eXtreme365 Dubrovnik 2018 highlights

eXtreme365 is a great event for Dynamics partners and customers – massive Dynamics 365 education, networking, enormous drama with the weather and travel, and huge fun. Between March 18^th and 22^nd, nearly 1000 Dynamics consultants, partners and customers got together to enjoy a packed agenda in beautiful Dubrovnik, Croatia.

The main focus for me at this year’s European eXtreme365 was enabling Digital Transformation. Combining the Microsoft stack of Dynamics 365, Office 365, Analytics, AI and Machine Learning allows Microsoft partners to uniquely differentiate themselves from their competition; their solutions can provide their customers with an advanced ability to evolve their businesses at great speed into areas of much higher profitability.

eXtreme365 carried this message in a variety of ways: here’s a summary but we’ll be publishing more detail, and more links, over the next week or so – keep watch for more!

Keynotes

“Business Applications from Microsoft, an Unparalleled Business Opportunity” with Cecilia Flombaum, Business Applications Partner Lead, Microsoft Corporation

After a mammoth 40 hour journey from Seattle – which showed her tremendous commitment and enormously impressed the whole partner community – Cecilia Flombaum delivered a great keynote with her customary full-on energy and humour. She and some key partners gave some great examples of how they grow their practices and create customer lifetime value.

“Winning in the Market with Dynamics 365 and Intelligent Business Cloud” with Mike Ehrenberg, Technical Fellow & CTO – Business Solutions, Microsoft

Mike covered what Dynamics 365 means to the market at a strategic level and how Microsoft is changing the game in business applications. One key focus was on embedded BI within Dynamics. As Mike said, people don’t buy Dynamics so they can put data in; they buy it so they can get insight out. More here.

“Dynamics 365 Product Roadmap” with Jean-Philippe Courtois, Alysa Taylor, and James Phillips from Microsoft

A huge crowd watched a live link to Business Forward in Amsterdam with Jean-Philippe Courtois, Alysa Taylor, and James Phillips who covered how to further accelerate Digital Transformation with the Dynamics 365 spring 2018 release. New features or upgrades include:

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing – the new marketing automation application for companies that need more than basic email marketing
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional – streamlined Sales application with core Sales Force Automation capabilities
• Power BI Insights apps, infusing intelligence through the application to deliver out-of-the-box insights tailored to specific business scenarios – across marketing, sales, service, operations, finance and talent
• Significant update to the Common Data Service for Apps that ships with PowerApps enabling a broad set of capabilities for modeling sophisticated business solutions.

More info available at the Business Forward live site.

eXtreme365 Exec Exchange

A really useful part of the conference – C-level execs from Europe leading partners attending, sharing and delivering some great sessions including the below. This is just a highlight – detailed reports will be published at www.365Talentportal.com/blogs

• Digital transformation – the partner opportunity, how to turn a vision into value, and how to deliver strategic impact – superb insight and practical advice from Steven Malme, Peter Linke and Stefan Truthän
• Customers and partners driving success for a win/win – high energy from Guus Krabbenborg and Bart van der Horst
• Preparing to create high value growth areas and getting ready for an acquisition (both buying and selling) from Linda Rose and Anders Spatzek
• How to work effectively with One Commercial Partner with Microsoft’s Wim Delbeke, Anders Spatzek, David Negrete and Cecilia Flombaum
• Growing the Dynamics365 Talent Pool globally from 365 Talent Portal ’s Elena Baeva, with a great case study from eBECS’s Stephen Wilson, Lyndsey Coupe and Andy Brooks.

Women in Technology

There was a breakout lunch for around 40 Women in Technology – men were invited and welcome (but only 3 came ☹ – come on, guys…..more effort please.)

A strong panel made up of some leading lights in Microsoft – Cecilia Flombaum, Marianne Roling, Boglárka Blahut, and Maria Fonsell – as well as Linda Rose from the partner channel, was quizzed by the audience and the panel lead Chris Clark

At 365 Talent Portal we’re really focussed on enabling more women to get into the Dynamics ecosystem as graduates, part-time mothers, or post-kid returners…so we’ll be covering this part of the event in much more detail soon.  Some of the questions included:

• Glass ceilings – are these real, and imposed on women or perhaps do some women impose them on themselves?
• Confidence in applying for jobs – many women feel they need to tick 100% of job description criteria before they are comfortable to apply, but perhaps some men just apply even though they can only realistically tick less than half. Is this a true divide of the sexes or is it simply a matter of individual confidence?

Break Out sessions at eXtreme365

There were lots of focussed sessions on Dynamics 365 product functionality, technical instruction, how to build and run a successful Dynamics practice, how to integrate without code, where to find online Dynamics information sources, and how customers can work better with partners for project success, plus too many others to mention in this summary, but details are here.

And of course, some superb parties, great fun, and excellent networking….. Can’t wait for the next one.

365 Talent Portal is the online platform that enables thousands of Microsoft Dynamics consultants to improve their technical, consulting, and soft skills, as well as advertise their profiles whenever they choose to look for work. This profile gives Microsoft Dynamics partners and end-users instant, direct access to the consultants if they want to be contacted. With a network spanning 114 countries, 365 Talent Portal allows companies to search for consultants based on their detailed skills, rates and available dates, to find the best consultants for their projects.  Companies can find and employ them on a very low cost model on either a freelance or permanent basis, without incurring the hefty fees typical of recruitment agencies.

To find and hire excellent Dynamics resource, please go to 365talentportal.com or email [email protected] or call us on +44 2071 931 455 (UK) or +1 415 800 4263