#14 Interview mit Torben Kragleund

00:00:02: Hello and welcome.

00:00:04: So today I have a special guest here, which is Torben.

00:00:09: being responsible for the Directions for Partners.

00:00:11: So we are here today in Birmingham in a nice cinema.

00:00:14: Great location you have chosen here this time?

00:00:17: Yeah.

00:00:17: What is Days of Knowledge exactly and what is this all about?

00:00:21: Days of knowledge came out of Denmark

00:00:24: four or five years ago where there was a lot of change going on.

00:00:27: The whole move to cloud and everything and the partners there really realized

00:00:31: that they needed a good way of getting their people up to speed.

00:00:35: So especially their developers and their consultants

00:00:38: learning all the new technology and all the new changes

00:00:41: that came in the product and in the environment,

00:00:44: but also keeping up to speed with what was coming in

00:00:47: in the functionality and how the role changes.

00:00:50: When we move to cloud.

00:00:52: They are moving to the cloud, of course is one of the core topics, I would say a

00:00:56: very core ingredient that you really need to have as a dynamics partner.

00:00:59: So why is that that you have chosen something else after Directions EMEA?

00:01:04: What is the difference here?

00:01:05: I think the big difference here is that this is really

00:01:09: we try to make this local and easy accessible

00:01:12: and we try to make it more technical, more functional to go that level deeper,

00:01:17: to really cater for the people that are out doing the real work

00:01:22: and really need to understand it and then have the opportunity to go.

00:01:25: Because in many cases you don't send your full team to a direction event.

00:01:29: It is quite expensive and it is far away for a lot of people.

00:01:33: Now doing these days of knowledge as we are doing them locally.

00:01:36: So we're doing one in Denmark this year.

00:01:38: We're doing one here in the UK

00:01:40: and we picked Birmingham because it's easy accessible for everyone.

00:01:43: Quite in the central, really, again in the center.

00:01:46: And then we are doing one.

00:01:47: We call it Central, but it's in Dusseldorf,

00:01:49: so it is easy accessible for a lot of the Central European partners.

00:01:54: So we try to make it easy to get to and then at a high level

00:02:00: of either functional or technical for the consultants and the developers.

00:02:04: So you are not addressing developers only as also consultants

00:02:07: and so on because you need a wider range here of, of people.

00:02:11: So we run three tracks

00:02:14: in the

00:02:15: UK and then in Central where we have a developer track

00:02:18: and we have some of the best MVPs speaking.

00:02:21: We run a consulting track where we go into some of the new features

00:02:25: and the new ways of doing things and than a power platform track.

00:02:28: And of course people can switch between whatever they feel is important,

00:02:31: but those are the kind of the key areas that we try to address.

00:02:34: And as I think we all know, Power platform is becoming

00:02:37: more and more important for for all partners.

00:02:40: So that's kind of why we choose these three, these three tracks.

00:02:43: Yeah.

00:02:44: I think one of the core ingredients

00:02:46: you haven't mentioned yet, which is networking.

00:02:48: So this is something I would say from a personal perspective I would like most.

00:02:52: Content is king.

00:02:53: Content is important. This is why you're planning to go there.

00:02:56: But at the end is also networking about what's going on in the channel

00:03:00: and what is important, how to solve issues and so on.

00:03:03: So I think this is something

00:03:05: that you have chosen at Directions EMEA to be more important.

00:03:08: So thank you for that.

00:03:09: I think this is something that we really need in the dynamics community.

00:03:14: I think networking is on different levels.

00:03:16: There is definitely the sales

00:03:19: relationship with an ISV and a VAR.

00:03:22: But, but what we are hoping to achieve with Days of Knowledge is also that

00:03:26: people start to discuss technical functional problems in the community

00:03:31: and then within partners.

00:03:32: So we actually get stronger together.

00:03:34: And now we do it on this for 15 or 16 years now.

00:03:37: And this has always been the core of trying to work together

00:03:40: and share and grow.

00:03:41: So I think I think Days of Knowledge fits in well

00:03:45: and it helps the community get stronger together.

00:03:49: The other point I want to mention, when you say that the other

00:03:52: key issue here is motivation,

00:03:55: because I remember when I was

00:03:57: a consultant and when I was managing consultant developers, going out

00:04:00: and doing something that you don't feel comfortable about is not nice.

00:04:04: It is not nice for anyone.

00:04:05: It's not nice for the person or for the partner.

00:04:07: But now I hope we can boost motivation,

00:04:10: give people that level of confidence that they actually know

00:04:13: what they are doing and they can deliver good, good solutions.

00:04:16: So I think this is the other issue of really motivating people

00:04:19: and getting them lifted a little bit to the group to do good solutions.

00:04:22: I can fully agree, especially the last Directions

00:04:24: EMEA in Hamburg was awesome in terms of the power that you are feeling

00:04:29: within the community, because in the past, to be honest, Microsoft had so many,

00:04:33: I would say breaking changes, which was a big pressure on us as an ISV

00:04:38: or to the VARs like a lot of changes a lot of adaptions and so on.

00:04:41: And it was the first time that everything feels like now it's a perfect fit.

00:04:46: Yes, we have task on the agenda but the power that that you

00:04:49: you feel it's like, yes, we are there.

00:04:51: We have a great product

00:04:53: that's a big investment for Microsoft and this is awesome.

00:04:55: Now it's a full fit.

00:04:56: Everything is together and now we have to share the knowledge.

00:04:58: And so I fully agree with that.

00:05:00: Sounds great.

00:05:03: So from from my side, I can just thank you as an ISV for more than a decade.

00:05:08: So for us it it's very important to be part of the community.

00:05:12: So thank you very much for organizing all this.

00:05:14: I know this is a very time consuming aspect, but I think the same way

00:05:18: it's very important.

00:05:19: So thank you very much from from my side and I am looking forward to

00:05:22: to the next time.

00:05:23: Thank you for being here and I really looking forward to the

00:05:27: to the central one and get a lot of the German

00:05:30: and Belgium and the Dutch and defense partners in.

00:05:33: I know some people from Switzerland and Austria have already signed up,

00:05:36: so I'm looking forward to that one and get that off the floor.

00:05:39: But the next one is in Odense, isn’t it?

00:05:40: We have a Directions Asia in Bangkok in April

00:05:44: and then we have a Days of Knowledge Central in Dusseldorf, end of May

00:05:49: and then in the beginning of June we go to to Odense.

00:05:52: Full program this spring. Sounds great.

00:05:55: All right.

00:05:56: Thank you very much for listening to us and see you at the next conference.

00:05:59: Thank you.

00:05:59: Bye bye.