MVP Insights: Rick McCutcheon on Microsoft Involvement, Building Community

Welcome to “MVP Insights,” a podcast that explores the universe, ideas, and opportunities of the brightest stars in the Microsoft business applications ecosystem. 

In episode 62, Giuseppe Ianni chats with 12x Microsoft MVP Rick McCutcheon, President, PartnerTalks, about his podcast, Microsoft involvement, Community Summit, and what motivates him to continue building community.

Agents & Copilots are defining the future of Dynamics, CRM, Power Platform, Azure, Fabric, and more. Register for Community Summit NA 2025, running October 19-23 in Orlando, FL, to explore and discover what this means to you.

Key Takeaways

• PartnerTalks: After speaking at conferences and being interviewed by podcasters over the years, Rick decided to start recording his own podcasts. He’s five years into his PartnerTalks podcast.
• Microsoft involvement: When Microsoft launched CRM, he contacted his local Microsoft office to speak with the person heading Dynamics CRM. With Microsoft recognizing his knowledge of CRM, he began helping train partners for the company. After doing customer events, he also wanted to be part of building a community in Canada. He’s been part of organizing events and building a strong community ever since.
• Summit NA: Rick will be speaking at Community Summit North America. He will be presenting his session “Discover Cost-Saving Strategies for Your Dynamics 365 CE CRM Project**” covering cost savings, different ISV applications, and more. “I think it’s going to be a really insightful conversation,” he noted. For end users, in his session, he aims to answer questions such as:
  • How do we make sure that we’re spending our money properly and getting our best value out of our Dynamics CE install?
  • As a partner going forward, how do I become more competitive as I’m talking to my existing customers about what they can do better?
  • For new accounts, why go to Dynamics?
  • What are your options around the economics and the ROI of your installation?
• Drive and motivation: Rick emphasizes his love for entrepreneurs as the drive behind his continued involvement. “There’s a lot of new blood coming into the space, young people that are looking at AI saying, ‘How can I build a product with AI and form it so it fits in and everybody wants to use it?'” He continues, “I’m really excited about innovation and innovators.” He mentors some individuals entering the space who are building applications and AI agents, as this is something he gets excited about. He’s also working with partners on Customer Insights Journeys to help them optimize across their organizations.

Stream the audio version of this episode here: