Dynamics Corner

Episode 437: The Next Lucrative Opportunity with Business Central

• Rory De Goede • Season 4 • Episode 437

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In this episode of Dynamics Corner, Kris, and Brad chat with Rory De Goede about Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. They dive into the current scene, packed with opportunities for job seekers and companies seeking talent. They cover a range of interesting topics, including the changing needs in the Business Central world, how artificial intelligence (AI) is making its mark, and what the future holds for ERP implementations. Whether you're on the hunt for a job or seeking the perfect candidate, this episode offers great insights into the opportunities and challenges in the Business Central space. Be sure to check it out for a clearer look at this exciting field!

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SPEAKER_05:

Welcome everyone to another episode of Dynamics Corner. What is the good things that are happening in Dynamics? I'm your co-host Chris.

SPEAKER_00:

And this is Brad. This episode was recorded on November 17th, 2025. Chris, Chris, Chris. What are the good things that are happening with Business Central? What are partners looking for for talent for Business Central? And also, what are our predictions for what's big for 2026 with Business Central? With us today, we had the opportunity to speak with all good things with Rory the Good. Rory, good afternoon, sir. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_04:

Doing well. How are you guys?

SPEAKER_00:

Hanging in there, hanging in there.

SPEAKER_04:

Not too bad.

SPEAKER_00:

My slang today. Hanging in there. What? It's that bad.

SPEAKER_05:

Um when you're hanging, when you're hanging in there, Brad, that means you're like on the ledge about to fall off. Yeah. And you're just hanging in there.

SPEAKER_00:

I guess, yeah, I guess it could have a negative tone to it or a negative appearance when someone says they're hanging in there.

SPEAKER_04:

But in in Australia, that's very common. Almost everyone, when you ask someone like, Oh, how are you? They're like, not bad. That's how they start. Not bad. Like, that's that's the cup half empty.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it's bad, but not that bad, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So should we start this over?

SPEAKER_04:

Are we recording?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, he's recording. So we can start we can just pretend.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh no no.

SPEAKER_00:

How are you? Yeah, not bad. Good. Good. That's kind of like the uh glass is half empty. I'm a glass is half full kind of guy.

SPEAKER_05:

Unless you're hanging in there, Brad.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not hanging in there, and you didn't ask me how I'm doing.

SPEAKER_05:

How are you doing? Oh yeah, that's where we started.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm doing very well. That's great.

SPEAKER_05:

That's great.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not not bad.

SPEAKER_05:

That's even bad enough people saying that. Can you say can you say I'm doing not that great?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, not that great. Well, not that great has a negative uh uh tone to it as well. So I think you just have to be doing well, doing great. Uh fine. Fine even sounds like a negative. It's like I'm fine. I'm fine.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, that's true. All of it is better than saying I'm busy. I've been busy.

SPEAKER_00:

You can just say I'm good. I'm doing good. Everything everything is rainbows and butterflies for me. Happy, green grass, bright flowers, butterflies, during winter fallen bees. During yes, winter.

SPEAKER_04:

You you left you left Florida, right? Right now I'm not in Florida, no. Okay, because I am uh you seemed more positive last time I spoke to you.

SPEAKER_00:

See well it is true because when you go from Florida where we did have a we did have a cold front. Uh when you go from Florida where it's typically sunny all day, every day, and even during the winter, the temperatures where I'm located do not fall below, Chris. You have to get the conversion before below like 70 degrees Fahrenheit, 72 degrees Fahrenheit. But when I was there recently, we were down to I think we get down to like the mid-sixties. So it was it was cold. Uh but then I came up here and it was 18 degrees this morning. Um, so that's a wide temperature range. And it's dark all the time. And that's impressive. 1600, it turns, it feels like midnight. Like yesterday at 1600, 1630, it was pitch black. And I really felt like it was 2100 at night. Like 2130. I almost like was ready for bed.

SPEAKER_05:

That is so true. Because I went out and hung out with a friend at at um at 1730, and I was like, oh yeah, I'm gonna hang out. By the time it's you know 1930, I'm like, man, it's bedtime, but it was only 1930.

SPEAKER_00:

So that's why I I was more cheerful last time because I had the bright sunshine and now I'm in the cold, dark, miserable climate, and the trees have all lost their leaves. Well, almost all lost their leaves. And it's just not that pretty vibrant. It's starting to get into that gray portion of the year.

SPEAKER_04:

So you know that's uh it's a thing in the in the Nordic countries and even even in the Netherlands where I'm from, to have like sun sunlight therapy. Like people that get a bit depressed in winter, they do sunlight therapy, and that seems to work.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Uh that's I that's why I like Florida during the winter because you have constant sunlight therapy. And it m it does make a big difference. I think uh feeling the warm sun or feeling uh the in getting the bright sun makes a big difference. And from the Netherlands, uh Max Verstappen.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah. Yes. I'm I'm not uh not a massive F1 fan, but I like how he tends to upset people and just um changes the status quo within uh within driving. I like that reputation.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't like him at all.

SPEAKER_04:

I I know you told me.

SPEAKER_00:

I just want to make that clear everybody knows. I'm team uh McLaren and Lando this year, regardless of all their papaya rules and all this uh piastry stuff. But since we're not talking about F1 and we wanted to have a different topic, let's first hear a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_04:

Sure. Anything in particular you want to know?

SPEAKER_00:

Well tell us a little bit about you. Who are you? What do you do?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh well, my name is Rory de Guda. I'm born in the Netherlands. Um I'm not in the Netherlands anymore. I left ten years ago. I uh I lived in Spain, I lived in Australia. That's uh I met my wife who's half Philippine and half Costa Rican, uh having two kids in Australia. Um decided like hey, we want more, but not without family, and Australia is amazing, um, but very far from everywhere. So we decided to move to Costa Rica, so that's where we are right now, and had had our third kid this uh this year. Umgratulations.

SPEAKER_02:

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you. Uh when we moved, I so I'm a I'm a recruiter. Um as but I say recruiter, but that's because worldwide when you say recruiter, people think about permanent placements and contracting placements. But in the US I think it's different. You have to say either you're a recruiter, but then they think direct hires, or you're a staffer, or like you do staffing services. I do both for in the dynamics field. Um but I had to start my own business when I moved to Costa Rica two years ago. Um so that's that's what I'm doing right now. Um living living the living the dream basically with a beautiful family living in Costa Rica where the days aren't long, like sun is up 5 a.m. every day, goes down six p.m. every day. But it's sunny every day. It is sunny, you've got a rainy season, but it's not that bad. Um so it's nice.

SPEAKER_00:

The closer you are to the equator, the more consistent your days are. And that's I have these conversations because you don't have the angle of the earth and the sun. That's why the days are typically longer in the northern northern or southern hemisphere, that the the tips of them, than they are at the equator because they the angle of the sun. So it is so you're the same way as the southern portions or the southernmost port most portions of the United States. And you are living the dream because when you and I were talking the other day, uh you were talking about the monkeys being outside in the trees. I'm like, that must be amazing. Uh just to be able to go outside and you have monkeys running in the wild.

SPEAKER_04:

So and we don't do daylight savings, which is painful when you have to work with the US because I mix up setting up interviews for my candidates when I I just set up the wrong times. That has happened. Um but there's consistencies, like if you have kids or pets, like the daylight that the time time change messes everything up for at least a week, and we don't have that here.

SPEAKER_00:

I wish that we I wish that we didn't have daylight savings. They were supposed to stop that. They've been saying that since long before all of us were born. I think that I know I know it was when it was started, it was started long before we were born, but I even think when I was younger they were talking about it. I don't think in the United States they'll ever get there. I wish they would. But I also believe there should be one time. I believe that 0600 should be 0600 everywhere in the world. And if you go to bed at 0600 because it's 200 today, that's fine. But you just get used to it. So we don't have this. Do you celebrate the do you excuse me, do you honor daylight savings? Do you not? Do you do this like you had mentioned? It gets really challenging. And then some, I believe, some locations I think also shift on different at shift shift at different periods of time. I don't think everybody switches the times at the same time.

SPEAKER_04:

I could be mistaken, but no, no, correct. There's they do it at several uh different different times. Like the the Europe does it a different time than the US. Uh Australia does it a different time as well. Yep. It's different.

SPEAKER_00:

So not only do we have to worry if somebody switches, we also have to worry about when it is. But speaking of switching, uh you work with uh staffing and recruiting and placement for candidates within the Dynamics 365 space. Do you work primarily with uh Business Central or do you cover Power Platform, Business Central, FNO, X, FNX, AX, whatever they want to call it? F and S E M. Yeah, I forget.

SPEAKER_04:

Um most of my business comes from uh F and O and BC for somehow most of the work comes from the manufacturing space as well. So ERP manufacturing warehousing um is where I do most of uh most of the business for both F and O and M B C. Now I have a network in power platform and and CE, but demand is is a lot less on that side, so I focus on the other side.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, and how long have you been working with uh staffing for Business Central?

SPEAKER_04:

Two years. When I started because I started as an SAP recruiter 14 years ago. Ah no. I know, I know, but then this might people might find this interesting. So when I was in Australia and I knew and we were planning to move to to this part of the world, I had zero network in the US. So, like, well, if I got no network in SF, what I was used to, I might as well consider the other ERP platforms. So I did a I did a simple search, okay, who's got the most jobs, like, and this was just looking on LinkedIn the most job openings, and then who's got the most talent in that same space? The so I compared SAP to Oracle, Salesforce, Workday, and Microsoft Dynamics. By far, Microsoft Dynamics has the biggest talent shortage. There were, if you would just look, there were for SAP, there were for each job that was advertised, there were 30, the ratio was one to thirty, so 30 candidates per job out there in the market. For Microsoft Dynamics, it's one in five. Massive difference.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, that's a large difference.

SPEAKER_04:

So like as a recruiter, you need to go where the shortage is. So I switched. I like it's still ERP, so I can still talk my talk my talk, just need to learn the different modules. And it's working. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

And do you work with partners primarily or end customers?

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, I do both. Um, but most of my work so far comes from the partners because they they got most of the projects.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So with that, so you've been doing this for about two years. Uh have you noticed a change in the candidates that the partners are looking for? Uh what you what's your take or your viewpoint on over the past two years that you've been working with it? I know within the last two years a lot has been introduced to the application. Yeah. And I like to load up the questions. And also, is there still a shortage? Is that number you had mentioned you started doing the search years ago and you saw a one in five. Are we still at that same ratio or has the ratio changed?

SPEAKER_04:

I've not done the same search since I decided, okay, I'm gonna go for uh I'm gonna go for dynamics. And that was just that search was just to see, okay, how much is there out there in the in the entire US market? Um that was five. So that wasn't necessarily five people per job that are looking for a job, but there was five that are that exist that have a dynamics job title. Um so has the has it changed? What has changed is it's been a slower year. Like we we were all at dynamics uh at the summit in in Orlando. I walked up to a lot of partner booths to talk about uh to talk like hey, how how is your how's your year been? And a lot of people have said from the partners that this year has been slower compared to uh to other years. Um how to translate to the to the candidates. They the ones that are available, like employers are a bit more picky these days. They also the the salaries are kind are um correcting a bit because they went a bit crazy during uh during the COVID years, uh because everyone was hiring, everyone was uh asking for higher salaries. This was worldwide. Um they're coming down a bit, contracting rates have come down a little bit in the past 18 months. Um availability the generic ones is are a little a bit more available, but when you need someone with specific manufacturing skills or they need to be a CPA finance person, it's there's still it's still a tight market. I don't know if that completely answers your question. If you were hoping for some more meat.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, no. Anything you answer, I've been I'm hoping for. It's not uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_05:

It sounds more focused though, is what you're saying. It's more it's not the generality of a functional consultant. You're you're you're looking more of a specific specialist role.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. Okay. Yeah, that that's because those are the ones that my clients struggle to fill themselves. My clients will always try and fill the roles themselves first, and the m the more generic they are, the easier it is to find. But once then they need like, yeah, someone who's been in the manufacturing space for ten years or has been on the operation sides of manufacturing before they moved to dynamics. That's a very specific profile. That's that's when they call me.

SPEAKER_00:

I have so many questions on that, but I don't want to take away what I originally wanted to talk with you about. But maybe we'll we'll get back to that pool of talented individuals with specific niche skills or specific skills you're looking for. But uh you had mentioned it's a little bit slower. Uh you had mentioned slower in within what regard is part as the need or slower on the flip side is uh staffing?

SPEAKER_04:

Slower in projects, new projects being won by the by the part or in general uh new projects being kicked off this year. Um the the one answer that I get from at least 80% of the partners that I've spoken to this year has been that um the uh pen to paper, no one's putting pen to paper pipelines are still being filled with in terms of like leads coming through the through the pipeline, but they're not putting pen to paper by kicking off the project. Therefore the partners have less projects, or not that many, uh new ones, um, and therefore they're not hiring. And if no one's hiring, no one's kicking off projects that flows through my industry.

SPEAKER_05:

I wonder what that is though. That is an interesting thing, uh, because I asked the same thing. I think Rory, you and I had a conversation during summit, even two years, uh not not this last year, uh, where partners were sharing that. I think there was a session, uh some conversation around that space where you're right, there's there is a lot of opportunity still coming in, a lot of leads, but then you the actual signage of project going off is it's not happening as quickly. It's not meeting the volume of leads into an actual project. Uh now it may be maybe it's longer now, where before it's like, you know, 30 days to 45 days, they're gonna sign the project and they're gonna move forward. But now it seems to be a little bit longer. It's no longer that 30, 45 days, it could be three months. So the question is, why is that happening? You know, considering that there's so many things that Business Central can do is simplifying it. I where why is that happening?

SPEAKER_04:

I had um I don't I don't know for sure. All I know is the answers that I get from asking many people. So the the the answer I got the most was um was first uh the well it's the uncertainty tariffs. Companies, well tariffs are were new, like the new policies in the in the US, import tariffs. Like companies were in a holding pattern to assess okay, what's the impact to our business or our industry before we're gonna do new investments? That was one answer. Um tax reforms, like I think you got the the one big beautiful bill that that was like, oh, we have to assess what does this mean to us. That was the answer I got most of the time. So first I thought, oh, this is all US related until then I spoke to a partner that has most of their business in Europe and they were experiencing the exact same thing. So now, like, is it really the tariffs or is it something global that's going on? Um I think it's a bit of a bit of both, but in general, maybe everyone's looking to the to the US for their own decision making, like okay, what's the US economy gonna do? And then we can make decisions. That that could be it. But I found it surprising that the same pattern was happening in Europe when most of the arguments that I got were very US related. So I don't know with a certainty.

SPEAKER_00:

That is interesting. I had heard similar uh feedback with talking with individuals. A lot of individuals are busy, the pipelines are strong, and I was wondering w if any of it had to do with the evolution of the application itself. And what I mean by that is over the past several years, Microsoft has done a great job at uh documentation, has done a great job at putting out information for individu and also features, added features and documentation with Microsoft Learn. Uh they've created a lot of uh videos, uh as you know, they're creating through some series of how, and also not just Microsoft, other uh individuals that work with the application. You can call them content creators for the sake of this uh conversation, in the sense that they produce output and it's easier to find that information. My question is is there a change in the partner dynamic in their relationship to customers? Because customers can do more themselves with the ability to do so. It's if you look at the evolution of the application back when the vision was first introduced here in the United States, you had a small partner network, the application was updated at a wider interval, you needed to have licensing to make modifications, and that has evolved that that concept had been carried forward through the on-premises, and it's still in place for the on-premises with licensing, well, excuse me, not with licensing, like with objects, uh, and then with Microsoft Dynamics Nav, you needed to still have the license. But now we're in this open world where new customers are going to go with Business Central. A lot of the older customers or long-term users of Business Central that started early back in the day have now migrated to Business Central to where now it's a more feature-rich application, more information-rich application, and in essence almost cheaper because the licensing, if you're going with Business Central Online, you're just paying for your user licensing, any additional space that you need, or any ISV solutions that you need. You can enhance the application if you need it, but again, with it being feature-rich, you may not need it. Yeah. So I'm wondering how much of that is in how much of that has been how much of the partner requirement has been impacted by that? And does that change the type of talent that a partner needs to staff because the partner, excuse me, customers can do more on their own in in essence. And I'm not saying that's a blanket. I I know I'm on a long rant here, but you have customers of varying skill level. But did the skill level change or the requirements change because now you don't need a lot of that uh specific or custom permissions, licensing, or knowledge because a lot of it's being shared, and then some of the licensing has been opened up.

SPEAKER_05:

I agree, Brad. I I think there's a big shift. Now you and I have been in this space in the nav space for quite some time. You know, when you when you implement nav, you have to have a server, you know, it requires a huge team to set that up. With the transition to SaaS, clearly it there's a huge shift uh where you can just buy a license and your environment's put up and it's well documented that you can put your own data in there. Um, you know, clearly you'll need a consultant to for best practices. But in many cases of just to get started, it's pretty uh well documented, it's pretty straightforward. I think that's where the shift is. And on top of that, ISVs, you have an app source now, right? You can just search for what you're looking for. I no longer need to consult with a uh uh uh with a consultant or a partner. It's like I can just get the app myself, but you still do need to consult if you are an end user, you still need to consult to make sure that this tool is the right tool for your business. Um, but I think it's gonna be more of a guidance uh consulting uh than application consulting, I guess.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and that's sort of what I was wondering, and that's sort of what I've been thinking, or similar, not sort of. I'm I'm all of the slings today. See, it's you guys set me off with the hanging in there. The that's that's similar to what I was trying to determine or trying to uh uh uh get from talking with individuals. Not necessarily saying that the need for a partner or a certain level of expertise is gone. There is a need. Again, you you buy this feature-rich application that in essence becomes the lifeblood or the heart of your organization, right? To me, an ERP application is not something you just go, oh, I'm gonna buy this, I'll set it up tomorrow, and my whole organization will run fine. Granted, now if you're just doing financials, maybe you could do that. I'll do a one-to-user system, I just need to do a couple journal entries, set up my chart of accounts, I'm okay. But any organization that does something, they they have uh procurement, uh, orders, inventory, management. I mean, it's a little bit more to set it up, and it's not something to take lightly. But is there a shift from partners doing all of the heavy lifting to being more of an advisory role and then doing more similar to what you had mentioned with the staffing? It's sort of what I was thinking of. Is that trend of, okay, well, your customers in this case will s will find the talent that's more generic or simple, but then that niche specialty type talent they'll come to you. So is that transitioning from the customer point of view that okay, I can do a lot of this generalization myself because that information is available, but then I'll go to my partner or a partner or find somebody to help me with the implementation. And in some cases, many partners to do specific things uh for them.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Um the one thing that I that I do know is I I rarely come across companies that will do the implementation themselves. So uh because you made uh you made a comment with how the landscape is has evolved. Um more information documentation is out there, maybe companies are more capable of doing it themselves. I see a lot of companies being uncomfortable doing that still, like for at least the implementation, they'd like to lean on a partner. I do think you're right that the partner needs to evolve in terms of services ongoing that they need to uh need to offer. And it might start indeed more as advisory rather than just reposition we do implementations, maybe get getting in earlier to already be part of the the advisory um stage or like the the roadmap planning basically before they even choose on business business central. Um but once it's implemented indeed, like what ongoing services could they could they provide for uh for the customers as well. And once that starts when when they bring up new offerings, that then changes the profile of the people working for that or that need to be recruited for it would be the short answer.

SPEAKER_00:

So part so again, so I think so the the partner landscape is changing because of the cycle of implementation where uh uh someone doesn't want to do it all themselves because of newness and because of the importance of the application, but what they lean on a partner for is changing from when it was, okay, you do everything, in essence, to help guide us through the process. We'll tell you what you can do for us. And again, these are general. I'm not saying and we're not we're talking about this here. We're we're generally speaking of what we may be seeing versus or what you may be seeing, or Chris, if any of your exposure as well, versus every implementation, because no two implementations are the same across the board. So uh there's always ends of the extremes. I'm just talking, generally speaking, with the with the volumes, uh the number of customers I think that are having somebody do everything, or even continue once they're up and running with the partner, I think the relationship is also changing. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Yeah, I think I think there's a little bit of shift too because you know, uh with a SaaS product, um it you know, if you're if you're a small business that maybe you have five users or ten users back then, you know, it still requires a team to set that up with you know with a nav with nav application. With BC, you get a license, and if there's only five of you, you could probably do it yourself. I'm not saying all of it, but a good chunk of the tedious work that uh you may not want your a partner to do, like uh data migration or something of some sort. For example, I came across one not long ago where they reached out and said, I just need a license, right? And uh I will do it myself. We're just a finance uh only organization. So and I've heard partners said the same thing, like they've come across clients or prospects where they just need to know somebody is there for them if they get stuck or they may ask for best practices, but majority of the work they're willing to take on because they have that one guy, maybe one IT person that says, Yeah, I can do a data migration, I can look it up in AI, they'll teach me how to do you know, or copilot, they'll teach me to migrate.

SPEAKER_04:

What what what do you guys think of that? Because when I whenever I speak to people about failed projects, the two things that always come up are either change management or data migration.

SPEAKER_00:

I data migrations data migration is a challenge. And the reason why I say it's a challenge, because if you don't understand the data structures on either side, you could run into some challenges because not many systems will have the same schema for their data. And also each system may have additional data that impacts how the operation flows. Change management, I agree with you 100%, is a big impact or has a big impact on the success or failure of an implementation as well. And also. Also uh identifying the the processes, document and processes. Nobody likes to do any documentation. A lot of times individuals like to rely upon a person who knows things, uh, whereas if you document your processes, it helps you go through the implementation uh ahead of time. Uh even more so now there's many tools available that you can uh record individual processes as people are performing them in Business Central, so you at least have that documentation. But I don't think, generally speaking, a data migration is something that you can rely on just an entity to do, unless the entity knows both systems extremely well, and you have your processes identified. Because in Business Central, you can set an item up many different ways, and it has different implications on how that item gets used. Not to say that any of those ways are proper or improper, it's a matter of setting it up and maybe populating values that you don't have in your existing system so that those items will process properly through the system based upon how you want to use them. So you need to have some knowledge of the system, knowledge of the schema as well as how that data is used within the system. And yes, and how that data migration gets done. Uh because I can tell you I worked with an implementation, they did a poor data migration, they went through the process, they didn't have any consistency with the data going the data being generated, or any consistency with the data being imported, and they didn't identify problems to a year later because they thought things were running smoothly, and then they went to run some uh financial information and they realized that the way that they imported their data was extremely uh awkward for the system. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I I I agree with Brad spot on. I mean, like they yes, they could do it, but you know, typically for the data migration, you want some guidance around there, uh, because you're gonna get you know garbage data in and they're gonna have some issues down the road. The change management component, I think that is where uh Aurora, you had mentioned you know, the partner should maybe change the mindset a little bit. And I think uh as a partner, you uh perhaps that's something that you can help focus on or gonna you know helping your clients is like change management. Typically that's a uh uh uh a practice that you have to go through internally uh as an end user. But as a partner, perhaps that's something that you want to encourage or a service that you want to offer is like, hey, look, we'll walk you through the entire process of a change management because it is a necessity when you're about to implement a big ERP uh for your organization. So that could be something that um partners can start doing. Because uh you know, back in the day it was kind of like I'm just standing up an application for you, I'm just a project manager, you deal with your own people. Maybe that's a shift that we need to make. Um I think a lot of them are doing that already. A lot of partners are starting to do that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I I think yes, change management has always been a struggle. And I think it's the sometimes it's seeing the value of it. It's very difficult sometimes to see the value of it until you don't have it. Yeah, it's almost like an insurance policy. I'm paying all this money for an insurance policy, but uh it's it's a waste, you know, it's considered a waste, quote, until you need it. And then you realize, well, why didn't somebody tell me I needed to have an insurance policy? I think the same thing is with some of that documentation, some of those processes. Thankful in 2025, it's a little bit easier to do that. And with you, you've been working with this for two years in this sense. Uh, and over this past two years, there has been a big shift in the application as well with uh features, functionality, emphasis on AI and other areas. Have you noticed in the shift of the type of talent that needs to be recruited as well? Is if you were to look today and where I'm trying to get with this question. In 2023 or 2022, when you had started this, was there a significant number of development positions available and not so many functional consultants? Whereas today, is it the same ratio? As are there a lot more functional consultant project management and less development? What's your notice on the trend of uh positions that need to be filled?

SPEAKER_04:

I I haven't seen a difference in though in the or a change in those two bit by bit and slower than I anticipated, actually. Um I'm seeing requirements for AI, like people need to have worked with AI or need to be comfortable or proficient with co-pilot. I thought that'd go a lot faster though, but only bit by bit do I see that as uh on the list of requirements where for a BC consultant need to know how to build agents. Bit by bit, that's that's that's I see that more.

SPEAKER_05:

That is wild.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I I my thought on that is it's really new. Yeah. The application's new. So I think where are customers in their journey with the application? You have customers that the application's been around for a long time. A lot of features are added to the application. When do customers have the opportunity to adopt those features? So again, if I was using Microsoft Dynamics Nav, I I see this, if even if you look at some of the projects, what are the types of projects? There's upgrades and conversions, migrations, which years and years, for many years, there was a lot of customers in need of migrating to the new version, business central online. That need has been decreased. You know, that whole this is your last upgrade that you'll need. And I say that in quotes because you you may need to make some business changes or business processes or updates based upon the functionality that's added as they continue to add uh wonderful enhancements to the application. So that's where I'm going. Is has there been a shift from the partner's uh uh space because what are the customers doing? Customers that are on business central, if they're on business central online, that need to do that constant upgrade every X interval of time or n interval of time, it's been decreased. There's features that are added. Does the escape the landscape change? And now that I'm happy to hear that you're talking about that because now customers may be able to capitalize on the AI investment from the new customer point of view. Existing customers they may have to catch up because they've been using it. Yeah, whereas a new customer, it's almost okay, now it's part of the application.

SPEAKER_04:

And it it's uh for the new customers, it was probably part of the decision making as well that they chose it because of the features.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, see, so the the landscape is changing in a sense.

SPEAKER_04:

But the adoption is still relatively slow. Um because it needs uh from other conversations that I've had, um indeed like there's always change, especially when you're talking small to mid-size uh businesses. They ever everyone's got a lot on their plane already. Then you got BC introducing new features all the time. Now you've got AI as well. Who's got time really to to explore it? Not many people. So it's um yeah, it it's not moving super fast yet, but it is on everyone's radar.

SPEAKER_00:

I think I'm not uh I'm not a psychic, nor can I read the future, but I think that velocity will change over the next year. I think as the AI everyone's talking about AI, everyone's saying, oh, it's a bubble, everyone's saying this, but I think as AI matures within the application, I I think nobody really knows where it will settle. I think a lot of AI will be thrown at Business Central as well as other applications. I mean, you can have AI and notepad now, right? They're going to throw AI at everything in almost a sense to see what sticks, and then some things will fall off, other things will be enhanced, and then I s my opinion will be that we'll have a need for some of those specialty skills because it's it's really even difficult to find someone with that skill with AI changing so rapidly. Like everyone's talking about MCP at this point. MCP didn't exist how many months ago? Six months ago. I read something over the weekend as well about something else, which is like the next thing for AI. So it's very difficult to adopt AI is still the next thing.

SPEAKER_04:

It is the next thing already.

SPEAKER_00:

It is the next thing, but we had chat-based AI with ChatGPT and such, and then you went into like the thinking models, and then you went into MCP with the tools, and then you know the thinking models being able to use those. And then now I was reading stuff about the next thing with agents and some of this tooling. And it's I think it's difficult for everyone to determine how do you leverage this because it's always in the state of infancy, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And when do you become reliable? Uh when does it become reliable?

SPEAKER_05:

I I think because of the changes so much that it it it's harder for SMBs to react and find a um the right fit for it for their organization. I I think that's the struggle uh in itself. Um even for me, like I there's so many AI, I'm sure it could do a lot of stuff for me, but where do I begin? You know, which one can I automate? Which which process can co-pilot or AI do for me that uh that someone isn't already doing, or maybe there's already an automation that's already doing it. So do I replace the automation that I had built for for AI to take over? Where does it fit? From a business perspective, that's a little difficult, right? Like for someone that says, hey, I want my sales orders that get read from my email or or gets submitted, you may already have an automation for that. You may have EDI already or whatever. But there's agents to create sales orders for you and things like that. Like, how can I fit that? How can I that's a big change in businesses. And to go back to your point of like finding a consultant that also has that experience is going to be a challenge because they're also trying to figure out how can co-pilot or AI fill in those gaps. And it and you're right, it's gonna take some time, uh, but I think eventually it'll find a good footing where it would be very good for an SMB space.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. And also going back to or um yeah, going back to one of the questions you asked earlier, Brett, with the ongoing services that partners could offer. What I a trend that I'm seeing is now that AI is widely available, not just Copilot, but AI, more and more companies are coming up with their own IP. Like we created this AI solution. If you work with us, we can get you this solution, or you'll have access to this solution. It it will create opportun or it is creating opportunities for partners to distinguish themselves. Whereas first we're like, we do implementations and we're all similar, very similar, but now like, oh but we have this this uh IP, we have this solution that no one else has. It it creates more opportunities to both continue to service the customer and distinguish yourself from the competition.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That statement is profound to me for a number of reasons. One because and again it's the tangents that I go on sometimes. I do see the need for partners to be able to differentiate themselves. We've always had that, I believe. You needed to be able to differentiate yourself in some respect, because if you're dealing with a manufacturing company that manufactures something, uh sometimes they have a little bit more comfort in working with somebody who has an understanding of manufacturing and more in tune with exactly what they're doing, if they have that confidence that they're going to understand how their business works. Now you're talking AI, and again, some of this stuff is theoretical and opinion versus uh maybe some of the trends that you're seeing. With AI and AI solutions being developed so quickly today, and I had conversations with someone recently that, and myself included, they didn't know anything about a particular language or application, and they went in a matter of a couple days develop an application that they were ready to use, whereas it could have taken months before. So having that AI IP where others can create that AI IP rather quickly, I don't know how that will impact things in the future. But yes, I agree with that. You still need to have some way to differentiate yourself in a world where you have tools that have expedited what it takes to complete something from a systemic point of view. Uh even more so with multiple systems. Now you can have AI solutions that span multiple solutions, not just business central, but uh if you have uh a suite of products within your organization to make them all work together. Um so it's it's uh I'm wondering where all this will go. And it's it's where will I be? It's it's I think everybody has that same thought. Uh there's some people who are are running, uh some people are walking and then or crawling, and then you have others in the middle that are doing the walking. So it's interesting.

SPEAKER_04:

And then you have you still have the people that are on-prem and are happy where they are.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, you too. You have those that are on premises that are happy with it. Uh but I I go with anything. I think I think using a solution just because is not a good approach. I think using the solution that you need is the most important. Uh, I think there's pros and cons to everything. Uh is it better to have uh a nice fast and speedy jet, or do you just need a regular uh airplane or a bicycle or a motorcycle to complete uh what you need to do? Uh I think it's a matter of making sure you're using the right tool for the job. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_04:

So it's uh but the uh it ain't broke, don't fix it, it's not uh it's not a strategy that should be applied.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, it's depends on content, though. Context.

SPEAKER_00:

I think yes, it does in some with in some regards. If it's not broke, don't fix it. Um but in others, I think that mentality of of putting your head in the sand is also not a good approach because that's what you're yes. No, I think I I I knew exactly. We were the same. You you have monkeys, I have lizards. So you know we we understand what it's like. The that approach is not a good approach because if you're in a business and you have that, if it's not broke, don't fix it when it comes to process or how you're brought operating your organization. Your competition is also in the the need for how do we become more efficient, or how can I streamline my business, or how can I expand my reach, or how can I make something that gives better value to my customers, therefore they want to work with me more. Uh whatever that may be. It doesn't always necessarily have to be fast. Uh it's it's it's either quality, ease of use, or ease of of ordering or working with you, or something like that. So it's it's interesting to see. I think um I'm curious to see where we'll be, and I'm curious to see with you. We'll have to have a follow-up if you track the trends of the type of individuals that you place, how that changes over time in volume. And uh will you ever staff, recruit, place with customers directly? Are you still going to stick primarily with uh partners? Chris, I know you want to jump in there too.

SPEAKER_04:

I'll um it's always good to diversify a little bit. So not not just be too dependent on partners, but also not too dependent on end users, so I'll have a blend. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So can you keep track of those stats?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask. Is there is there like mind-blowing stats, you know, like because certainly you've worked with many different partners, you've seen the trends and how it's going. Like, is there like a a uh a stat that you can share with a group? That's like, ooh, I never thought about that. No, no, I I do have a question for you, Rory, uh, that that's been in the back of my mind is that you know, I I came across a uh an end user that had been working on, you know, working in the manufacturing space or finance space for quite some time, and you're like, I'm ready to be a consultant, right? I want to go into consultancy. And uh uh as you know, with uh perhaps shortages of resources uh for the dynamic space, but then there's like requirements uh that you had brought up, like you know, knowing AI and also at the same time, some partners may not have the time to do, you know, teach you how to be consultant. Like w is there uh what's going on in that space? Is that still happening? Is there still a lot of people from the end user side that wants to do consulting? You know, is that still uh an open opportunity for many of them?

SPEAKER_04:

I actually have two people in the mix right now uh that are exactly that that background that you described. Um it's but those when I so I've got those at the forefront right now. They have been so they're both on the end user side, they've both been part of implementations, subject matter experts, but they have the consultant skills already because they had to be an internal consultant, they were part of the implementation, they were the ones that had to document and get the processes the other way around, get the processes and document them. Um so they already had those soft skills. Yeah, they they need they'll need some refining on how to like because they've never worked in consulting, so there'll be things that they don't know or haven't done yet. Um they will have a good chance. I think someone who's only been an end user who now wants to make the switch, they'll have a bit a steeper learning curve. Yeah, it will be a bit harder for them. But the ones that have had the opportunities to at least been on a project, ideally pro implementation, and had the role of being an internal consultant, not officially that that was their job title, but that was the role that they were playing. That that makes the gap a lot smaller and less frightening to jump over to consulting. And therefore they're open to it because they do realize that going to consulting will be a huge door opener for their career. Where they're now a bit stuck, they don't have much growth, especially being in a small to mid-sized business. There's not yeah, there's only so much you can grow. They can try and move to another company with a similar job, slightly bigger paycheck, but they know if they go into consulting and get a lot more exposure, it will be good for their career.

SPEAKER_03:

Um that still happens.

SPEAKER_04:

Um then it depends on the firm indeed, if they have the bandwidth to train up people. The ones that can train up people, they'll look at a little less internal consulting experience. The ones that don't, they want people to go to hit the ground running, as they say. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00:

I I can understand that. With uh uh you know, just uh keep going all over the place as you were talking about that. Uh within Business Central, that you have the right now today, you have the MB 800, which is the uh functional consulting certification, for lack of better terms, and then you have the MB 820, which is the development certification. In your staffing list of uh prospects that you've worked with or positions that you worked with, excuse me. Has that had any weight on any of the opportunities, or is that always a nice to have type? Or does it not even come up in conversation?

SPEAKER_03:

Often clients don't ask for it.

SPEAKER_04:

They it I think it it it helps. Experience always counts more. Um I think it helps in the scenario where someone hasn't um hasn't been a consultant, for example. Like you don't know how much debt they have with the system. Yeah, you could do a technical interview and ask questions like tell me how you would do this, or tell me where you find this button. Um you can have that kind of interview, but if someone has that uh the certification, at least you know okay, they know the they they know it at this this standard basic level already, um, and have be more confident in that in that without having to do that in that type of interview. But it rarely comes up when I ask my client what are the three things you're looking for, no one's ever said need to be certified.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. I was curious about that with the certifications. If if anyone required of it, or if like I said, if it was one of those like you we were talking about, it's a nice to have. If you have it, you can list it, put it there. Yeah. It may give you a slight advantage over someone else, but the the real important portion is the experience with the I I compare it a little bit, for example, with like a PMI, like a project management uh certification.

SPEAKER_04:

So I I'm not undermining here the MB 800 or MB A20. There's benefits still in having it, even though clients don't ask for it. Um the the comparison with like the PMI, someone can be a project manager and have been a project manager, but I have spoken to a lot of project managers that have winged it most of their career or in in yeah, in their years as a project manager. Whereas there's a lot of standards, like there's structure, there's a certain way, there's methodologies for a reason. Someone who's not certified and have winged it, like maybe they got lucky like in their in the previous job. Like, how do you how do you know that it's gonna work here? When they are certified, you know, okay, these people know the basics, they know the methodology. It's similar with the MB 8 800, like if you know the basics, I I see value in people having it still, even though my clients aren't specifically asking for it. I think for yourself, if that's a career path that you're looking at, I see benefits in in still getting it.

SPEAKER_00:

If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I understand. I was just curious about that. It's like you said, it's um you never take away from any of that the value of any of that. It's just uh how how important that value is to others. And i there's no one size fits all with that. No, it's interesting to see how this world is changing, how the implementation world is changing, and what what partners are looking for, uh, and then also you know, maybe what customers would be looking for as well for positions to fill.

SPEAKER_04:

I just had to add to what I was just saying. I have a client right now. Um they're they're they're smaller, they've they're new in the in the BC field. They want to get, I don't know all the details, but I know they want to become I think they want to become a Microsoft partner. To be a Microsoft partner, you need people who are certified. Yes. So they are asking. They're not asking they have to have it. Their requirement is if they don't have it, are they open to getting it? And will and will pay for it. So it's it's not because they ask they're asking it for like we need this as a minimum level of knowledge, they're asking no, if they have it, that helps us to become to become a state functional partners.

SPEAKER_00:

So with that, with the staffing of partners, uh again to become that partner and you need that certification. I have heard of that story as well, or that situation, excuse me, where will you take it because it helps us with our uh competency skills, I guess you could call them. Yeah. With the change with now Microsoft making the announcement, geez, uh put it uh put it to me with time going so quickly or feeling that it's going quickly. Microsoft making the announcement about a year ago about Great Plains or GP with the sunset in 2029, 2030, whatever it may be at some point in the future. Have you noticed a shift in partners looking for talent? What I mean by that, are there a lot of GP organizations that used to be primarily GP, now looking to um staff up with business central uh expertise?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Um I have. I actually have a requirement like that right now. It's uh it's a partner that they're at the GP shop, but now they're winning BC work, like also net BC, like that they're now also it creates an opportunity for them. Now they're not just going after their GP customer base, they're now also looking at companies that are complete or customers that are completely new to the Microsoft ecosystem. Um so they're they need BC experience because not everyone in GP is is ready, willing, capable of working, uh working in in Business Central.

SPEAKER_03:

Um and yeah, to keep up with the um with uh conversion, I'll say conversions.

SPEAKER_04:

Um yeah, they need more BC talent. Because to just chase um reskill all your TP, it's yeah, it's not fast enough.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, that's a that's a good question.

SPEAKER_00:

That's where I was going to think about this. This is uh these are the things that are on my mind because it and you you're summing it up perfectly with the the reskilling of the talent that they have, because you know, is the evolution in every natural evolution of GP to BC? Is it natural is it a natural evolution to go from GP to BC or GP elsewhere? I think a lot of individuals are starting to think it is to go from GP to BC, good, bad, or indifferent, what you're thinking. And so then again, that's another thing that I've been thinking about and seeing in conversation is is that requirement there for reskilling of GP or staffing up to even help with the reskilling because you can satisfy the migrations of GP and then also learn through osmosis, I guess you can say your internal staff. But the reskill program that has been put together by Microsoft Well is also a great program for talent to learn either uh development uh or uh functional consulting work.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I know I know companies that are using uh that are making use of that program really well. Like they've converted a big part of their team to now be uh BC consultants.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

I've talked and I've talked with several organizations that have gone through that program and they've they have uh said some great had some great stories and great success stories of uh that program to where very few have not been what they call successful, but that happens with anything. I mean you can't the reason why someone's successful or unsuccessful is something there's usually factors in it. But I think overall, from everyone that I've spoken with firsthand about that, has had some favorable experience uh with the reskilling. So uh I figured there was an uptake on that.

SPEAKER_04:

I think it's wise for GP consultants also to actively get your hands on some BC experience.

SPEAKER_05:

But that also goes to both sides too, because if you are a GP consultant and you're looking for a role for a partner that can you can they can you're a benefit to them because you can translate clients from GP to business central. So at the same time, they're learning uh as well. So there is a need for that. I know uh I've seen I mean I've heard a lot of partners that are hiring GP consultants, they'll train them up in business central because at the same time they're um uh uh a great asset uh team uh for the organization because then they can help translate those uh GP to BC.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. But I I think it's unwise if you've got a long time to go in your career still, if you still have to work like 10 years or more, um maybe even five or more. I think it's wise to start looking and get your hands on some BC experience. Um I think it's risky to just rely on GP or a GP expert, because then you're just dependent on what your employer does, and if they ever want to make the switch, it's uh it's a risky place to be.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, don't be that guy that says if it works, don't fix it. And you're a GP.

SPEAKER_04:

There's just not that many companies hiring for GP skills anymore. They there are the exceptions, but it's not Yeah, it's not that many.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, this is all definitely general, generally speaking. It's I have conversations with people and they go, Oh yeah, but I did this, I saw this one doing this. It's it's the volume. Yeah. Whereas before, a few years ago, you'd have, again, customers, a lot more customers. Looking for migrations from another system to Business Central or Business Central upgrades. Right? There are still customers looking for business central upgrades, but not as many as there were two years ago because a lot of the customers have upgraded to Business Central Online and they don't need to go through that intense upgrade process every release. Same thing with GP. You may have some organizations looking to satisfy positions for GP, but generally speaking, they're not looking to fill a GP position. They're looking to fill a GP BC position to help them with their move to BC if they're looking to fill a vacancy. Have you in your experience come across any that are not and I don't know if in your space uh with staffing that you come across these conversations, but I had some conversations with uh others uh customers at Summit. Uh thankfully, I'll tell you, this year I I had a lot more it felt to me there were far more customers at Summit than usual. And I don't mean usual, but the usual in the past there was always a lot of partners and always a lot of customers. So I'm not taking away from uh the conference. The conference is a great conference, and I think any customer should send their staff there to be able to see more about the application, how they can gain some efficiencies. But one thing I noticed at the conference was there was a larger, it felt to me there were a lot more customers than usual based on percentages, and also a lot more new to Summit, which means there's a an influx of either they had the application and they didn't send customers or extend their uh staff before, or they're just new to the application and they're new to it being there. But I was talking with some and they were talking about how they weren't replacing positions. For example, they'd have certain positions. We talked about the whole AI space, and it's not that they're reducing positions, they're just not replacing positions. So if through natural occurrences, whether it's retirement or somebody vacating a position for another opportunity, they're not filling a lot of these positions because they feel within the uh application and technology they can gain some efficiencies. Do you have any exposure to that in your in your space?

SPEAKER_04:

Not much because normally I'm brought in when they do need to replace. They don't contact me to say, hey, we we're not gonna replace. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

I wonder how I could get that stat. Yeah, that's a good one. I wonder if we could do a poll or something somehow. Because again, I see that's why I'm saying I didn't know how your exposure was for just what you said. Like you they're not going to call you to say, Oh, we're we don't need somebody, but I just didn't know if in conversations you you know, uh secondhand conversations, the third hand conversations, you heard that as well. Chris, have you heard anything about that?

SPEAKER_05:

Uh no, not not necessarily. Uh maybe indirectly, but uh I never thought about that.

SPEAKER_04:

I have like when I when I had the conversation about a year ago about when um co-pilot was relatively new still and everyone there were a lot of statements, oh copilot's gonna take over, or um what's the ROI of co-pilot? Can we cut loose part of the workforce? And it was a lot like no, it's not we're not gonna cut it cut anyone loose, we're gonna help people, like these are tools. Um but there were comments being made indeed that um indeed companies wouldn't replace like if people were to leave they'll see if they can manage without uh without replacing them. But that was just a year ago, and that that was thinking about scenarios. I haven't heard about how it's actually playing out.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think AI today, I think that whole AI will replace me. I don't think AI will replace people in a sense. I think people using AI will replace people, but I think we also need to be re-skilled to the way we think, is is what it is. So I think individuals will similar to how we talk about reskilling from GP to BC, I think anybody will need to, in essence, reskill the way they think and the way they utilize AI to be more successful in their position. So it's not it's replacing me, it's just making me a little bit more efficient in my responsibilities. I think you're right, Brad.

SPEAKER_05:

I think you you you hit it right there, Brad. It's it's um you gotta shift that mindset. I I think right now there's a lot a little bit of fear, um, you know, which is rightfully so, that if if an an AI is showing you a process that it can do, and that's something that you do, maybe 20% of your time, it'll save you 20% of time. And then you can do other things that are much more uh valuable than some of those tedious things. So you you're right, you have to shift that mindset. And I don't think anyone's doing a good job right now. I think everyone's saying, like, hey, it will do all this for you, and then everyone was like, that's what I do, you know, and what's gonna happen to me? And and that's that creates fear, especially the unknown. Like what like right now we're all we don't know where AI is gonna be six months from now. Like the the unknown scares people, and and I I get it. It's a it's a scary thing.

SPEAKER_00:

I I think you have to be aware, cognizant of what's going on, but I don't think you need to panic all the time.

SPEAKER_05:

I think maybe the mindset is like, hey, it will do that for me. What else can I do? Right?

SPEAKER_03:

That that kind of be uh thing you can do.

SPEAKER_04:

So what do you guys think is gonna be the biggest thing for 2026 then?

SPEAKER_00:

Like what the b biggest thing?

SPEAKER_04:

Well, the next what's gonna be a a new hot topic? Is it something brand new in AI?

SPEAKER_00:

Is it something I what's I think it'll be something brand new in AI? I don't think I think this AI train is because AI is so broad.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Like we you can't say AI AI is is broad. It's what is AI and in what area? Is it just within business central? Is it AI with autonomous vehicles, robotics, right? So I think I think AI will be the big buzz still. I think there will be something new with AI on how it's applied within software. I think something that I talked about in previous episodes, I think software will become faceless. I think we'll start to see that in 2026, maybe towards the tail end of 2026, where people are creating applications that are on-demand applications where you don't need the interface defined for you. You're going to define the interface for you. The business logic will exist, the data will exist, but how you interact with that will be um uh for lack of better terms, on demand. We'll have to play this back. I want to save this and see at the end of 2026. I I see something like that happening. Uh again, nobody knows. I I can tell you.

SPEAKER_04:

Maybe I'll I'll I also wanted to retweak my question a little bit. What do you think will keep you busy the most in 2026?

SPEAKER_01:

Me busy? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, while you're thinking about Brad, while you think about that answer, let me answer that. Uh okay, for me, it's gonna be there's gonna be a lot of guidance still, I think, from uh you become more a little bit more business consultant than application consultant. And uh Brad and I talked about this on the last episode when we did a conference recap. And and one of the things that I found that was very profound was the comment that Charles Lamana had said, um, you know, low code as we know is dead. And so that that is a weird shift in my mind when I thought about that. It's like what does that mean? And it goes back to what Brad was saying, it becomes applications, it will almost become um faceless or or UI-less because now it becomes it more of a con conversational component. Um you're interacting now with a AI to accomplish a very specific uh uh you know goal, to accomplish a very specific goal. And I think that's where it's gonna be. Um, you know, Brad had mentioned about MCP, where you can have applications talk to each other. And yeah, it's less interaction and more conversation, I think, in my it less interaction with application, but more conversation with application. So I think that's that's going to continue. And the next big big thing is that conversation. Now I'm curious about the verbal component. You know, can instead of typing, can I just talk to it from an enterprise perspective?

SPEAKER_00:

Man, you know what I mean. Forget what's going to keep me busy, but while I was thinking about this towards the end of last week and even over the weekend talking about it, I want to create an AI of something, meaning I want to spend time with somebody, record every single interaction that I have with them in a transcription point of view, feed it into a system with AI that can learn in essence, right, with short-term memory. There's ways you can set that up. And and then hook it up to something like um um 11 labs where you can have voice and then maybe something like uh another system that can create animations to almost create a person that was trained on conversations and interacting with somebody for like an entire year, let's say. And then would it be like I was talking with that person?

SPEAKER_05:

See, we talked about that too, Brad. So Gurori, this is a thing that I see, foresee in the future is that I think the missing piece for anyone to trust AI is we always have to put a face on something, like robotics, right? It's not just a robot. You you you put a face that's familiar, that looks human-like. So, first I think the next thing would be voice, right? Now, instead of typing, I can have a conversation. The the last piece in that where we are gonna be crazy futuristic is to have a face. So um they always talked about agents as kind of like your co-worker, they become your coworker, which is why it's called co-pilot, right? I can just have a conversation now that there's a face, it makes it easy for me to trust and say, hey, this person's gonna do exactly what I asked them to do in a conversational way. And I think that at that point I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_04:

But you're you're uh you you Chris, you're talking about indeed the the agent having having a face so it feels more familiar. What unless I misinterpreted, it seemed like Brett was describing how he can create his own avatar that will be like him and he can kick back and relax.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, you could do the same thing, right?

SPEAKER_00:

I I don't want it I want it to be not me kicking back and relaxing. I want it to be create uh I don't want to say a companion, because then people think I'm weird, but you can create some somebody that you can interact with that resembles somebody that you already know. And it's not to replace them, it's just to see how we get there because now you can use Grok, you can use other tools where they talk back to you, you can have a conversation with them. But that's going to be more or less based upon that uh model that they have. I'm saying, what if I recorded every interaction that I had with Rory for a year so that you could pick up the dialogue, pick up the responses in certain types of situations, feed that into an AI, and then now I could sit and have a conversation with Rory as if we were together. And it still could use it still could use today's news, it still could use today's current events, but it's almost like creating a Rory in perpetuity that will never change, but it has your mannerisms, it has your vocabulary, it has your style, it has the things that make you unique. That's why you talk about what will keep me busy for the next year. I'm thinking about where will AI be within the next year that could we actually do something like that and have it be effective and then add that to this is this is just well, I think Rory had a good point that you know, could you build your own avatar?

SPEAKER_05:

I I I think that would be another wonderful idea because then you can feed all the information because you know we forget, right? Humans forget, they compartmentalize information, and then maybe you'll remember it takes a long time to remember. So if you were to feed all of that about yourself, and then if I need to ping, I think look, do you ever talk to yourself sometimes? I do, right? Like I sit down, like uh, you know, I talk to myself. Um, but instead of me just talking to myself in my mind, I can talk to that avatar that I created that I fed all my thoughts and information, and I can just like, hey, do you remember? Did I ever talk to about that? What was my thought on that? And they could give it back to me. It's like, oh now I remember it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, that would be one. I call people just uh just because I need to think out loud. Thinking out loud helps me in coming up with solutions, but I don't want to talk to myself, so that just I I like to talk to myself too.

SPEAKER_00:

This is this is a whole other I think we could have a whole episode talking about this um as as we go forward. Agents needs to have pace.

SPEAKER_04:

I think that's the takeaway.

SPEAKER_00:

What what do you think will be the thing for 2026 as we we wrap this up here?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh that's a good one.

SPEAKER_04:

I don't want to just say AI, that's too too generic. I'll make it a bit more specific to my field. I think what we said at the start of the call, where a lot of companies were not putting pen to paper for new projects. BC has so many reasons to be very, very busy why there should be a lot of projects. I I think it's gonna come through in 2026. Like you got your nav people still to go to BC, you got your GP people now starting to move because there's a lot more movement this year with the GP people than there was last year. So I'd like to I think that's gonna continue to 2026. And then you've got all the net new clients, the people that are not happy with Net Suite or the that need to go for QuickBooks. There's just so many reasons why people, why BC should be really, really busy. And I think 2026 is gonna be the year.

SPEAKER_00:

So so you have you see a big uptick in business central implementations for 2026. Yeah, business central projects. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Okay. All right. Well, let's let's let's kind of put a uh a bookmark on this.

SPEAKER_05:

That's a positive one.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm sure we'll we'll we'll talk we'll talk throughout the year, uh, definitely. Uh and also uh that's what do you call that? That stropha strudel?

SPEAKER_03:

Strobust. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00:

I can't uh I have to keep talking because I want more of those. That um that was a pleasant treat. And uh, you know, I look forward to seeing you. Are you going directions North America?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh I th I think so, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

In Orlando again. Same same city, different location. But if you do, please bring some. I will I will uh search for you. Uh and you're not usually too difficult to spot. With the orange shirt. Yeah, I was going to say you stand out. Uh I I almost look at the McLaren, the McLaren orange, and I I can spot that far away. Uh but please bring some of those. I want to thank you for those, those are great. Uh we'll we'll see where we are in April uh with our predictions if any of this comes forward. Uh but before we wrap up, uh, can you if anyone would like to learn more about um staffing, recruiting, or if they have any opportunities that they're looking for, or any opportunities to fill within the business central space, uh, what's the best way to get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_04:

Um email uh email address Rory at thegoodalent.co, not dot com. Someone took that already and now they're trying to sell it to me for a couple thousand bucks. Uh so dot co. Um and uh the fun fact, the good talent is not to post, but the good is my translation of my surname. So my surname's actually Rory the Good. So the good talent. I love it.co.

SPEAKER_00:

Excellent, excellent. Uh well, thank you. And we'll have a link to your profile within the show notes as well. So if anyone um had a difficulty with that, they'll be able to see it. Perfect. Uh thank you again for taking the time to speak with us. We appreciate it and look forward to keeping in contact with you through the year, and then this time next year, we'll have a follow-up to see if our predictions came true. Talk with you soon. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thank you, Chris, for your time for another episode of In the Dynamics Corner Chair. And thank you to our guests for participating.

SPEAKER_05:

Thank you, Brad, for your time. It is a wonderful episode of Dynamics Corner Chair. I would also like to thank our guests for join joining us. Thank you for all of our listeners tuning in as well. You can find Brad at developerlife.com. That is D V L P R L I F E dot com. And you can interact with them via Twitter, D V L P R L I F E. You can also find me at mattalino.io, m-a-t-a-l-in-o.io, and my Twitter handle is Mattalino16. And see you can see those links down below in the show notes. Again, thank you everyone. Thank you, and take care.

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Kris

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Brad

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