The Microsoft Dynamics community is full of influencers. With the Dynamics industry growing year on year, it looks like these influencers are going to become more and more important. So, who and what are the people, places and platforms that those in the Dynamics community should be up on?

1. Satya Nadella: Microsoft’s Chief Executive Office

Satya became Microsoft’s Chief Executive Office in February 2014 after demonstrating extraordinary leadership in a number of roles within the company since he joined Microsoft in 1992. He only gave his first talk in the UK in November 2014, and he’s getting paid £84 million. With 345K Twitter followers and 60,509 Facebook likes on his public page his reach is profound.

2. Hitachi Solutions America

Microsoft’s 2014 CRM Partner of the Year, Hitachi Solutions America is a large consulting firm and systems integrator based in the US. They aim to reinvent IT by offering Global Turnkey Industry Solutions via Microsoft Dynamics. Their President and Global Chief Operating Officer, Mike Gillis, has claimed that Microsoft Dynamics has both enabled the company by making the Dynamics product so good, but has also made the market more competitive because the Partner channel is so pervasive.

3. Kirill Tatarinov: executive vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions Group

Kirill Tatarinov is the executive vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions Group. In this role, he’s responsible for Microsoft Dynamics with respect to sales, development, marketing and operations. Essentially, he’s the person in charge of Dynamics. He’s therefore very important. He’s got well over 500 connections on LinkedIn, and 2,761 Twitter followers all dedicated to Dynamics.

4. Zero2Ten

Zero2Ten is 2014’s Dynamics Cloud Partner of the Year. This makes them very important in the eyes of Microsoft. If you’re looking for an example of how a Partner can give business’s the perfect cloud solution, Zero2Ten would be a good place to look.  5. Dustin Gustafson: community manager on the official Microsoft Dynamics Community site Dustin is the number one community manager on the Microsoft Dynamics community site. The team has also just launched a blog covering AX, NAV, CRM and other Dynamics news. You’ll find him and his dedicated team of Dynamics experts on the forum every day of the year, resolving problems and answering questions. He’s also in charge of development on the site, leading site updates, changes and features upgrades wherever necessary.

6. Microsoft on Twitter        

If you’re looking for Twitter profiles that are going to give you comprehensive coverage of Microsoft and Dynamics, @MSFTnews (723K followers) is a great place to start. If you want to drill down and access deeper, more specific Dynamics-related news, @MSFTDynamics (37.7K followers) is perfect for you.    

7. Convergence Conference

If you’d prefer to be influenced face to face, then head to the Convergence conference. The next one is in Atlanta, Georgia (US), in March. This year, both Satya Nadella and Kirill Tatarinov will be presenting keynote speeches at Convergence, along with potentially hundreds of presentations and workshops by Dynamics professionals. In other words, Convergence is the place to be to see where Dynamics is going in the coming year(s), and it’s growing all the time.

8. Peter A. Jensen: Microsoft Dynamics Community Blog

Peter has been working alongside Microsoft for over a decade now. However, go to his popular Microsoft Dynamics Community Blog, and you’ll see that he has been a Dynamics NAV partner for even longer – 1992, in fact. He is the current leader of the US Partners Programs team.

9. OnWindows

This is probably one of the largest online blogs for Dynamics news. The site covers a variety of different Microsoft products, like Office, Windows 8, Cloud, Big Data, and more… The site therefore pulls more general readers into the Dynamics world. Headed up by Rebecca Lambert, the editorial team at OnWindows delivers detailed Dynamics news in a timely fashion. With 1,416 followers on Twitter (and counting), they’re certainly a voice to be reckoned with.  As you can see, the Dynamics industry is full of influential people, places and platforms. If you’re an industry veteran, these are the influencers you should be watching. If you’re not yet cemented in the industry, keep updated with our thoughts by joining us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  For the latest Dynamics roles and talent, visit our site.