Shows
Service X-FactorA Former Teacher Proves You Belong At The Table And Shows How To Earn Your SeatReady to trade word salad for real substance? We sit down with community builder and BizApps veteran Julie Yack to unravel how a former preschool teacher became a force in Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform, and why mindset, not tools, decides your ceiling. Julie shares the turning points that shaped her career, from bug testing and early MVP days to mentoring speakers and pushing newcomers to claim their space.We dig deep into practical career strategy: how to balance confidence with competence, why “I don’t know, but I’ll find out” builds credibility, and ways to choose a...
2026-02-2747 min
Service X-FactorAI @ Work: From Buzz To Business ValueIf your CRM could listen, learn, and log the work for you, how much time would your team get back? We sit down with longtime Microsoft MVP and AI futurist Chris Cognetta to unpack the shift from forms and clicks to agents, conversation intelligence, and contextual apps that actually serve the way people work. From hard‑won lessons on non‑determinism to real talk about governance and security, this is a practical blueprint for using AI without breaking your business.Chris traces his journey from infrastructure and ADFS to dual MVP honors in Dynamics and AI, explaining why...
2025-12-1952 min
Service X-FactorHeidi Neuhauser - From CRM 4.0 To WP Portals: Lessons In People-First DynamicsEver seen a CRM project teeter on the edge and wondered if the platform is the problem? We invited Microsoft MVP Heidi Neuhauser to unpack why so many implementations stall, why “more fields” won’t fix adoption, and how a single meaningful win for frontline users can flip the narrative. Heidi’s story starts where many ops leaders begin: thrust into a system no one wants to use. From there, she built a people-first playbook anchored in no-code tools, clear feedback loops, and honest conversations without managers in the room.We dive into the practical levers that matter m...
2025-11-2147 min
Service X-FactorHow Microsoft Is Turning Field Service Into A Growth EngineThe wrench turns faster when the app gets out of the way. That’s the spirit of our deep dive with Microsoft’s Luis Masieri, Group PM for Dynamics 365 Field Service, as we unpack how AI is reshaping frontline work, customer outcomes, and the business model of service. We explore why the mission has shifted from operational efficiency to AI-first growth, and how technician experience sits at the heart of it.We start with the mindset that separates thriving rollouts from stalled ones. Lift-and-shift thinking fails because it copies legacy processes into a new tool. The teams that...
2025-10-3141 min
Service X-FactorFrom Art Major to Tech Leader: Emily's Journey of Resilience and GrowthWhat does it take to break into tech without a computer science degree? In this captivating episode of Service X Factor, we meet Emily, whose journey from art major to successful tech professional challenges conventional wisdom about career paths in technology.Emily's story begins at a crossroads after being laid off from her job in Chicago. Despite having no formal technical education, she taught herself coding languages like Python and SQL, leveraging her network to land her first tech position. Seven years later, she's thriving in an industry where she once felt like an outsider. Her experience...
2025-09-0830 min
Service X-FactorWomen in Tech: Navigating Imposter Syndrome and Finding Your VoiceThe tech world isn't always welcoming to newcomers, especially women and people of color. But what happens when someone breaks through those barriers with determination, continuous learning, and a commitment to excellence? Meet April Collier.In this candid conversation, April shares her 11-year journey as a senior solution consultant at CongruentX, starting from her Management Information Systems degree at USF to becoming an expert in Power Automate, JavaScript, Canvas apps, and most recently, Copilot agent development. With refreshing honesty, she acknowledges the challenges she's faced as one of only two women in her graduating class and the...
2025-08-2640 min
Service X-FactorField Service & Female Force: Reham Darwiche’s Creative CodeWhen technology meets creativity, innovation thrives. The Service X Factor podcast welcomes Reham Darwiche, Power Platform Lead at Intralox, who embodies this perfect harmony between technical expertise and creative problem-solving.Reham takes us through her remarkable journey from discovering Microsoft Dynamics in college to becoming a respected leader in the field. What makes her story particularly compelling is how she describes technology as her canvas – "I'm an artist in my own IT department." This unique perspective shapes her approach to complex problems and has propelled her rapid career advancement from consultant to lead architect in just four ye...
2025-07-2458 min
Service X-FactorUnleashing the Power of Deskless Workers: A Conversation with Ben VollmerBen Vollmer, a luminary in the field service space, joins hosts Scott LeFante and Will McLendon to share wisdom gleaned from decades at the intersection of technology and service operations. What begins as a journey through Ben's unconventional career path—from real estate appraisal to leading Microsoft's field service business—evolves into a masterclass on driving tangible business value.Vollmer introduces a compelling metaphor that perfectly captures field service's unique position: like Istanbul straddling two continents, field service sits between operational efficiency and customer experience. This dual nature creates both challenges and opportunities, as service organizations must simu...
2025-07-1148 minService X-FactorDemystifying AI: Beyond the Hype with Sahib SawhneyLooking past the AI hype cycle can be challenging when tech influencers and executives make bold claims about artificial general intelligence revolutionizing industries overnight. Sahib Sawhney, our expert guest with four years of dedicated AI experience, offers a refreshing reality check on what today's AI systems can and cannot do."These models are not actually reasoning," Sahib explains, revealing that even the most advanced language models are fundamentally pattern recognition systems, not thinking machines. While they can process vast amounts of information and generate convincing outputs, they lack true understanding. This distinction becomes crucial when organizations consider...
2025-07-0245 min
Service X-FactorFrom Paper to AI: Transforming Service Operations with the Pierre HulsebusWhat happens when you put the "Field Service Guru" in the hot seat? Magic, insight, and a fascinating journey through two decades of service evolution.Pierre Hulsebus takes us back to 2002, when field service technicians relied on complex offline synchronization and paper-based processes. With the warmth and wisdom that comes from over 20 years in the trenches, he reveals how the mobile revolution transformed not just how technicians work, but fundamentally altered customer expectations. Remember Palm Pilots? Pierre does—and he walks us through the journey to today's powerful pocket computers that handle everything from photos to customer si...
2025-06-2554 minService X-FactorBeyond the White Van: Expanding Field Service PossibilitiesMark Christie, a Field Service expert and prominent community builder, joins hosts Scott LeFante and Will "Quad" McLendon to challenge conventional thinking about scheduling technologies and implementation approaches.This wide-ranging conversation reveals how Universal Resource Scheduling (URS) differs from Field Service, providing the same scheduling capabilities without requiring work orders - a potential cost-saving approach for many organizations. The discussion explores the nuanced distinction between resource scheduling (people) and asset scheduling (equipment), along with fascinating use cases that demonstrate field service's versatility beyond traditional scenarios. From tracking professional athletes' housing arrangements to managing drug testing p...
2025-06-1354 minService X-FactorBeyond Dispatching: The Hidden Power of Modern Field ServiceWelcome to the premiere episode of the Service X Factor podcast, where we dive deep into the transformative power of modern field service technology! Microsoft Global Black Belts Michelle Albright and David Humphreys join hosts Scott LeFante and William McLendon to unpack the evolution and future of field service. With over 42 years in the industry, David shares how field service has progressed from an era without mobile devices to today's AI-powered solutions, while Michelle offers invaluable insights on implementation success strategies.The conversation explores a fundamental misconception – that field service is "just dispatching." Our experts rev...
2025-05-2956 min
Resco Radio TalkEpisode 008: Scott LeFante, Avanade's Global Lead on the Field Service Architect TeamScott LeFante, director at Avanade, 3-time Microsoft MVP and a Field Service and mobile enthusiast. Unfortunately, also a Yankee fan. We talk about how and why Scott decided to dedicate his career to Field Service, if there is such a thing as a typical FS project and why a great team is the key to success.
2020-08-0433 min
CRM AudioPPDB: Friday Power Chat with Scott LeFanteThis is the Power Platform Daily Brief for Friday, April 12, 2019 (brought to you by ClickLearn). Today we interview Scott LeFante for the Friday Power Conversation ERD and Word Spaghetti Thoughts on Augmented Reality How he really feels about the Red Sox Links: Mary Jo Foley Power Platform Interview (Monday 4/15) Music: purple-planet.com
2019-04-1310 min
Microsoft Innovation PodcastScott LeFante on the MVP ShowFULL SHOW NOTEShttps://podcast.nz365guy.com/51Tracing Scott’s family roots and ancestryBeing a wine aficionado – enjoying a bottle of wine and a meal or relaxing, joining classes and clubs Starting journey as an MVP and a former Microsoft employee Enjoying sharing ideas and expertise with the community Trying to make use of the entire Power Platform Building an app on top of utilizing Dynamics data and being able to use it on a mobile device IoT and use cases and Field Service Pitching Dynamics 365 against Salesforce and Oracle CRM Microsoft investing in Dynamics 365 and how far it...
2018-12-1931 min