MVP Insights

MVP Insights: Barret Blake on Integrating Copilot with Power Automate

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Barret Blake, Pam Misialek) — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 13:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP journey: Barret's MVP journey wasn't something he was initially pursuing actively. He had written some blog posts, attended conferences, and spoken to user groups, but it wasn't until others encouraged him to pursue being an MVP. With that encouragement, Barret focused more on the content he shared, which led to him being accepted as an MVP for Power Automate.
Top innovations: The obvious big push, Barret notes, is Copilot and AI. "I think one of the biggest advancements, especially around Power Automate and the Power Platform, is the integration with Copilot Studio and being able to create agents that are able to communicate back and forth with your Power Automate flows." It's beneficial for users to get involved with this technology now because the longer you wait to make it a part of your core business strategy, the further behind you'll be down the road.
Start small: For those getting started with implementing Copilot with Power Automate, Barret recommends starting small and finding something that will benefit from this addition, such as creating a support agent. "Start with some small projects, figure out how best the two interact and how best you might be able to use these kinds of agents to make your people's lives a little better, and then go from there."
Summit experiences: At the recent Community Summit North America event, Barret spoke during a couple of sessions covering Copilot and Power Automate. "I really enjoy going down and meeting with people I don't know in the job that I have right now," he reports. Interacting with the community, learning from other speakers and sessions, and discovering what others are excited about are among the highlights of his Summit experience.

MVP Insights: Michelle Serna Details Women in Tech Involvement, Advice for Business Central Users

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Michelle Serna, Pam Misialek) — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 13:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP journey: Michelle details her transition from being a GP consultant and end user to working with Business Central, eventually leading to roles as a consultant, solution developer, and community presenter. She shares that she was inspired by peers and other MVPs, which led her to increase engagement with the community, earn her MVP status, and actively contribute to the Dynamics space, finding the role demanding but deeply rewarding.
Women in Tech: Reflecting on her participation in the recent Women in Tech Panel & Luncheon at Community Summit NA 2025, Michelle recounts stepping out of her comfort zone from giving product demos to sharing personal experiences on stage with attendees. She noted that the opportunity was “the most fulfilling experience I've had in my career," and shifted her focus from being a product expert to inspiring others through honesty and perseverance.
Advice for users: Staying relevant in tech, especially with Business Central, requires continuous learning and hands-on practice. Michelle advises setting up a demo environment, testing new features, attending Microsoft launch sessions, and engaging with peers to maintain expertise and enthusiasm for the evolving platform.

MVP Insights: Duilio Tacconi on the Evolving Microsoft Ecosystem, BC Summit Takeaways

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Duilio Tacconi, Giuseppe Ianni) — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Microsoft journey: Duilio shares insights on his career journey and the experiences that led to his involvement with Microsoft. "It was super, super fun, and from there, it was an escalation," Duilio says of his role as an administrator that enabled him to work more with the platform. He acknowledges the "progressive enhancements" to the product over time since he started using Dynamics Business Central/NAV.
Market impact: The evolution of Microsoft platforms and tools has had a significant impact across the business market, as Microsoft is making its models stronger and more efficient. AI and agents are rapidly growing and advancing. Duilio has used these tools to troubleshoot telemetries and applied them to programming spaces. Within this market, professionals are able to apply AI and agents to perform their tasks faster, empowering users to do more and be more proficient.
Community contributions: Duilio contributes to the community by sharing his Azure dashboard and other queries as well as offers up time to help users who want to maximize their BC performance. Through his contributions, he is able to further analyze how to make better use of Business Central in terms of overall performance.
Looking forward: Recently, Duilio has "discovered a brand new flame" with coding in addition to telemetry. Previously, he has been involved more on the development side. He's planning on working more on the coding side to enhance performance and apply AI features to assist in creating prototypes.

MVP Insights: Drew Lencsak Describes Ecosystem Involvement, D365 Tools

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Giuseppe Ianni, Drew Lencsak) — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Ecosystem involvement: As an MVP, Drew is a recognized expert in 365 Finance and Supply Chain, Copilot, ERP solutions, and more. He joined the Microsoft ecosystem as an end user. As he learned more about the products and processes over the years, he joined a team of ERP experts that worked with partners to implement new modifications. That led him to transition to a consulting role. Now, he's been in the partner ecosystem for about 13 years and has continued to be involved in the community.
Continuous learning and networking: There are several ways to be involved in the community, from presenting sessions at events to engaging online, such as on the Learners platform. Drew notes that whether he's presenting something or watching another presentation, he's constantly learning and making new connections with various community engagements.
The role of AI: Drew has had insight from Microsoft as an MVP on what's to come, particularly with AI and Copilot. One that stood out to him is the data quality agent. He sees much value in this agent with his line of work as well as value that his clients will benefit from.
D365 tools and features: The new quality management features that came out over the past year are some that Drew has appreciated. "It's been cool to see Microsoft invest in that area and working with manufacturers there," he says.

MVP Insights: Cecile Dinh on Ecosystem Innovations, MVP Journey, Agent Use Cases

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Giuseppe Ianni, Cecile Dinh) — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Ecosystem innovations: Dinh shares her enthusiasm for using ChatGPT and Copilot to assist with transitioning from GP to Business Central, highlighting how uploading a screenshot of an org chart can help generate a chart of accounts and dimensions. She's also excited about Business Central’s ease of use, especially its Excel copy-paste feature, which contrasts with GP’s more complex setup.
AI journey: After discussing her journey with AI tools, Dinh shares a tip to improve prompt quality by instructing it not to generate anything until all necessary information is gathered. She's seen this method used to create training materials and product ads, and is impressed by AI’s capabilities. Finally, she reminds listeners that consistent, short practice sessions make learning manageable.
Agent use case: Dinh describes an agent she created for Teams by specifying a knowledge source and gradually building it out, which has proved to be helpful as her company has adopted it.
MVP journey: Dinh describes her 7-year journey of community involvement that began with speaking at Community Summit North America in 2018, leading to roles as a chapter and meetup leader, and eventually earning MVP recognition. She emphasizes that the true reward lies in making an impact with the broader community.
Summit NA participation: At Summit NA 2025, Dinh will be leading a session called "GP to BC: Mastering Data Migration – Strategies, Tools, and Best Practices," on Thursday, October 23 from 8:15-9:15 am. She will also be volunteering at both the GP Tech Medic Desk and the BC/NAV Tech Medic Desk.

MVP Insights: Geoff Ables on Strengthening AI Adoption, Academy Classes, Summit NA Sessions

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Geoff Ables, Giuseppe Ianni) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Early career: Ables got his start with Dynamics when working in database marketing for a financial services firm. He quickly developed a passion for how "technology is used to better connect people," which led him to the Microsoft product line, working specifically with Modern Work and CRM. Later on, he was nominated to be a Microsoft MVP for his contributions
AI impressions: Ables highlighted the excitement around AI but cautioned that many companies are repeating old patterns of underutilization. He noted, “Instead of software, they've got shelfware—stuff that's not being fully leveraged, not being fully adopted.”
AI adoption: Many organizations rely on proven resources like Microsoft's community sites and planning templates to guide adoption, but they often fall into a “build it and they will come” mindset. Without strong leadership, clear vision, and ongoing engagement, digital transformation efforts frequently fail (up to 70% according to industry research), prompting the creation of tools like the Microsoft shelfware calculator and events like the 365 Leadership Summit to support non-technical leaders in driving change.
Summit NA sessions: Geoff and the C5 Insight team will be participating in a number of sessions and Academy Classes at Summit NA 2025, including:
- "Academy: Copilot Strategies for Business and Technology Leaders: Greatest Hits from 365 Leadership Summit," on Saturday, October 18
- "Academy: Learning Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys and Data," on Sunday, October 19
- "7 Habits for AI Transformation Success," on Monday, October 20
- "Modern Work Makeover: Slash Time Wasters with Microsoft 365 + Copilot," on Monday, October 20
- "Roadmap to (Re)Launching Microsoft 365," on Tuesday, October 21
- "Build a Better Extranet Portal: Power Pages vs SharePoint," on Tuesday, October 21
- "Making Makers: Empowering Non-IT Teams with Copilot Studio and Power Platform," on Wednesday, October 22

MVP Insights: Marko Totovic on the Business Impact of Agents

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Cam Sessinger, Marko Totovic) — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Agents & innovation: Marko works with partners on anything from pre-sales to live implementation. "I'm seeing huge improvements in Copilot Studio and the building editors and everything that you can build from the agent perspective," he says. Now, everything is moving to agents — building your own and how they can help you with day-to-day work. "What really makes me happy is innovations in Copilot for building applications and automations in Power Platform."
Business impact: Companies and users are starting to ask for agents specifically built on their knowledge articles, documentation, and more. "When I'm talking to partners, they have so many requests from their end clients to build something for them so that they can boost their efficiency," Marko reports. End users aren't struggling with adoption with this. "They're really willing to start immediately using some of the stuff."
Summit NA: Marko will be presenting at Community Summit North America and shares insights on his sessions:
- Connecting Filed workers: Dynamics 365 Integration Made Simple on Monday, October 20th
- Building Smarter B2E Portals with the Help of Agents on Wednesday, October 22nd

MVP Insights: Ashley Steiner on Career Journey, CRM Involvement

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Ashley Steiner, Giuseppe Ianni) — Wed, 8 Oct 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Career journey: Ashley has a marketing background and describes how she "fell into CRM" during "the era of accidental admins." After working with CRM, she fell in love with the tool and how it could be implemented for sales and customer service. She started off working on the client side, supporting sales teams. Within the last few years, she has moved to the consulting side. Working at Elevate Digital, Ashley helps clients implement their systems and integrating the Power Platform.
MVP experiences: "Working at a client MVP, it's pretty rare. It's not very common but I wanted to prove that you can do it," Ashley says. "You still gain enough knowledge [and] expertise, you do enough with the community that you can be seen as an expert in the space." Being a consultant requires her to stay up-to-date on all the new releases and developments. Having these experiences has equipped her to be an MVP, helping identify ways people can apply Microsoft tools.
Summit NA: Ashley will be co-presenting sessions at Community Summit North America. She will be presenting "Mastering Search in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement" alongside Rahel Endris, covering how to search within CE and Power Apps. She will also be presenting "Agile Success in Power Platform Projects: Key Strategies and Tools" with Ed Martinez to review how to run successful Power Platform projects using Agile.

MVP Insights: Asif Rehmani on Using Your Unique Abilities, Microsoft 365 Copilot Insights

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Asif Rehmani, Giuseppe Ianni) — Mon, 6 Oct 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP journey: Talking about his journey to becoming a Microsoft MVP, Asif acknowledges that it's an awarded honor. "I definitely think it's an honor because you're already doing the work that yo'd like to do, which is, for me, it's always been about helping others in the community," he says. 20 years ago, he started his journey with SharePoint, which was his first Microsoft MVP designation. Now, he primarily uses Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365, working on user adoption and digital transformation.
Copilot: Copilot in Microsoft 365 has been very successful, especially with GPT-5, he notes. Alternatively, Dynamics 365 Copilot has room for growth, as Asif suggests it hasn't been too successful and requires the right kind of prompts. Microsoft as a vendor "has to make the Copilot technology much more easier to use, much more beneficial," which Alif shares as feedback to the company.
Using your unique abilities: "I am a very big believer of whatever your unique ability is, use that to your advantage, to help others," he advises. He idenifites his own abilities to take some complex subjects and simplify it. "My simplification comes in forms of eitehr videos or blogs or posts on LinkedIn." Applying his abilities to helping others is something that he finds fulfilling.
Summit NA: At Community Summit North America, Asif will be presenting his session "5 Steps for Driving Sustainable Dynamics 365 CE/CRM User Adoption." After recognizing a trend that works, he decided to share his five proven strategies for successful user adoption. He also raises that, as organizations, it's common to focus on technology migration and implementation but emphasizes the value of focusing on humans.

MVP Insights: Renato Rajdiga on Telemetry, Consulting, & Business Central

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Renato Fajdiga, Giuseppe Ianni) — Wed, 1 Oct 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Career reflections: Celebrating his 10 years of experience, Renato reflects on the start of his career journey as a NAV developer, which opened his eyes to the world of NAV and the ERP ecosystem. Eventually, he moved to consultancy with a partner company, then founded his own consulting company. Now, he's working with Business Central, Power Platform, and Finance & Operations.
Valuable contributions: His community-driven MVP journey began with him writing a blog. "Blogging was only for me," he shares. For example, when he prepared a manual, he also published it on his blog. In a conference, Microsoft shared some of his blog posts. "I was very proud of myself," he says. Recognition for sharing your technology passion and others finding value in your work is important.
Telemetry: Renato has been doing telemetry courses for a few years. "In the Business Central world, you have a lot of new telemetry insights that you can find and a lot of new data that you can query," he explains. In this space, he sees customers trying to control, especially if they have an internal tech team, and then the tech team can track what is happening on the telemetry side. He advises customers to use their technical teams for their benefit and learn how their users are using the system.
Summit NA: At Community Summit North America, Renato will have two sessions. In his telemetry session for Business Central, "Telemetry in Dynamics 365 Business Central: How to Maximize Value for You and Your Clients," he will be guiding users and consulting partners on how to set up the telemetry and explore real examples. In his second session, "Dataverse capabilities with Dynamics 365 Business Central," he'll cover how to use virtual entities and business events in Business Central, from standard capabilities to custom developments.
Favorite Business Central feature: Renato highlights the data analysis mode as his favorite feature in Business Central and integration with Power BI. As he started his career as a report developer, he understands the struggles behind building reports. He appreciates features that enable users to optimize and make reporting easy for customers.

MVP Insights: David Laster on Bridging the GP to BC Gap at Summit NA

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (David Laster, Pam Misialek) — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Exciting innovations: With the continued developments by Microsoft, David notes that it's getting easier to talk Business Central with GP people. "It's easier for us to draw the transitions because their functionality has gotten a lot more rich, so those conversations are a lot easier than they were before," he reports. He's also looking forward to updates with Power BI reports and the apps that Microsoft built for Business Central.
Valuable outcomes: Users are benefiting from the quality of the technology. Once users learn to plug in different aspects and rethink workflows, jobs become more fluid. There are fewer clicks, distractions, and context switching. "When you rethink with the technology, it helps everybody do a little bit more," he says. Users are also able to access information faster. With Copilot embedded in the applications, users can find information, determine next steps, and ultimately aggregate and report on data.
Summit NA: At Community Summit North America this year, David is eager to help people bridge the gap from GP to BC. The sessions he will be presenting include:
- "Dynamics GP Ask Us Anything - Reporting" on Tuesday, October 21
- "Power BI Reports You Need For Your Dynamics GP Users" on Tuesday, October 21
- "New to BC - Ask the Experts" on Wednesday, October 22
- "Breaking into the Benefits of Telemetry for BC" on Thursday, October 23
- "20 Tips and Tricks for Maximizing the Power BI Apps for Business Central" on Thursday, October 23
Dynamics Mindset: David's catalog of his thoughts on Power BI, Business Central, making the GP to BC transition, and more on his Dynamics Mindset website. He provides references and free resources to help users make better decisions.

MVP Insights: Rick McCutcheon on Microsoft Involvement, Building Community

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Rick McCutcheon, Giuseppe Ianni) — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 13:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

PartnerTalks: After speaking at conferences and being interviewed by podcasters over the years, Rick decided to start recording his own podcasts. He's five years into his PartnerTalks podcast.
Microsoft involvement: When Microsoft launched CRM, he contacted his local Microsoft office to speak with the person heading Dynamics CRM. With Microsoft recognizing his knowledge of CRM, he began helping train partners for the company. After doing customer events, he also wanted to be part of building a community in Canada. He's been part of organizing events and building a strong community ever since.
Summit NA: Rick will be speaking at Community Summit North America. He will be presenting his session "Discover Cost-Saving Strategies for Your Dynamics 365 CE CRM Project**" covering cost savings, different ISV applications, and more. "I think it's going to be a really insightful conversation," he noted. For end users, in his session, he aims to answer questions such as:
- How do we make sure that we're spending our money properly and getting our best value out of our Dynamics CE install?
- As a partner going forward, how do I become more competitive as I'm talking to my existing customers about what they can do better?
- For new accounts, why go to Dynamics?
- What are your options around the economics and the ROI of your installation?
Drive and motivation: Rick emphasizes his love for entrepreneurs as the drive behind his continued involvement. "There's a lot of new blood coming into the space, young people that are looking at AI saying, 'How can I build a product with AI and form it so it fits in and everybody wants to use it?'" He continues, "I'm really excited about innovation and innovators." He mentors some individuals entering the space who are building applications and AI agents, as this is something he gets excited about. He's also working with partners on Customer Insights Journeys to help them optimize across their organizations.

MVP Insights: Johan Persson on the Dynamics 365 Platform, Core Innovations

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Johan Persson, Giuseppe Ianni) — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Entering the Dynamics journey: Johan's journey into the Dynamics space started with him being recruited from working with servers and client deployments. "I think that there is sort of a silver lining to coming over from that side because I tend to come into discussions with a different perspective, more like a maintenance side or like a structured side rather than an application focus," he describes. He also acknowledges that he can serve as a "translator" for clients to understand the application side better.
Exciting innovations: Launched this summer, Microsoft's Sovereign Cloud has been top of mind for Johan. Through the launch of this initiative, he notes the importance of being able to host with a partner or having a better technical solution to host it in your own data center. LLMs and AI is another topic Johan is excited about, but he approaches it with a different perspective. "The big plus of LLMs is actually that you have a computer understanding natural language, to the point that it actually understands what you tell it," he explains. The model context protocol (MCP) is a third item that he considers to be a game-changer.
Data-driven development: Coming from a security perspective, Johan highlights worries about the speed of evolution. "When things go fast, you tend to miss important things, such as security and governance." He acknowledges that with rapid innovation, companies don't have time to invent their own products, as they're focused on a single standard for doing things.
Summit NA: Johan shares what attendees can expect from his two sessions at Community Summit North America. The first is "Dynamics 365 FO 101 for D365CE Experts" on Monday, October 20th, providing a holistic view of the Dynamics 365 platform. The second is "Beyond Proprietary Boundaries: Open Source Architecture in D365" on Wednesday, October 22nd, covering the benefits and risks of open source.

MVP Insights: Erik Hougaard on the MVP Program, Business Central Tools

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Giuseppe Ianni, Erik Hougaard) — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Sharing expertise: Erik has shared his knowledge by creating videos on YouTube. With constant rollouts of new technology, it can be challenging to keep up and use all the tools. In his videos, he shows those in the community how to adopt something new, how to look at things critically, and how to determine how to use these technologies in their life.
MVP involvement: When he first became an MVP, Erik was involved with some of the early integration applications. "That caught the eye of Microsoft and I got nominated for an MVP," he says. One way he has continued his involvement as an MVP is by putting out videos that are timely and relevant, noting a recent video he made on building an MCP service so your AI can access Business Central as an example. He states that he's "always trying to be current."
Summit NA: At Community Summit North America, Erik will be part of two sessions. The first is a panel discussion with other MVPs on "Business Central Panel Session: Beyond the Box – When to Customize, Extend, or Just Use AppSource." They will continue an ongoing conversation of whether you should use an app or customize. His other session is on improv coding for Business Central, where he will build an app in real-time with attendees.
Favorite Business Central tool: Erik has been spending a lot of time with one of his new apps, which is the AI accountant that will post stuff for the user. "It's currently running in a beta and hopefully it's released before Summit," he says.

MVP Insights: Beau Schwieso on Purpose, Impact in Ecosystem, Summit Education

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Beau Schwieso, Giuseppe Ianni) — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 11:50:00 +0000

MVP journey: Beau shared how he "fell into the ERP journey" in 2011 and was instantly hooked after automating a 20-minute task down to 20 seconds. Inspired by other MVPs, he began documenting his path and emphasized that becoming an MVP should be driven by purpose. “Find your why,” he encouraged, not just the title.
Driving impact: Personal moments of gratitude and impact, like a conference attendee crediting his blog for career inspiration, solidified Beau's commitment to helping others through ERP and writing. His motivation is deeply rooted in making a meaningful difference.
MVP role: Beau explained that he sees the MVP role as both an inspiration to professionals and an advocate who channels community feedback directly to Microsoft. He believes AI can support MVPs in summarizing input and preparing insights, but emphasizes that true impact comes from framing feedback in a way that drives meaningful change.
Summit education: At Community Summit NA 2025, Beau will be leading a series of sessions and one Academy class. The Academy class, "Dynamics 365 F&O Mastery: Change Management, Updates, and Testing Essentials," on Saturday, October 18, with Brittany Burke. Other sessions Beau is leading include:
- "The Ghosts of Testing Past, Present, and Future: A Dickensian Guide to D365 F&O Implementations," on Monday, October 20
- "Integration Overkill: Turbocharging Dynamics F&O with Unstoppable Patterns," on Tuesday, October 21
Connect: Connect with Beau at Summit NA, on LinkedIn, or via his blog, dynamicsdad.com.

MVP Insights: Robb Delprado on Exciting Innovations, Summit for BC Users

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Robb Delprado, Pam Misialek) — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Sustainability: Sustainability is one topic that Robb has been excited about. He has been recognizing sustainability efforts in his day-to-day life, noting the influence these intentional efforts have on the environment. He's hopeful to become more involved and have opportunities to talk more about sustainability.
Agents: The other innovation he raises is Microsoft's agents. "That's the big thing," he says. On the purchasing side, these agents will have a big influence to help with processing purchasing documents, for instance. "You can't ignore it anymore, it's up there," Robb says about agents being in the current versions of the cloud. Users should take advantage of these available tools.
Academy at Summit NA: Robb will be part of two Academy classes at Community Summit North America. The first one is on fixed assets — "Fixed Assets A to Z - Including the Kitchen Sink for Business Central" on Saturday, October 18th. The second class is on service — "Service in the Real World" on Sunday, October 19th. "This whole user group is about sharing knowledge," Robb explains. "If I can teach a class, whether for partners or whether for end users who need to improve their processes, I want to do that."
Summit NA education sessions: Robb will also be part of education sessions at the event: "There's more than one way to Calculate WIP in Business Central" on Wednesday, October 22nd and "Beyond Basic Dispatching for Service Orders and Projects; What are the Options?" on Thursday, October 23rd." If you want to connect with Robb at Community Summit, he encourages attendees to "look for the hat" to find him.

MVP Insights: Justin Carter on Community Involvement, Favorite Features, Summit Sessions

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Justin Carter, Giuseppe Ianni) — Mon, 8 Sep 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Microsoft journey: Justin recounts the journey of how he became involved with Microsoft FO/AX, which led to him becoming an 11x Microsoft MVP. As he built his background in programming and consulting, he got involved with Blue Horseshoe and its AX practice. Then, he started his DAX Dude blog in 2008 to share his knowledge and experiences with others in the community.
Inspiration to teach: "It's just kind of ingrained in my DNA," Justin says. "It's just something I do and I enjoy it." He has drawn inspiration from his dad and other family members who have served as teachers in different capacities. While he started with a blog and still publishes blog posts, he has also found it fun to get in front of people to teach.
Summit NA: User enablement is the overarching theme of the sessions Justin will be part of at Community Summit North America. He encourages attendees to come in with an idea of what they want to learn and even questions to ask to get the most out of their Summit experience. His sessions include:
- PSS: Integration Experts Roundtable: New Tactics for Today’s Challenges on Monday, October 20th
- The Ghosts of Testing Past, Present, and Future: A Dickensian Guide to D365 F&O Implementations on Monday, October 20th
- Ask the F/SCM Experts: Real-World Insights and Lessons in Dynamics 365 Commerce on Monday, October 20th
- Microsoft Learn Deep Dive: Empower Your Team With Custom Learning Plans on Monday, October 20th
- Become a master of your data - Dynamics 365 Excel Addin on Tuesday, October 21st
Features and functions: Inventory visibility is a service that Justin has appreciated. "You're going to see it on literally every implementation, you won't necessarily find a use case for it until you know it exists, and then you're going to see the use cases for it everywhere," he says. He highlights a Power App that users can deploy that tests a lot of scenarios for inventory visibility services.

MVP Insights: Heidi Neuhauser on Microsoft Innovations, CRM Admins at Summit

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Heidi Neuhauser, Pam Misialek) — Wed, 3 Sep 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Microsoft innovations: With all the buzz around AI and agents, Heidi is excited to see the idea of having personal AI assistants inside the tech playing out, especially in the first-party CRM app. There are two available already in customer service, and some are in preview now for sales. "Under the covers, it's all Power Automate helping these things run," Heidi acknowledges. Now is the time to embrace the power of Power Automate to upskill and understand how the agents work.
Summit NA Academy class: Heidi will be speaking at Community Summit North America. She will be leading an Academy class to upskill CRM system administrators. The class serves as a chance for users to learn how to manage the system and accomplish other tasks without needing to reach out to a partner. This will be a two-day class, with System Admin 101 on Saturday, October 18th covering the basics and System Admin 201 on Sunday, October 19th going deeper for advanced admins.
Summit NA education sessions: Heidi shares insights on the additional sessions she will be leading at Community Summit, including:
- "Beginner's Guide to Power Automate for CRM Systems" on Monday, October 20
- "60 Power Platform Tips in 60 Minutes" on Monday, October 20
- "Adapting CE/CRM Training & Design for Multiple Learning Styles" on Wednesday, October 22

MVP Insights: Prashant Bhoyar on Career Impacts, Giving Back to the Community

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Prashant Bhoyar, Giuseppe Ianni) — Tue, 2 Sep 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Early career to now: Prashant began his career mostly working on Microsoft 365 services, especially SharePoint, in 2017. He pivoted to AI and started exploring Power Platform around 2019. He continued learning and sharing his knowledge over the years, diving into categories like Microsoft's RPA offerings, Copilot Studio, and agents. Initially, when he worked with customers on automation implementation, it was about Azure, Power Platform, and applied AI services. Now, it's been all about how to use GenAI and the best way to problem-solve with rising AI technologies. "This is the best time I have seen in the professional industry, especially when it comes to working in AI," he says.
Motivation to share: After gaining so much from the community, Prashant has developed a passion for sharing. He recalls early in his career how it was harder to obtain information and resources about Microsoft and its products. "I got so much from the community during that time, and that's why this is one way of me giving back," Prashant shares. There is so much information now that it can be difficult to get started, so he has been motivated to help others with their Microsoft journeys.
Summit NA: Prashant will be sharing his expertise with users at Community Summit North America. He is leading a two-day Academy class, with day one covering basics around creating and implementing multi-agents and day two covering basics of Copilot Studio and prompt engineering. He will also be leading two education sessions on Monday, October 20th:
- Blueprint for Impactful Agentic AI in the Enterprise using Power Platform
- Build Multimodal Agent to talk with your data & take actions using Copilot Studio Cosmos DB Azure AI

MVP Insights: Dave Musgrave on the Future of GP, Resources and Training at Summit

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Pam Misialek, Dave Musgrave) — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

End of Dynamics GP support: Microsoft has announced the end of support for GP; primary support will stop in 2029 and full security support will stop in 2031. "The product will no longer be looked after by Microsoft but it doesn't mean the product stops working," Dave notes. However, if you were running your entire business on a product that is not supported, he explains, and something happens that can't be fixed without changing of code, then you're taking a risk and putting your business at risk.
Moving to a new system: Users will have to consider how much risk they're willing to accept and map out future plans accordingly. With these changes, organizations are looking to move to alternative options. "Don't be scared into moving too quickly to a solution," he says. "You really do need to do your due diligence and your research and look at what is going to suit your business the best moving forward.
Summit NA: Dave will be involved with Community Summit North America this year. He will be part of the GP to BC pre-conference the week before Community Summit; it's an opportunity to learn what you need to become self-sufficient and look after your system. He will also be leading an Academy class about GP Power Tools on Sunday, October 19. His education sessions include:
- "Dynamics GP Ask Us Anything - Developer" on Monday, October 20
- "Microsoft Dynamics GP excellence super session" on Monday, October 20
- "Dynamics GP Ask Us Anything - Staying with Dynamics GP" on Monday, October 20
- "Another 25 Dexterity Development Tricks and Hacks in 50 minutes" on Tuesday, October 21
- "PSS: No Code Customization, adding fields without Modifier and what’s new with GP Power Tools" on Wednesday, October 22
- "Replacing Visual Basic For Applications in your Microsoft Dynamics GP System" on Thursday, October 23

MVP Insights: Scott LeFante on MVP Journey, AI-Focused Sessions at Summit NA

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Scott LeFante, Giuseppe Ianni) — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP journey: Scott shares that his journey began at Microsoft in 2015 on the consulting side, and his deep appreciation for both the product and the close-knit community has motivated him to stay involved and contribute to others entering the ecosystem. He became involved in the MVP community about 9 years ago and found his niche in Field Service.
Work with Field Service: While at Microsoft, Scott became deeply involved with Field Service after the company acquired FieldOne, finding the concept of technicians working on equipment compelling and relatable. Years later, he continues to collaborate closely with the product team to improve the solution and support the community.
Community involvement: His motivation to give back to the community comes from a desire to continuously share insights and experiences, both personal and from colleagues, to improve the product and platform. Scott emphasized the importance of community collaboration and feedback to help Microsoft address gaps and "make the platform the best it can be."
Role of AI: Scott emphasized that AI is central to project execution, go-to-market strategies, and community engagement. He advises the community to invest in AI while maintaining expertise in their core area, as deep knowledge remains essential even as specialization becomes more important.
Summit NA sessions: Scott will be leading a 2-day Academy Class at Summit NA, and 3 education sessions:
- Academy: Dynamics 365 Field Service 101 Bootcamp: Setup, Configuration, and Best Practices for Success
- Bridging the Gap: Unlocking the Power of EAM & Field Service in Dynamics 365
- D365 Field Service 101: Tips/Tricks and Approaches to Avoid Implementation Pitfalls
- Copilot for Sales 101: Unlocking the Power of AI for Smarter Selling
  - He explains that all his sessions will incorporate AI elements, including Copilot, especially in the Field Service Boot Camp. Through his sessions, he aims to provide practical tips and insights on using AI tools effectively, highlighting common pitfalls and best practices to help the community navigate their journey with confidence.

MVP Insights: Amber Bell on Empowering Community Through Education, Hands-On Training with Academy Classes

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Amber Bell, Giuseppe Ianni) — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Empowering the community: Amber expresses her passion for teaching and the importance of making learners feel heard, especially when navigating complex topics. She emphasizes the value of adapting training to individual needs, recognizing employees' deep business knowledge, and fostering meaningful learning experiences through empathy and flexibility.
Connections through training: Early encouragement from peers in the Dynamics GP space led Amber to first present at Summit, sparking a realization of her unique ability to connect with people through training. This experience inspired her to build a company, Training Dynamo, driven by her passion for helping others learn and grow.
Migration journey: Amber is currently working toward her Business Central (BC) certification and developing training agendas focused on bridging the transition from GP to BC. She emphasizes the importance of data cleanup and process review, especially for clients with decades of inconsistent data.
Data clean-up: It's important to start data clean-up in Dynamics GP early, rather than waiting for a switch to BC, to ensure smoother reporting and avoid costly rework if go-live dates shift. Amber notes how cleaner data enhances insights through tools like Power BI and AI, and how involving users in the process fosters buy-in and reduces resistance to change. She will be leading a 2-day Academy Class on this topic, "Mastering Data Clean-Up in Dynamics GP to Business Central," running October 18-19. View the other sessions Amber is leading.
Final thoughts: In closing, Amber encourages others to get involved through speaking, volunteering, or co-presenting, noting how rewarding and energizing the experience can be. She also highlights the value of Academy Classes as a hands-on training opportunity distinct from Summit, offering practical learning that participants consistently enjoy.

MVP Insights: Alex Meyer on MVP Motivations, Career Journey

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Giuseppe Ianni, Alex Meyer) — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Career journey: Alex has built his career at the intersection of software engineering and enterprise security. He describes always having "a knack for looking at security in the technology space," which led him on his career journey and becoming involved with the Microsoft ecosystem. His early career experiences led him to find his niche in the Microsoft Dynamics space and he grew with that. As long as it went from on-premise applications to the cloud, he took his focus and knowledge to those areas.
Projects and challenges: With his current roles, Alex is involved with development and migrations from an on-premise application to the cloud. He has also had the opportunity to take feedback from customers, identify pain points, and work on developing better outcomes. "Taking those scenarios and actually creating a software solution for those are always really, really cool for me," he says.
MVP motivation: Throughout his career, Alex has noticed a focus on very technical areas, like security models and licensing systems. In some cases, there isn't great documentation. His MVP journey essentially started from the fact that there are very few sources of knowledge in and around these areas. He aims to "make it so that others in this space don't have to go through the same pitfalls and the same challenges that I went through."
Community Summit: At this year's Community Summit North America, Alex will be speaking for both Academy classes and education sessions. He previews what attendees can expect from him during the event. Attendees can gain insights from him in the following sessions:
- Academy class: "D365FO Development and Administration Bootcamp: A One-Day Deep Dive" on Sunday, October 19th
- "D365FO Telemetry & Monitoring Deep Dive" on Monday, October 20th
- "D365FO Security and Licensing Made ‘Easy’" on Tuesday, October 21st

MVP Insights: Alicia King Keener on AI Agents, Consulting, Community Contributions

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Alicia King Keener, Giuseppe Ianni) — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Community contributions: Alicia started creating content about two years ago, making an abundance of LinkedIn connections from searching for resources. She recognized that she wasn't giving back, so she started posting a "tip of the day" in an effort to contribute to the community. "When you touch one person, it touches another person...So if I could give information to someone that made their day better and actually allowed them to go into a meeting and be the hero...To me, that was success." This has given her a number of opportunities to interact with people offline and outside of her virtual connections.
Consulting perspective: Working in consulting, Alicia notes that she rarely comes across the same situation twice. "You'll find things that are similar, things that are a little bit different, some things are the same." Consulting has helped her to develop creative thinking and become an active listener to come up with client-specific solutions.f
D365 and Teams: Microsoft has been leveraging Microsoft Teams to interact with D365, which Alicia appreciates. It has enabled her to create Power BI reports in Teams, for example, and then leverage D365 data and security, allowing users to create records within Teams. "I don't have to know anything about the 365...I'm in my own language using a very universal tool called Teams to actually interact with that DS365 database, and I think, for me, that is an absolute game changer."
Summit NA: Alicia will be speaking at this year's Community Summit North America. She shares insights on her session, "Discover the Powerful Tax Engine in D365 Finance and Supply Chain Management," as well as what attendees can expect from her at the event.
AI agent potential: The AI agents are something that Alicia thinks will be interesting. Use case-specific agents will elevate industry-specific decision-making. The agents are sifting through data and providing logic and summarized information. Users can build rules into the agent so it can make decisions itself, too. "Having that automated process is going to really shift the way people do business."

MVP Insights: Chris Segurado on Renewable Energy with D365, Upcoming Releases, Community Summit

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Chris Segurado, Giuseppe Ianni) — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Background: Chris's background helped shape his approach to entering the ERP space and working with organizations on their business transformation. He holds an engineering degree, having focused on renewable energy. His work experience in Germany was tied directly to business process optimization in the renewable energy field in Dynamics 365. "It's not just being a technical consultant from a product standpoint, but also including that industry edge," he says.
Summit sessions: He will be leading sessions at Community Summit North America. One is on processing mining for advanced warehousing, which will provide deep insights into process mining and the warehouse processes through live demos. Another session will dive into how users can unleash the power of AI, Copilot, and agents in Dynamics 365 for supply chain management.
Ecosystem advice: For those newer to the business ecosystem and the Dynamics community, Chris emphasizes the importance of relationships and in-person touch points, such as attending Community Summit. "You can learn a lot from those sessions but also from the relationship." He also encourages users to take advantage of resources, such as blogs from Microsoft MVPs and enthusiasts who share their expert knowledge.
Upcoming releases: There are several upcoming releases that Chris is looking forward to. He's excited about the sustainability manager. Because of his background, he's interested in the product and how it ties into Dynamics 365 for organizations to measure environmental impact. He notes the traceability app, as it will help with regulated industries, as well as the demand planning app.

MVP Insights: Steve Chinsky on Summit Sessions, Business Central Developments

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Steve Chinsky, Giuseppe Ianni) — Wed, 6 Aug 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Background: Steve has been working in accounting as well as finance and operations for 17 years. He shares key moments from his career journey that led him to becoming a Microsoft MVP. His experiences in a variety of industries and areas has enabled him to connect and support others, making it easier to get to know customers and help with implementations.
Academy classes at Community Summit: At this year's Community Summit North America, Steve will be doing Academy classes. He's been part of the committee to plan the Business Central side. "Academy is a way of getting an education on anything BC," he says. Summit attendees have the opportunity to learn from half-day to three-day deep dive Academy classes. It's an easy way to gain "a boatload of information, plus you network with people, and you get to meet trainers...This is pure community, helping the people out wherever they are." Steve will be part of the Academy class "Basic and Advanced Manufacturing in Business Central/NAV" on Friday, October 17 through Sunday, October 19.
Education sessions at Community Summit: In addition to the Academy classes, Steve is leading education sessions throughout the week:
- "Are you Prepared! IRS 1099 end-to-end" on Monday, October 20
- "Ask the BC Experts: Manufacturing" on Tuesday, October 21
- "The Business Central Planning Worksheet: What's It for and How to Use It" on Thursday, October 23
- "The IRS1099 Quake - What Every Business Needs to Know?" on Thursday, October 23
Recent Business Central developments: Steve has been part of a group that has been testing Copilot and AI capabilities in Business Central. "I think the innovations there are going to keep growing and growing," he notes. He foresees the Payables Agent, for instance, handling the processing and posting completely with hands-off automation. There's also much potential for AI to be added to other areas in which users have expressed interest, such as manufacturing or supply chain planning.

MVP Insights: Kim Dallefeld on Summit Opportunities, Community Invovlement

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Kim Dallefeld, Giuseppe Ianni) — Mon, 4 Aug 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Added value: "I don't think people realize even the dollar value that Microsoft added to every Business Central license that's out there, and they didn't stop," she notes. Microsoft has been enhancing various elements, adding new features, and exploring how AI fits. The company added new Power BI reports that are automatic. Agents will help users be more efficient and accomplish more tasks.
Innovations and outcomes: Agents can help minimize mistakes to improve data entry, allowing users to focus on checking things and higher-level tasks. Kim has been receiving a lot of feedback about how much more users have been getting out of Power BI. "We can take the Power BI reports that they gave us, and we can now adjust them or modify them; I don't have to have a big Power BI project."
Summit sessions: Continuing her involvement in the Microsoft community, Kim will be speaking again at Community Summit North America. She also served on the programming committee for BC/NAV. She will be leading various sessions and Academy classes:
- "Academy: Business Central Accounting 101" on Friday, October 17
- "Academy: Business Central Accounting 201" on Saturday, October 18 and on Sunday, October 19
- "30 Tips and Tricks to Becoming a BC Super User" on Monday, October 20
- "Mastering Inventory to General Ledger Reconciliation in Business Central" on Wednesday, October 22
Connecting with the community: Community Summit is a great place to connect with others in the community. You'll have opportunities to network and make contacts with others who might be in different industries or have expertise in areas that you want to learn about. It's a great place to get involved, learn about new tools, and gain new skills. "We want different people on the programming committee, different people on the BC board, and it brings new life every time," Kim shares. "We're always looking for volunteers and new people who want to learn."

MVP Insights: Shawn Dorward on AI Innovations, Presenting at Community Summit

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Shawn Dorward, Cam Sessinger) — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Exciting innovations: Shawn has been involved with AI agents and Copilot, covering the latest innovations on the AI Agent & Copilot Podcast. He explains that he's a big fan of AI because no one can claim to be an expert, as it's so new and everyone is learning it at the same time. Shawn notes that "the most interesting things to me that are coming out in this time frame with it is agent orchestration," which involves agents working simultaneously on a task together. He also appreciates "how much AI can bring individuals with accessibility and hidden disabilities into the foreground without exposing or making them more vulnerable than they already are."
AI outcomes: When working on a task or project, many individuals may feel like they're starting with a blank canvas. This can make one feel inefficient or ineffective, adding unnecessary pressure. Businesses are experiencing more high-quality outcomes from individuals by applying AI. "We're getting more out of our team and maybe a kind of influence in the organization that we normally would not have expected."
Community Summit: "I think it has changed my career, the way that I interact with folks, the way that I help, and the way that I elevate my own skillset," Shawn says of Community Summit North America. Presenting to the community is a way that he sharpens his skills and grows to be more prepared. Because tips-and-tricks style sessions provided bursts of information, Shawn will be presenting life hacks sessions for specific products at the event this year, among other session types. He will be presenting:
- "Academy: Introduction to Copilot Studio" on Sunday, October 19
- "Academy: Introduction to Copilot in Business Central" on Sunday, October 19
- "Copilot Life Hacks - Tips and Tricks for EVERY User!!" on Monday, October 20
- "GP to BC - Everything you need to know, before you get started!" on Monday, October 20
- "BC Life Hacks - Tips and Tricks for EVERY User - 2025 Edition!" on Tuesdsay, October 21
- "CE/CRM Life Hacks - Tips and Tricks for Every User! New for 2025!" on Tuesday, October 21
- "Excel Life Hacks - Tips and Tricks for EVERY user! 2025 Edition!" on Wednesday, October 22
- "New to BC - Ask the Experts" on Wednesday, October 22
- "Power Apps Life Hacks - Tips and Tricks for Every User" on Thursday, October 21

MVP Insights: Kristen Hosman on Preparing for Summit Sessions, Business Central Resources

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Kristen Hosman, Giuseppe Ianni) — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 13:30:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

The MVP program: Kristen started her journey in the community as an end user for Dynamics GP, then switched to Business Central as a consultant. She started speaking in 2016 at Community Summit, then applied her experiences to create a blog. This led to her being recognized by an MVP at the time and now she has been an MVP for five years. She has used her role as an MVP to continue sharing her expertise through speaking engagements, blog posts, mentoring, and serving on planning committees. Having the opportunity to help others in the community has driven her passion to maintain involvement.
Community Summit: This year at Community Summit North America, Kristen will host an Academy class scheduled on Sunday, October 19th. She will be providing a quick guide to implement Business Central. "This session is designed to give back to the community in a way that I really like to and that is helping people implement Business Central." She will also be doing a panel session with Erik Hougaard, talking about when to customize and extend Business Central or when to use app source.
Resources for sessions: When preparing sessions, Kristen pieces together the content from her personal experiences helping clients as well as looking at what Microsoft is doing. "I look to the support tickets that we're getting, I see a lot of repetitive questions coming in that lends to a lot of topics for my blog as well." Additionally, as Microsoft pours more into Business Central, there are even more resources available to learn from.
Payables agent: The Payables Agent is an upcoming release that Kristen is excited about. "I've had the opportunity to work with Microsoft on testing that and giving feedback during the build process," she shares. "It's assisting with faster onboarding, reduced training time." Automation has also been increased, leaving more time for strategy and other business processes.

MVP Insights: Elif Item on the Process and Impact of MVPs, Community Summit Sessions

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Elif Item, Giuseppe Ianni) — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways:

Joining the MVP community: Over the past two years, Elif has been on her Microsoft MVP journey, primarily focusing on Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (D365FO) training and adoption. She worked in the partner space before starting her own company. She has been a consultant, then moved to project management, and then became a director, which helped her recognize her passion for training and adoption. "It's been an amazing journey, and I didn't even know who MVPs were, what they did, but the MVP community is just an amazing community.
Maintaining MVP activity: Elif describes MVP as a status or an award provided by Microsoft on a yearly basis. At the beginning, you have to be nominated by another MVP or someone from Microsoft. "Honestly, when I did it, I didn't know what I was getting into," she shares. It's a continuous process; every year, you have to reapply and submit all the activities you do. While it can be a challenging process, it keeps everyone more engaged. If you are passionate about something in the D365 world, Microsoft appreciates the time MVPs spend to help enhance the Dynamics community.
Summit NA sessions: At Community Summit North America, Elif will be conducting an Academy session, "Building a D365 Training Plan with Integrated Change Management," with Stephanie Lavinskas. "Our goal is to make it very interactive...We're basically going to cover how a D365 project is run by an implementation partner." They will have exercises and challenges for various steps of a project. Elif is hoping attendees will walk away with great insights and hands-on tools when they return to their own implementations. Elif will be presenting other sessions at Community Summit:
- "Getting Educated in D365 FnO" with Rachel Profitt and Nigel Cox
- "How Can Training Help to Migrate from GP or AX2012 to D365 FO?"
- "Boosting User Adoption: How Inolex Built a Sustainable D365 Training Program for Long-Term Success" with Anthony Bracco and Eric Davis
- A short presentation during the Women in Tech (WIT) Luncheon on the theme "She Builds"
Evolution of adoption: Being an MVP has given Elif an opportunity to have an impact on training and adoption throughout the community. She notes that it's made a difference to even just educate Microsoft on adoption challenges. "They are aware that there are adoption challenges, but sometimes they don't know the details about it." Elif has been having many conversations since becoming an MVP to educate users and partners on terminology and implementation methodology.

MVP Insights: Cat Schneider on Accessibility Through Power Platform, Summit NA Education

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Cat Schneider, Giuseppe Ianni) — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Overview: "Accessibility is near and dear to my heart," notes Schneider, and it has guided her work with the Power Platform and UI/UX development. "It's a great joy, especially when you see all the unique and innovative ways that people are implementing accessibility and UX/UI principles."
Intro to Microsoft apps: Schneider explains how she began working with Microsoft biz apps. Before Power Platform, she built early automation tools using Excel macros, including one that retrieved and processed millions of lines of EPA data weekly, streamlining a previously manual process.
Upcoming innovations: Being an MVP gives the ability to participate in early access programs, where Schneider previewed features like YAML code and Plan Designer in Canvas apps. She explains how Plan Designer empowers users to solve problems quickly using AI, reducing the need for traditional project scoping and enabling more independent innovation.
Summit NA session: Schneider will be leading a session at Summit NA 2025, on Monday, Oct. 20, "JSON: A Low-Code Introduction for No-Coders." She explains that the goal of this session is to ease users into programming concepts without overwhelming them, making it easier to engage with the platform confidently.

MVP Insights: AJ Ansari on Summit Sessions, the MVP Role, AI Movement

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (AJ Ansari, Giuseppe Ianni) — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 13:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways:

MVP journey: Something that sets MVPs apart, AJ acknowledges, "is our love of evangelism for the product and educating the community." His journey as an MVP started in 2007. For the first several years, he learned so much by attending conferences, like Community Summit. Around 2012, he had his first opportunity to present at a conference. "Since this, that journey has been about giving back...That idea of being an MVP is to learn and share, to give back to the community."
Navigating various experience levels: For a couple of AJ's Community Summit sessions, he talks about the bleeding edge of technology that some people aren't necessarily as well educated on or have experience with. AJ explains how he takes into consideration the audience he'll be speaking to, so he can best share his expertise with them on these topics. "My goal is not to make experts here," he says. He has selected specific tips, best practices, and examples that will make information easier to digest so attendees can leave with real action items.
MVP role and Business Central: MVPs and community leaders have unique opportunities. AJ says, "My role would be less to help people get on board Business Central — a lot of times they've already made that decision — but to help them truly understand the value of the product that they have chosen and to help them extract the most benefit from it." While no product can ever be perfect, AJ aims to give a fair but clear assessment, as an MVP, of what the functionality looks like, what the product will do, and how users can make the best of it.
Microsoft ecosystem innovations: "As a traditionalist on the ERP side, I always get really happy whenever we have improvements in the supply chain side or any type of specific functional area," AJ shares. However, he also acknowledges the massive movement in the marketplace around AI. AI serves to make us more efficient and do more with less. "I think I'm really excited about the fact that Microsoft is creating AI experiences that are maturing."
Community Summit: AJ will be speaking at Community Summit North America, leading four insightful sessions and two bootcamps on AI. "This is an event for the users," AJ explains. "If you are an end user, all of us are going to be there for you — all the presenters, the folks from Microsoft, the ISVs — they are there for you, and it's your opportunity to maximize it."

MVP Insights: Kylie Kiser on Summit Sessions, Community Involvement, Career Impact

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Giuseppe Ianni, Kylie Kiser) — Wed, 9 Jul 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Leading at Community Summit: Kylie has been involved in this community for years and has attended Community Summit North America since 2013. As a passionate leader in the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform community, Kylie will be leading two sessions at this year's Community Summit. She names this as "one of the best parts of what I get to do — presenting, meeting new people, sharing new things, and sharing just fun use cases with you, as you'll see from our sessions." Making sessions fun and keeping people engaged as they learn is one way she became recognized as part of the MVP program.
Planning Committee involvement: The Community Summit Planning Committee is a great way to get involved and be part of choosing sessions and the direction that the conference is going. Kylie has been part of the Planning Committee for several years. It requires balancing all the different technologies and speakers, and ensuring there's a wide variety and diversity across the event.
Career impact: At the start of her involvement with Dynamic Communities, she joined the Washington, D.C. chapter, where she would take notesand then post them after. The leader recognized her efforts, she became more involved, and eventually became the chapter leader. From this, Kylie has connected with several people in the community, many of whom have influenced her career journey. "I can't really envision my career without community, it's just been so intertwined from the beginning."
Community Summit sessions: Kylie is presenting two sessions at Community Summit North America. She is presenting a session with Mallory Lawhorn about customer service, sharing use case scenarios and using their cats as examples. Her other session is 60 tips in 60 minutes with Heidi Neuhauser, loading their list of tips into a Power App that will randomly select a tip and showing them for a minute to be discussed.
MVP program: One key aspect of being in the MVP program is providing feedback to Microsoft. "We're getting news of features when they're new, or hopefully before they're released, and we're able to provide feedback to Microsoft or escalate issues that we're seeing with our clients up to the product team to get support and direction there," she shares. It's great for users to follow community leaders to gain insights on updates and use cases for tools and applications.
Trends in the ecosystem: A major trend in the industry is AI and Copilot Studio. "What I'm really interested in is a lot of what's happening with AI builder and AI prompts," Kylie says, as these are part of Power Platform. These are great tools that users can put in Power Apps and Power Automate. "I really think we're going to see a lot og growht in that area."

MVP Insights: Malcolm McAuley Discusses AI Integration in CRM, Customer Impacts, Summit NA Sessions

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Malcom McCauley) — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Evolution of CRM: Malcolm references his podcast that he co-hosts with MVPs Kylie Kiser and Heidi Neuhauser, where they focus on upcoming release features, especially those related to CRM. He emphasizes the ongoing evolution of these tools, most of which are "AI-centric," noting the fundamental change in the product with the integration of AI agents and Copilot. "I think there's always going to [be] a place for formalized data structure, but the layering in of the AI, the agents, and Copilot... they're really just bringing a new frontier of how people work."
Impact on customers and users: One of the biggest challenges organizations face is the speed at which they can access information, notes Malcolm. This is often a result of data spread across multiple silos. He sees Copilot as a game changer, enabling users to retrieve insights quickly through natural language while maintaining security and access controls. As such, goals around data accessibility can become a reality.
System collaboration: The traditional "divide" between CRM and other business functions is dissolving, as frontline teams like sales and service are increasingly reliant on customer data from across the organization. He explains, “It’s not the modern age. It’s the way it is now,” highlighting that integrated collaboration across systems is now a standard way of working.
Sessions at Summit NA: Malcolm will be leading several educational sessions and one Academy course at Summit NA 2025 in Orlando, FL. This year, his sessions include:
- 7 Habits for AI Transformation Success: This session encourages attendees to strategize and build a readiness plan for AI transformation, as preparation is essential.
- Create Your First 4 Copilot Agents in a Day: This Academy course, co-led with C5 Insight's Emily Boiteau and Jordan Loeffler, is designed to help attendees overcome uncertainty about where to begin with AI agents. Instructors will walk through how to build an effective strategy for implementing agents, showcasing four different use cases.
- Modern Collaboration: Elevate the Customer Experience with Microsoft 365: This academy course, also co-led by Boiteau and Loeffler, offers a deep dive into the full Microsoft 365 suite and is designed to help attendees discover overlooked capabilities and rethink how these tools can streamline operations.
Final thoughts: In closing, Malcolm notes that the rapid pace of innovation can feel paralyzing, even for seasoned professionals. He encourages users to attend Community Summit North America to connect with others, noting, “Even though it feels like you're skating on water, it's actually frozen,” highlighting the value of community in navigating change.

MVP Insights: Amanda Mayer on Favorite Product Functionality, Relationship Building Through Community Events

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Amanda Mayer, John Siefert) — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

End-user POV: As an end-user of Dynamics 365 Business Central, Amanda shares her favorite product functionalities. First, Microsoft has significantly enhanced its currency functionality in Business Central over the past few years, benefiting companies that handle transactions in multiple currencies. Specifically, these improvements include better posting of exchange gains or losses into financial statements, the addition of dimensions, and the ability to have GL accounts with different currencies.
Manufacturing enhancements: "I'm really looking forward to all of the changes and improvements that are happening in manufacturing," which will soon be available for preview, explains Amanda. These new features will address significant roadblocks for accounting teams, such as the ability to correct production order errors within the same period.
Product addressing gaps: Announced at last year's Summit NA, Microsoft's push for out-of-the-box Power BI reporting aims to increase efficiency and accessibility, making it easier for departments like accounting and manufacturing to visualize data without IT support. Additionally, new templates for Power Automate and improvements in sales order processing are designed to enhance workflow efficiency, addressing challenges in filling specialized roles.
Reporting capabilities: The architecture of Business Central allows for more flexible and complex reporting compared to other products, thanks to its dimension functionality, explains Amanda. As a result, users can move away from rigid Charts of Accounts and significantly reduce the number of accounts needed. Amanda notes that "I really encourage my customers to reimagine their Chart of Accounts," explaining the potential to simplify data management and improve reporting capabilities.
Community Summit 2025: At Summit NA 2025, Amanda will lead a three-day Academy Class with MVP Kim Dallefeld, focused on Business Central for beginners. Additionally, she expresses her interest in sharing her knowledge in sessions and engaging with the community to discuss new features for accountants and solve various challenges together.
Strengthened relationships: Attending events like Summit and engaging in forums has helped Amanda build some of her longest professional relationships, leading to fulfilling experiences and unexpected opportunities. In closing, she notes how "a single software product can open up your life in a way that you don't expect."

MVP Insights: Brad Prendergast Shares Tips for Navigating AI, Leveraging Community Connections

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Brad Prendergast, John Siefert) — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Experience as an MVP: Being an MVP brings some pressure due to expectations, notes Brad, but it offers valuable opportunities to gain insights, engage in conversations, and increase community involvement. "It does open the door to give you the opportunity to get back and talk with everybody in the community... which is what I like," he adds.
Emerging tech innovations: Reflecting on emerging innovations in tech, Brad explains that AI has rapidly evolved, and is now being refined for specific functions and tools, a process referred to as "agentification." Recent innovations include using local LLMs to enhance application efficiency and streamline implementations, with AI now being applied to distinct tasks managed by specialized agents.
Useful applications: AI is now "showing up everywhere," which can be overwhelming, but it's important to see it as a tool that enhances efficiency and streamlines tasks. By integrating AI into various applications, such as scheduling and summarizing meetings, it can significantly simplify and improve business operations. "I use some of that every day, just to help me manage some of the tasks, some of the scheduling, some of the calendars," explains Brad.
Looking ahead: The future of AI can be considered uncertain, but Brad notes that it's here to stay and will continue to integrate into various aspects of life, from business applications to everyday technology. It's important to stay informed and adapt to its presence, as it will remain a significant part of our lives for "the foreseeable future."
Tips for new Business Central users: For someone new to Business Central, "network as much as possible by coming to some of these events and joining some of these events," notes Brad. While you can learn from online resources and your implementation partner, gaining knowledge by engaging with the community and "attending some of these events is priceless."
Value of Summit NA: Further, the Tech Medic booth at Community Summit NA is a valuable spot for networking, where diverse individuals including partners, customers, and Microsoft representatives gather to share their expertise. "Everybody's willing to help each other learn and become successful within the application, within this community," Brad notes in closing.

MVP Insights: Marie Wiese on Benefits of Copilot for CRMs, Understanding Your Buyer

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Marie Wiese, John Siefert) — Mon, 7 Apr 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways:

Productivity and efficiency: Wiese highlights what she's been most excited about lately. In addition to more use cases, Wiese notes, "We're starting to see a lot more productivity and efficiency getting generated with Copilot." As more AI products are released, people are deciding which ones they want to use and how they want to use them.
CRM use cases: With over 30 years of working in the tech sector, Wiese has witnessed many CRMs come and go. She acknowledges how a major problem with a CRM is that people don't use it or don't have a process for entering data correctly. With Copilot, she's seeing "some of that mundane task-related stuff...so much simpler and easier to capture notes to put them in the CRM. Some of the products coming with Copilot are "really reinventing the way we do sales and marketing...Now is really the moment to embrace things."
Know your buyer: Regardless of what department you're in, Wiese recommends having a very clear understanding of your buyer — know how they buy and what steps they take in making decisions. "Everything you implement, from a technology perspective, is going to be way easier," she emphasizes. When making any technology decision, evaluate how it will benefit the buyer journey. "Your company's going to be wildly successful because you understand how that process needs to work, regardless of what you sell."
Community Summit NA: After participating in the AI Agent & Copilot Summit this past March in San Diego, Wiese will also be part of Community Summit North America 2025 in Orlando, Florida from October 19-23.

MVP Insights: Ali Nelson on Copilot Innovations, Optimizing Power Platform Use

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Ali Nelson) — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways:

Exciting innovations: Nelson notes that Microsoft is leading the way with the work it's doing around Copilot and AI technology. She emphasizes, "How can you not be excited about Copilot?" Microsoft is putting a lot of its resources into Copilot; it's constantly evolving and being put into action in more places. "It's hard to not be excited about that, especially in this world of AI where AI is everywhere." She's particularly excited about the Copilot for OneNote and to use it for summarizing notes.
Applications of Copilot: Applying Copilot to various applications, Nelson suggests, is "the definition of working smarter, not harder." Using it to summarize meeting notes to highlight key points is one example. Copilot and AI agents can be used for customer-facing tasks. By answering questions and providing information, Copilot can save organizations time and resources by taking care of customer service and enabling individuals to focus on higher-level tasks.
Power Automate and adaptive cards: As Copilot and AI technologies advance, automation has advanced, too. Power Automate has continued to improve, Nelson says. She shares her experience using adaptive cards with Power Automate in Teams, aiming to bridge gaps between the different technologies that companies are using. "It's really making it easier for people to do their jobs," Nelson says. "When you can really take this technology that's available and streamline in and start putting things where people are, you're making their jobs inherently easier as well."
Tips for newcomers: Nelson shared a few tips for those new to customer service or the customer experience area. "One of the biggest things is just experiment and don't be afraid of experimenting." It's important to be hands-on in the sandbox environment and try it. Sandbox environments are available for Dynamics 365 Power Platform apps, for instance. "Don't get stuck in your own head...Put your hands in there, get your hands dirty, and just give it a try. I think that's the biggest thing."
Dynamics Hotdish: Nelson is part of the Dynamics Hotdish podcast with two other Microsoft MVPs, Ashley Steiner and Liz McGlennon, sharing their passion for the Dyanmics 365 Power Platform space.

MVP Insights: Asif Rehmani on AI Adoption and Impact in the Modern Workplace

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Asif Rehmani, John Siefert) — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Attention-grabbing efforts: Microsoft has undergone significant changes over the years, and the culture shift has been remarkable, influencing both internal operations and external conferences like Ignite, explains Rehmani.. Currently, Microsoft is leading in AI with its partnership with OpenAI and innovations like Microsoft Copilot, while also making strides in the low-code/no-code movement with Power Platform and simplifying data-driven decision-making with Microsoft Fabric.
User and data alignment: The shift from multiple layers of IT involvement to a more direct interaction between business users and data, through the influence of tools like Microsoft Fabric, has been transformative. While tools like Power Platform enable business users to automate processes and create applications with minimal IT support, they still require human oversight to achieve complete accuracy. The low-code/no-code movement is empowering business users, but it doesn't entirely eliminate the need for IT expertise.
Leveraging AI: In the mid-market sector, there's a mix of excitement and confusion around AI, with some organizations experiencing "FOMO" and others facing failed projects. Rehmani suggests that the key is to focus on specific tasks where AI can significantly improve efficiency, such as automating the review of lengthy contracts to identify key issues.
User adoption over hype: User adoption is crucial for the success of any technology, notes Rehmani, including AI. Without proper adoption, organizations are merely spending money without achieving real impact. It's essential to focus on in-the-moment user support and methodical adoption campaigns to ensure that employees effectively use the tools provided to them.
Tips for successfully tech implementations: When implementing new technology, it's crucial to identify the biggest pain points that need addressing. Focus on user adoption by creating a clear strategy and providing in-the-moment support. Without proper planning and understanding, even the best tools can fail to make an impact.

MVP Insights: Sebastian Sieber on the Innovations and Benefits of Copilot, Automation

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Sebastian Sieber) — Wed, 5 Mar 2025 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Copilot and AI promote accessibility: Sebastian reports his favor for the latest Copilot innovations, describing the new UI as "really, really cool and approachable...It's so easy to just create something from scratch for easy knowledge sharing...and, in general, I like the idea with AI to just make things or data more accessible for everyone." He also highlights the Git integration, which is still in preview.
Innovation outcomes: Recent innovations have focused on data quality, which is beneficial for companies. Without quality data, there's not a quality outcome for the business. With good data, organizations can better optimize and benefit from Copilot and AI technologies.
Automation + AI: Organizations have benefited from applying automation to automate processes. This has increased productivity and efficiency as well as saved time and resources. Infusing AI on top of this makes processes smoother and better. "There's so much more value you can deliver with the whole platform," he says. This allows businesses to have processes focused more on important elements and cut back on manual work.
AI Agent & Copilot Summit: Sebastian will be presenting a couple of sessions at the AI Agent & Copilot Summit in San Diego, which takes place March 17th to 19th. He's presenting an interactive session titled "What Does Copilot Know About Me and My Data" on Tuesday, March 18th from 3:05 PM to 3:50 PM with Cole Haddock, covering what Copilot can access and how to control it. Also on March 18th, he'll lead "10 Things I Wished I Knew Before Rolling Out Microsoft Copilot" from 4:35 PM to 5:00 PM, providing tips, tricks, and best practices for Copilot implementations.

MVP Insights: Heidi Neuhauser on Copilot Innovations, Ensuring Data Quality, User Benefits

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Heidi Neuhauser) — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Latest innovations: "The biggest, fastest challenge is coming from the Copilot world," Heidi emphasizes. Copilots are leaking into every part of the tech stack and influencing how organizations work. "I've been really impressed with the innovations that are in CRM" or Copilot in the sales, service, and marketing apps as they are "giving users shortcuts to do things [and] making information easier to find by using natural language."
Ensuring data quality: These innovations are only as good as the data inside of your system. Organizations must ensure data is being inputted the right way so it can be put to work. Heidi recommends using formula fields for a column type, for instance. "I'm thinking, specifically, about formula columns and automating some of the data that you're trying to collect, which has a benefit of ensuring your data quality but also making things easier for your users, not asking them to perform those calculations on your own."
Impact on user experience: Standardizing and streamlining processes for users is an organizational benefit. On the end user side, it increases productivity and saves time, as it delivers the right information faster.
Top tips for new users: Heidi suggests "involving your end users from the inception of an idea...Focusing on your users and delivering your benefits from that user focus is very important." Her other tip is understanding the fundamentals of how Dynamics and the Power Platform work, and getting into the engineering of your system to ensure that your processes, forms, data, and integration points are right. "Your users are happy because everything is going in the right way."

MVP Insights: Peter Ramer on Problem-Solving Through Community, Mentorship and Training Opportunities, FO/AX Education at Summit NA

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Peter Ramer) — Wed, 9 Oct 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP journey: Peter's journey began right out of college, focusing on Dynamics as a developer, filling in gaps with customizations needed to sell the product. Over the years, he accumulated valuable lessons and eventually contributed code to the AX product, which led him to the MVP journey. He encourages others to leverage their accumulated knowledge and experiences to achieve similar success.
Teaching and mentoring: A few years ago, Peter started teaching new hires and interns technical knowledge for Dynamics, which helped him grow my career and expand his brand within RSM. This led him to create articles and YouTube videos on development extensions, and with mentorship from MVPs, he was able to make a significant impact in the larger community.
Coding contributions: Peter, who has contributed code to the AX product, notes that he's worked on various components in the retail space, including the order recap screen, price override logic, and upsell/cross-sell operations. Additionally, he contributed to both static and programmable fraud rules within the system.
Impactful projects and challenges: Peter explains that within projects, he works on many individual, smaller issues, often involving break-fix problems or system enhancements. Through this, he's learned to appreciate problem-solving and the resilience it builds, as well as the value of gaining diverse perspectives from the community. The Dynamics community allows users to come together to solve challenging problems and create amazing solutions, highlighting the importance of collaboration and mutual support.
Summit NA session previews: At Community Summit North America 2024, Peter will be participating in four education sessions and one Academy class:
- "D365FO Administration & Developer Overview," on Sunday, October 13
  - This class willl cover the administration of D365 through LCS, core development tips like creating tables, forms, batch jobs, and writing X++, and finish with tips and tricks,
- "D365 FO MVP Panel - New Features, Tips, and Tricks," on Monday, October 14
  - In this session, MVPs will share what they've learned and provide hints about upcoming Microsoft updates, while also listening to people's questions and struggles.
- "Conquer Your Workload: Unleash the Power of Multithreading in Microsoft Dynamics 365 FS&C Batch Jobs," on Tuesday, October 15
  - Peter notes that he's been working on multi-threading batch jobs to speed up processes that take a long time or require a lot of processing power. He looks forward to sharing this topic with a wider audience, as there's limited information available.
- "Learn The Art of Crafting SSRS Reports for Enhanced Insights and Strategic Decision Empowerment," on Wednesday, October 16
  - SSRS reports are challenging due to the combination of design, query, performance, and data considerations. In this session, Peter will help users feel more comfortable building these reports and discuss what makes a report truly valuable and effective.
- "Maximize Your X++ Mastery: Learn the Ultimate Tips and Tricks for Development Success," on Thursday, October 17
  - This session is packed with tips that can save developers significant time on repeatable tasks, allowing them to focus on the more exciting aspects of developing great solutions.
Final tips for the community: While on-site at Community Summit NA, Peter advises that attendees engage with people and have real conversations, as the relationships you build now will benefit you in future events.

MVP Insights: Geoff Ables on Change Management, AI Integrations, Summit NA Speaking Engagements

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Geoff Ables) — Mon, 7 Oct 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: Geoff started C5 Insight nearly 25 years ago, enjoying public speaking and writing from a young age. As his company got closer to Microsoft and him to Dynamics Communities, he naturally engaged in speaking, training, and webinars. Becoming an MVP allowed him to do more of what he loves, and he advises others to pursue an MVP award for the same reason, not just for the title. Geoff emphasizes the importance of finding an avenue that aligns with one's passions and not forcing oneself into a role just for recognition.
Areas of expertise: Geoff explains that he focuses on the "soft stuff" like change management and behavior change, believing that technology is not the hard part of projects, but rather understanding and driving people's behavior is. He has developed his expertise in these "timeless" aspects to deliver successful projects, emphasizing that the soft stuff is the hard stuff. Further, despite being a Copilot MVP and spending a lot of time with it, he adds that he still needs daily reminders to utilize this assistant effectively. Even for someone experienced in change management, it's challenging to fully tap into Copilot's potential, as many users, including himself, only use a fraction of its capabilities.
AI Copilot Preconference: Geoff will be taking part in the "Microsoft MVP Panel: AI Copilot Quick and Early Wins," at the AI Copilot Preconference, taking place Sunday, October 13 ahead of Community Summit NA 2024. He notes that fellow panelists are also in the early stages, utilizing Copilot functionality like Teams recording, inquiries, and Outlook drafting and summary features. If you're a user wondering where to start, attend this panel as these MVPs are just a few steps ahead.
Academy at Summit NA: On Sunday, October 13, Geoff will be leading an Academy class along with C5 Insight colleagues Tricia Desso-Cox, Jordan Loeffler, and Malcolm McAuley, "365 Leadership in a Day." This 1-day course will focus on timeless topics such as driving adoption, creating plans, designing sales processes, and envisioning Copilot's role in companies. Additionally, on Thursday, October 17, Geoff will be participating in another Academy class, "AI at Work: Real-World Applications of Copilot and Other Microsoft AI Offerings," by Jordan Loeffler and Emily Boiteau. In this session, the team will use a user case study format to explore practical examples of AI applications in HR, system administration, and management. They'll provide a vision and workshop ideas on how to leverage AI both within and outside of built-in features like Power Automate and Power Apps.
Summit NA sessions: In addition to his involvement with the AI Copilot Preconference and his two Academy classes, Geoff will be leading two sessions at Community Summit NA 2024. On Wednesday, October 16, he will be presenting the session "Crafting Custom Copilots: The Strategic Overview." This session, he explains is largely about Copilot Studio, which offers a vision for why a user might choose it over out-of-the-box solutions or Azure, and provides practical steps for creating your first custom Copilot. Also on Wednesday, October 16, Geoff will be leading "The 3 C's: Copilot and CRM in the C-Suite." This session will focus on how to effectively involve the C-suite in using digital technologies as a leadership tool to become a digital-first company.

MVP Insights: Cecile Dinh on Implementations, Migrations, Tips for Summit Attendees

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Cecile Dinh) — Wed, 2 Oct 2024 14:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: Cecile obtained her Accounting degree during college and entered the consulting world in 1997, working primarily with Dynamics GP and Business Central for a few years. She spoke at her her first Community Summit event in 2018 and has continued to share her knowledge with the community ever since. She was awarded as a Microsoft MVP in May of 2024.
Biz Apps expertise: Cecile explains that she leveraged her core skills in Dynamics GP to transition to Business Central, noting that while the principles of accounting remain the same, the navigation and terminology differ. She is actively learning from consultants and resources to bridge the gap and aims to enhance her expertise in Business Central by next year.
Overcoming implementation challenges: The toughest part of the implementation is managing the stress of end users due to parallel tasks, leading to delays and complaints. The solution is to set clear expectations among stakeholders and maintain transparency about the challenges faced by end users.
Summit NA session: On Wednesday, October 16, Cecile will be leading a session, "GP to BC Migration Strategies: Best Practices and Considerations for Migrating from Dynamics GP to Business Central." The main challenge for GP users migrating to Business Central is the extensive work and cost involved. During her session, Cecile will share the best tips and tricks for migrations, with a strong emphasis on the importance of cleaning up GP data before migration.
Tips for attendees: In closing, Cecile encourages attendees to prepare for Community Summit 2024 in advance by setting goals and reviewing the agenda. Don't be shy and network with the friendly people at the booths, especially at Tech Medic desk.

MVP Insights: Drew Lencsak on Balancing Community and Career, MVP Journey, Summit NA Speaking

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Drew Lencsak, John Siefert) — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP journey: Drew began his journey with Dynamics 365 in 2008 as a business analyst in the UK, working on legacy versions of Dynamics AX and focusing on manufacturing and supply chain processes. After returning from the UK, Drew transitioned to a role supporting multiple legal entities across 12 countries, which involved training and onboarding 600 end users. Eventually, Drew moved into consulting, engaging with dynamic communities, presenting at Summits, and ultimately earning a Microsoft MVP award in Dynamics AI ERP two years ago.
Overcoming career challenges: Drew has always worked in the partner channel, balancing client commitments with community contributions as an MVP. The most challenging projects involved transitioning into new industries like food and beverage or life sciences, which required learning about different regulations and manufacturing processes. Additionally, as an MVP, Drew faces the challenge of managing time between a full-time job and community activities such as blogging, presenting at conferences, and providing feedback on new features.
Summit NA involvement: Drew has attended 8-9 Community Summit NA events. At Community Summit North America 2024, he will be participating in two sessions. The first, taking place on Monday, October 14, "D365 FO MVP Panel - New Features, Tips, and Tricks," will feature 12 Microsoft MVPs for Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain, focusing on new features, tips, and tricks across the entire ERP space. This session will be inclusive of various aspects, not just manufacturing or finance.
Demand planning in D365: His second session, "Saddle Up: The Wild West of Demand Planning with Microsoft Dynamics 365," will focus on the new demand planning app that allows users to import data and connect directly with Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, as well as other data sources. The app features built-in forecasting, Copilot features, statistical time modeling forecasts, and integration with Microsoft Teams. The session will identify how the tool addresses gaps in previous solutions and broadens the scope of demand planning.

MVP Insights: Kerry Peters Discusses MVP Journey, Saving Time with Software, Summit NA Sessions

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Kerry Peters) — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: While looking for answers to her Business Central questions, Kerry attended her first User Group conference in 2008, which was a turning point due to the supportive nature of the community. Over the years, she transitioned from being a learner to a presenter, blogger, and community leader, ultimately earning MVP recognition through continuous learning, sharing, and community involvement. She has been an MVP for seven years.
Project learnings: Kerry's company, New View Strategies, focuses on training and business process improvement rather than implementations and development work. They aim to help clients understand and utilize their software better, transforming frustration into excitement by showing how the software can save time and improve efficiency, which has been a learning in and of itself. When people are happy with their software, they are also happy with their partners, which is the core goal of New View Strategies.
Summit NA sessions: Kerry will be leading two sessions at Community Summit North America 2024. On Wednesday, October 17, she'll be co-presenting a session, "50 Tips in 50 Minutes - Finance Edition." This fast-paced session features 50 efficiency tips, updated annually with a mix of old favorites and new insights. Additionally, on Thursday, October 18, she'll be leading "Costly Ignorance: The Price of Uncharted Waters." New in 2024, this session will focus on system utilization, helping attendees learn how to ask the right questions to maximize their software's potential. Participants will learn how to progress from basic to advanced usage, ensuring they get the most out of their software investment.
Tips for the community: In closing, Kerry shares tips for Community Summit NA 2024 attendees. As you prepare for the event, come with a list of problems you want to solve for your company, as there are many resources available to help. Set a goal to solve your issues by the end of each day, and if not, seek out additional sessions, speakers, and resources like the Tech Medic desk to get your questions answered.

MVP Insights: Kristen Hosman on Working with Business Central, Project Learnings, Summit NA Sessions

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Kristen Hosman, John Siefert) — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP journey: Kristen began her journey in late 2019 with the goal of becoming an MVP, inspired by other community leaders. After learning what an MVP was, she started blogging, speaking at conferences, and helping the community, which led to her nomination and award as an MVP in late 2020.
Working with Business Central: Her career as an accountant began in 2005, transitioning from a casino cashier to an AP clerk, and later became an accountant. Kristen now runs a six-year-old business, balancing roles as both a consultant and an accountant, helping clients with bookkeeping and accounting through the use of Business Central.She appreciates the system's user interface, with Microsoft providing major updates twice a year packed with new functionality. The community is very supportive, with 61 MVPs worldwide focusing on Business Central, collaborating and helping each other.
Project learnings: Mount Evans Consulting won a major deal about a year and a half ago, requiring subcontractors to help with the project. This experience highlighted the importance of good connections and collaboration, noting that "it takes a village." Now, Kristen shares those project learnings in her speaking engagements.
Summit NA sessions: Kristen will be leading two sessions at Community Summit North America 2024. Her first session, "Wait! There's More Than One Way to Skin WIP?" will take place on Tuesday, October 15. During this session, she'll cover the five ways to handle work in progress (WIP) in Business Central. Her second session, "Balancing Act: Mastering Subledger Precision for General Ledger Harmony in Business Central," is on Thursday, October 17. The session addresses issues with sub ledger and G/L balance in Business Central, providing examples and solutions to prevent these problems.
Mount Evans Consulting at Summit NA: Mount Evans Consulting will be at Booth #1853 on the Expo Floor.

MVP Insights: André Arnaud de Calavon on Navigating Dynamics 365, MVP Journey, and Global Implementations

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, André Arnaud de Calavon) — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Company overview: Next365 aims to help clients maximize their Dynamics 365 investments by sitting on the client side, helping them understand Dynamics 365 and their entire landscape, and acting as solution architects to guide both the client and their partners through implementations. Since its inception last December, it has established offices in Norway, Denmark, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, and recently in North America, including Canada and the US. We aim to assist by
MVP journey: André began his career with a small Navision partner in the Netherlands, exploring both functional and technical aspects. After several years, he transitioned to working with Dynamics AX, where he handled various implementations and troubleshooting tasks. Later in 2008, he moved to a construction company to build a Competence Center and later engaged with the Dynamics community, eventually earning an MVP award in 2013, which he's maintained for 11 consecutive years.
Toughest projects: André reflects on implementation for the largest online retailer in the Netherlands, where initial attempts with AX 2009 failed. After switching to AX 2012, the project involved extensive process documentation and coordination among over 125 people, including many external participants. Despite early challenges, the system has been live for about 12 years.
Summit NA sessions: André will be taking part in three sessions at Community Summit NA. He'll be on a D365 FO MVP Panel, reviewing new features, tips, and tricks on Monday, October 14. On Wednesday, October 16, he'll co-present with fellow MVP Alex Meyer on common D365FO security mistakes and how to avoid them. His final session on turning D365FO business data into process mining event logs will focus on connecting financial data with existing systems.

MVP Insights: Kristoffer Ruyeras on MVP Journey, BC Flexibility, Summit NA Sessions

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Kristoffer Ruyeras) — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 12:50:00 +0000

MVP journey: Kristoffer started his journey in IT right after high school, and quickly "fell in love" with Business Central (formerly Navision) and became deeply involved in the community through local user groups and speaking engagements. His dedication and passion led to an MVP nomination, inspiring him to connect with other MVPs and organize events, including a Summit in the Philippines, while continuing to share knowledge and foster networking within the BC community.
Favoring the BC platform: The flexibility of Business Central has enabled organizations to significantly increase their revenue. The platform's cloud-based nature and app source marketplace make it easier to connect various products and solutions, allowing businesses to implement the tool hands-on and access a broader range of options independently. Further, Business Central allows organizations to manage their own customizations outside the base application and integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft tools, reducing the need for heavy customization and encouraging innovative thinking.
Project learnings: Kristoffer was brought into a project a month before its go-live date after the responsible team members had left, and despite the challenges, he managed to get the project live with just a two-week delay. He learned that the main reason for project failures is the lack of involvement and investment from the organization, emphasizing the importance of testing, involvement, and change management for successful implementations.
Summit NA sessions: One session Kristoffer will be leading at Community Summit NA 2024 is "Business Central Adoption: How to have a successful Business Central Implementation? Start to Finish," on Tuesday, October 15. Regardless of the type of IT implementation, thorough preparation is crucial for success. This session will cover the value of having a detailed plan, setting up a structure, ensuring data migration is clean, and establishing internal support and communication plans to manage issues effectively and avoid costly mistakes. His second session, "PSS: One Hand to Hold Through Your Digital Journey," suggests seeing partnerships as a journey where the partner provides a single hand to hold, guiding and supporting through the digital transformation.
Tips for community: Kristoffer emphasizes the importance of coming prepared to Summit sessions by having all your questions and challenges ready, while also keeping an open mind to learn from the experts. He credits the community for his career growth and encourages Summit NA attendees to plan their schedules and take advantage of the tools available to track their sessions.

MVP Insights: Amanda Mayer on Building Community Connections through Business Central Involvement

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Amanda Mayer, John Siefert) — Wed, 4 Sep 2024 13:50:00 +0000

Overview: Since 2009, Amanda has been involved in the BC/NAV space, starting as an end user and later becoming a partner in 2017. Her journey includes attending User Group events, learning independently, and connecting with other end users and partners. She discovered a passionate community and realized the importance of sharing knowledge, which led her to become an MVP and continue contributing to the community.
BC appreciation: Amanda, who doubles as an accountant, transitioned to accounting software and traditional ERP systems. She appreciates Business Central for its advanced features, especially its non-traditional segmented G/L, and values the strong community and relationships she has built through the platform over the last decade. In recent years, Microsoft and ISVs have significantly invested in making the Business Central product more intuitive and configurable, allowing businesses to customize solutions to their specific needs.
Project learnings: Amanda stepped in to support a complex fresh food manufacturing project during its go-live phase due to scheduling conflicts with the main consultants. Despite the challenges and lack of detailed knowledge, she quickly learned and managed the integration with delivery trucks and a third-party WMS, highlighting the importance of understanding a company's operations to implement technology.
Academy at Summit NA: Amanda will be co-leading an Academy class at Community Summit North America with fellow MVP Kim Dallefeld, "Business Central Accounting 101 & 102," from October 12-13. This is the second time Amanda and Kim are conducting this class, which focuses on core accounting functionality in Business Central. They will cover setting up complex financial statements, correcting errors, and making process choices based on team size to help accounting professionals get the most out of Business Central.
Summit NA sessions: On Monday, October 14, Amanda will take part in a roundtable discussion, "Finance - Roundtable for Your Challenges." The purpose of this roundtable is to encourage attendees to think about their challenges and bring them to the roundtable for discussion, as it's a place for end users to get answers and share different perspectives. Even if not all problems can be solved immediately, the conversations help illustrate the product's expansiveness and provide valuable insights. Additionally, on Wednesday, October 16, she'll be leading a session, "What's New for Accountants in BC." This session has become popular over the years, as Amanda focused on the newest to oldest releases for Business Central and covers overlooked or improved functionalities. This session encourages discussions and differing opinions, allowing participants to share experiences and solutions.
Tips for the community: In closing, Amanda shares a few tips for Community Summit NA attendees. Engage with people, whether they are end users, partners, or ISVs, and set goals for what you want to achieve at the Summit. Bringing a friend can help cover more sessions, and it's important to include operations, warehousing, and manufacturing professionals, not just finance and IT.

MVP Insights: Malcolm McAuley on Dynamics 365, Community Engagement, Tips for Summit Attendees

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Malcolm McAuley, John Siefert) — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:50:00 +0000

MVP overview: Malcolm's MVP journey began unintentionally by sharing insights and information within the community, which led to presenting at events and engaging more with others. Encouraged by fellow users like Rick McCutcheon, Malcolm began telling his story, eventually leading to more presentations and participation in panels, resulting in an MVP nomination by fellow MVP Kylie Kiser.
Areas of expertise: Originally a social worker by trade, Malcolm became intrigued by system management and relational databases, which led him to transition into the tech space. His journey began with hands-on learning and community engagement, eventually leading to a pivotal role in his organization's transition to Microsoft Dynamics CE/CRM, where he fell in love with the logical nature of relational databases and the power they hold.
Reflecting on toughest projects: There have been challenging moments, notes Malcom, but C5 Insight aims to be a solid partner for organizations. One particularly tough project he references involved integrating a robust system with messy data from four different systems, causing significant stress and frustration due to the inability to normalize the data and make it cohesive.
Summit NA Academy classes: Malcolm will be leading two Academy classes at Community Summit NA 2024. The first class, co-presented with Jordan Loeffler, "Elevate Your Enterprise: Workflow Wizardry with Microsoft 365," taking place on October 13, will delve into the integration of Microsoft 365 elements, highlighting the growing interest and relevance of features like Copilot for Sales, Outlook, and Teams for all organizations, not just Dynamics users. His other Academy class, presented with Haley Ward and Traci Winter on October 17, "Learning Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys and Data," will explore various capabilities of Customer Insights, stressing that technology alone isn't the solution; the process and organizational approach are crucial for maximizing investment and achieving success.
Summit NA sessions: In addition to his two Academy classes, Malcolm will be presenting two sessions. His session on Wednesday, October 16, "It's About Time: Rethink Time Management with Dynamics 365 CE," will focus on the importance of good data for AI success and how activity management is one of the most valuable features in Dynamics. Also on Wednesday, Malcolm will be leading the session, "Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Data: Create a Definitive 360-Degree Customer Profile," which focuses on Customer Insights data, emphasizing that it's not as intimidating as it seems and offers great functionality. It will cover the basics of getting data into customer insights, building customer profiles, and understanding customer personas to support them through their journey.
Tips for the community: In closing, Malcolm shares tips for attendees coming to Community Summit. He encourages users to wear comfortable shoes, as they'll be doing a lot of walking. He also notes that attendees shouldn't be afraid to talk to the people around them - striking up conversations at events leads to valuable friendships and resources.

MVP Insights: Prashant Bhoyar on AI and Power Platform Involvement, Summit NA Sessions, Tips for Community

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (john Siefert, Prashant Bhoyar) — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 12:50:00 +0000

MVP journey: Prashant's community involvement began during his undergraduate studies in India, organizing technical seminars and conferences. After moving to the U.S. and attending SharePoint Saturdays, he became more active in community events, eventually earning a Microsoft MVP award in 2017. His focus shifted to AI and specifically, the Power Platform, leading to the creation of an AI and machine learning user group in 2018 and achieving dual MVP categories in AI and Power Platform between 2021 and 2022.
Aligning tech with business needs: As an AI architect at Applied Information Sciences, Prashant emphasizes that the focus is on solving customers' business problems in a cost-effective and secure manner, regardless of the technology used. This approach has led to increased adoption of various Microsoft and other vendor offerings to address business issues.
Toughest projects: Reflecting on a tough project, Prashant references one from last year. The project involved creating a meaningful demo using generative AI to convince stakeholders of its potential to save time and costs. The challenge was to develop a non-conversational Copilot within an enterprise app to reduce manual tasks from hours to minutes. The solution included a user-friendly review screen to verify AI-extracted data, which impressed stakeholders and is now being applied to various departments.
Summit NA sessions: Prashant will be leading a two-day Academy class at Community Summit NA 2024, "Custom Copilots using Copilot Studio, Power Platform, Dynamics 365, ChatGPT, & Azure AI." The class focuses on hands-on exercises to teach AI, Power Platform, and Microsoft 365, providing trial environments with necessary licenses, with a goal of creating custom Copilots, discussing use cases, and evaluating ROI. On Tuesday, October 15, Prashant will be leading a session, "Crafting Prompts 101: A Comprehensive Introduction for Newcomers in Artificial Intelligence," in which attendees will learn how to get the best value out of generative AI services. His session "Crafting Intelligent Apps in Just 60 Minutes with Azure AI Studio" will highlight the creation of custom Copilots with Azure AI Studio. Prashant is also leading another single-day Academy class, "Azure for Power Platform and Dynamics 365 Developers Masterclass."
Tips for community: In closing, Prashant shares some tips for users attending Community Summit. Attendees should wear comfortable shoes, stay hydrated, and carry a light backpack for the best experience. For technical content, do your homework, connect with speakers via LinkedIn, and send questions beforehand to build rapport and get tailored content during sessions.

MVP Insights: Brad Prendergast on Business Central Evolution, ERP Implementations, Community Engagement

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Brad Prendergast) — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: Brad began working with Business Central, originally known as Navision, in the late 90s when it first arrived in the United States. Over the years, he's worked for both partners and customers, focusing on development, architecture, and technical solutions, which has given him a comprehensive understanding of successful ERP implementations from both perspectives. Brad received the MVP designation in January 2024, specializing in Business Central. Over the past eight months, he has focused on giving back to the community by sharing content, experiences, and knowledge, co-hosting a podcast, and speaking at conferences to promote the application and support its users.
Toughest projects: What makes a tough project? A project can become challenging due to a lack of planning, understanding, and ownership, which often leads to unrealistic expectations about the implementation process, explains Brad. As such, it's crucial to thoroughly understand business processes and validate why certain methods are used before making changes, especially when working with a feature-rich application like Business Central.
Personalization versus customization: Customizations in an application can be necessary, but it's crucial to understand the application's features and the potential costs and impacts of these customizations, suggests Brad. Proper planning and understanding upfront can save significant time and money in the long run, as it helps avoid technical debt and ensures that the system can grow with future updates.
Academy at Summit NA: Brad will be co-leading an Academy class with AJ Ansari at Community Summit NA 2024, "AL Bootcamp: From Zero to Hero in Two Days." During the two-day Academy workshop, running October 12-13, AJ and Brad will train developers on setting up a development environment and publishing extensions for Business Central. The class will cover extending existing functionality, basic report writing, using queries, creating API pages for integrations, and practical exercises to help participants create a small application and build a solid foundation for further skill development.
Summit NA sessions: Additionally, Brad will be leading another session at Community Summit 2024, "Introduction to Automated Testing in Business Central." This session will cover how to develop and implement automated tests in Business Central, highlighting their importance in preventing issues and saving time in the long run.
Tips for the community: In closing, Brad shares a few tips for Community Summit attendees. There are many great community members speaking at the event, he explains, including both partners and customers. It's important to plan your sessions ahead of time, wear comfortable clothes, and network with other attendees to share experiences and gain knowledge. Additionally, visiting the Expo Hall can help you find solutions or products that may speed up your implementation process and reduce technical debt.

MVP Insights: Saurabh Bharti on ERP Beginnings, Functional Consultant Role, Summit NA Sessions

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Saurabh Bharti) — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 11:50:00 +0000

MVP overview: Saurabh became involved with Business Applications during his first ERP implementation job. Fast forward to 2020, he witnessed the launch of Workspace for Dynamics 365 which listed all new features coming to the applications. He began talking about those features and started sharing insights about them on LinkedIn and later created a WordPress blog, which recently hit 1 million views. Encouraged by the community, he began making YouTube videos and participating in community events, leading to his first MVP award from Microsoft this April.
Areas of expertise: His core expertise is in the functional side of Dynamics 365, specifically in Finance & Operations. Saurabh explains that he shares a lot of content on functional skills for newcomers to this field, emphasizing that a functional consultant role is 70% consulting and 30% product knowledge.
Overcoming tough projects: Global rollouts are challenging due to change management and managing local requirements while maintaining a global solution, explains Saurabh. His experience with global rollouts taught him the importance of managing people, adhering to the project scope, and promoting best practices, which he shares through his YouTube video series on functional consultant skills.
Summit NA sessions: At Community Summit NA 2024, Saurabh will lead a session, "Mastering the Top 10 Skills for Excelling as a Functional Consultant in Microsoft Dynamics 365." He explains that during his session, he'll share the key skill sets needed for this journey, based on his personal experience. This will include ten things he's learned as a consultant, focusing on practical insights and overcoming challenges, whether they're transitioning to this career or already in it. He is also taking place on a D365 FO MVP Panel, discussing new features, tips, and tricks.

MVP Insights: Kylie Kiser on Community Involvement, AI and Automation, Power Apps and Cats

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Kylie Kiser, John Siefert) — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 11:50:00 +0000

Journey to MVP: Kylie's community involvement began in 2012 through Dynamic Communities, where she began assisting a chapter leader in Washington, DC. She eventually took over the chapter, leading to a decade of leadership and networking that culminated in an MVP recognition in 2019. Her contributions include virtual meetings, blogging, videos, and speaking at events, all aimed at delivering content and fostering connections within the community.
Areas of expertise: In terms of her areas of focus within the ecosystem, Kylie is passionate about Dynamics 365 CE, focusing on Customer Service and Sales, and enjoys exploring the low-code capabilities of the Power Platform, particularly AI Builder. Her interest in the platform's evolution stems from the desire to enable automation and AI for citizen developers without the need for specialized coding skills.
Toughest projects: Her early experiences in CRM highlighted the significance of change management and sustainable practices, where the real challenges lay in managing people and priorities rather than the technology itself, explains Kylie. Through these projects, she learned the importance of user adoption, realizing that a project's success is not just about delivering technology but ensuring it is used effectively.
Summit NA sessions: At Community Summit North America 2024, Kylie will be leading three sessions: "Introduction to Low-Code AI Configuration in the Power Platform," "Power Apps, AI Builder, and Cats!," co-presented with Mallory Lawhorne, and "60 Power Platform Tips in 60 Minutes," co-presented with Heidi Neuhauser.

MVP Insights: Joe Griffin on Adoption of AI, MVP Journey, Education at Summit NA

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Joe Griffin) — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Journey to MVP: Joe shares his journey as an MVP, emphasizing the value of the experience and personal growth through sharing knowledge through weekly blogs and community engagement with speaking at events. He is appreciative to be renewed as an MVP for the fifth time and highlights the importance of stepping out of one's comfort zone to advance personally and professionally.
Areas of expertise: Throughout his career, Joe has transitioned from working with Dynamics CE/CRM to focusing on the Power Platform and technical integrations, particularly with Azure and Dynamics 365 Project Operations. He also references his current interest in AI and Copilot extensibility, emphasizing the momentum and potential for AI to benefit businesses.
Overcoming project hurdles: Joe describes a challenging experience with a client who had high expectations for the team's performance, leading to dissatisfaction due to varying skill levels. Having learned from this, he emphasizes the importance of managing personal relationships and setting clear expectations with clients to ensure project success, even if it means parting ways when there's not a good fit.
Summit NA sessions: At Community Summit NA 2024, Joe will be leading four sessions. He is co-presenting a session with Cole Haddock, "Peek, Poke, and Prod: Unearthing Digital Treasures with Application Insights," which will focus on integrating Application Insights with the Power Platform. The two will also co-present "Fabric Weaves: Stitching Together Dynamics and Dataverse." Joe will also be delivering a session that's a deep dive on Power Fx, and one that unveils the practical applications of Copilot and AI in the context of Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.

MVP Insights: Heidi Neuhauser on Summit NA Sessions, Tips for Community, User Adoption

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Heidi Neuhauser) — Wed, 7 Aug 2024 12:50:00 +0000

MVP overview: Heidi's journey to becoming an MVP began with their involvement with Dynamics Communities as part of the CRM User Group, which provided a platform for scaling her skills and leading to her role as the Philadelphia Chapter UG leader. The realization that she could contribute to the community in a new way was a pivotal moment, transitioning from local UG involvement to presenting on stage.
Areas of expertise: As it relates to her career, Heidi was initially focused on CRM but evolved with the industry's shift to the Power Platform. Her involvement in Power Automate, particularly during 2020-2022, led to the creation of connectorreview.com, a community resource for Power Automate connectors, earning them recognition in Customer Engagement and Power Automate as an MVP.
Toughest projects: The most challenging - and rewarding - project for Heidi was digitally transforming a paper-based business, which involved significant change management and training to shift employee mindsets. She notes that this technology overhaul was both difficult and fulfilling to witness. In general, Heidi's passion lies in user adoption and training, emphasizing a people-first approach, which is often overlooked in tech projects.
Summit NA sessions: Heidi will be leading a number of sessions at Summit NA 2024, and she first describes her Academy class, "Dynamics 365 CRM System Admin 101." This class is designed to empower attendees with skills for self-reliance, reducing dependency on partners, and covering essential system admin tasks and integration with tools like Copilot, with a mix of lectures and hands-on labs. She'll be leading four other sessions at Summit NA, and you can get the details here.
Tips for the community: Finally, Heidi encourages attendees of Summit to engage with speakers during their sessions, emphasizing a genuine passion for the subject and approachability for networking, follow-ups, and problem-solving at the tech medic desk, enhancing the value of the event for participants.

MVP Insights: Shawn Dorward

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Shawn Dorward, John Siefert) — Mon, 5 Aug 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: Shawn explains his journey to becoming an MVP. During a Convergence conference, he raised his hand to ask a question, which prompted his (now) friend and colleague Kim Peterson to ask him to speak at the event. He took that chance and "the rest was history," as he found something that was filling a gap in his professional life: helping others. Over the years, he continued to present and speak at conferences in a way that was similar to his own learning, and he developed the "Life Hacks" series of sessions. His mentors, Belinda Allen and Mark Polino helped him to obtain his MVP status.
Areas of expertise: Though he began in the GP world as a consultant, he began to learn Navision (NAV) and eventually, Dynamics CE/CRM and Power Platform.
Overcoming challenging projects: "There's no such thing as a simple implementation," notes Shawn. Every implementation is at risk of failing, which is why having a robust methodology helps. In his experience, tough projects came with poor methodology, not poor consultants or clients.
Shawn at Summit NA: Shawn explains that when crafting his sessions, he aims to "quantify" his learnings and when sharing them, he aims to ease the journey for those new to the organization or product, or those expanding their knowledge. He finds joy in teaching and providing comprehensive resources to ensure valuable takeaways from his sessions. You can learn more about the full list of sessions Shawn will be leading at Community Summit NA 2024.

MVP Insights: Alex Meyer Discusses Security and Permissions, Dynamics 365 Niche, Summit NA Sessions

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Alex Meyer, John Siefert) — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: The journey to becoming a Microsoft MVP was organic for Alex, starting with an area of interest in the ecosystem and expanding to sharing insights through a blog, podcasts, webinars, and conferences. His path was driven by a desire to fill a content gap in security, licensing, and audit compliance, and to ease the learning curve for others in the field. This niche, which was lacking in content, provided the opportunity to carve out a unique space and contribute significantly to the field.
Data and compliance: In the Microsoft Business Applications world, data security and compliance must be maintained across multiple applications, as data generated in one application often travels through several others. Ensuring consistent security measures for data at each stage is complex but essential.
Toughest project: The combining of Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations with the Power Platform is an ongoing challenge, requiring strategic decisions to future-proof solutions and avoid rework. It involves ensuring that developments align with Microsoft's evolving direction and that client systems are prepared for easy upgrades, which is something Alex is finding to be common in his discussions with clients.
Summit NA sessions: Alex will be taking part in 4 sessions at Community Summit NA 2024 and co-presenting one Academy class on October 13 with Peter Ramer. He shares details on his Academy class, "D365FO Administrator & Developer Overview," which aims to provide an in-depth understanding of security and licensing within the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem. Another session he's co-presenting with André Arnaud de Cavalon, "Common D365FO Security Mistakes and How to Avoid Them," focuses on setting up real-world security scenarios commonly encountered in the industry to demonstrate the ease of security missteps and provides strategies to address and prevent security and compliance issues.
Tips for the community: In closing, Alex shares two tips for the community. In the world of technology, and specifically within the Finance & Operations environment, it's important to remember that no one is alone in facing challenges. There are abundant resources available, such as MVP blogs, Microsoft Learn, and community forums to provide support. As it relates to Community Summit NA, networking is key at an event where engaging with presenters and building connections can greatly enhance the experience.

MVP Insights: Mary Myers on Giving Back to Community, Academy at Summit NA

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Mary Myers) — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: Mary joined the community in 2018 and became an MVP in 2020. She first started as a consultant and turned to the community forums, often led by other MVPs, to help make sense of her new role. This prompted her desire to give back to the community. For her, Power Platform was transformative in her career and she wanted to share the same with others. While living in Columbia, South Carolina, she started a tech center at a local women's shelter during the pandemic.
Areas of expertise: Mary highlights her journey with Dynamics 365, starting as an F&O consultant before becoming a self-taught Business Central consultant, and sharing how her "mind exploded" with possibilities when they discovered the Power Platform. She's passionate about extending Business Central with the Power Platform, enjoying the challenge of utilizing web APIs, and appreciates the direct feedback loop with Microsoft given her MVP status.
Overcoming tough projects: The nature of consulting work, particularly when integrating Power Automate, brings about new experiences and challenges with frequent changes. Mary shares a specific challenge with a long-term CRM client, where an instant button feature in Power Automate was deprecated, causing disruption and highlighting the importance of staying updated with documentation for new solutions.
Summit NA sessions: Mary will be leading three sessions at Community Summit NA 2024 and one Academy class, "Mastering Power Automate for Business Central." Her Academy class, taking place on October 13, reflects her dedication to extending Business Central with the Power Platform, for which there is a lack of documentation. Mary is excited about the increased interest and the potential to save customers time and money by automating processes with the Power Platform, which she will showcase in her Academy class.

MVP Insights: Noorez Khamis on AI and Low-Code Evolution, Copilot at Summit NA

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Noorez Khamis, John Siefert) — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 08:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: Noorez Khamis received his MVP award in 2010. When he started his journey, he was working closely with what was then referred to as Microsoft's Modern Workspace, which was "all about SharePoint" and the shift from on-prem to the cloud. Shifting with the times and digital modernization, Noorez now works with no-code, Dynamics 365, and other Microsoft Business Applications.
Areas of expertise: Noorez explains that his company was an early adopter of low-code solutions, particularly Power Apps and Canvas apps. The company initially connected its data sources to SharePoint lists and, as client integration requirements grew, they began integrating with Dynamics, leading it to its current position.
Toughest projects: Thinking back to a tough project, Noorez shares a notable one due to the cutting-edge nature of AI technologies which are not yet perfect, and require innovative workarounds. The team worked on a business operations project involving Content AI, using SharePoint Premium for document extraction. They developed Power Apps to verify data extraction confidence levels and Power Automate desktop flows to streamline the collection of bank statements from multiple banks, replacing a manual process previously done by interns.
Summit NA session: Noorez will be leading a session at Community Summit NA 2024, "Let's Talk About Copilot," with his colleague Cristall Amurao, the Practice Lead at Creospark, who oversees the Biz Apps practice. During the session, they aim to share real-world Copilot applications developed for healthcare and municipal clients. Additionally, the two will present another session, "Leveraging Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Power Pages for Enhanced Support and Case Management," where they'll showcase a system they've created using Power Pages, allowing clients and partners to log support tickets, view ticket status, and access related information, enhancing Dynamics 365 customer service capabilities.

MVP Insights: Marko Totovic on ERP Expertise, Copilot in D365, Journey to MVP

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Marko Totovic) — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: Marko's interest in Microsoft Business Applications began well before he was awarded a Microsoft MVP. He describes feeling a need to give back to the community that he gained so much from, which led him to start blogging and speaking at conferences both regionally and globally. He founded a local User Group in Serbia and became a Microsoft MVP in April.
Areas of expertise: Though he began his journey working closely with Dynamics 365 CE/CRM, Marko is also becoming increasingly familiar with Power Platform and Copilot. Together, he combines the various business applications to create the best results for customers.
Toughest projects: Marko describes a challenging project he's worked on in his career. A company faced a chaotic situation with three different ERPs in their development, test, and production environments, which required a year to standardize them in order to improve the product. Despite the challenges, the team was supportive and understood the need to address the convolution before progressing with better solutions.
Summit NA session: Marko will be leading a session at Community Summit North America 2024, "How to utilize new features in Copilot Studio and use it across the MS ecosystem." The focus of this session is extending Copilot capabilities - and new features - across the entire Microsoft suite of applications.

MVP Insights: Josh Knox on Data Migration Considerations, MVP Journey, Implementation Learnings

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Josh Knox, Josh Siefert) — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP journey: Josh describes his journey to becoming an MVP, a story that is captured in his book, "Letters to a Young ERP Consultant," starting from his college graduation, through various job experiences, to becoming a successful ERP consultant with the help of great mentors. His mentor and close friend, who is also an MVP, instilled in him the foundations of good ERP consulting practices. This experience led him to start his own blog in 2019 to contribute to the community and document his learning journey. Nine months ago, he was nominated for his MVP award.
Areas of expertise: ERP, or Enterprise Resource Planning, is software that integrates various operations within large companies, such as accounting, timekeeping, and project planning. Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, formerly AX 2012, is Microsoft's cloud-based ERP solution. Josh's current role at Cooptimize involves data migrations, assisting clients in transitioning from old systems to Dynamics 365, and ensuring their successful adaptation and training for the new system.
Considerations for data migrations: Josh shares key considerations he takes into account for data migrations. Data migration should be a repeatable process to ensure a smooth transition from one system to another. By continuously testing and mapping essential data, the final product's quality is refined, leading to a successful launch of the new system. This approach minimizes pain points and provides a clearer picture of the expected outcome when switching to the new platform.
Reporting considerations: Data migration is a critical phase in system implementation that goes beyond mere data transfer; it's an opportunity to align reporting with the evolving data landscape. This process should be iterative, allowing for adjustments and refinements to ensure that reports accurately reflect the data's current state, thereby avoiding the assumption that the new system will inherently meet all reporting needs.
Summit NA session: The session Josh is leading at Community Summit NA 2024, "Treating ERP Implementations as Serious Data Projects," is based on nearly a decade of experience in Finance and Operations implementations. Over that time, Josh has observed various approaches to data migration within these projects. Recently, with Cooptimize, he';'s been exploring the use of Microsoft tools like Azure Data Factory and Logic Apps to automate data migration processes, finding it more rewarding and less error-prone than manual methods. As such, he's eager to share his learnings with the community.

MVP Insights: Robb Delprado on Evolution of Business Central, Connecting with Community, Academy at Summit NA

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Robb Delprado, John Siefert) — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 13:50:00 +0000

MVP overview: Robb reflects on his career journey, from starting as an accountant and working with mainframe computers to working with the flexibility of Microsoft's Navision. He notes that many clients face the challenge of transitioning to Business Central due to extensive customizations in their legacy systems. However, he appreciates the advancements from mainframes to "microcomputers."
Career expertise: Robb explains his areas of expertise, which come from his experience as a controller implementing mainframe systems. He describes the evolution of Business Central, emphasizing the importance of customer satisfaction, repeat business, and the value of relationship and service management features in modern systems, which play a large part in his work.
Evolution of Business Central: As it relates to the evolution of BC, Robb initially resisted the shift to the cloud, preferring on-premises environments. Now, he expresses appreciation for the functionality Microsoft has incorporated into the cloud, noting the advantages and integration capabilities with other Microsoft products that were unimaginable 25 years ago.
Toughest projects: Robb explains the challenge of convincing clients to adopt new systems, highlighting the irony of their desire for new systems to resemble the old ones. This emphasizes the importance of training and demonstrating a new system's benefits to facilitate the transition and change their mindset.
Summit NA sessions: Robb will be leading a number of sessions at Community Summit North America 2024. Additionally, he will be leading two Academy classes, "Fixed Assets - Soup to Nuts," and "Service Management - Service in the Real World."
Tips for the community: In closing, Robb encourages Summit attendees to engage with presenters, who have a willingness to share knowledge, gain different perspectives, and assist others in understanding their presentations.

MVP Insights: Asif Rehmani Defines MVP Journey, Summit NA Session, User Adoption

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Asif Rehmani) — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 13:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: Asif reflects on his journey from teaching Microsoft SharePoint classes in 2005 to becoming a Microsoft MVP in 2007, emphasizing that MVPs are recognized for their community help rather than expertise. He shares his experience of creating a website that featured SharePoint content, which led to his MVP nomination and continuous contributions to the community through various platforms.
Areas of focus: Asif's journey began as a SharePoint trainer in 2005, evolving into a consultant and speaker at numerous conferences. His expertise expanded from SharePoint to Microsoft 365 and Dynamics, focusing on supporting and training users on various software platforms. Currently, much of his focus lies in helping users adopt new software.
Managing tough projects: Asif's company, VisualSP, is a product company. They faced the challenge of meeting a customer's urgent need for training and support on Microsoft Dynamics, which they wanted to roll out in a week. Despite the tight deadline, VisualSP successfully gave support and training to the sales team.
Summit NA session: Asif will be leading a session at Community Summit North America 2024, taking place October 13-17 in San Antonio, Texas. In his session, "Get Real Time User Behavior Analytics of Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE / CRM Users," users will learn how to leverage behavioral analytics from the free Microsoft clarity tool to understand user interaction with their Dynamics 365 CRM system amongst other things.
Final tips: In closing, Asif shares a final tip for the community. He emphasizes the importance of understanding user needs and avoiding "change fatigue" by advocating for empathy and support to ensure user success, rather than overwhelming them with changes.

MVP Insights: Pablo Moreno Explains Community and User Group Involvement, Passion for Data, Summit NA Academy Class

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Pablo Moreno, John Siefert) — Mon, 8 Jul 2024 13:50:00 +0000

MVP journey: Pablo first became involved with the User Group (UG) communities in 2017 when he was starting his work with Power BI. He started a local UG in Panama with about 15 other members, sharing content around Power BI and its developments and hosting local events. Five years ago, he was nominated for his MVP award and has maintained his status ever since.
Areas of expertise: Pablo's key area of expertise is data. He went from an analyst and senior developer specializing in Power BI since its inception in 2015, to his current role in the data science and AI engineering field.
Overcoming project hurdles: As it relates to his toughest project, Pablo shares his experience working on a project at a multinational software company, where he analyzed CRM data to assist the marketing and sales teams in prioritizing customer engagement. Initially, he faced challenges due to a misunderstanding of the sales lifecycle but eventually developed a predictive model that stratifies customers and regions to identify key factors for deal closures. The biggest takeaway? Business context is essential for data analysts. Without this, no amount of predictive modeling or AI can provide meaningful insights
Summit NA Academy class: During his Academy class, "Fabric Analytics Engineer: End-to-End Fabric View" on October 12-13, Pablo will demonstrate how to leverage certain aspects of Microsoft Fabric that are not commonly discussed, such as semantic learning and machine learning with Power BI, to perform real-time analytics. He describes the value professionals can gain by mastering just a few tools, rather than superficially covering many, and plans to delve into three specific topics that will significantly impact the business.
Community tips: In closing, Pablo shares two tips for the community: don't be scared to try out new technologies or solutions. Second, he advises listeners that they do not need to know everything. Rather, focus on becoming an "expert" in select areas and share that knowledge with the community.

MVP Insights: Belinda Allen Describes Benefits of Unified Data Platform, Details Summit NA 2024 Academy Class

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Belinda Allen, John Siefert) — Wed, 3 Jul 2024 13:50:00 +0000

MVP overview: Currently, Belinda is the Director of Enablement at iLink. Her role involves empowering clients with the necessary tools and skills to effectively use Microsoft Fabric, including Power BI. She provides training, content, presentations, and collaborates with teams for services like change management and coaching. She reflects on her journey to becoming a Microsoft MVP. Belinda began working with Dynamics products - starting with GP - in the mid-90s, and has been a Microsoft MVP for the last 12 years.
Toughest project: Belinda describes a tough project. During an implementation of Dynamics GP at a South Carolina manufacturer, challenges arose due to weekly system crashes with no apparent cause, despite thorough checks. The issue was eventually traced to a server that was faster than the tested ones, causing a slight increase in data during EDI transactions. The combination of more orders on a specific day and a faster machine than tested led to system crashes every week. This was resolved by GP support.
Microsoft Fabric for data sources: Belinda, who works closely with Microsoft Fabric, explains Investigating Fabric for data sources is highly recommended due to its cost-effectiveness and the advanced AI capabilities it brings to a unified data platform.
Summit NA sessions: Belinda Allen will be at Community Summit North America 2024. She will be leading an Academy class on October 12-13, "Introduction to Power BI, Data Modeling, and Data Analysis for ERP data," as well as three other sessions. She will also be monitoring the Tech Medic desk and encourages attendees to stop by and chat.

MVP Insights: Christian Abata on Finding Community, Power Platform Solutions, Summit NA Teaser

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (John Siefert, Christian Abata) — Mon, 1 Jul 2024 13:50:00 +0000

MVP overview: As Christian began one of his earlier architect positions, he was searching for content on community forums. From there, he started creating his own content, but noticed that his local community - based in Ecuador - was lacking content in their native language. He combined his passion for community and creating Power Apps content into one and started delivering his tutorials and how-to's in Spanish. Based on the great work he provided to the community, he was nominated for an MVP award.
Areas of expertise: Christian's expertise lies in the Power Platform, where his work has been focused over the last seven years as a solution architect. He decided to focus specifically on automation and automating solutions to help companies streamline their processes.
Toughest project: As it relates to one of his toughest projects, Christian reflects on a project he worked on with an Australian company. The project involved migrating the client's ERP system to Dynamics 365, and he had to consider how to manage subscriptions, payments, invoices, and plan changes. It required custom flows and web resources to develop the proper integrations but was a successful migration, which he attributed to a passionate and collaborative team effort.
Summit NA session: Christian will be leading a session at Community Summit NA 2024 on RPA unattended flows. Attendees can expect to learn about the top tips for RPA flow strategy, adoption, and implementation. To learn more from Christian on all things Power Platform, visit his YouTube channel or LinkedIn.

MVP Insights: Marie Wiese on Sales and Marketing Alignment, How the Buyer Journey Has Shifted

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (marie wiese, john siefert) — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 13:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: The rapid pace of technological advancement and its complexity have made it challenging to be an expert in today's world. Marie notes that she chose to focus on the impact of technology on business, acknowledging the technical expertise of MVPs in the channel, particularly in CRM and marketing automation, and noting the transformative effect of AI on the field. Marie, who got her start in marketing, reflects on her journey in the business and marketing world which has consistently intersected with technology. She emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and having a point of view, key attributes for anyone aspiring to be an MVP.
Sales and marketing alignment: Marie discusses the challenge of aligning sales and marketing on the definition and management of leads, which emphasizes the need for cross-departmental understanding and collaboration. They highlight the importance of leveraging their experience and credibility to facilitate proactive conversations, aligning technology with business outcomes to ensure the CEO's comfort with marketing spend and its impact on sales.
Buyer journey: As it relates to the buyer journey, the lines are blurring between sales and marketing due to changing expectations and demands, particularly during the pandemic. Marie emphasizes the necessity of a cohesive approach from prospect to customer, the futility of operating in silos, and the importance of aligning technology with business outcomes. There is no single solution; success requires hard work and a collaborative team effort in today's sales and marketing landscape.
Summit NA 2024: At Community Summit North America 2024, Marie is leading a session with another MVP to demonstrate the innovative use of Copilot in mining sales data and supporting sales and marketing processes. The sessions aims to address the decline in market engagement and the overestimation of AI's capabilities without a clear value proposition and thought leadership. Overall, the goal is to provide valuable insights and practical applications of these tools to add value within organizations. Learn more about Marie's session.

MVP Insights: Kim Dallefeld Discusses BC Expertise, Becoming an MVP, New Summit Speakers

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (john siefert, kim dallefeld) — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 11:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways:

Kim's MVP journey: Kim was early to join the BC/NAV User Group, joining as a programming committee chair in 2003. Her journey "evolved from there," and she began speaking at events. Fellow community member Shannon Mullins encouraged Kim to obtain her MVP status and helped her set up a blog which prompted her to share her knowledge with the rest of the community.
Evolution of Business Central: Adapting to interface changes from AVISTA to NAV, and then to the Business Central interface, has been challenging but ultimately rewarding, as it offers a more cloud-ready experience. Microsoft's use of telemetry to optimize menu options for fewer clicks and encourage keyboard use over the mouse has greatly enhanced user efficiency. Beyond product interface, the transition from physical manuals to integrated, accessible help resources within BC, including videos and Microsoft's YouTube channel, has greatly enhanced the availability of information and user support.
Emerging trends: In the context of Business Central and other Microsoft Business Applications, embracing new technologies and features such as AP automation, document automation, and AI for bank reconciliations is a significant trend, enabling users to work smarter by leveraging the capabilities already present in their products. Utilizing AI to enhance efficiency and continue the trend of automation in various areas, reflects a shift from the past emphasis on EDI, for example.
Overcoming project challenges: Kim discusses a highly technical and challenging project she worked on and reflects on her learnings since. The shift from heavy customization to a more standardized approach reflects a broader trend towards smarter work practices, with a focus on utilizing built-in features and AI to improve efficiency and reduce the need for extensive customizations.
Community Summit NA 2024: Kim, who is co-chair of the BC/NAV programming committee with Steve Chinsky, notes that this year, there are 95 unique speakers. Kim is particularly excited about the "breadth and depth of the speaking community this time." She also discusses her excitement about the networking opportunities, visiting the expo floor, and Microsoft's presence. Check out the sessions that Kim will be leading at Community Summit North America 2024, happening October 13-17 in San Antonio, Texas.

MVP Insights: Stalin Ponnusamy Details Summit NA Session, Biz Apps Expertise, Power of Automation

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (john siefert, stalin ponnusamy) — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

MVP overview: Stalin's biz apps expertise lies in Dynamics 365 CE/CRM and Power Platform, with a strong foundation in cloud knowledge. Since 2007, Stalin has been dedicated to the CRM industry, focusing on sales, customer service, and marketing modules. As an MVP, Stalin was recognized for his expertise in the CRM space, a reflection of his dedication to technology and the community. Balancing work, family, and community activities, Stalin contributes through blogs, forums, YouTube videos, podcasts, and speaking engagements.
Overcoming challenging projects: Stalin describes a tough project he worked through and how he solved the complexities. The project he discusses involves a sophisticated invoice processing system that was initially straightforward but grew in complexity due to additional business requirements. The system, which uses AI and OCR to process invoices sent to a shared email box, categorizes them based on confidence levels. Initially, it was designed to map data to legal entities and vendor accounts directly when the confidence level was high. However, as the project progressed, the business requested more features, such as viewing invoices within the model-driven application, tracking the number of invoices processed through each path, and generating reports. These added requirements, including mapping invoices to legal entities or purchase order numbers when OCR readings were not accurate, significantly increased the project's complexity and scope. In order to reduce the project's complexity, he created a model-driven app to automate the process.
First-time Summit NA Speaker: Stalin will be leading a session at Community Summit NA 2024 for the first time ever. In his session, "Improve Sales Productivity using Sales Accelerator," Stalin will discuss a feature called Sales Accelerator in the Dynamics 365 CRM suite, which has been in use for over two years. This tool is designed to streamline the sales process by guiding sales representatives with AI-driven insights, providing them with the right information at the right time, which replaces the traditional method of manually noting down tasks and reminders. The Sales Accelerator aggregates information from various sources and presents actionable steps, making the sales process more efficient and effective.
More from Stalin: Connect with Stalin on LinkedIn, view his YouTube channel, and tune into his blog.

MVP Insights: Angela Henry Discusses Career Expertise, Making Power BI Reports 'Pop'

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (angela henry, john siefert) — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 12:50:00 +0000

MVP overview: In college, Angela pursued a math degree with a minor in computer science. During that time, a friend requested her help to cover for a speaker at a User Group meeting. Despite her initial reluctance due to public speaker, Angela accepted and had success leading the session. This experience sparked her interest in community work and led her to get involved with "SQL Saturdays." Angela began actively speaking at events in 2017 and was recognized for her excellent presentations, leading to her nomination and selection as an MVP in January 2018.
Career expertise: At the start of her career, Angela was a programmer. She transitioned to database administration, specializing in SQL Server, and enjoyed it for 15 years. Eventually, Angela explored business intelligence (BI) where her combined experience in programming and database administration was beneficial in BI.
Difficult projects: Angela describes one of her more challenging projects. A multinational client in the financial services industry involved the challenge of migrating from on-prem analysis service to Power BI. The client's data volume was so large that it exceeded the capacities of a P5 in Power BI. Angela and her team worked with the business to prioritize essential data for the Power BI model, recognizing that not all historical data needed to be included. They maintained a complete data set in the warehouse backend but limited what was put into Power BI. This approach allowed them to move to the cloud with a P3 instead of a P5 and significantly reduce the size of a key table from over 30 billion records and 30-40 gigabytes to less than five gigabytes.
Summit NA session: Angela shares details on her Community Summit NA 2024 session, "Make Your Power BI Reports Pop.". She intends to emphasize the importance of making reports visually appealing and engaging in Power BI. She uses simple, out-of-the-box features to enhance reports, making them more user-friendly and app-like, rather than just presenting tables of numbers. Her goal is to create reports that not only provide information but also capture the user's attention and are easy to navigate.

MVP Insights: Steve Chinsky on Finding Community, Influence of AI, Business Central Sessions at Summit NA

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (steve chinsky, john siefert) — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 12:50:00 +0000

Overview: Steve has been a part of the Microsoft Business Applications community for 25 years, focused on Dynamics 365 Business Central during the entirety of his journey. He transitioned from a 17-year career in accounting to a role where they became actively involved in the community, contributing to programming committees for various conferences. Steve received his MVP status in early 2023
Business Central journey: Steve describes how he began working with Business Central, which was formerly known as Navision (NAV). He "fell in love" with the product because it was easy to understand and there was a clear future for it. As the product continued to evolve and more features and functionality was added, he came to admire its flexibility and versatility. He maintains a strong sense of commitment to the product and the community of users that surrounds it.
AI infusion: Business Central continues to evolve and integrate more AI-based features, Steve expresses enthusiasm for the new functionalities, particularly the enhancements to Bank Reconciliation which he finds to be a significant improvement in user productivity. He expresses interest in the potential of AI to enhance various features, although he acknowledges that habit formation and user comfort with new technologies can take time. He remains optimistic about the ongoing developments and capabilities of the system, driven by AI advancements.
Overcoming project hurdles: Steve describes a challenging project that took place in the mid-2010s. It was a takeover project where the customer wanted to implement Dynamics NAV but had made little progress with the previous partner. The project was complex due to numerous external moving parts, external software, and integrations, which made it difficult in the NAV days. He notes that if faced with a similar project in Business Central today, he'd approach it differently and find it less daunting due to the advancements in technology. Today, he expresses that his biggest challenges relate to change management.
New Summit speakers: Steve, who is co-chair for the Business Central software track at Community Summit with Kim Dallefeld, notes that of the 160 BC sessions, roughly 127 of those are individual speakers.
Connect with Steve: Register for the sessions Steve will be leading at Community Summit North America 2024, check out his podcast, "The BC 3 Amigos," and his LinkedIn.

MVP Insights: Erik Hougaard Defines MVP Journey, Notable Projects, Previews Summit NA Sessions

cam.sessinger@accelerationeconomy.com (Erik Hougaard, John Siefert) — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 13:50:00 +0000

Erik's MVP journey: Erik has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP since 2014, though he has been in the industry for the last 34 years.
Areas of expertise: Whereas some educators make their content highly technical, Erik notes that his primary focus through his content is to make it accessible. He leads a YouTube Channel in which he creates content that is digestible, easy to understand across all skill levels, and entertaining.
Notable projects: Erik explains that the definition of an enterprise-sized company is no longer determined by company size, a trend that's been accelerated by Business Central. There are many small-sized companies that operate with enterprise-level complexity, and these projects are some of the most satisfying to work on. More specifically, he references one of his favorite projects he's worked on with a company called Pulse Recycle that helps properly track and recycle batteries.
Summit sessions: Erik shares details on the sessions he'll be leading at Community Summit North America, "What's new in Development for BC25 2024 Wave 2," and "Ask the Experts - Development & Architecture."
Connect with Erik: Visit his website, YouTube Channel, and the sessions Erik will be presenting at Community Summit North America 2024, which is happening October 13-17 in San Antonio, Texas this year. He encourages you to connect with him on-site and stop by the Tech Medic booths to get the answers to your Dynamics 365 questions.