions made a difference for the organization.Microsoft Solutions Partner Achievement: What Whitecap's recent recognition means for their clients and the company's future.Special Thanks to Our Partners:RBC: https://www.rbcroyalbank.com/dms/business/accounts/beyond-banking/index.htmlUPS: https://solutions.ups.com/ca-beunstoppable.html?WT.mc_id=BUSMEWAIHG Hotels and Resorts: https://businessedge.ihg.com/s/registration?language=en_US&CanSMEGoogle: https://www.google.ca/For more expert insights, visit www.canadiansme.ca and subscribe to the CanadianSME Small Business Magazine. Stay innovative, stay informed, and thrive in the digital age!Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as direct financial or business advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation.

I dette podcastafsnit møder vi Casper fra BRYDE & SØNNER A/S og hører om virksomhedens rejse fra et 25 år gammelt ERP-system til en løsning med Microsoft Power Platform. Vi fortæller om hele implementeringsfasen, herunder hvorfor det er vigtigt at have en intern nøgleperson til projektledelse og kommunikation, samt hvordan en grundig forberedelse og klare kravspecifikationer baner vejen for succes. Hør om praktiske erfaringer med automatisering med Power Automate, effektiv kommunikation mellem virksomhed og leverandør, implementeringsfasen og ikke mindst flere planer for yderligere optimering i fremtiden.

In this episode of Focus on Outcomes, Jeff Dotzler and Patrick Hanifin dig into some of the most underutilized tools in the Microsoft 365 suite, and how they can dramatically improve productivity, collaboration, and organization for teams of all sizes.From Microsoft Teams and Planner to To Do, Power Automate, and the increasingly powerful Copilot, Jeff and Patrick share real-life examples of how they use these tools internally at Elevity. Whether you're just getting started with Microsoft 365 or looking to get more from your subscription, this episode offers practical tips, honest takes, and a few laughs (including a surprise peanut butter taste test you don't want to miss).

In this episode, we deliver on their promise from the previous show — a wishlist of features they'd love to see in Power Pages (and none of them are AI). It's a mix of practical frustrations from real-world projects and some wild ideas for future innovation. What did we talk about? George's standing desk automation project — powered by Python, Bluetooth, and (eventually) Power Platform. Imagine your desk going up automatically before every meeting! Top Power Pages wishlist items: API to clear the cache — long-requested, simple sounding, yet still missing. Modern Forms — it's time to modernize the end-user experience beyond Bootstrap upgrades. Support for Quick View and Quick Create forms — why only Main forms? Multi-step form improvements — allow skipping between steps, especially when there are no conditions. Bring back Front-Side Editing — content editing without admin rights is a must for real CMS scenarios. Power Automate integration in forms and lists — run flows like classic workflows directly from UI. Framework agnostic design — let's dream big: support Tailwind, Foundation, or other CSS frameworks beyond Bootstrap.   What's next? How about a tour of Power Pages features that already exist — but almost nobody uses. Credits Cover image by chatGPT (inspired by terrible prompts) References rhyst/linak-controller: A Python script to control Linak standing desks Get in touch voice@crm.audio Nick Hayduk @Engineered_Code George Doubinski @georgedude

Do you use collaboration tools such as Trello or Planner while also keeping a to-do list in Todoist or To-Do? In this week's Done!, you will learn how to connect these tools to get a better overview of everything you have to do. Here are some useful links from the episode: Trello connector in Power Automate in Microsoft 365 Todoist connector in Power Automate Ready-made integration between Trello and Todoist Have you made any other clever connections between Planner or Trello that have made it easier for you? Please write to me and let me know. I'm curious! Here's how to identify and eliminate those small, daily nuisances. These episodes are also available as a weekly newsletter to your email. If you rather read than listen (or both!), sign up for a free subscription. David Stiernholm is a ”struktör”. As such he helps people and companies become more efficient and productive by creating better structure. His motto is: Everything can be done easier! David is frequently hired as a speaker by all kinds of businesses, from well-established major corporations to entrepreneurial companies in hyper-growth. He extinguishes himself by providing clients with concrete tools and methods that can be applied instantly both at work and in your personal life. During a talk with David Stiernholm, you will realize that structure is both liberating and fun and that establishing a better structure makes you less stressed and more efficient.

At Enterprise Connect 2025, Microsoft's announcement of Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility marked a significant leap in the evolution of Teams-integrated communications. Among the first to harness this new capability is Luware, whose Teams-native contact center solution, Luware Nimbus Power, was front and center at the event. In a podcast recorded live from the show, John Wright of Luware joined Technology Reseller News publisher Doug Green to discuss the implications of this breakthrough. “Luware Nimbus Power leverages Microsoft's Azure Communication Services (ACS) to enable what we call ‘dual persona' functionality,” Wright explained. “This means agents can manage and receive audio calls through either the contact center console or the Microsoft Teams client—seamlessly.” Wright emphasized that while many competitors took the fastest route to market by simply connecting existing solutions to Teams, Luware made a bold move: they rebuilt their contact center platform natively within the Teams environment using the Extend model. Now, with Power certification, Luware adds advanced capabilities that integrate fully with Microsoft 365 tools like Power Automate, SharePoint, and Dynamics, and allow real-time AI enhancements via Microsoft Copilot Studio. This cloud-native, Teams-embedded architecture not only enables secure handling of calls without rerouting media through third-party infrastructure but also offers deep flexibility for integrations with CRMs, ticketing systems, and third-party platforms. “The call stays within the Teams tenant,” Wright noted. “That's a major advantage for organizations with strict compliance and security requirements.” For multi-vendor enterprise environments or long-standing organizations with diverse tech stacks, Wright sees the Luware approach as a powerful unifier: “You might have different departments working with different systems—Salesforce, Freshdesk, you name it. Luware can centralize communications across those platforms while keeping the user experience rooted in Teams.” Luware's robust partner program also makes this a compelling opportunity for MSPs and MSSPs. “We built a rewarding, intuitive partner program around Nimbus,” Wright said. “You can deploy a full-featured, omni-channel, AI-powered contact center in under 40 minutes.” Luware's commitment to native Teams integration and close collaboration with Microsoft positions it as a top-tier option for modern, scalable, secure contact center deployments. Learn more at www.luware.com

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM FULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/671Prashant Chaudhary shares his journey from automation engineering to Microsoft MVP, highlighting how a passion for programming and community support shaped his successful career in Power Platform.TAKEAWAYS• Working at EY as a technical lead with expertise in Power Apps, Power Automate, and Dataverse• First awarded Microsoft MVP status in 2024• Started in automation engineering before transitioning to IT through a programming aptitude test• Specializes in Power Automate after about 5-6 years working with Power Platform• Successfully implemented desktop automation projects for financial data processing• Career influenced by a startup owner who taught him to think beyond a single domain• Joined EY through networking connections made by helping others in the community• Planning to expand community involvement through speaking engagements in 2025• Values networking as a critical component of career growthOTHER RESOURCES: Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP 90 Day Mentoring Challenge - https://www.90daymc.com/  This year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world. Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge We've helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

In this episode of The BlueHat Podcast, host Nic Fillingham and Wendy Zenone are joined by security researcher Tobias Diehl, a top contributor to the Microsoft Security Research Center (MSRC) leaderboards and a Most Valuable Researcher. Tobias shares his journey from IT support to uncovering vulnerabilities in Microsoft products. He discusses his participation in the upcoming Zero Day Quest hacking challenge and breaks down a recent discovery involving Power Automate, where he identified a security flaw that could be exploited via malicious URLs. Tobias explains how developers can mitigate such risks and the importance of strong proof-of-concept submissions in security research.  In This Episode You Will Learn:  Researching vulnerabilities in Power Automate, Power Automate Desktop, and Azure The importance of user prompts to prevent unintended application behavior Key vulnerabilities Tobias looks for when researching Microsoft products Some Questions We Ask: Have you submitted any AI-related findings to Microsoft or other bug bounty programs? How does the lack of visibility into AI models impact the research process? Has your approach to security research changed when working with AI versus traditional systems?    Resources:      View Tobias Diehl on LinkedIn   View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn   View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn  Related Microsoft Podcasts:     Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast   Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson   Uncovering Hidden Risks   Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts   The BlueHat Podcast is produced by Microsoft and distributed as part of N2K media network. 

Related Links and Guest Info can be found at https://www.augforums.com/episode140

Boost Productivity with Microsoft Process Mining & AI Tools

How did no one notice these AI Agents?

This week Pat talks with Yasmin Weston, Head of Operations at Capital Partners. She discusses how to leverage tech like Power Automate and Copilot to transform data management, improve operational efficiency, and drive data-driven decision-making in your advice practice. Yasmin Weston LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasmin-weston-7b061a13a/ Capital Partners Website: https://capital-partners.com.au/ Patrick Gardner LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/csba-patrick-gardner/ A world of client engagement awaits you at Netwealth: https://ensombl.com/go/20250328 Recognise real-world learning as CPD: https://ensombl.com/cpd/ General Disclaimer – https://www.ensombl.com/disclaimer/

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVMFULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/668 Microsoft's digital technology specialist from Singapore shares insights on enterprise-scale Power Platform implementations and how AI is transforming business processes across industries. We explore the psychology behind enterprise architects' resistance to low-code platforms and examine real-world success stories from major banks and global organizations.TAKEAWAYS• The psychological barriers enterprise architects face when considering low-code platforms• Parallels between historical resistance to .NET and today's hesitation about Power Platform• Case study of a major bank that improved performance 12-fold by migrating from legacy ERP• How a UK bank used Power Automate to fix a critical integration in hours instead of weeks• The impact of agentic AI on eliminating "performance leaks" in organizational workflows• Transforming contact centers with intelligent routing and AI-powered agent assistance• Why smaller organizations without legacy data "baggage" are well-positioned for AI adoption• How the Power Platform enables consolidation of business processes similar to data lakesThis year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world. DynamicsMinds is a world-class event in Slovenia that brings together Microsoft product managers, industry leaders, and dedicated users to explore the latest in Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Copilot.Early bird tickets are on sale now and listeners of the Microsoft Innovation Podcast get 10% off with the code MIPVIP144bff https://www.dynamicsminds.com/register/?voucher=MIPVIP144bff Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge We've helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Explore the fascinating world of workflow and automation with Cole, a power platform developer, and Kelsey, a graphic designer and brand strategist. Discover what excites them about creating workflows and automations and how these tools can reduce frustration and burnout in the workplace. Through engaging examples and insights, learn how to streamline marketing processes, manage data effectively, and implement user-friendly automation tools. Whether you're new to automation or looking to enhance your current systems, this conversation provides valuable tips and future trends in the field. Join us for an inspiring talk about making technology work for you!Resources: Tools: Zapier, Power Automate, Pipefy, Unito, Workato, Custom GPTs Within your existing tech stack: Outlook, Project Management tools like Asana or Monday.com 00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Guests00:28 The Excitement of Workflows and Automations00:50 Cole's Perspective on Automations02:46 Kelsey's Insights on Marketing Processes04:31 Frameworks and Tools for Automation12:04 Real-World Automation Examples22:27 Challenges in Implementing Automations26:51 Human Interaction in Automation27:44 User Friction and Adoption29:11 Getting Started with Power Automate31:42 Practical Automation Examples36:31 Future Trends in Automation37:52 Documenting Processes for Automation38:43 Employee Engagement and Automation40:18 Marketing and Hyper-Personalization43:16 Concluding Thoughts on Automation

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/651 Sunil Kumar shares his journey as a lead architect in the Microsoft Power Platform space, discussing the unique tech landscape in the UAE, challenges with advisory roles, and the growing embrace of low-code solutions. The conversation delves into Sunil's career transformation with Microsoft's Power Platform, from SharePoint to Power Apps and Power Automate, highlighting key projects like a COVID tracking app. He also explores Power Platform integrations, licensing complexities, and innovative solutions using ServiceNow and DocuSign. Packed with insights for tech enthusiasts and professionals alike, this episode explores efficiency, innovation, and the evolving tech landscape.TAKEAWAYS• Exploring the opportunity landscape in the UAE tech sector • Understanding community dynamics within the Power Platform in the UAE • The growing importance of AI investment in the region • Sunil's transition from SharePoint to Power Platform solutions • The significance of integration with third-party applications • Providing clarity on licensing within Power Platform use cases • Emphasizing security versus costs in solution planningThis year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world. DynamicsMinds is a world-class event in Slovenia that brings together Microsoft product managers, industry leaders, and dedicated users to explore the latest in Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Copilot.Early bird tickets are on sale now and listeners of the Microsoft Innovation Podcast get 10% off with the code MIPVIP144bff https://www.dynamicsminds.com/register/?voucher=MIPVIP144bff Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge We've helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

A Daily Chronicle of AI Innovations on January 21st 2025

A Daily Chronicle of AI Innovations on January 20th 2025

Ready for some real-time intelligence? Richard chats with Yitzhak Kesselman about Real-Time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric. Yitzhak talks about what it means to be real-time - that your company has a data analytics need with an ROI affected by a short amount of time. Perhaps it's a factory making products incorrectly or even issues with response times in a call center. The process involves bringing streaming data sources into the real-time hub and then attaching dashboards to them to see data as it changes. Fabric simplifies this tooling so domain experts can do much of the exploration. Once you have valuable and actionable information coming in, you have the activator options, including messaging via email or Teams, all the way to Power Automate to affect almost anything!LinksReal-Time Intelligence in Microsoft FabricFabric Real-Time HubReal-Time DashboardReal-Time ActivatorPower AutomateRecorded October 29, 2024

News and updates [2] AI: Hype or Reality? Our framework... by Dona Sarkar and Jeremiah MarbleIntroducing Git Integration in Power Platform (preview)Missing Dependencies Error for Primary Name Column of Tables Created in Table Visual Designer Experience by Linn Zaw Win (It does work - PEBCAK!)Manage solution dependencies easily... by Nishant RanaRelease Plans Visualized by Jukka NiiranenThe Microsoft 365 roadmap by Loryan StrantMicrosoft Power Pages misconfigs exposing sensitive dataPower Pages security white paperChris Rock - Darknet DiariesIntroducing Dataverse Batching for Power Automate!! by Paul MuranaPei Mun Lim - Sprint-Zero PodcastThe Community Power Platform Project Challenge by AJ Zafara Canvas app for bus tickets? Possible! by Guido Preite IgniteBook of NewsKeynoteThe Future of Power Platform: Intelligent Apps by Ryan Cunningham and Clay WesenerIgnite '24 - Power Platform Governance Announcements by EY KalmanBe sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode of Power Platform BOOST!Thank you for buying us a coffee: buymeacoffee.comPodcast home page: https://powerplatformboost.comEmail: hello@powerplatformboost.comFollow us!Twitter: https://twitter.com/powerplatboost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerplatformboost/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/powerplatboost/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090444536122 Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@powerplatboost

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/622 Agnius Bartninkas, a Microsoft MVP and the dynamic COO of Definra, takes center stage in this episode as we explore his intriguing journey from tech to the tantalizing world of mixology. Curious about how an expert in Power Automate Desktop crafts the perfect Mai Tai? Or why a Baby Guinness shot became a significant discovery? Agnius shares personal anecdotes of cocktail adventures, revealing a newfound passion that blends his technical precision with creative flair. Get ready to be inspired by stories of crafting cocktails that capture the essence of far-off places like Waikiki, Hawaii.The conversation deepens as we navigate Agnius' path into Robotic Process Automation (RPA), a venture that started with humble beginnings in programming. Learn how opportunities in an international manufacturing company led him to the forefront of process automation. With insights into the impact of Microsoft's acquisition of Softomotive and the strategic role of Power Automate, Agnius recounts the growth of his family-run business, Robo Virgin, a testament to self-learning, adaptability, and the power of collaboration. This is not just about automation; it's about the relentless pursuit of innovation and the creation of meaningful solutions.As we look to the future, discover the possibilities of AI in email management and the potential for AI-powered co-pilot tools. Agnius shares his journey to becoming a Microsoft MVP, highlighting the integral role of community engagement and content creation on LinkedIn and Discord. Agnius joins us to offer her expertise on business applications, industry trends, and best practices. This episode is a rich tapestry of professional wisdom and personal enthusiasm, perfect for those passionate about technology, creativity, and the exciting prospects of AI.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 showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Show NotesCustom Lookup Filtering in 2024 by Oleksandr OlashynWorking With Dataverse Tables in Power Automate by David WyattSwitching Between The Advanced Settings Experience by Megan V. WalkerExciting New Updates for Pipelines in Power Platform by Anthony SheehiIntroducing Git Integration in Power Platform (preview) by By Casey Burke and Shan McArthurApplication Lifecycle Management on Microsoft Power Platform: A comprehensive guide to managing the deployment of your solutions Book by Benedikt BergmannPower Automate: Instant Low-Code Plugins To Run PowerFx Code by  Matthew DevaneyCopilot Studio Newsletter #21 on LinkedIn by Bülent Altinsoy[ Words ] – 3rd Rodeo AI by Dona Sarkar and Jeremiah MarbleWhat's new in Power Apps: October 2024 Feature Update - Microsoft Power Platform BlogWhat's new in Copilot Studio: November | Microsoft Copilot BlogNew smart paste makes filling forms as easy as copy & paste by Miti JoshiXrmToolbox - What breaks if I disable this User? Flow Ownership Audit Plugin by Felix Mora and Laurens VandendriesscheEventsMicrosoft Ignite November 18-22Nick has a workshop on model-driven apps Dynamics User Group Canadian Regional MeetupToronto, OntarioNovember Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode of Power Platform BOOST!Thank you for buying us a coffee: buymeacoffee.comPodcast home page: https://powerplatformboost.comEmail: hello@powerplatformboost.comFollow us!Twitter: https://twitter.com/powerplatboost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerplatformboost/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/powerplatboost/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090444536122 Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@powerplatboost

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/618  Chris Huntingford joins us on the Ecosystem Show to dissect the rapidly evolving landscape of AI regulation in Europe, focusing on the anticipated launch of DSBs in February 2025. We promise you a deep understanding of the implications for high-risk AI solutions and how EU scrutiny might reshape the industry. From distinguishing between rules-based and autonomous AI agents to exploring Microsoft's latest offerings, we shine a light on AI's integration into the workforce and the crucial need for reliable data to avoid unintended consequences. Our discussion isn't just about technology; it's a thoughtful examination of AI's role in transforming how we work and live.As we turn our attention to the future of Power Automate, we envision a world where intelligent agents operate in the background, enhancing productivity while maintaining the essential human touch. Ethical concerns surrounding digital equity and the traditional economic model challenge us to consider a more inclusive future. We also explore a future where humanoid robots efficiently maintain urban spaces, raising important questions about manufacturing and control. Join us as we emphasize the importance of embracing digital equity and adapting to technological change, while regulatory frameworks like the EU's AI regulations guide our global trajectory. This episode is a compelling blend of caution and opportunity, urging you to ride the wave of innovation wisely.90 Day Mentoring Challenge 10% off code use MBAP at checkout https://ako.nz365guy.comSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Episode 231 FACULTY: Kyle Geers, CPA CLASS: #Shoperations In this episode, join Scotty and Kyle Geers as they talk about his unique path from college water skiing enthusiast to managing a fully remote firm with $2 million in revenue. Hear how the founders of Zeroed In leveraged their skills to create profitable accounting practices, navigated communication and collaboration challenges, and utilized tools like Power BI and ClickUp. Discover insights on capacity planning, client service management, and fostering team growth through clear career paths.

Explore our Business Central on-demand training courses at https://www.learndynamics.com/    From automating routine tasks to enhancing data accuracy, CoPilot is designed to take Business Central's capabilities to a new level.  In this episode, we dive into how Business Central and CoPilot work together and practical examples to streamline sales processes, bank reconciliations, inventory management, and even Power Automate workflows.  Leverage CoPilot's capabilities to simplify your Business Central tasks and drive your ERP to its full potential.   Listen now to discover how CoPilot can simplify your tasks and help you get the most out of Business Central!

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/608  Unlock the hidden power of Microsoft Office tools with insights from Jennifer, an Excel virtuoso and owner of Excel and Flourish. Jennifer's journey from Milwaukee brings a refreshing perspective on how foundational tech skills can open doors to tech-centric careers, especially for those looking to transition from physically demanding jobs. Her personal passions for food, family, and travel enrich her approach to simplifying Excel and other tools, making tech more accessible and less intimidating for everyone.Get ready to redefine digital collaboration with an in-depth look at Microsoft Loop and Planner. Discover how these tools seamlessly integrate traditional design methodologies with cutting-edge technology to boost creativity and productivity. We explore how Loop's capabilities enhance communication across platforms like Teams and Whiteboard, while Planner keeps tasks organized, taking cues from the Checklist Manifesto to minimize errors and maximize efficiency. Jennifer also shares insights on Microsoft's ongoing enhancements to their planning tools, aiming to clear the confusion often felt by users.Unleash the full potential of the Microsoft Power Platform with stories of innovation featuring tools like Sway, ClipChamp, and PowerPoint. From crafting visually compelling business proposals with Sway to leveraging ClipChamp's AI-driven transcription for dynamic training videos, these tools are revolutionizing workflows. Jennifer recounts the transformative experiences with Power Automate and Copilot, showcasing seamless integration for heightened productivity. To top it all off, a special guest appearance by an NZ365 Business MVP provides additional insights, making this episode a treasure trove of actionable knowledge and inspiration.90 Day Mentoring Challenge 10% off code use MBAP at checkout https://ako.nz365guy.comSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

In this episode recorded live at NACAC, Mallory sits down with Troy Singer, Digital Marketing Specialist at Ring Digital and co-host of the Higher Ed Marketer Podcast. As they wrap up their time at the NACAC conference, the conversation dives into Troy's personal use of artificial intelligence (AI) for enhancing his happiness, confidence, and daily effectiveness. The discussion focuses on how AI can be integrated into both professional and personal life to improve productivity and streamline tasks.Key Takeaways:AI can enhance personal happiness and confidence by helping manage daily tasks and communications more effectively.Tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Firefly's Notetaker can simplify tasks, from meal planning to managing emails and meetings.Custom GPTs are easy to create and can be highly effective for personal productivity, such as automating responses or managing to-do lists.Troy's AI-powered personal assistant project aims to integrate Outlook, Salesforce, and ChatGPT to monitor emails, prioritize tasks, and streamline communication.AI helps professionals not only be more productive at work but also find balance and joy in their personal lives.What is Troy's perspective on using AI for personal happiness and productivity?Troy is a strong advocate for using AI to boost both personal happiness and productivity. He explains that AI helps him manage daily tasks more efficiently, boosting his confidence in managing his professional and personal life. He highlights how, in the past, people were encouraged to figure things out independently before asking for help, but with AI, individuals can now ask for assistance in navigating scenarios more effectively.Troy uses AI tools like Perplexity for quick and real-time answers, ChatGPT for customized responses, and Firefly's Notetaker to help him stay present during meetings. For him, these tools act as digital mentors that help streamline his work and enhance his personal life, making him a more effective and confident individual.What are Troy's favorite AI tools, and how does he use them?Troy mentions that he regularly uses about 10 AI platforms, but his top three are:Perplexity – A smarter alternative to Google, providing real-time, in-depth information. Troy uses it to handle 80% of his queries, getting up-to-date, detailed answers faster than traditional search engines.ChatGPT – Troy has created several custom GPTs, which act as personal assistants in various tasks. He uses them for writing notes, crafting professional responses, and enhancing communication.Firefly's Notetaker – This tool helps Troy stay present during meetings by automatically taking notes and integrating them into Salesforce. It also generates reports tailored to his team and superior's preferences.These tools help Troy streamline his workflow, allowing him to focus on more critical tasks and maintain a high level of productivity.What is Troy's AI-powered “masterpiece” project?Troy is working on building an AI-powered personal assistant to help manage his professional life more effectively. His project will integrate Outlook, Salesforce, and ChatGPT to monitor emails, suggest responses, and prioritize tasks in real time. The goal is to create a system that will scan incoming emails, run them through ChatGPT for suggested responses, and prioritize them based on importance. The assistant will also use platforms like Power Automate and Microsoft's To Do to automate and track tasks.Troy's vision is to build a personalized assistant similar to Iron Man's “Jarvis,” but he plans to name it after a female figure. He aims to complete the project within a few weeks and hopes to share his progress with others once it's finished.How does AI impact Troy's personal life?Troy emphasizes that AI doesn't just improve his professional life but also enhances his personal happiness and effectiveness. He uses AI for everyday tasks like finding recipes based on available ingredients, making travel plans, and improving his overall life management. The confidence and efficiency he gains from AI positively affect his relationships and personal well-being, allowing him to enjoy life more fully. - - - -Connect With Our Co-Hosts:Mallory Willsea https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/https://twitter.com/mallorywillseaSeth Odell https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethodell/https://twitter.com/sethodellAbout The Enrollify Podcast Network:The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you'll like other Enrollify shows too! Some of our favorites include Generation AI and Confessions of a Higher Education Social Media Manager.Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — the next-generation AI student engagement platform helping institutions create meaningful and personalized interactions with students. Learn more at element451.com.Element451 is hosting the AI Engage Summit on Oct 29 and 30Register now for this free, virtual event.The future of higher ed is being redefined by the transformative power of AI. The AI Engage Summit brings together higher ed leaders, innovators, and many of your favorite Enrollify creators to explore AI's impact on student engagement, enrollment marketing, and institutional success. Experience firsthand how AI is improving content personalization at scale, impacting strategic decision-making, and intuitively automating the mundane tasks that consume our time. The schedule is packed with real examples and case studies, so you leave knowing how to harness AI to drive meaningful change at your institution. Whether you're looking to enhance student outcomes, optimize enrollment marketing, or simply stay ahead of the curve, the AI Engage Summit is your gateway to the next level of higher education innovation. Registration is free, save your spot today.

We had an amazing time at the Nordic Summit 2024 at the Hub in Oslo. Ulrikke has been part of the planning committee and was a part of the opening keynote. Nick and Ulrikke were some of the hosts for the Nordic Summit podcast during the event but also made sure to attend some of the many amazing sessions.  The sessions we talked aboutHow to destroy your Power Pages site in 5 easy steps by Morten Krosby-SætherStreamlining environment lifecycles with Power Platform CLI & Azure DevOps by Yannick ReekmansMy Red Cross on Power Pages with Ulrikke Akerbæk, Ida Holdhus, Magnus JacobsenPlug-In to the Future: Low-Code vs. Pro-Code Showdown in Dataverse, with Wilmer Alcivar and Ben den BlankenIt's Power Automate not Power Integrate

NewsIntroducing: Copilot Page in Power Platform Admin Center (Preview) by Caitlin ShawWelcome to Episode 3 of #AIinAction: Building with Copilot Studio" with Elaiza Benitez on LinkedInHow to get the Dataverse Table's first row from List Rows in Power Automate? By Arun PottiJonas Rapp announced FetchXML Builder export to Excel on LinkedInHuman Resources app (Preview) for Dynamics 365 by Mónica Andrea PérezPower Pages: Upload large files – work in progress – Something Awesome About … Power Platform and BizApps..Dev and Ops by Olena GrischenkoPower Pages: Use a custom Rich Text Files table to store images (and avoid exposing the full msdyn_richtextfiles table) by Michel MendesAutomated Testing with Power Platform Pipelines: A Step-by-Step Guide by Suparna BanerjeeSteve Mordue - $500 for the coolest PCF control on LinkedInEventsEuropean Microsoft Fabric Community ConferenceStockholm, Sweden from September 24 -27, 2024. Nordic SummitTop Gun Power Pages workshopSeptember 27-28 Scottish SummitAberdeen, October 18-19, 2024Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode of Power Platform BOOST!Thank you for buying us a coffee: buymeacoffee.comPodcast home page: https://powerplatformboost.comEmail: hello@powerplatformboost.comFollow us!Twitter: https://twitter.com/powerplatboost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerplatformboost/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/powerplatboost/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090444536122 Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@powerplatboost

Show NotesPower Pages Bing Address Validation (Autosuggest) by Olena GrischenkoMy flows won't run after an Power Platform environment restore by Jon RussellMDA: Open Lookup in Side Pane by Temmy Wahyu RaharjoAdd a custom component (preview) in Power PagesXrmToolbox - What breaks if I disable this User? Flow Ownership Audit Plugin by Felix Mora and Laurens VandendriesscheRecommendations to reassign orphaned cloud flows | Microsoft Learn☕ Is there any coffee left in the coffee pot? ☕ by Karl-Johan SpiikPower Apps Performance Optimisation: The ULTIMATE Guide by Craig WhiteQuery Dataverse with an array of GUIDs in Power Automate by Amey HoldenWorking with Polymorphic Lookup (multi-table column) in Power Apps: AsType and IsType Functions Explained by Debajit DuttaDynamics 365 Contact Center – Audio Files in IVR by Neil ParkhurstGetting Started with Freelancing in Microsoft Power Platform by Mark Smith EventsLow Code | No Code Microsoft Power Platform Conference 2024 | The Tech PlatformOnline, free event, made by AI? Power Platform Community Conference Top Gun Power Pages workshopLas Vegas, Sept 18-20 2024 European Microsoft Fabric Community ConferenceStockholm, Sweden from September 24 -27, 2024Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode of Power Platform BOOST!Thank you for buying us a coffee: buymeacoffee.comPodcast home page: https://powerplatformboost.comEmail: hello@powerplatformboost.comFollow us!Twitter: https://twitter.com/powerplatboost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerplatformboost/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/powerplatboost/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090444536122 Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@powerplatboost

In episode 206 of our SAP on Azure video podcast we take a look behind the configuration for principal propagation with Power Automate, Azure API Management and SAP. In previous episodes we talked about the new Single Sign-On capabilities of the SAP ERP Connector and the SAP OData Connector. We talked about the benefits and also showed how this can be used in Power Automate, Copilot Studio and other applications. Talking about SSO is always a little complicated, but today we till take a closer look on how to setup principal propagation with Power Platform and SAP using the SAP OData Connector. For this I am happy to have Scott Woodall and Martin Pankraz with us today. Find all the links mentioned here: https://www.saponazurepodcast.de/episode206 Reach out to us for any feedback / questions: * Robert Boban: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rboban/ * Goran Condric: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gorancondric/ * Holger Bruchelt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holger-bruchelt/ #Microsoft #SAP #Azure #SAPonAzure #SSO #PowerPlatform #CopilotStudio #APIM #AzureAPIManagement

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/583 What does it take to become an MVP in the dynamic world of Power Platform development? Join us as we host Mantas Umbrasas, Lithuania's first BizApps MVP, who illuminates his path to this prestigious title. From his early explorations in SharePoint configurations to his inspirational journey with Microsoft's Power Apps and Power Automate, Mantas shares the pivotal moments and community support that propelled him forward. He also offers a personal glimpse into his passions, from savouring the finest Indian cuisine to his excitement over Lithuania's recent Michelin reviews. Mantas paints a vivid picture of Lithuania's serene landscapes, making it a compelling travel destination for nature enthusiasts.In this episode, we also dive into the heart of the MVP journey, addressing common misconceptions and highlighting the dedication needed to achieve this honour. Mantas recounts encouraging community events and discusses his significant contribution to a government project during the pandemic with a Power App prototype for online voting. As your host, Mark Smith, I express my gratitude for your continued support and invite you to engage further by supporting the show. Tune in for a compelling blend of professional insights and personal narratives that promise to inspire and inform.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.com  Support the Show.If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/581  How does a seemingly ordinary career transform into a technological odyssey? Join us on the Power Platform Show as we sit down with Ruben Ruiz, the dynamic Power Platform practice lead at International Workplace Group. From his charming family life and love for mountain biking to his passion for home automation and sweets, Ruben's multifaceted personality shines through. Find out how his journey from Malaga, Spain, to Lisbon, Portugal, and his deep appreciation for Portuguese culture and festivals like Saint-Jean and Saint-Antonio, have influenced both his personal and professional life.Ruben's professional saga is equally compelling. He reveals the remarkable scale of Power Platform adoption within his company, uncovering a landscape of over 40 environments, 2,000 flows, 750+ power apps, and more. Learn how this discovery catalyzed the formation of a dedicated team to govern and optimize the platform, transforming simple apps into robust systems integrated with Dynamics F&O. Ruben shares invaluable insights on making these apps highly configurable, leveraging tools like Dataverse, SharePoint, Canvas Apps, Power Automate, and RPA, and the critical role of effective communication in managing large-scale implementations. This episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about driving business transformation through technology.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

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/572What if you could effortlessly manage your development infrastructure while ensuring robust security and compliance? Join us as we sit down with Raphael Pothin, a Lead Power Platform Reliability Engineer at Manulife, who is revolutionizing governance processes and streamlining administrative tasks with the Power Platform. Raphael shares his passion for DevOps and dives into the game-changing potential of the Terraform provider for Power Platform, bringing infrastructure as code to new heights.Discover how Microsoft's Power Platform can transform your development workflow, freeing you from the complexities of maintaining infrastructure. Raphael walks us through the advantages of using Dataverse for data management and integrating backend solutions with Azure services. We discuss the often-debated topic of control versus efficiency, highlighting how Power Platform stands up to enterprise demands while allowing developers to maintain ALM rigor and source control.Finally, we explore the rich resources available for developers making the transition to Power Platform. Raphael emphasizes the value of Microsoft Learn and community engagement, and reveals how Microsoft Fabric integrates seamlessly with Dynamics 365 for advanced data processing. Hear firsthand how Manulife leverages the Power Platform on a global scale, navigating data sovereignty challenges in the financial sector. Plus, gain insights into boosting productivity through Power Automate and Power Apps, as Raphael shares personal strategies for overcoming performance challenges. Tune in for an episode packed with actionable insights and expert advice!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

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/571Unlock the secrets of becoming a Microsoft MVP with our guest Tomas Riha, a seasoned business process automation consultant from Prague. Tomas' journey is anything but ordinary, starting from his early days with SharePoint and Nintex, evolving to his current specialization in Power Automate and M365. Tomas doesn't just talk tech; he shares his life beyond the screen, including his new passion for salsa dancing and five-year dedication to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. His unique approach to understanding and organizing complex company workflows will offer you practical strategies to streamline your own processes.Managing financial logistics and payments from international clients can be daunting, but Tomas breaks down these challenges with practical insights and personal anecdotes. From dealing with various currencies to navigating the quirks of PayPal and paper checks, his experiences offer invaluable lessons for any global consultant. We also delve deep into the essence of becoming an MVP, underscoring the importance of genuine passion and community involvement. Tomas' story of contributing through forums and blogging during the COVID-19 lockdown serves as an inspiring example of how dedication and consistency can lead to recognition. Tune in for actionable advice, personal stories, and a fresh perspective on achieving success in the tech community.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

In this episode, Nick Ross of T-minus365 dives into the world of Copilot AI, exploring its capabilities, use cases, and integration with Power Automate. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just getting started, this podcast provides valuable insights and practical tips for leveraging Copilot AI and Power Automate effectively. Full Video Podcast Link: https://youtu.be/jEdS_YIuZ0M --------------------------------------------------- Connect with us! --------------------------------------------------- MSP Unplugged https://mspunplugged.com/ Paco Lebron from ProdigyTeks  Email: paco@mspunplugged.com Rick Smith from Renactus Technology  Email: rick@mspnplugged.com Nick Ross from T-Minus365

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/563  Can the Microsoft Power Platform really handle millions of users and support mission-critical implementations? Join us as we challenge the common misconceptions and explore the enterprise-level potential of this powerful tool. In this episode, I'm joined by Rami Mounla, a seasoned solution architect from Wellington, New Zealand. Together, we shed light on the unseen capabilities of the Power Platform, particularly Dynamics 365 applications, and reflect on our experiences in the Dynamics community. We discuss how these platforms are not just for citizen developers but are robust enough to build complex applications for large-scale use.Rami takes us through a fascinating case study of how New Zealand revamped its passport renewal and citizenship application processes. Discover the intricate design and meticulous testing that went into creating a scalable system capable of handling thousands of transactions daily. We talk about the integration of various Microsoft components like Entra, Power Pages, and Power Automate, along with third-party applications for biometric verification. Listen in as we highlight the collaboration with Microsoft FastTrack and the importance of a seamless user experience and secure data handling.Transitioning staff from legacy systems to modern platforms like Dynamics 365 and Power Platform can be a daunting task, but it's not impossible. We dive into the challenges and strategies for overcoming resistance, the importance of coaching, and the iterative process of refining systems based on user feedback. This episode also covers the comprehensive security features of PowerPages and illustrates how modernizing digital services has significantly enhanced efficiency and reliability, using the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs as a prime example. Join us for an insightful conversation on how embracing the Power Platform can translate to superior public services, better user experiences, and robust security for large-scale implementations.AgileXRM AgileXRm - The integrated BPM for Microsoft Power Platform 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

In this episode of 'This Week in NoCode + AI,' hosts JJ Englert and David Pal begin with a shoutout to their software development agency Studio NoCode, highlighting their expertise in Bubble apps. They delve into the latest news, starting with Apple's rebranding of AI to 'Apple Intelligence,' exploring new AI features like generative writing tools and improved Siri functionality. The episode also covers the privacy implications and the evolving AI landscape with companies like OpenAI. The hosts discuss the innovative features of the AI video editing tool, Descript, and Microsoft's Power Automate, along with insights into global AI investments and the political dynamics surrounding AI tech. The conversation touches on the potential uses and challenges of AI, rounding off with a brief look at upcoming interviews and a call for audience engagement. 0:00 Studio NoCode Advertisement 01:26 Apple's AI Rebranding 02:31 Apple's AI Features and Privacy Concerns 12:21 Descript's New AI Features 14:25 Microsoft Power Automate and AI 16:26 Global AI Developments and Geopolitics NoCode Alliance: https://nocodealliance.org Studio NoCode: https://studio-nocode.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/this-week-in-nocode/message

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/560  When Enea Licaj, the Power Platform prodigy and culinary wizard from Cologne, graces us with his story, the air buzzes with inspiration. This is the tale of a tech enthusiast who marinated his professional expertise in user adoption and training to become a YouTube sensation. Let Enea take you on a journey through his vibrant hometown, giving you a taste of family life, historic wonders, and how all of these flavours blended into his passion for technology. His anecdotes aren't just about how Power Platform spices up business solutions; they're about the zest of creating content that resonates with people worldwide and the dash of satisfaction from stirring a global community of learners and creators.Paying close attention to the trends in Germany, we uncover the mounting appetite for the Power Platform, as Enea peels back the layers on its impact on local businesses. We're not just talking about any tech wave here; this is a revolution, with tools like Power Automate, Power Apps, and Power BI transforming the way solutions simmer on the digital stove. Enea, with his finger on the pulse of innovation, shares his insights on Copilot's integration into Power BI and the rich, new flavours it brings to data interaction. As he recounts the decision to serve his content in English, we get a generous slice of his career highlights, including a project that proved design isn't just about aesthetics—it's a critical ingredient in solution development. Tune in for an episode that's packed with stories as compelling as they are informative, just like a well-crafted dish that leaves you craving more.AgileXRM AgileXRm - The integrated BPM for Microsoft Power PlatformSupport the Show.If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Everyone talks about digital transformation, but it seems like no one really explains what it means... until now. In today's episode, Rob and Justin dive deep to cut through the buzzwords and lay out the reality. They're tackling why digital transformation isn't about making huge, instant changes but rather about the smart, subtle tweaks in areas that usually get ignored but badly need a digital lift. They dive into how leveraging tools like the Power Platform can spark significant improvements, showing that it's the small changes that can really boost efficiency and smooth out your workflow. Ever found yourself wondering how to translate all the chatter about digital evolution into actionable steps? That's exactly what Rob and Justin are unpacking. They're guiding you through how minor, yet clever adjustments can transform your processes. It's all about enhancing the routine, one step at a time. And, as always, if you enjoyed the episode, be sure to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform to help new listeners find us. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Rob Collie (00:00): Hello, friends. In today's episode, Justin and I demystify what is meant by the phrase digital transformation. Phrases like that are one of my least favorite things. Why do I say that? Well, these are phrases that get used a lot. They cast a big shadow. You encounter them almost anywhere you go. That's fine by itself. But in the case of digital transformation, that massive shadow is multiplied by no one understanding what it actually means.  (00:30): Now earlier in my career, I used to be really intimidated by things like this. Everyone seems to know what this means because they're using it all the time. I don't know what it means, so should I just pretend and play along like everyone else? But at some point, many years ago, I had this moment where I realized that the Emperor has no clothes. It almost never has clothes. Now when I encounter phrases like this, instead of being like paralyzed or intimidated, I instead start working in my own definition and this process takes time. I've been picking apart and stewing on the definition of digital transformation now for probably the better part of a year plus. Somewhere along the way in that process, I realized that we at P3 are doing quite a bit of digital transformation work, I just hadn't realized it yet because I didn't have a good enough definition.  (01:18): Lately, I've been noticing that my definition for digital transformation has reached a steady state. It's not changing over time anymore, which tends to be my signal that I've arrived at a definition that works. Now seemed like a good time to sit down and compare notes with Justin, who's been following his own parallel process of arriving at a definition. I'm very pleased with where we landed. A practical and specific definition that can be reduced to practice with an almost paint-by-numbers type of approach.  (01:47): If you asked someone for a definition of something like digital transformation, and by the time they're done giving you their definition, you can't practically boil that down to what it means for you, that's not a problem with you, that's a problem with the definition. A lot of times, people's definitions for terms like this are almost like deliberately vague, as a means of projecting power, as a means of actually controlling you. You'll get a lot of definitions that are engineered to sound smart, engineered to sound authoritative, but not engineered to provide anything resembling clarity. Because if you sound smart, and you sound authoritative but you leave your audience hungry, you create a feeling of dependency. Folks, I just think that's yucky. That's just gross.  (02:35): To show you what I mean, I just ran the Google search, "What does digital transformation mean?" The very top hit, enterprisersproject.com, defines digital transformation as "the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business resulting in fundamental changes to help businesses operate in how they deliver value to customers." Did that clear it up? Nope. Boiling that one down, it sounds a lot like you should use computers and use them to make changes. But it sounds smart, sounds authoritative.  (03:06): Here's the second result from our old favorite, McKinsey. McKinsey defines digital transformation as "the process of developing organizational and technology based capabilities that allow a company to continuously improve its customer experience and lower its unit costs, and over time sustain a competitive advantage." All right, so that one sounds like McKinsey is almost starting with that original definition and adding additional value to it. They're saying use computers to improve, and to make money, and to compete. If you have $1 million to spend, you can get advice like that.  (03:43): All right, with those two definitions, we don't even need an episode. We can just skip it? Because everyone knows exactly what they're talking about. These are the top two hits on Google, folks. Useless. Part of the reason these definitions are useless, again, is because they're designed to be useless. But I also think though, that a lot of times you hear definitions like this is because the people writing them actually cannot boil them down. By the time you come up with a truly useful definition, or a framework, or a guide for understanding a topic like this, it almost by its definition, it's not going to sound nearly as sexy, nearly as smart. It's going to sound relatively simple, mundane. But those are the valuable definitions, the ones that we can actually apply, that make a difference in how we actually view our own business. (04:29): That's what we set out to do in this episode. I think we succeeded, came up with a very practical, applicable definition that you'll never find on McKinsey's website. Let's get into it.  Speaker 2 (04:42): Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please?  Speaker 4 (04:46): This is the Raw Data by P3 Adaptive Podcast, with your host, Rob Collie, and your cohost, Justin Mannhardt. Find out what the experts at P3 Adaptive can do for your business. Just go to p3adaptive.com. Raw Data by P3 Adaptive is data with the human element.  Rob Collie (05:12): Justin, one of the things that we really like to do, I really like to do, I think you do as well, is to take a phrase or topic, and demystify it. Especially phrases that you hear repeated over, and over, and over again, and everyone has to pretend that they understand what they mean. But even when they do, they often have very different pictures in their heads.  (05:33): One that I think is due for a treatment, and we've hinted at it once before on this podcast but not with any depth, is digital transformation. What does it mean?  Justin Mannhardt (05:45): What does it mean, what does it not mean, all parts in between.  Rob Collie (05:50): Starting with the places where I hear it. I often hear it in the context of this is something that's already done. The big talking head analysts at places like Gartner- Justin Mannhardt (06:00): Yeah.  Rob Collie (06:00): Will talk about it like it's in the rearview mirror. "The shift to digital, the pivot to digital has forced the following things," so has forced, it's a past tense thing. Which further underlines the idea that well, if it's already happened, clearly everyone knows what it means. They don't stop to define it, they're just tossing that aside as a means of getting to the next point. I find that to be one of the most troubling habits of the talking heads.  (06:28): The first few times I encountered this phrase, I didn't really know what it meant. I imagined that it meant switching to ecommerce from brick-and-mortar. Justin Mannhardt (06:37): Yeah.  Rob Collie (06:37): I didn't even realize that that was the impression I had, it was just this vague feeling in the back of my head.  Justin Mannhardt (06:42): The word digital, I'm just thinking about this now because a lot of times, you'll look at one of these diagrams, it's like, "Your digital transformation wheel includes all these things." You'll see something like, "Move to the cloud." I'm like, "Okay, were the servers with the software, was that software analog or something?"  Rob Collie (06:59): Yeah, we've been digital for a long time, right? Justin Mannhardt (07:01): Yeah.  Rob Collie (07:01): Most broadly defined, you could say that the digital transformation really got going with the adoption of the PC.  Justin Mannhardt (07:09): Right.  Rob Collie (07:10): That was when digital transformation started. In the sense that it started in the 1980s, maybe it is something worth talking about somewhat in the rearview mirror, but that's not what they mean. They don't mean the adoption of the PC. Justin Mannhardt (07:23): No. But it's interesting, when you think about the timeline of technology evolution. People say, "Oh, you described it as past tense." Digital transformation has occurred in en masse in market. Now today, it's like AI is here, en masse in market. But the pace at which new things are coming out, what's really happening is just the long tail is longer back to where companies were at in this journey. It's not like the entire industrial complex has been collectively moving to the modern current state across the board. There's companies that are still running SQL 2000, that's their production world still. This isn't something that's happened.  Rob Collie (08:09): I think that the big talking head analysts often tend to really only talk about the most elite sub-strata of even their own clients. When they talk about this as something that's completely done, even most of Gartner's paying clients, I would suspect, aren't anywhere close to done. But we still haven't really started talking about what it actually means.  (08:32): Let's say it is not the switch from paper and pencil systems to electronic line-of-business systems. Not only do we have the PC, and that's been long since mainstreamed, the notion of line-of-business software, server based software, whether cloud or otherwise, line-of-business software is also I think incredibly well entrenched. We're done with having key business systems running in a manual format. That's long since rearview. That also isn't what they mean by digital transformation. (09:07): Of course, both of those are digital and they were huge transformations, but that's not the digital transformation we're talking about. It's anything that's happened after that.  Justin Mannhardt (09:15): Yeah.  Rob Collie (09:16): It's a lot harder to pin down the things that happened after that.  Justin Mannhardt (09:20): In general, I agree with you because the big blocks, software, the availability of the cloud, not having intensive paper process in most companies, that's largely been accomplished. To different levels, of course. Then, what's left? What's the definition? What are we trying to do?  Rob Collie (09:41): Well, if you think of the line-of-business application and the PC, the PC interfaces with all the line-of-business apps. I would say that, and even this is not 100% true, but I would say that the conversion to digital systems is complete, or complete-ish. Justin Mannhardt (09:59): Okay.  Rob Collie (09:59): When you look at your business as individual silos. Justin Mannhardt (10:03): Say more. You've got a digital environment for finance, digital environment for sales, is that what you mean?  Rob Collie (10:09): Yeah. Core workflows have largely been digital for a while. All the workflows that take place between systems, or the workflows that take place adjacent to a system, those are the things that we're talking about when we talk about digital transformation, going after those workflows.  (10:30): Everything we've been doing in the world of business software since at least the 1980s has been digital transformation.  Justin Mannhardt (10:38): Yeah.  Rob Collie (10:39): But our digital transformation, we're really talking about at least the third chapter. It's not chapter one or two. It's like the next frontier, identifying and going after a new class of workflows that would benefit from essentially software support.  Justin Mannhardt (10:56): Right.  Rob Collie (10:56): Okay. Now because almost by definition, just by subtraction ... We're saying, "Look, we've got the PC, we've got the line-of-business systems that handle the core workflows within a silo. What's left?" Well, it's almost like a perfect mathematical proof. What's left is the stuff between and outside. (11:14): Given that everyone's mix of line-of-business systems is, I like to say, best of breed, meaning random. It's whatever we decided at the time. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Legacy.  Justin Mannhardt (11:25): Yeah.  Rob Collie (11:26): You're never going to have anything off-the-shelf that helps you solve the workflows. The middleware problem between your systems is always going to be a custom solution.  (11:38): We should give examples of these. When I said outside or adjacent to, there's even workflows that they're not really between systems, they're just the offline portion of working with the system. I'm thinking about a budgeting process, for instance. The world's first budgeting systems were mostly there to record your budget that you enter into it. As those budgeting systems have gotten better, they've included more and more of the human workflow that goes into creating, and evaluating, and kicking the tires before it's finalized. Those offline human workflows, getting more and more structured about them, can make a huge difference. Justin Mannhardt (12:19): Not just structured, Rob, more tightly integrated with the adjacent system itself. I like that adjacency, because if you have a financial system where your budget or your forecast lives, there's a martialing of activity, analysis, input. Then you say, "Okay, we need to get it look like this," and then we put it in the thing. What happens in that processes, you get all sorts of scattered iterations of ideas and it gets loose. But if you could have all that iteration tight, the final submission is already handled or much easier.  Rob Collie (12:51): Yeah. Sticking with the budgeting example for a moment, it still echoes one of the themes I mentioned for the between systems, the between silos case. Which is that one-size-fits-all systems, off-the-shelf systems, they really struggle to address all the nuances of your particular business. It's very, very difficult. The more, and more, and more you try to get the offline processes, the human processes brought into the digital workflow, the more an off-the-shelf software package is going to struggle. It's getting further and further away from the safety of the core of the task.  (13:28): This is why the Power Platform approach to budgeting and planning is often, in fact almost always, a more effective, in terms of cost-effective, time effective, results effective. The core libraries for doing all of the things that you need to do are basically already there and it's inherently designed to be customizable.  Justin Mannhardt (13:48): And very nimble. Even the big players in FP&A software, they're not that great, in our opinion, at the end of the day. But the price points just exclude anybody that's not a very sizeable, formidable company. You're not looking to spend that kind of money if you're even a few hundred million a year type operation. You're just not going to sign up to that agreement. You are left with a middleware type of a problem, that you're either solving with spreadsheets, pen and paper, or something else. Our platform can slide right in there.  Rob Collie (14:26): Of course, there is a huge advantage to performing a "digital transformation" on a process like that because the human, offline, pen and paper, sending random emails, getting answers, tracking them, it's incredibly tedious, it's incredibly error-prone. Just super, super slow. It's not like you can perform many iterations. You're not even really going to be able to pull off one iteration and you call it good. But you're just going to miss so much. The budget could have been so much better. If you've got a bad budget, of course you're going to pay for that later.  (14:58): That's the adjacent case. Let's talk about the between a little bit as well. What's an example of a workflow that would span across different line-of-business systems but require a human being essentially, or humans, to essentially carry the buckets of water between those different pipes?  Justin Mannhardt (15:18): We'll make up a company today, Rob, we'll start a new company and it's going to be called I Manufacture Things, Inc. Hey. At I Manufacture Things, Inc., I've got a sales team.  Rob Collie (15:28): Do we make things other than ink?  Justin Mannhardt (15:30): No, that's incorporated.  Rob Collie (15:32): Oh, okay.  Justin Mannhardt (15:32): We just make things.  Rob Collie (15:34): Can't help it. Can we be We Manufacture Things Ink, Inc.?  Justin Mannhardt (15:38): Sure.  Rob Collie (15:39): All right. But anyway, we manufacture things.  Justin Mannhardt (15:41): There you go. We've got a sales team and they're using a CRM system, such as Salesforce, or HubSpot, or whatever. They're out there, they're doing quotes, they're tracking opportunities, and eventually someone says, "Yeah, I'd love to buy a palette of ink," or whatever. Our company, we're not using the CRM to deal with the production and fulfillment of that order. Okay, so now there's this process where my order form, let's not use any paper in this example, it's still digital but it lands as a PDF form in someone's email inbox that says, "Hey, Customer Service Rep, here's an order." Oh, okay. Now I'm keying said order into our production system that says, "Go manufacture this thing." Now we need to ship the thing out somewhere, and now we're in our logistics system.  (16:33): There's all these little hops between systems. Which technology has become more open, and sure there's things like APIs and code based ways to integrate them, but that's not in range for a lot of companies. That's an example of where you could stitch in these little Power Platform type solutions to just, "Hey, let's map the relevant fields and information from the CRM into the order management system." If there's some blanks that need to get filled in, that's okay. Maybe I'm just starting from a queue of new orders right in the system, and I'm maybe adding three or four pieces to that puzzle instead of all of it. Rob Collie (17:12): Okay. I want to make a global note here. Note that we're talking about this broad topic, digital transformation. We're already way down into very detailed, specific use cases. In my opinion, that's what digital transformation is, it's a collection of all of these individual use cases where things can get faster, more efficient, more accurate. It is the sum of many small things. Each one of them might have tremendous impact. This is the way.  (17:46): In this particular example, I've been describing the Power Platform as the world's best middleware for a while now. Even Power BI is middleware. It's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful capability is that it can simultaneously ingest data from multiple different line-of-business silos that have never once talked to each other. The only place that they meet is in a Power BI semantic model.  Justin Mannhardt (18:10): Yeah.  Rob Collie (18:10): And they play a symphony together that Power BI makes them play. They still have never seen each other, but Power BI is what bridges the gap. Now, Power BI is read-only by itself, it doesn't make changes to any systems. (18:25): In this particular case, it sounds like Power App's and Power Automate's music. Let's just get really tangible here. I know that it's a very specific, but it's a fictional example. But lots of people have almost exactly this problem. Justin Mannhardt (18:39): Yeah.  Rob Collie (18:39): Just talk me through what a solution to that particular problem might look like if we implemented it in the Power Platform. How much work, how much elapsed time do you think it would take? Let's dig into this one a little bit.  Justin Mannhardt (18:51): If what I want to do is, when we receive an order or close a deal in our CRM, I want that to move some data to another system, let's just say that's assumed. Power Automate can solve this need. Obviously there's a lot of detail, you can look some things up online, or you can email robandjustin@p3adaptive.com and we can trade some ideas here. But there are tons of out-of-the-box connectors, and in those connectors they have what's called a trigger. I could say, "When this happens in Salesforce," for example, "I want to start building a flow." I can say, "Okay, I want these fields, and I want to write them from Salesforce to this destination." Maybe that destination's a database, maybe that destination is another system that Power Automate supports that you can write to.  (19:37): It could be just this simple mapping exercise. When this happens over here, grab this data, and create a new record over here in this system. Rob Collie (19:46): Okay. A trigger in this case would look something like, "When a record in Salesforce is marked as a win," we've signed a deal, someone wants to buy a palette of whatever. Then automatically, it wakes up, looks at the record in question that the data associated with the sales win in Salesforce, grabs certain fields out of the Salesforce record, certain pieces of information. Let's keep it simple for a moment, and just pushes them into a simple SQL database or something, that could be stood up in minutes. We don't have to spend a lot of time. Or maybe, we just drop it into OneLake.  Justin Mannhardt (20:23): Lots of options there. I think this is a nice little simple example, because when you talk about Power BI, that's a very tangible apparatus. These are the things you set up, and you never really go ... You monitor it of course, but you never really go engage with it. You put the glue in place, and it's magic and it's cool. That's a simple version. (20:44): But sometimes, the data coming from its source is incomplete relative to what it's destination requires to take the next action. In this type of scenario you could either say, "Well okay, once it gets over there, we're just in that system, maybe we're adding to it." But this is where you might insert a Power App into the process. Win a deal in Salesforce that triggers, grab these fields. Let's go ahead and write it over to Dataverse, this is a back end of a Power App, for example. Or a database, or SharePoint, who knows. It depends on what makes sense.  (21:18): Now we've got a Power App that maybe has a little work cue that says, "Hey, Rob, you've got new orders." You're either approving them, or you're annotating them with additional information. You're doing the human process, like you were describing before, maybe ensuring some hygiene, completeness, whatever. Then you do something in Power App that says, "Okay, go ahead and kick this down the line from here."  Rob Collie (21:40): Yeah. Here's an example. In the CRM system where the sale is being executed, there's probably an address for this customer that is associated with that account, especially if we've done business with them before. But this customer might have many different physical locations. A palette of stuff showing up at the wrong physical location would be a real problem. Justin Mannhardt (22:06): Yeah.  Rob Collie (22:08): Even just a sanity check Power App that hits the sales rep back, shows up in their inbox or something, shows up in Teams, somehow there's a cue for them to process these things, where they need to just glance at the order and validate that the shipping address is the right one.  Justin Mannhardt (22:28): Yeah. Rob Collie (22:28): Even if that's all it is, that's the only additional piece of information is yes, no, that's the right address. Justin Mannhardt (22:34): Yeah. Or sometimes there's a material that is sold is related to a bill of materials to produce. Maybe there's some choices that need to get made in the manufacturing process, such as what specific raw materials are we going to use for this order? Which machine are we going to produce it on this week? Maybe you're just adding the execution instructions.  Rob Collie (22:59): This is interesting because you could stop yourself at this moment and go, "Wait a second. Shouldn't those questions be encoded and implemented into the CRM?" The answer is of course, they could be. But your CRM might not be a nimble place to make those sorts of changes. Justin Mannhardt (23:20): That's right. Rob Collie (23:22): It's also a dangerous thing to be customizing. Justin Mannhardt (23:24): Yes. Rob Collie (23:25): There's a lot of validation and testing that's required. There's a reason why modifying and writing custom code into one's CRM doesn't happen all that frequently. Whereas this process you're describing is relatively safe, by comparison. It doesn't rock the boat. It's between. Forcing these sorts of modifications and customizations into the individual silo line-of-business applications, if that were so feasible, that would already be happening.  Justin Mannhardt (23:55): I've worked for companies like this, I've engaged with companies in my consulting career like this, where they have done that. They said, "We've got the talent in-house, so we're going to customize this thing." Then you get into a conversation of, "We'd like to upgrade to the newer version." They realized, "Oh, we can't."  Rob Collie (24:18): Yeah. "It'll break out customizations," yes.  Justin Mannhardt (24:20): Or sometimes, the programming language that the customizations are done in is not the same programming language in the newer version. While it's possible, if you have the resources, the time, and the money, it becomes a heavier lift. It begs the question, why?  Rob Collie (24:36): I was describing the heavy lift being that the original line-of-business system might be resistant to change, resistant to the customizations that you want to implement. You're describing it as also, even if you do perform those customizations, the next major software upgrade is going to be a problem. That rings true for me. I remember the object model in Office- Justin Mannhardt (24:59): Oh, yeah.  Rob Collie (25:00): All the VBA solutions that were out there, being incredibly paralyzing in terms of the things we could do with the product, because if you broke people's macros, they wouldn't upgrade to the new version of Office. Justin Mannhardt (25:09): Yeah, been there. Yeah.  Rob Collie (25:12): I promise you that, at Microsoft, we took that problem and approached it with a level of discipline that it was probably 10 times greater than the average line-of-business software vendor. Because most line-of-business software vendors see themselves as platform vendors. They want to be considered like that, but they don't want to pay the price of it. So that's good. (25:30): But then, the other thing is is if you built it into the line-of-business system, then inherently you're saying, "Okay, whatever that extra logic is, then it's up to that line-of-business system to then push those records across the wire." The new information has to go from the CRM to the other system. That kind of customization, both ends of the process are going to be very non-cooperative with this. This is another reason why doing this in a lightweight, nimble, intermediate layer provides a shock absorber to the system. Justin Mannhardt (26:08): I like that analogy.  Rob Collie (26:09): It's pretty easy for Power Automate, all it's doing is pushing a handful of doing to something and that other something is going to take care of all the validation, all of the retry. Validation with human beings, but also the logging in to the other system and all of that. Coding all of that into your CRM is almost a non-starter. This is why the between workflows have remained so non-digitized. Justin Mannhardt (26:42): Yeah. There's also a lot of tedium should be in play here, too. You have a written process, you look at your SOP documents and you say, "Oh, when this happens, Jan sends an email to Rob." Okay, well we could probably just get the Power Automate to send the email to Rob, if that what needs to happen.  (26:59): An example of this is something I built for myself at P3. When a potential new customer reaches out to us, and they want to meet with us and just chat, I wanted a process that reminded myself to go check out who that company is, understand who I'm going to talk. I just had a trigger that said, "When a meeting gets scheduled from this arena, just create a task for me to remember to do this before the meeting." Even little things like that, that are just personally useful, have been really beneficial as well. (27:33): It's much easier to say well yeah, dashboards, charts, graphs, cool. Or even fabric, even though that needs some demystifying still. This middleware, it's invisible, there's so many options. There's 100,000 little improvements you could make with it.  Rob Collie (27:48): The world has spent a long time coming around to why dashboards could be valuable.  Justin Mannhardt (27:55): They still are.  Rob Collie (27:56): Yes. When you say the word dashboards and you show that work product, even in the abstract to someone, the communication of what the value is benefiting from all of that history of the world waking up to the value of dashboards. Honestly, it wasn't that clear 15 years ago. It wasn't clear to people, most people anyway, why they needed them, why they were better than just running the reports out of each line-of-business system. But because it's such an inherently visible work product, it is a lot easier, I'm going to use the word, it's a lot easier to visualize what the impact will be, what it does for you. Whereas these other workflows, until you know that they're improvable, this is why digital transformation is so hard to understand because it is really talking about spaces where it's hard to visualize software helping because it's never been able to help.  (28:53): Let's go back to this example where the sale happens in the CRM system. Some information just automatically gets dropped in a data store, off to the side for the moment. There's potentially some Power App clarification. There are human inputs that are required here and you still want a human being to provide those. Justin Mannhardt (29:16): I want to point out here too, it's easy to get into a situation where that data store is simply being read by a report, even a Power BI report. But if the human's going to say, "Yes, no," or add to it, the Power App is just a way better piece to put there.  Rob Collie (29:32): Yeah. Let's have this example be like an example that we would look at and smile, be proud of. The Power App is involved. Then when the human interaction is done, they press okay or approve in the Power App. Take me to the next step.  Justin Mannhardt (29:49): Well ideally, we are pushing data and information into the next system or workflow.  Rob Collie (29:57): This is a two silo problem. We have the CRM system and then we have the manufacturing, work order and shipment system, the fulfillment system. Justin Mannhardt (30:06): The WMS.  Rob Collie (30:08): Is that what that is?  Justin Mannhardt (30:08): Yeah.  Rob Collie (30:09): Okay. We've already covered the first silo. We've gotten the human interaction. Now it's time to send it on to the second silo. How does that work?  Justin Mannhardt (30:20): This just comes down to what the point of integration is in the second silo. We could be inserting records into a SQL database, we could be making a post request to an API endpoint. In Power Automate, most of these things are WISIWIG in nature. There is an open code interface if you need to get to that and want to do that, need it. But usually, it's just mapping. You find your destination and it says, "Oh, here's the fields to map to." You say, "Okay," you just drag and drop. It just depends on what your destination system is, but you're just creating a target in your workflow, and the data goes.  Rob Collie (30:55): The way I like to look at this is that, even though each line-of-business silo system, they're never really built to talk to each other. Justin Mannhardt (31:04): Right, they need a translator.  Rob Collie (31:05): Yeah. The translator and the shock absorber. But at the same time, it's not hard to get the information you want out of one system, and it's not hard to write the information you need into another. But when you try to wire them directly through to each other- Justin Mannhardt (31:23): Yeah.  Rob Collie (31:23): That is actually really difficult. You need this referee in the middle, that's able to change gears, like the ambassador between the two systems. When you think about a translator system, an ambassador system, a shock absorber, whatever you want to call it, whatever metaphor you want, you can also imagine an incredibly expensive, elaborate piece of custom software that's being written to do that. That's not what we're talking about. Justin Mannhardt (31:47): No. Rob Collie (31:48): Let's recap. Trigger fires in CRM system, some data gets slurped out related to that sale, dropped in an intermediate location that then powers a Power App. Power App is able to read that information, it knows who to reach back to to get the clarification, the approval, et cetera. It might be multiple people that need to provide some input. Justin Mannhardt (32:09): It could be a whole workflow that lives right there. Rob Collie (32:12): But eventually at the end of that workflow, in this case we'll just assume it's one step, one human being, the sales rep just needs to sign off, then the Power App's job is done. That's the human interaction part. Now we're back to Power Automate, correct?  Justin Mannhardt (32:24): That's right.  Rob Collie (32:25): Power Automate will notice there's another trigger that the Power App is done with its part, the approval button was pressed. Justin Mannhardt (32:31): Clicked, yeah.  Rob Collie (32:33): Then it turns around, and it knows, because again we wire it up ... It sounds like we might be lucky, it's just drag and drop, one time development. But if it's not, it's probably not that much code, to go inject the new work order into the WMS system?  Justin Mannhardt (32:52): Yeah, it's the WMS, warehouse management system. Rob Collie (32:53): Let's call that the end of the story for this one integration. Let's say things go incredibly well in this project. We don't really encounter any hiccups. Best case scenario, how long on the calendar would it take for us to wire something like this up?  Justin Mannhardt (33:12): Yeah, best case scenario this is something that gets done inside of a week. Rob Collie (33:15): That's the difference.  Justin Mannhardt (33:16): Yeah.  Rob Collie (33:18): All right. Worst case scenario, both of these systems are more stubborn than usual, the connectors aren't built into the system, and they still have some relatively rudimentary ways of data access, but it's nothing WISIWIG off-the-shelf. We just get unlucky with these two stubborn line-of-business systems. How bad can that be?  Justin Mannhardt (33:37): Well, instead of being inside of a week, maybe it's weeks, like two or three. The only reason that gets extended would be okay, instead of pure WISIWIG drag and drop, maybe we are having to do some light handling of adjacent array. But there's tools for that. You can say, "Parse this into fields so I can now drag and drop it." Maybe instead of our Power Automate workflow having three, four steps, maybe there's 10. Some of those steps have a little bit more involvement. Maybe there's some time because we got to troubleshoot a little bit more and make sure we've got it all right. But I think the overall point here is these are relatively light touch on the calendar.  Rob Collie (34:18): I had a job in college that I've never brought up on this show. Justin Mannhardt (34:23): Ooh.  Rob Collie (34:23): I was obsessed about this workflow for nearly a whole decade afterwards. Where I was working for a construction company, and there's this thing in the construction industry that I'm sure is still a thing, and it's called the submittals process. Where it turns out, when you're going to build a building, there's an ingredients list for a building. You were talking about different material options for manufacturing. So we're going to make a brick exterior. Okay, what kind of brick? There are many different colors, kinds, textures, levels of quality. Literally, the owner of the building, the person paying to have the building built, that owner and their architect, and sometimes their structural engineers, are going to want to hold a physical brick in their hand. Justin Mannhardt (35:05): Right. Rob Collie (35:06): This is the brick that you are going to use. They want to inspect it with their eyes, whatever, they want to feel ... Maybe even run tests on it.  Justin Mannhardt (35:14): Smack it with a hammer. Rob Collie (35:16): Right. Then, when you build the building, you better use that brick because they're holding onto the brick, the sample, the reference brick. You think about the number of ingredients that goes into building a building, and the building in question that I was working on helping out with this process was the new chemistry building at Vanderbilt University. It was not just a regular building, it had all kinds of specialized hardware, and exhaust, and crazy stuff that wouldn't be in a normal building.  (35:44): There's this long list of materials that need to have submittals produced for them, samples. The requests all go to a million different vendors. You have to ask the subcontractor, the plumbing contractor, what pipe they plan to use. You find out what pipe they plan to use and then you say, "Okay, where do I get a sample of that pipe?" Sometimes you have to send the request for the sample to the pipe manufacturer, or something the subcontracting, the plumber, people will do it for you. Ah! It's awful. (36:14): I was brought in to just be the human shock absorber in this process. I was constantly taking information from one format, copying and pasting it, if I was lucky. Usually, re-hand entering into another one. I have to do this multiple times. I have to do this on the outgoing request, and then the incoming materials coming back. Ugh, and then the shipping labels and everything. It was just they brought me in because they had their assistant project manager for the construction company, the general contractor, on this site. All of this was having to go through him. It turns out, he had another job which was called build the building.  Justin Mannhardt (36:54): Just a minor, little job.  Rob Collie (36:56): Yeah. The job of push the samples around was a fine thing to subcontract to a college student. I swear, I did 40 hours a week on that for a whole summer, and then part-time for the next two years. That's all I did.  Justin Mannhardt (37:13): Make note, students. If you take an internship and you end up like Rob, learn how to do Power Automate stuff and use that for your internship.  Rob Collie (37:22): By the way, we already had Lotus Notes with a tremendous amount of customized Lotus Note template for this process.  Justin Mannhardt (37:30): Yeah.  Rob Collie (37:30): But all that really was was just another line-of-business system that didn't talk to anything. It spit out paper is what it did, it spit out printed slips that announced, "This is your brick."  Justin Mannhardt (37:42): Congratulations.  Rob Collie (37:44): That would be a really, really challenging digital transformation process today, because not only is it cross system, it's also cross companies. But I'm sure that, if we looked at that process today, we would find things that could be optimized.  Justin Mannhardt (37:56): Oh, yeah. Your example reminded me of a really important opportunity in the construction industry or lots of trades. You're talking about people that are out in the field, on job sites, on location, they're not sitting in offices at workstations. All of these things we're talking about, especially these Power App interfaces, can be optimized for mobile. Instead of, "Oh, I'm going to write this down so when I get back to my home office," I can put something on the smartphone. Even if you're not picking from a list of material SKUs or whatever, you can say, "Hey, Rob needs a brick."  (38:36): Now this goes back to your central office, and it's into a work queue, and another screen in the Power App, then they can go navigate the vendors and all that sort of stuff, too. That's a great example of where you can just put a little spice on it.  Rob Collie (38:50): I said that was the only thing I did in that job, that's not true. I had other jobs. One of them was the plumbing contractor was deemed to be running well behind schedule, they were not installing pipe fast enough, pipe and duct work. They assigned me, the construction company assigned me the job of going out there, walking through the building and seeing how much had been installed, linear feet of various materials, and writing it down. I was terrible at this. It's not a good fit for me at any age, but at age 20, I was just constantly under-reporting how much work they'd actually done and getting them in trouble.  Justin Mannhardt (39:32): This does not sound like a good use of Rob.  Rob Collie (39:34): Eventually, everyone bought me the little thing that wheels along on the ground and counts distance. What I would do is I'd be looking overhead at these copper pipes that were hanging from the ceiling, and I'd just stand beneath one end of them and walk across the building, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. But then, what would I do? I would write it down. I'd write down a number. What floor am I on? What side of the building am I on? Which pipes am I looking at? "Oh yeah, 150 linear feet." By the way, have I already counted those pipes? Did I count those pipes last week? I don't know.  Justin Mannhardt (40:11): There's errors in the world that have Rob Collie's fingerprints on them. There's a building somewhere that's had some pretty serious issues over the years and it's Rob's fault.  Rob Collie (40:21): The plumbing contractor had a pretty good sense of humor about it. They knew I was a youngster. Anyway, really just another example of something that could be digitally transformed today and it doesn't have to be difficult.  (40:33): This is not something that's a global, let's go digitally transform the whole company all at once. You can pick and choose some high value examples. And decide if that's a sufficient win for you, you might be encouraged to do it elsewhere. There's no thou shalt do all of these things, there's nothing like that. You get to choose where your cost benefit curve lies. But just even knowing that this is possible I think and what it entails.  Demystifying ... The process we just walked through, with today's technology, is not difficult. We're talking, as you said, within a week to several weeks on the worst case end. You do realize a bunch of benefits from that.  Justin Mannhardt (41:16): Yeah. I love how well the Power Platform, and this idea of it being middleware, just leans right into an idea that's been around for a long time in companies, which is continuous improvement. You can look at a problem, like the ones we've been describing, and you can go down the path and you say, "Okay, is there a piece of software that would solve or improve this problem?" You could look into something like that. Or you could say, "Actually, we have these other tools that we've been learning how to use and integrate into our organization, and we'll just take a week, or three weeks and make it better." If you decide to replace a silo down the road, like, "Hey, we're going to do a CRM take out," you've not saddled yourself up with this huge level of tech debt. Rob Collie (42:05): Yeah, that's huge.  Justin Mannhardt (42:06): Because a lot of these decisions have so much pressure because you're like, "If we don't get this right, then we'll have all this." It's actually okay to be like, "Yeah, we're going to throw this away and build a different one." I think that's an important aspect of these things. You can empower a team of people who are just interested in making things better and it's not this huge sunk cost or investment that you're never going to get back. You're going to get value from it, even if you're only going to leverage it, say for a year. It's like, "Hey, that week was worth it because it eliminated this many errors," or lost time, or whatever. Then we did something else. Rob Collie (42:44): This really hearkens back to something that I struggled to explain to people in my time at Microsoft. I had an intuition, and a lot of people had the same intuition, we weren't doing a great job of explaining it. What I'm going to talk about is the XML revolution. (43:01): XML, and JSON, and all these sorts of things, are just taken for granted today. There's nothing magic about them, it's completely commoditized and that's the way it should be. But those of us who saw this XML thing coming as a real game changer, I think we're really just keying in on exactly this thing we're talking about. The world had been obsessed with APIs up until that point. Every system had an API on it that was capable of doing verby things. Read/write, make changes. These APIs tended to be very heavy. Anyone that's ever written any macro code against Excel will know that the Excel API is incredibly complicated. I'm talking about the desktop VBA comm automation. Go play around with the range object for a couple of days.  (43:49): The idea that two systems with good APIs could then talk to each other was still this myth that I think most of the software world believed. Our belief was stubbornly that we just hadn't gotten the APIs right yet. The next standard in API was going to get it done. What XML did, all it was really doing was saying, "Look, there's going to be a data transmission format that is completely separate from any API, and it's super, super readable, and it's super, super simple." It's the beginning of this shock absorber mentality. Since then, we've discovered that it doesn't have to be XML. Justin Mannhardt (44:30): Oh, yeah. Rob Collie (44:31): But the XML thing did eventually lead us down the road of Hadoop, and DataLakes, and all of that. But yeah, this notion that you get the necessary data from system one, and there's this temporary ah, breath that you can take, and you can disconnect the process of slurp from system one and inject new into the other system. You can ever so slightly disconnect those two so they're not talking directly to each other. When you do that, you gain just massive, massive, massive benefits. (45:03): Yeah, it's kind of neat to connect that now. Again, I used to talk to people all the time like, "No, XML is magic. It's going to blah, blah, blah." People would go, like my old boss did, again would be like, "I don't get it. Why is it magic?" I'd be like, "Well, it just is, man. You don't understand." He beat that out of me. It was one of the greatest that anyone's ever given me. By the time I was done with him, I could explain why XML was valuable but not at the beginning. I certainly didn't envision where we've landed here.  (45:27): Okay, so I think this was pretty straightforward, right? If you want to identify what digital transformation means for your organization ... This actually really parallels the talk I gave on AI the other night here in Indy.  Justin Mannhardt (45:39): Oh, right. Yeah.  Rob Collie (45:40): Don't talk about it from the tech point of view. Justin Mannhardt (45:43): Yeah.  Rob Collie (45:43): Think about it from the workflow point of view. Where are the workflows in your company? What's really beautiful about digital transformation is that we can provide this extra guidance that, what are the workflows that happen between systems or adjacent to systems?  Justin Mannhardt (46:00): Yeah.  Rob Collie (46:00): It helps you focus on what we're talking about. It's not often you get a cheat code like that, so you can really zero in on something.  (46:08): I suspect that once you have that algorithm for looking, you're going to find lots of things. The Power Platform makes it- Justin Mannhardt (46:18): Ah, it transforms them in digital ways. Rob Collie (46:20): It puts that completely within range, completely within budget in a way that you wouldn't necessarily even expect. It's just kind of magic. It's the same level of magic that you'd get from Power BI, but in a read/write workflow sense.  Justin Mannhardt (46:33): Between and adjacent to, that's magic. That's a magic algorithm because I bet a lot of people, when you say digital transformation, they are thinking on or within the system, not between it. Rob Collie (46:45): Yeah. It's another one of these marketing terms that's almost deliberately meant to be mystical. Everyone's supposed to pretend that they know what it means, but then it's left for all of us out here in the real world, close to where the rubber meets the road, to actually do something real with it. (46:59): I wonder what percentage of the time people use the phrase digital transformation, if you scratch the surface, you'd find that they were completely bluffing?  Justin Mannhardt (47:07): Yeah. There's a category of thinking digital transformation, or even data analytics, where there's just all these abstract, conceptual statements or diagrams that mean very little. Let's just zoom into an actual problem, even if it's a little one, and fix it. Then, we'll go to the next one and fix that. We don't need big, fancy frameworks, teams, and steering committees to do any of that.  Rob Collie (47:35): I've got another example. Justin Mannhardt (47:36): Oh, yeah?  Rob Collie (47:37): It's one that we've implemented here at P3. We have these Power BI dashboards that measure the effectiveness of our advertising. It turns out that advertising in particular on Google AdWords is not a global thing. It's the sum of many micro trends, your overall performance. It's highly, highly, highly variable based on which keywords you're matching against, what kinds of searches you're matching against, and what kind of messaging you're presenting to the user of Google. The only way to improve, most of the time, is to improve in the details.  (48:11): All right. For a while, we had this workflow where we'd identify an intersection of ads that we were running and what we were matching up with, in terms of people's searches. We'd identify a cluster of those that, I'll just keep it simple for the moment, where we'd say, "Look, right now we're providing the same message to a bunch of searches that aren't really the same search and we need to break this out, and provide a more custom, tailored message to each of these individual searches." We'd mark something for granularization.  (48:43): But originally, what we would do is we were looking at this report, we'd write down essentially this intersection and say, "Go split that out."  Justin Mannhardt (48:51): What did we do?  Rob Collie (48:52): Immediately, we'd lose all track of what did we even decide to do? Because then someone had to go over to totally Google AdWords system and enter new ads, and break this thing out. Even knowing whether that had happened, producing the work list of things that needed to happen, was very difficult because we were in the context of a Power BI dashboard that didn't do any communication elsewhere. We couldn't track what our to-do list was. Except again, completely offline. We built a Power App and embedded it into some of these reports. You'd click on the thing you'd want to break out, the Power App would pick up that context, and then we'd just use a little drop-down and say, "What do we want to do to this?" We're going to mark this for granularization.  (49:39): That did produce us a to-do list, that then could also be re-imported back into the report, so that we could se that we had marked that one to explode it out. We didn't have to look at it again, and we also in the reporting, could see whether that splitting up had been done because you'd come back to the Power App and say, "Done." Even better, you'd enter the IDs of the new groups, so that you can say, "Hey, this one is now superseded by these."  (50:07): Now we never got to the point of directly writing back to Google AdWords to make the changes. That still happened offline. We certainly could have imagined a world in which a Power App, a much more elaborate process was built that, then separately from the dashboard, would prompt you to write the new ad copy and things like that. You get to choose where the 80/20 is in your process. For us, the 80/20 was recording the list and tracking the lineage while we're in the context of the report. That was a big deal.  Justin Mannhardt (50:39): There are over 1000 pre-built and certified connectors available for the Power Platform. Rob Collie (50:46): That's it? Just kidding. Justin Mannhardt (50:48): They're adding things all the time. We live in a SaaS world. All these things, they're real. Rob Collie (50:53): Yeah. That's a really critical point about Microsoft, is that they have realized that they are the middleware company.  Justin Mannhardt (50:59): Satya is all about it.  Rob Collie (51:00): Yes. In the Bill and Steve era, this was not Microsoft's game. They wanted to own everything.  Justin Mannhardt (51:06): Yeah.  Rob Collie (51:07): In Satya era, it's more like, "No, we want to work with everything."  Justin Mannhardt (51:11): It's great, I love it.  Rob Collie (51:12): Just recently, as I've gone down this path myself, reverse engineering in my own little way what this term means and coming to the conclusions that we have, I've realized that we are a digital transformation company. It's not the only thing that we do. Is read only Power BI middleware, is that digital transformation? Well, probably. By the strictest definition, probably yes, but not by the spirit of the law. The spirit of the definition means a read/write workflow. I'd mentioned in this last example, Power BI can be part of a read/write workflow. There's no reason to sideline it. In the other episodes, where we talked about improvement and action is the goal, how a Power App can be added to a Power BI report to help you take action on what the report is telling you. But just the broader Power Platform, Power Apps and Power Automate in particular. We do have a handful of clients where, most of the work we're doing is digital transformation work. Justin Mannhardt (52:08): Right, this type of work.  Rob Collie (52:09): The adjacent in between that we're talking about. Even though we're mostly thought of as a Power BI company, as we're doing our next round of website rebuild, we've 100% put a digital transformation page on our sitemap. It'll probably use some of this language we're talking about here. Digital transformation, what does it mean? It is both not that special of a term, there's no rocket science to it, and at the same time, there's a lot of value to be realized from it.  Justin Mannhardt (52:36): Totally. Here's a fun little call back to our origin story as individuals and as a company. We spend a lot of our time helping, for example, like the Excel analyst move over to Power BI and we're trying to solve these middleware gaps. That's why I think, for us, it's just been quite natural to provide these types of services and capabilities to customers as we've grown because it's the same type of person that's spirited to solve these types of issues, and the technology, and the openness of it brought everything in range. It's fun to reflect back on how broad we can show up to a customer beyond just dashboards.  Rob Collie (53:22): Yeah. It's a miracle and a testament to what Microsoft has pulled off. You can certainly imagine a world in which they could enable that uptempo, highly efficient, what we call faucets first methodology for dashboards. Justin Mannhardt (53:22): Yeah.  Rob Collie (53:38): And stopping there. To extend it to something like workflow and applications, and have implementation of these solutions feel very, very, very similar. Justin Mannhardt (53:50): Yeah.  Rob Collie (53:50): It's completely compatible with our ethos. It's almost like I didn't even notice when we made that transition into doing both. It sneaked up on me. That's a good sign. I feel a little silly that it took me a while to digest it, but I love that it happened organically without us having to go- Justin Mannhardt (54:10): Right. Rob Collie (54:11): Pick up another toolset from another vendor, or change our hiring profile dramatically, or anything like that.  Justin Mannhardt (54:18): Yeah. Now, we've got some of these cool projects where you've got maybe someone that their expertise is more on the Power BI side, working right alongside someone whose expertise is more on the Power Apps, Power Automate side. They're just moving in lockstep with the same customer, closing these middleware gaps, building the reporting, and the action lives around it. It's that whole thing working together that makes it all really cool. Rob Collie (54:41): I'm also developing an intuition that AI, maybe not the only application of AI, but I think a lot of the surface area of where we will find AI to be useful, plugs into this digital transformation thing, the adjacent in between. In particular, in sub workflows within the overall workflow.  Justin Mannhardt (55:03): Yes.  Rob Collie (55:03): Did your reaction fit that?  Justin Mannhardt (55:06): Yes, totally. Totally, totally, totally. Yeah.  Rob Collie (55:09): Then, we're good. I think it's easy, with dashboards, with BI, to imagine the global. Going from a non-dashboard company to a dashboard company, it's very easy to imagine that as a global thing and it's probably the right thing. Any place where you're flying without the information you need in a convenient, easy to digest format, let's go and get that. Even there, with the transformation to a data oriented organization, a data driven culture, you still pick places to start.  Justin Mannhardt (55:39): You got to start somewhere.  Rob Collie (55:40): This other thing, digital transformation is a little harder to imagine is a global thing, and that's fine. I think AI's the same way. You should not be thinking about AI as a global transformation for your business. Just like digital transformation, it is a go find particular places where you can score these wins.  Speaker 4 (56:00): Thanks for listening to the Raw Data by P3 Adaptive Podcast. Let the experts at P3 Adaptive help your business. Just go to p3adaptive.com. Have a data day. 

Can we have a Windows experience tailored for enterprise efficiency? Paul, Richard, and Mikah unpack the freshest updates from Windows 11's March 2024 Patch Tuesday, dissect Microsoft's transparency behind Midnight Blizzard's November attack, and speculate on Microsoft's much-anticipated Surface/AI event. Plus, Paul offers insights from his time with Copilot Pro's custom GPT builder. Windows 11 Patch Tuesday new features: Phone Link settings is renamed to Mobile devices, USB 80 Gbps support, more - Windows 10 users get some love (hate?) too Microsoft confirms that Moment 5 will be delivered in the March preview update, fully deployed in late April Microsoft details how it is changing Windows in the EU - and now we all want to move to the EU Beta (last week): New Copilot actions experiment Dev and Canary: Unified Teams experience, Copilot updates to more people, Power Automate via Copilot in Windows, Live Captions quick settings tile, progress bars in Taskbar icons, File Explorer file copy improvements, etc Beta (today): Most frequently used apps now appear in Recommended Microsoft Microsoft continues to dribble out details about that Russia-sponsored hack and the news is predictably getting worse each time We have an event! March 21st will focus on Copilot, Windows, and Surface AI Microsoft brings Custom GPT Builder to Copilot Pro subscribers Here comes Copilot for Security. April 1 rollout is perfect Teams app developers get AI capabilities via a free Microsoft toolkit Opera Feature Drops to bring new AI features early to Opera One EU moves to the AI Act Microsoft 365 Microsoft finally spells out its commercial deployment schedule/plans for the new Outlook. Let the complaining continue Skype is updated with new Channels features, prompting questions about Skype still being alive Parallels Desktop for Mac is updated with Clipboard and game improvements for Windows VMs Xbox Some Activision QA works vote to unionize More Microsoft Studio titles come to Boosteroid, that service you only heard of because of the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard Tips & Picks Tip of the week: Time zone math App pick of the week: Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is now available! Plus, Joplin (a Notion alternative) RunAs Radio this week: Understanding Large Language Models with Jodie Burchell Brown liquor pick of the week: Bushmills 21 Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

Can we have a Windows experience tailored for enterprise efficiency? Paul, Richard, and Mikah unpack the freshest updates from Windows 11's March 2024 Patch Tuesday, dissect Microsoft's transparency behind Midnight Blizzard's November attack, and speculate on Microsoft's much-anticipated Surface/AI event. Plus, Paul offers insights from his time with Copilot Pro's custom GPT builder. Windows 11 Patch Tuesday new features: Phone Link settings is renamed to Mobile devices, USB 80 Gbps support, more - Windows 10 users get some love (hate?) too Microsoft confirms that Moment 5 will be delivered in the March preview update, fully deployed in late April Microsoft details how it is changing Windows in the EU - and now we all want to move to the EU Beta (last week): New Copilot actions experiment Dev and Canary: Unified Teams experience, Copilot updates to more people, Power Automate via Copilot in Windows, Live Captions quick settings tile, progress bars in Taskbar icons, File Explorer file copy improvements, etc Beta (today): Most frequently used apps now appear in Recommended Microsoft Microsoft continues to dribble out details about that Russia-sponsored hack and the news is predictably getting worse each time We have an event! March 21st will focus on Copilot, Windows, and Surface AI Microsoft brings Custom GPT Builder to Copilot Pro subscribers Here comes Copilot for Security. April 1 rollout is perfect Teams app developers get AI capabilities via a free Microsoft toolkit Opera Feature Drops to bring new AI features early to Opera One EU moves to the AI Act Microsoft 365 Microsoft finally spells out its commercial deployment schedule/plans for the new Outlook. Let the complaining continue Skype is updated with new Channels features, prompting questions about Skype still being alive Parallels Desktop for Mac is updated with Clipboard and game improvements for Windows VMs Xbox Some Activision QA works vote to unionize More Microsoft Studio titles come to Boosteroid, that service you only heard of because of the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard Tips & Picks Tip of the week: Time zone math App pick of the week: Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is now available! Plus, Joplin (a Notion alternative) RunAs Radio this week: Understanding Large Language Models with Jodie Burchell Brown liquor pick of the week: Bushmills 21 Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

FULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/534 Imagine trading the certainty of a well-trodden sales career for the electric buzz of technology – that's the leap Nathan Rose, our MVP from Auckland and Power Platform wizard at Capgemini, made with gusto. We're thrilled to have him unpack his inspiring transition, sharing not only the nuts and bolts of his professional pivot but also giving us a glimpse into his life – from his deep roots in New Zealand to his zest for community service and culinary delights. As Nathan walks us through his early encounters with Power Virtual Agents and his ascent up the steep slopes of Power Automate, you'll feel the infectious excitement that comes from discovering one's true calling.Then, tipping our hats to creators everywhere, Nathan reveals the creative engine behind Copilot Studio's compelling content. For those hesitating at the starting line of content creation, he's the coach cheering you on – emphasizing the power of authenticity and the magic that happens when you craft learning materials that resonate personally. Armed only with his iPhone and Canava, Nathan constructs a blueprint for building engagement, proving that it's not about high-end gear but heart and hustle. As we chart the course towards MVP status, Nathan's tale is a testament to the enduring value of community, lifelong learning, and the profound impact of each connection we forge on our professional journeys. Join us for a masterclass in transformation and the unspoken rewards of following your passion.OTHER RESOURCES: Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP  AgileXRM AgileXRm - The integrated BPM for Microsoft Power Platform 90 Day Mentoring Challenge April 1st 2024https://ako.nz365guy.comUse the code PODCAST at checkout for a 10% discount Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Can we have a Windows experience tailored for enterprise efficiency? Paul, Richard, and Mikah unpack the freshest updates from Windows 11's March 2024 Patch Tuesday, dissect Microsoft's transparency behind Midnight Blizzard's November attack, and speculate on Microsoft's much-anticipated Surface/AI event. Plus, Paul offers insights from his time with Copilot Pro's custom GPT builder. Windows 11 Patch Tuesday new features: Phone Link settings is renamed to Mobile devices, USB 80 Gbps support, more - Windows 10 users get some love (hate?) too Microsoft confirms that Moment 5 will be delivered in the March preview update, fully deployed in late April Microsoft details how it is changing Windows in the EU - and now we all want to move to the EU Beta (last week): New Copilot actions experiment Dev and Canary: Unified Teams experience, Copilot updates to more people, Power Automate via Copilot in Windows, Live Captions quick settings tile, progress bars in Taskbar icons, File Explorer file copy improvements, etc Beta (today): Most frequently used apps now appear in Recommended Microsoft Microsoft continues to dribble out details about that Russia-sponsored hack and the news is predictably getting worse each time We have an event! March 21st will focus on Copilot, Windows, and Surface AI Microsoft brings Custom GPT Builder to Copilot Pro subscribers Here comes Copilot for Security. April 1 rollout is perfect Teams app developers get AI capabilities via a free Microsoft toolkit Opera Feature Drops to bring new AI features early to Opera One EU moves to the AI Act Microsoft 365 Microsoft finally spells out its commercial deployment schedule/plans for the new Outlook. Let the complaining continue Skype is updated with new Channels features, prompting questions about Skype still being alive Parallels Desktop for Mac is updated with Clipboard and game improvements for Windows VMs Xbox Some Activision QA works vote to unionize More Microsoft Studio titles come to Boosteroid, that service you only heard of because of the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard Tips & Picks Tip of the week: Time zone math App pick of the week: Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is now available! Plus, Joplin (a Notion alternative) RunAs Radio this week: Understanding Large Language Models with Jodie Burchell Brown liquor pick of the week: Bushmills 21 Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

FULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/533 Strap in, as we take an exhilarating tour through the guts of the Microsoft Power Platform. We promise to demystify its strategic foundation and prove to you why it stands apart from building solutions and governance. You'll share laughs with us as we recall unique conference experiences like presenting without shoes and, believe it or not, PowerApps and Power Automate tattoos. As we venture further into this digital landscape, we hammer home the importance of erecting a sturdy strategic foundation to foster a thriving platform ecosystem. You'll see the value of workload prioritization, ecosystem mapping, and the critical role of executive vision in ensuring an organization's prosperity. And not just that, but we also touch on the necessity of a flexible budgeting model for technology. The CFOs, we're looking at you! We've got some insights that might make you rethink your approach.We also delve into the world of low code development, where we discuss the 'six P's': purpose, plan, platform, process, people, and portfolio. The conversation takes an exciting twist as we explore the concept of the low-code city and the application portfolio. We'll reveal how to manage unstructured data and the magic of Cognitive Search for indexing and analysis. As we conclude this intriguing journey, let's reflect on the power of starting conversations and the potential they have to enhance our lives. So, if you're ready for a knowledge-packed adventure, join us and let's learn together.AgileXRM AgileXRm - The integrated BPM for Microsoft Power Platform 90 Day Mentoring Challenge April 1st 2024https://ako.nz365guy.comUse the code PODCAST at checkout for a 10% discount Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening