Raw Data with Rob Collie

Today we bring in the big guns, a Microsoft MVP and Power Platform advocacy team lead, and a true Power Platform aficionado: April Dunnam . In the realm of social media, April is known as the Woman who Codes, the SharePoint Siren , and the Karaoke Queen with a passion for all things Power: Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Pages. In this episode we get April's o...

In today's episode, we welcome Eric Vigesaa of Microsoft to the show. This special guest has a decades-long relationship with our host.  According to Rob, Eric can always be counted on as a partner in cynical observations. Rob describes Eric as one of the rare breeds that enjoy the excitement of building an emergency solution. Someone who prefers a shorter distance between the software and the pro...

On this episode, we are bringing in a true leader in workplace diversity, Sadie St. Lawrence from Women in Data ! Be prepared to be surprised when you learn that Sadie's idea of diversity is more of a value-driven balance that benefits all people regardless of gender. Improvements, she points out, made in the workplace under the guise of removing gender disparity enhance the workplace for all empl...

Occasionally described as "Addictive, stupidly addictive," this episode delves into the insanity that is Pokémon Go and is dedicated to the people and the technology behind mapping and catching Pokémon. Shortly after its 2016 release, Pokémon Go became the most successful game in history and, at one point, surpassed both Tinder and Twitter growth with usage time beating other social media apps.  ...

Have you ever been curious about what moving to the cloud really means? Is it a one-and-done move or is it more? Today's guest, Jeff DeVerter, Chief Technology Evangelist of RackSpace , breaks down the cloud, cloud-based services, and how it can impact your business. From an engineering point of view to the creation of a supply chain for data, Jeff describes the trends and implications facing ingr...

Today we welcome David McKinnis of Tech DNA to the show. David is Microsoft alumni from the days before the development of Darwin, the software that revolutionized install, uninstall, and repair for Windows-supported programs. Prior to Rob and Dave's work on Darwin, software installation was a long and cumbersome project that often-included multiple floppy disks and the patience of a saint and Win...

Today, we bring you a little something different, in this episode, we focus not on people, but on the software itself. Today, we create the Software Hall of Fame, set the rules, and get down to building the inaugural class with special guest Coner Cunningham. Coner's multi-decade software skill set combined with his fun personality makes him a perfect fit to be the final member of the initial trib...

Today, we welcome to the show the most transparent international man of mystery, Dany Hoter. Working on his 5th stint with Microsoft and living his best life in his 8th decade, Dany brings both wisdom and fun to those around him. He brings a passion and joy for teaching to his training sessions and always manages to create a connection between people and technology. Of course, he also has a long-s...

Hello friends! On the show today, we have a special treat for you. Straight from the Outback, recorded past midnight, and punny as hell, Kerry Kolosko , freshly minted, accidental Microsoft Data Platform MVP. An avid fan of JIT learning (Just In Time) and a follower of the teachings of Google, Kerry is a self-professed technophobe whose desire to remove redundancies just won't let her disconnect....

Today's guest, Darinee Louvau, is twice retired from Microsoft and one of the few people who admit to an admiration of testing in production. Darinee is an amazingly gifted person. From hosting LAN parties in her Tween and Teen years to designing and building gaming crates for those parties, she is not afraid of getting her hands dirty. A self-proclaimed fan of lowering the cost of iterations, she...

With a background in finance and a history of great communication and a passion for problem-solving, Ed Hansberry, an Assistant Director with P3 Adaptive, embodies the spirit of P3 Adaptive. Ed was recently awarded his 13th Microsoft MVP Award so of course, we wanted to know more about his achievement, his passions, his adaptability, and most of all, his insights on change so we invited him to joi...

As we continue to share the personal stories of the exceptional people who make up P3 Adaptive, today's guest is a little less visible in the company, not because of his skills or reputation, but because he is not a member of our visible client services team. Alex Sanabria is a member of the GroDiv team here. His team is on the backend, taking care of marketing, digital assets, and all things PR....

Have you ever wondered what an actuary is? If so, you are not alone. Over the past several years, the actuary programs at universities nationwide have seen exponential growth, thanks in part to an outreach program called Be An Actuary supported by P3 Adaptive's Principal Consultant and today's special guest, Philip Trick. Philip is a rarity in the data world. He found his data gene all the way bac...

Hello Friends! On today's episode, P3 Adaptive's Director of Client Services, Bill Sundwall stops by the metaphorical watercooler to talk shop, software, and pets. We get an inside peek at the P3 Adaptive hiring process as well as some interesting insight on the potential super-secret code word for imaginary bonus points in the interview/testing process.  Most importantly, this episode goes where...

Hello friends! Today we welcome a dynamic duo to the show, Denise Trabona and Adam Harmetz of Microsoft's SharePoint team, and they take us through the extraordinary 10 + year evolution of SharePoint from the frustratingly chaotic farms of the past to the streamlined, user-friendly UX of the future.  Both Denise and Adam were part of the historical transformation from a lumbering, haphazard platfo...

Hello friends! On today's episode, we bring back the greatest of the great, the all-time champ of Raw Data Downloads, the DAX Demon himself, The Scree ! I am sure you will recall His Un-Deadness, evil genius of the Undead Lords Guild from his record-setting, chart-topping, last appearance on our show where he shared the secrets of the inner workings of gaming guilds and data. During this visit, Sc...

Hello friends! On today's episode, our host, Rob sits down with one of his podcast idols, Davis Mattek of TaekCast . As you know, Rob is a big fan of Fantasy Football (and a former P3 League Champion with the videos to prove it) so it is no big surprise to learn he follows several fantasy football and sports podcasts in his free time. In fact, if you are familiar with TaekCast, you may have notice...

Hello friends! On this episode, we sit down with Poppy MacDonald, President of USA Facts , to learn about the process of breaking down governmental silos for data without bias. You may have seen some of their data during the extended pandemic, but you may not have known how much work went into providing just the facts without the opinion . . . or how small the team was behind the scenes. You will...

Hello Friends! On today's episode, Johnny Winter of Greyskull Analytics shares his exciting story of transformation from mild-mannered bartender to human ETL machine and beyond. As is often the story, the data drudgery of manual processes triggered his data gene which in turn brought about his hidden power of BI, and Greyskull Analytics was born. Johnny speaks candidly about moving up through the...

On today's episode, we sit down with Tristan Davis, Product Manager at Microsoft for the Office Platform. That's right, the person in charge of the team in charge of extensibility and advancement of the Office Suite of programs shares some insight and exciting news about the current path and the future of the most commonly used platform.  You will hear about security, advancements, and maybe even...

Today we welcome the newest member of the P3 Adaptive family, Liz Rogers as she shares her relentless pursuit to find a better way. Liz's story highlights the rarest hybrid data type yet, those with a self-sufficient mindset who are translators between the process/tech and the customer/user experience. This data type truly focuses on improvement across all segments. Her passion for figuring it out...

Today we welcome Blythe Morrow, owner of Paper Sword , to the show. She shares her SQL-adjacent/data-adjacent data origin story and the details of her love affair with both language and data. We also get inside insight into Paper Sword's technical writer onboarding and development with a special shout-out to Tom LaRock's Solar Winds podcast episode on the Disappearing DBAs. The ability to marry go...

In this episode, we break down the newest phrase to come out of the Power Platform this year with James Oleinik, Director of Project Management with Microsoft. His team owns the experience for PowerApps, and he joins us to define Dataverse and explain how it is integrated to create a seamless data transfer across all Microsoft products. Using simple language, he provides insight on the low code pl...

Mapping the Road to Innovation, w/ Mike Reynolds On Today's episode special guest Mike Reynolds defines digital product and the genius behind InnovateMap . Mike explains that businesses must go digital if they touch a consumer or risk losing relevance. While most consumer-facing companies have embraced this tenant, many B2B companies just haven't accepted this yet and those who have are advancing...

On today's episode, self-described accountant by trade and a problem solver by passion, Fran Reed of Freedup Data Optics shares how she uses her data bending skills to remove the frustration of working with an on-premises accounting software build. Fran is one of the rare go-betweens of the Power Platform and Intuit's Quickbooks. She makes easy work of bridging the gap between numbers and decision...