Shows
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
CRM AudioCRM Audio 99: D365UG Summit 2018In today's episode (brought to you by Kingswaysoft), Shawn Tabor, George Doubinski, and Scott LeFante are at D365UG Summit in Phoenix. They discuss what we learned at D365 UG Summit. Topics discussed: Dynamics 365 AI What's new with Relationship Insights Extending Dynamics 365 AI What does democratization of AI mean? Hobbit's review of D365 mixed reality apps Azure Logic Apps are now part of Microsoft Business Applications Dynamics 365 system stability Update on BAD Masterclass This episode is a production of Dynamic Podcasts LLC. Subscribe to the CRM Audio network of podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
2018-10-2246 min