Special Report: Interview with Bob McAdam on Cavallo’s Innovation and Strategic Partnerships

In this “Inside Dynamics Communities” special report, John Siefert, CEO of Dynamics Communities and Community Summit North America, hosts Bob McAdam, VP of Strategic Partnerships, Cavallo. The two discuss the big focuses of Cavallo, the products the company is developing for Dynamics GP and Dynamics Business Central, and Community Summit North America.

Highlights

00:23 — After introducing Bob, who manages “a ton of the partnerships over at Cavallo,” John asks about what the big things are going on at the company.

01:08 — Cavallo, who is a strong leader in the Dynamics GP space, is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary in September 2023. Bob explains that Cavallo is developing new products in the Dynamics GP space and the company has “decoupled” some of its existing products to be smaller and deliver more value. Cavallo is working with other independent software vendors (ISVs) in the Dynamics GP community to continue to keep customers “who want to stay sticky with Dynamics GP.” Bob notes that “for customers who want to stay in Dynamics GP on-premise, or in the Power GP online cloud, they can do that and not have to worry, because a lot of us are going to be here for the long haul.”

01:59 — “We saw this so loud and clear at Community Summit North America in 2022,” says John, who adds that this was one of his favorite things at the recent Community Summit. On the first day of Community Summit, there was a session for users that were new to Dynamics GP. So many organizations rely on this platform to run their businesses and they don’t wish to move away from it.

02:42 — Bob agrees, and adds that many of Cavallo’s customers “don’t want to go anywhere,” and are content to stay put. In addition to the innovations with Dynamics GP, Cavallo is also heavily involved in the Dynamics Business Central (BC) category — both on-premise and in the cloud.

03:30 — About a year and a half ago, Cavallo started creating and releasing Business Central apps in the Microsoft App Store. The company is taking its 20 years of experience and applying it to the Business Central marketplace where it feels it can be competitive, fill gaps, and not have to worry about much competition. Cavallo’s data scientists and developers are producing great applications for customer management workflow and analytics for Business Central. Bob says this has been an area of focus for Cavallo and the company’s growth.

05:02 — Another important focus of Cavallo’s is optimization. John notes that the premise of optimization and optimizing business processes are easily recognized across Cavallo’s website and through its work with partners and customers. “That’s exactly right,” agrees Bob. The company ensures that its partners’ and customers’ documents and processes are being guided through the system “the right way, the first time.”

07:05 — John references the upcoming Microsoft partner event, Directions North America, around Dynamics Business Central and asks Bob what his expectations are for the event. Bob says Cavallo has high expectations for the event and thinks it will shatter the attendance record. In 2022, the event came close to doing so. Cavallo will be attending as a Gold Sponsor and will get stage time to discuss its latest projects.

08:51 — Cavallo will also be attending Community Summit North America, which is taking place from Oct. 15-20 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bob adds he is excited to connect with familiar and new faces.

09:24 — Last year, 56% of Community Summit attendees were “new faces” that have never been to Summit before, says John. This year, many new partners will be brought into the event which is “the beauty of the partners ecosystem world that we’re in.”

10:30 — To further connect with Bob, find him on LinkedIn.