The MSDW Podcast

This episode is sponsored by emfluence.

Marketers frequently lead the charge for better data and more connected systems in an organization, especially as it relates to customer journeys.

On this episode, David Cacioppo, president and CEO of emfluence, joins us to share some of his team's priorities as it relates to marketing automation strategy, especially in the Microsoft ecosystem.

As a firm that delivers both technology and digital agency services, emfluence has been working to align their worldview with the strengths of Microsoft Power Platform, especially Dataverse, David explains. And he discusses ways that emfluence's clients are increasingly looking for ways to bring insights from first-party data to bear across more industry scenarios and in campaigns that blur the traditional lines between B2B and B2C.

More from emfluence:

Sign up for a free 14-day trial of the emfluence Marketing Platform: https://more.emarketingplatform.com/msdw

This episode is sponsored by k-ecommerce, powered by MDF Commerce.

On this episode we are talking about automation and e-commerce with Patrick Fusarini and Rich Fowler of k-ecommerce. B2B organizations face complex requirements in their commerce decisions, and Rich and Patrick tell us about what the requirements they are hearing from Dynamics 365 customers today.

Many scenarios are driven by the D365 user's own clients, they explain. In a B2B context, those organizations want to be able to make their purchases with greater velocity and lower friction. Our guests provide some examples of D365 customers that are making that happen with k-ecommerce.

We also discuss the relationship between automation and better data insights, and how partners can use that connection to improve outcomes further. Rich and Patrick share suggestions on how D365 customers can prioritize commerce needs, improve automation, and create a meaningful commerce execution plan.

• To learn more about k-ecommerce, check out k-ecommerce.com or try their interactive demo here.
• Catsports: How k-ecommerce transformed this online sports business: https://k-ecommerce.com/success-stories/catsports

This episode is sponsored by Evenica.

On this episode, Kelly Mazur, Marketing Director at Evenica, shares her biggest takeaways from this year's NRF Retail Big Show conference. Mazur details what Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce capabilities she and others demo'd for the retailers in attendance, and she shared the two major themes showcased across the Microsoft booth. She also discusses commerce trends from the expo floor and shares retail predictions for 2025. AI was no doubt a hot topic again this year, but in this podcast episode we give specific use cases that were prominent across the event.

For more information about working with Evenica, please visit Evenica.com.

The Biz Apps Classroom travelled to Slovenia last week for DynamicsMinds 2024, the Dynamics and Power Platform community conference in its second year, and we caught up with Microsoft channel expert Joe Corigliano to talk partner training and skills. Joe wears several hats in the Microsoft channel community, helping build connections, plan events like the partner track at DynamicsMinds, and working with firms on their Microsoft strategy via his role at Ciellos.

Joe talks with Julie and Jason about his work, his experiences at DynamicsMinds 2024, and his plans for future events and projects. He explained that partners face a range of challenges today in their Microsoft businesses, from administrative hurdles like optimizing the use of Partner Center to achieving the solution designations needed for maximum channel benefits. Certifications play an important role in those Microsoft designations, along with sales, utilization, and other metrics.

We also discuss other ways that partner firms are findings success with non-traditional business models that don't involve the solution designations and may not align with Microsoft's incentives. Regardless of the strategy, relationships between firms will continue to drive a lot of the success partners achieve, Joe believs.

Julie and Joe also talk about how community connections have evolved in the Microsoft biz apps channel. Developing a richer set of relationships will fall to people who work in this space directly, they believe, and it will require a range of efforts. Joe's outlook for the year includes his own podcast, organizing July's Biz Apps Partner Summit, and Community Summit.

More Resources:

• See all Biz Apps Classrooms episodes here: https://msdynamicsworld.com/biz-apps-classroom
• Support the podcast and get a discount on an annual plan for 365.training by visiting https://365l.ink/MSDW.
• Keep up with community content at https://mydigest.365.training/

The Biz Apps Classroom welcomes its first guest on this episode, Microsoft MVP and partner executive Vlad Sarov joins us to talk about the work he, podcast co-host Julie Yack, and others have been doing on a project to bring Microsoft Business Applications skills to adults in Ukraine through an ongoing series of training cohorts. The program follows Microsoft's prescribed Business Application professional skilling collection, but the team have taken the extra effort to translate the learning materials, adapt the guidance to allow for online interaction, and develop automated translation capabilities to allow trainers who don't speak Ukrainian to still help educate the students.

Vlad and Julie share the program's history, the team effort that was required to launch it and keep it running, the outcomes for graduates, and how they hope to expand the training to more cohorts in Ukraine and perhaps in other parts of the world.

Show Notes:

• 1:30 - Vlad's impressions of last year's MVP Summit
• 3:45 - Hatching a plan to create learning cohorts in Ukraine
• 6:45 - Translation technology that enables a multi-language program
• 9:30 - Why a program from Microsoft offered a good starting point for translation and adapting to a Ukrainian cohort
• 12:30 - Stories of some of the students
• 14:30 - The typical student experience each week
• 18:15 - Signups available for spring and summery 2024 cohorts - how to get accepted, what is expected of students, and how the trainers adapt to student needs like difficult circumstances
• 23:00 - Hiring people who complete these training cohorts - what Microsoft partners can do to help
• 26:30 - Industries that the students are coming from, and why industry knowledge helps
• 28:00 - How students are learning about the program and gaining the trust to join it
• 31:00 - What's next for this training approach - reaching more translations and languages

Links & Resources:

• Ukraine training signup: https://365l.ink/UkraineSignUp
• Feedback and testimonials of students: https://www.bap-ua.sarov.plus/
• Contact Vlad: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/vladsarov
• For more information about learning course, contact Dima Kudin
• Telegram: @DmytroKudin
• Mail: [email protected]
• Linkedin: https://ua.linkedin.com/in/dmytro-kudin-0abb88239
• Support the podcast and get a discount on an annual plan for 365.training by visiting https://365l.ink/MSDW.