Dynamics Hotdish

We are so excited that in person conferences are back! Join us as we talk about the experience of being back in person and the great content from DynamicsCon Live in Anaheim, CA. Visit www.dynamicshotdish.com for more information.

Over the last couple of years Microsoft has been slowly moving functionality from the legacy interfaces (which have been unchanged since CRM 2011) to the updated UI. This week we talk about the pace of changes (and a promise from Microsoft) in the Power Platform Admin Center, and some things you can now find there, plus we discuss the recent release of the new solution management preview and it's...

As Merlin starts the episode discussing, training is often shorted - often it is viewed as something nice to have, or something that can be done quickly and cheaply and still get good results. This week, we unpack the issues with considering training in this way and talk about how to make sure your training plan actually teaches the audience the things you want them to learn. Visit www.dynamicshot...

Anyone working in Dynamics 365 has gone through some sort of implementation or go-live event where a checklist (would have) helped. In this week's episode, we discuss the importance of having a checklist to make sure you get all of your steps done, even in a process that you feel comfortable with. We also provide a few key checklist items that we recommend for things like go-lives, trainings, or j...

Perhaps the better question is, who doesn't love custom controls? In this week's podcast we go through a handful of our favorite custom controls, where we like to use them, and Merlin learns something. Visit www.dynamicshotdish.com for notes.

Any company that has been using Dynamics for a while is going to have a few older processes that would benefit from a new feature (or three), but how do you make it a priority?  Our discussion this week covers the idea of implementing new features into your existing deployment while still trying to meet the needs of new processes or projects.  We give our thoughts on how to determine whe...

A few months ago we did an episode on negotiation strategies and how to get what you need in a job or paycheck, and we'd said at the time we might need to circle back to persuasion and influence in general.  Well, this week is that time and Liz educates Ashley and Merlin on how we can persuade others to do what we want and presumably take over the world. Visit www.dynamicshotdish.com for note...

If there is one constant in the internet age, it's that there is always too much email to read. How many vacation days are destroyed by fear of the inbox when you return?  This week, we extend on our productivity discussions to touch specifically on email as a productivity destroyer - and we discuss the many times Dynamics users want to be notified of something via email, and why you should t...

On the heels of discussing integration Office tools, the next logical question is how best to manage things like contacts and activities to avoid double entry and still have Dynamics 365 help you out.  This week, our discussion starts into this topic, with some best practices on managing contacts so they appear everywhere but minimize your data entry, as well as conversation on what syncs and...

For years Microsoft has been pitching the ease of integration with their business and Office tools with Dynamics, yet for a long time those integrations were still not great.  It feels like we've finally reached the golden age of integration, so this week we discuss various integrations with other Microsoft tools and applications that we think work well and makes users' lives easier. For more...

Following up on our last episode about managing time, this week we cover some of the tools we appreciate to help manage time and make us more productive. As you might guess, the conversation is heavily Microsoft-centric, but we like some others too! If you have any tools you like to evangelize, let us know in the comments! Visit www.dynamicshotdish.com for more information.

Where does the time go? This week, we discuss some tips and challenges to effective time management.  We also discover that Liz is the best at this among us, Ashley has grown the most over time, and Merlin is still a novice (but he's working on it). Join us, and share your time management tips in the comments! Visit www.dynamicshotdish.com for more information.

Anyone who has gone through a Dynamics 365 project has a few things that they wish they would have known when they started.  Well, this week we dig into some of those things that have stuck with the three of us over years of CRM projects for the benefit of our faithful listeners.  Listen in to learn from our mistakes!

Over the last 2-3 years, Microsoft has gotten back into the accelerator game, providing industry-specific data schemas for organizations and partners to use to jump-start their configuration in some use cases. This week we discuss the value that an accelerator provides, the best ways to approach them, and cover the accelerators that are available today. Visit www.dynamicshotdish.com for more infor...

This week we discuss something important for everyone with a job - negotiating! Negotiations can be difficult or stressful but they are essential parts of getting a new job, a promotion or every day business dealings. Listen to hear our tips and feel free to leave your own pointers in the comments. Visit www.dynamicshotdish.com for more information.

Since the dawn of CRM 2011, a debate has raged within the community - should one use managed or unmanaged solutions when moving configuration from lower development and testing environments to production?  As with any debate so long-running, the variables have changed and our current recommendation is different than it was then.  Listen in and provide your comments on the debate as well!...

We of Dynamics Hotdish started a podcast as a way to give back to the community that brought us together, and this week we talked to Molly Fuchsel of Dynamics User Group about the importance of being part of and supporting the overall Dynamics and Power Platform community.  Listen in, just in time to learn about DynamicsCon and get a reminder to go vote for sessions you think would be valuabl...

This week we took a bit of a break from Microsoft-specific topics, and had a lovely chat with a professor that Liz recalled from her MBA program, Beth Campbell. Her recent research is around the impact of high performers on teams and the workplace overall, with some other research around gender in the workplace as well.  We probably could have continued chatting for hours with all of the inte...

The software industry is full of best practices, processes, and procedures, yet many of them are aimed at large enterprise-scale projects.  This can be a challenge for smaller projects or smaller organizations, who want to be more nimble and cost-conscious but also want to get good outcomes.  This week we discuss a few areas of project delivery where considering the size and scale are im...

This week we wanted to get some outside perspectives on women in technology, and we were fortunate to get Susanne Lake, Founder and CEO of Slake Consulting, a CRM partner supporting both Dynamics 365 and Salesforce, to join us.  Susanne turned an unexpected unemployment into a series of jumps that put her at the helm of an entire consulting organization.  Listen in to hear how she approa...

Each of us on the Hotdish remembers a time when we weren't as well connected in the Dynamics and Microsoft community and we wanted to start making a name for ourselves by presenting some content at a conference.  Years ago this meant speaking at the User Group Community Summit, but now there are numerous conferences, both virtual and in-person, all driven by user-submitted content.  So i...

For the final episode in our Field Service series, we brought in industry veteran Bill Kern to discuss some of his favorite new features coming out in the 2021 Wave 1 (fka Spring Release) update, as well as the sort of skills that are helpful in grasping Field Service overall.  Don't miss it - there are some really cool features on the way!  And thank you so much Bill for joining us! Vis...

Having covered a lot about Field Service at a large scale in our previous episodes in the series, we wanted to discuss how smaller organizations might be able to leverage Field Service capabilities without the large implementation usually required.  We also discussed some options to offer field-based functionality via Power Apps instead of with full Field Service.  Many thanks to Adam fo...

For part 3 of our series on Dynamnics 365 Field Service, we brought in Jon Bohlinger (JB), also with Hitachi Solutions, to discuss best practices when considering a Field Service implementation.  We also cover some guidelines on when your organization is large enough to really benefit from Field Service.  Thanks to JB for joining us on the podcast! Visit www.dynamicshotdish.com for more...

In part 2 of our series on Dynamics 365 Field Service, we talk to Will Mclendon of Hitachi Solutions about different use cases and applications for Field Service.  From Connected Field Service leveraging IoT to helping front-line workers, Will has some great perspectives.  A huge thank you to Will for joining us! Visit www.dynamicshotdish.com for more information.