Encore Talks | After Summit 2019

TRANSCRIPT

Nicole: Hi, everyone, Encore here again back from Summit in Florida. Sad to say, unfortunately, us ‘Winterpeggers’ came back to some snow. So yeah, not too happy to be back, but that’s what we get for living here, unfortunately. But Summit was a great time, I thought it was great, client feedback was awesome for those who did attend. Got to come back with my nice Encore shades on. Tess is sporting her Encore swag, her sweater over there.

And yeah, I think overall it was a good experience. What would you say, Tess? It was your first year attending. What did you think?

Tess: It’s my first year. It was a big conference and it was lots of fun. There was a lot of networking opportunities and got to meet a lot of people from other industries, and from within the partner channel, it was bigger than North America. There was some people from Jamaica and Italy, and many other places. So it goes beyond North America, that’s…

Nicole: Yeah, I think it was over seven, just over 7,000, I see, or I think they said. So, yeah, pretty large. Yeah, so what was your favorite part, would you say, about Summit?

Tess: I would say networking. I think meeting a lot of people was great and meeting people that I’ve talked to, getting to meet them face to face was great but also meeting clients and just other people that use Microsoft products.

Nicole: Yeah, I would say, I would agree that’s definitely my favorite part. I attended my first Summit conference three years ago, and I still love seeing those people every single year. You only get to see them, again, once a year at the conference.

Tess: Some familiar faces.

Nicole: Yeah, but it’s so nice, right? Because the partner channel is so large, there’s no way you’re gonna possibly know everyone but it’s always nice to see those familiar faces every single year. Yeah, especially when you don’t get to see them often.

Tess: Yeah, for sure. For sure. So I have some notes because it was such a big conference and there’s some things that we definitely wanna talk about while we’re here. So, what were some things that you brought back from sessions or that you learned? About the naming conventions or…

Nicole: Yeah, so I would say I know in the first video that we did, we talked a lot about just Microsoft and their naming conventions as well as just the road maps for a lot of the products. I think, you know, there’s been a lot of information released about Dynamics 365, you know, questions about the GP road map and a continuation of that. So I would say a lot of the sessions that personally I attended focused a lot on that because I think that’s really gonna be the areas that my clients are gonna be focusing on in the next few years. I think we’re really gonna see the biggest, you know, shift, I would say, in the next probably like three to five years, I’m thinking. Once people come, you know, become more comfortable with the information on the topics. Of course, there’s way too much that was said to cover in one video. But yeah, definitely a lot of information around those subject areas.

Tess: Also around like GP users going to Business Central, we went to quite a few sessions about that.

Nicole: Right, yeah.

Tess: So, there’s a lot of things that we can hopefully answer that if you have questions.

Nicole: Yeah. So if you didn’t attend, my advice would be budget for this coming year because it’s definitely something you don’t wanna miss especially with this time being, like I said, you know, people who are using Microsoft Solutions, we’re all used to change, but it seems fairly heavy right now. And I don’t want people to feel like they’re not understanding it, so. And of course, you know, if attending the conference is not an option, we’re always here to help. I think people seem to think that, you know, it’s just a client-based conference, but partners go just as well to learn, you know, learn more information about the solutions because, of course, that really enables us to assist our clients and help them make really important business decisions on how, you know, they want to move forward and what their business plans are for the future. So there’s kind of a few different angles that we can really approach it from. So yeah, I would say that’s kind of the key areas that I was focusing on personally, but…

Tess: And what should people do if they did attend?

Nicole: If you did attend, feel free to reach out to us, let us know what you think. We’re always interested in hearing feedback. And then, of course, one of the key things that I always recommend is put those actions, those plans into action as soon as you possibly can because, you know, we’re all used to coming back to that full inbox, probably a stack of papers on your desk. And, you know, we all dread it. So, you don’t want all those notes and all those ideas that you have to get put on the back burner for too long because, you know, we know about digital transformation and how quickly technology moves forward. And by the time you decide that you’re gonna wanna do that a year or two from now, it’s probably gonna be…

Tess: Maybe different.

Nicole: Yeah, it’s probably gonna be not even an option anymore. So, you know, the easier that you can stay up to date and on top of things, the easier it’s gonna be for you. There’s gonna be no huge adjustment period. It’s just gonna be more of a gradual transition.

Tess: And the slides are posted, too, so those can be refreshers. Even if it’s been only two weeks since we got home, it’s good to get refreshed.

Nicole: Yeah, they started posting some of the sessions, some of the information from the session. So, thought that was really handy so that people weren’t sitting frantically trying to write notes as the sessions were going on. So yeah, I think that’s really important.

Tess: So use the resources that are there.

Nicole: Yes, use the resources that are there. You paid to be an attendee. You know, try to take advantage of that as much as you possibly can.

Tess: Yeah. And where is it gonna be next year?

Nicole: We are apparently headed back to Nashville, Tennessee. So I’m personally really excited about that one because that was my first ever Summit experience. So I think a lot of people were surprised that it was coming back to Nashville so soon. But it really was a great location. You know, great city, and I’m really looking forward to it and I’m really looking forward to seeing, you know, how many clients we can get to attend with us. But yeah, great city and I’m really looking forward to it.

Tess: That’s awesome. There might be some changes, though, because now Summit is going to be called Community Summit.

Nicole: Right.

Tess: So there’s just some changes with, there’s some new logos. And so just the information leading up to Summit from now till next year just might look a little different, and, but that’s okay. It’s all great.

Nicole: Yeah. No, it’ll be, I don’t think they’ll make any changes that aren’t warranted, and I’m sure it’s gonna be the same great Summit, so yeah.

Tess: Yeah, and we’re a GP sponsor this year, but we also support other, ERP and CRM and BI solutions, and GP add-ons. So, there’s a lot in the community, so I think that’s where the direction of the community’s going, just kind of a bigger community.

Nicole: Yeah. And I think that’s the thing that makes Encore really unique as a partner is because we, I say like we have our hands in a lot of different buckets, like Tess said, we support GP, you know, as well as all the Dynamics 365 applications. So, it really comes down to, you know, when you purchase your licensing, you have to choose a partner and you just need to make sure that the partner you choose is adding value to your, you know, business solutions. And not even those business solutions that, you know, we assist with, we should be able to, you know, walk you through your whole business process and be able to assist you planning for the future even when it doesn’t come to, you know, Microsoft announced products.

Tess: For sure.

Nicole: So, I really think that’s something that a good partner can offer. So, just make sure that, you know, you have that support that you need when you are making those decisions, I think that’s really important.

Tess: Yeah. That’s all I have for my notes.

Nicole: That’s all you have?

Tess: Yeah.

Nicole: Thanks for joining us, everyone. If there’s any questions, feel free to reach out to us. We’re happy to help you with anything that we can, share any information. Like I said, we learned a lot, not possible to cover that in a quick video, but we’d be happy to help, you know, walk you through anything that you need assistance with. You can reach out to us through our website, I believe. And yeah, we hope to talk to you soon. Thank you.

Tess: Thank you.