Community Summit North America 2024 highlights: Digital transformation is only as far as the right partner will take you

Microsoft’s Community Summit was a great opportunity for Microsoft’s customers and partners to gather, learn, explore and share stories. It was a great opportunity for the Thinkmax team to not only see new faces, but to also join many of our customers and ISVs who are active in the Community too.

The venue in downtown San Antonio was packed with 100’s of partners and 1,000’s of customers looking to learn about opportunities available to their business, and what made this event very interesting was the diverse types of customers (and questions they brought with them) really across everything from Power BI to Power Apps, then into all the ERP solutions they leveraged (F&O, GP, NAV, etc.).

On a balmy 97-degree day, the Thinkmax team had a packed room for “The 5-ground rules for warehouse management in D365 F&O”. Most of the attendees for our talk were customers, which is a trend we have been seeing for the past couple of years. They came with some specific questions, and were eager to hear what success looks like.

A High-Intent Gathering

The breakdown in the room was almost 50-50 technical and business owners, and it was very interesting to see them interacting with our Practice Leader, Heather Fitz-Gerald as she walked through the discussion. Heather has a mixed background of being both a consultant and having worked in industry, and was in her element sharing stories of what she has seen (and occasionally what isn’t recommended) in her career.

The big takeaway I got from Heather’s talk, which is honestly something we should all consider in technology is that technology itself doesn’t fix business problems. Heather encouraged all of the technical folks to walk the warehouse, understand how things operate, and get perspective from the workers there. She cited common issues that the ERP can’t know itself like not stacking heavy crates on the top of racks with lighter boxes underneath (unless you want them to collapse) or putting labels on products that are readily readable to workers, etc.

Another insight I got from the show was that a lot of the education tracks were focused around practical product sessions…getting the most out of X or Ask an Expert. With most of the attendees already installed, there was a lot of questions that were deep in the weeds, “we use this product every day and have _____ issue”

A Conference for Technical Leadership and Discovery

We got a lot of those questions at the booth I attended too. Whether it was specific questions on “why doesn’t my first expired first out work if the month changes?” to “how do I simplify inventory?”.

Those same themes continued at a dinner we jointly hosted with the merchandising group of a major NFL team (and no not the Patriots, who are my team, despite their current record!). Across the board, everyone had operational, day-to-day questions. They came with specific learning objectives or were interested in what could be available for upgrades if they were on an older product, but by and by were happy and seeing results with their Microsoft investments!

One interesting takeaway was where a lot of the discussions were vs. some of the forward-thinking sessions around topics like Machine Learning or Copilot. There is no doubt where AI is headed, and Copilot had a lot of focus in the education tracks and was even showcased during the keynote. In our sidebars, the business leader discussions we had that touched on AI were met with some skepticism.

AI for all

It is clear to most decision makers that Generative AI can solve business problems beyond what we have conventionally seen such new technology being capable of. The challenge for many is in understanding where Gen AI can offer the biggest value-add can offer the biggest benefit above already existing (or already AI) solutions. Many users have seen meaningful benefits in simplifying their use of Excel or accelerating their use of Power Automate. Despite the technical nature of the conference, many attendees were also leaders in Finance, Accounting, or Operations, meaning they had more insight into the practical benefits to expect from solutions like Copilot in the near term.

This was my first Community Summit, and overall, a great experience, especially talking with customers about their goals and needs.

This article was written by Rik Silva, Senior Account Executive for our Digital practice at Thinkmax.