AI, Microsoft Copilot, and Copyright
Jan02

AI, Microsoft Copilot, and Copyright

Firstly, a Happy New Year to everyone – I’m sure that you have amazing plans for 2024, and wish you the best of luck with them! Over the last few months, I’ve been keeping a close eye on Copilot (since it was announced as being in GA), and various happenings around the wider AI scene. It seems almost impossible to find someone who is NOT aware of the OpenAI happenings towards the end of… Continue Reading...

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Developer environments – new capabilities to create for users
Oct23

Developer environments – new capabilities to create for users

Developer environments are awesome. There – I’ve said it for the record. Formerly known as the ‘Community Plan’, developer environments are there for users to be able to play with things, get up to speed, test out new functionality, etc. They’re free to use – even with premium capabilities & connectors, users do not need premium licensing in place (caveat – if it’s enabled as a...

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Developer Environment Routing!
Sep20

Developer Environment Routing!

Recently I talked about the wider vision that organisations would be able to use, for helping users get access to the right environments (Default Environment – How to handle? » The CRM Ninja). As part of this, I discussed the Microsoft vision of having environment routing in place, to move users automatically to specific environments. At the point of writing, there wasn’t anything that I… Continue Reading...

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Default Environment – How to handle?
Jul25

Default Environment – How to handle?

As we’re all aware, the default (Power Platform) environment in any Azure tenant is a very ‘interesting’ thing to have. It’s there by default when an Azure tenant is created, all users within the Azure tenant automatically have access to it, we’re not able to restrict users from being in it, etc etc. Though it’s able to be backed up, it’s not able to be restored over… Continue Reading thecrmninja’s Article on their blog...

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New Power Platform Security Role Editor
May10

New Power Platform Security Role Editor

We’ve all been there. Security role wise, that is. It’s the point in any project where we start looking at configuring user security. To do this, we’ve used the Security Role section in the Settings area (once it’s actually loaded, of course): Ah, the joys of this – dating back to CRM 3.0 (to my recollection – though it possibly might be 4.0). All of these lovely little circles, which…...

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Reflections on MVP Summit
May02

Reflections on MVP Summit

A few weeks back, I was fortunate enough to travel to Redmond, Seattle (in the USA), to partake in-person in the Microsoft MVP Summit. To say that this was an experience like no other is likely to be an understatement. Some people may be unfamiliar with what MVP Summit is. As a Microsoft ‘Most Valuable Professional’, we can engage with Microsoft in various different ways. These include… Continue Reading...

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Developer Environment Deletion!
Apr11

Developer Environment Deletion!

Strong title for a blog post, right? Well, I did want to catch your attention! So what exactly are we talking about here? For the last few years, it’s been possible for users to sign up for a ‘Developer’ plan, which gives them a full capability Power Platform environment for free (though with some limitations to them). This used to be be called the ‘Community’ plan, and is an amazing… Continue...

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Power BI & Dataverse Solutions
Feb28

Power BI & Dataverse Solutions

With the recent announcement of Power BI being able to be included in Power Platform solutions, LOTS of people were celebrating. Finally there would be the ability to not only include Power BI reports within solutions, but we could then also automate (aka ALM) it as well! Celebrations all round….well, for the most part. See, although the documentation (see Power Platform solutions can now… Continue Reading...

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Justin Wilkinson on The Oops Factor

Finding out from Justin how he got into his love of watches, starting off with on-premise systems, and learning the importance of saying no rather than taking on/helping everyone out. If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post

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Kartik Kanakasabesan on The Oops Factor

Talking to Kartik about his love of reading & science fiction (Isaac Asimov, anyone?), as well as touching on development tools, capabilities & limitations. Technology moves on in interesting ways! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to… Continue Reading...

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The story of MFA & the Centre of Excellence
Jan03

The story of MFA & the Centre of Excellence

I’ve been rolling out the Microsoft Centre of Excellence solution for several years now at customers. It’s a great place to start getting a handle on what exactly is going on within a Power Platform tenant, though there’s obviously so much more that takes place within a Centre of Excellence team. The solution gathers telemetry around environments, Power Apps, Power Automates etc through the… Continue Reading...

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Metadata behaviour with solutions
Nov22

Metadata behaviour with solutions

Let’s start with a definition: Metadata is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data Crystal clear, right? Well, to anyone who’s unfamiliar with the concept of metadata, this is probably NOT so clear. So what is metadata? Well, the way that I like to describe it is as a set of data that contains information about something. So for example, if I were… Continue Reading thecrmninja’s...

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Active or inactive, that is the question?!?!
Nov15

Active or inactive, that is the question?!?!

Catchy title, right? Well I was wondering what exactly I should use for this blog post, and as you’ll see as we go through things, this is probably quite a good paraphrase to use. So, where to start? Well, with a customer, of course! Now, this customer has been running live with a custom Dynamics 365 solution for a little while. Importantly for this story, there have not been ANY releases… Continue Reading...

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Power Platform Capacity Monitoring
Oct25

Power Platform Capacity Monitoring

If I look back at customer engagements over the last few years around Power Platform, whether it was a new capability or an existing capability, there was ONE thing that stood out above all. This was the ability to be able to track capacity usage over time, and to be honest, most organisations weren’t really doing very well at it. For those who are unaware, there are actually three… Continue Reading thecrmninja’s...

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AMA FT The CRM Ninja
Oct24

AMA FT The CRM Ninja

The CRM Ninja appears as the GUEST in the new ‘AMA with The CRM Ninja’ series! Guest hosted by the amazing Michael Roth, he puts The CRM Ninja through some quite interesting questions! If you’d like to nominate someone to appear on the series, please complete the form at https://forms.office.com/r/8krGeFLYye The post AMA FT The CRM Ninja appeared first on The CRM… Continue Reading thecrmninja’s Article on...

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Adam Belak on The Oops Factor
Oct07

Adam Belak on The Oops Factor

Talking to Adam about how he decided (together with the AMAZING Kaila) to start up a new Microsoft conference, and the MAJOR twist that they’re bringing with it! Also covering a vehicle accident that he was involved in, & how it changed his life Make sure to also check out https://www.iberiansummit.com/ and register for it! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up… Continue Reading...

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Daniel Laskewitz on The Oops Factor
Sep30

Daniel Laskewitz on The Oops Factor

Finding out from Daniel about his love of beer & getting into brewing (he just ‘may’ happen to have decided on a name to use for the brand if it goes commercial), how he first started to technology, & what he is REALLY an expert in! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other… Continue...

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Eswar Prakash on The Oops Factor
Sep16

Eswar Prakash on The Oops Factor

Talking to Eswar about his dual love of AI & music (some interesting correlations!), & covering what could happen with specific commands being used on a NON-Microsoft system… If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Eswar… Continue Reading...

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Damien Bird on The Oops Factor
Sep09

Damien Bird on The Oops Factor

Talking to the community legend that’s Damien about his vegetable garden, how he got into gardening in the first place, and a sudden medical condition coming out of nowhere that has an impact on life moving forward If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are… Continue Reading...

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Ken Auguillard on The Oops Factor

Chatting to the AMAZING rockstar that is Ken around our common love of BBQ – find out if he’s a low/slow or high/fast kind of guy. Also touching on a motorbike incident some years back that shaped his approach to life moving forward – some VERY powerful lessons to hear & learn from! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have…...

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Hardit Bhatia on The Oops Factor
Aug26

Hardit Bhatia on The Oops Factor

Talking to the AMAZING Hardit about his love of sports, finding out just WHO his ultimate sports hero is, & discovering a life-changing event that happened as a child, with how it changed his life since… If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available… Continue Reading...

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Kristine Kolodziejski on The Oops Factor
Aug19

Kristine Kolodziejski on The Oops Factor

Finding out from Kristine about her love of chocolate & drumming (not sure which one is more important to her?), some challenges when she was growing up, and how her career has evolved over time! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to… Continue Reading...

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Interacting with Microsoft

People sometimes wonder about what is the best way to interact with Microsoft. In fact, this post isn’t strictly aimed at interacting with Microsoft, but can also be taken as a general guide to interacting with any organisation. The reason for deciding to write about this comes from a conversation that I had last week with a good friend, who was having issues in finding a resolution to an… Continue Reading...

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Liz Pham on The Oops Factor
Aug12

Liz Pham on The Oops Factor

Talking to the wonderful Liz around her love of cooking (in specific circumstances), her rock climbing hobby, and some very important lessons learned from a specific rock climbing incident! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The… Continue Reading...

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Power Platform ALM Changes
Aug09

Power Platform ALM Changes

As a starter for 10, if you haven’t yet looked into ALM for Power Platform, you should most definitely be doing so! ALM is, of course, Application Lifecycle Management. This is how, in a nutshell, we move solutions between environments. In the good old days, this was done manually of course (CRM 4.0, I’m looking at you!). Today, though it is of course still possible to export/import… Continue Reading...

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Hillel Fuld on The Oops Factor
Aug05

Hillel Fuld on The Oops Factor

Talking to Hillel about his love of drones – how he got into it to start off with, the joys of it, and why he thinks that they’re so amazing! Also talking about entrepreneurs, launching new products/services, and the KEY things to be aware of when bringing something new to the market! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have… Continue...

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PL-500: Microsoft Power Automate RPA Developer
Aug02

PL-500: Microsoft Power Automate RPA Developer

RPA (or Robotic Process Automation) is a capability that Microsoft has been developing for a while within the Power Platform space. Whilst cloud flows can be used to interact with any systems that has an API in place, many organisations have (legacy) systems that have no API, so interacting with them can be challengin. RPA capabilities allow organisations to be able to interact with any system… Continue Reading...

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Dani Kahil on The Oops Factor

Talking to Dani about how he recently started getting into karate, what happens when a project discovery goes wrong, & how to engage & set up for success overall! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Dani Kahil on The Oops… Continue Reading...

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Wave 2 2022 – Omnichannel
Jul26

Wave 2 2022 – Omnichannel

I know it’s taken me a week (or two) to get round to this, but I’ve had other things on the go (such as starting my new job, for instance). However it wouldn’t be this time of year without doing a summary of new features for the Wave 2 2022 release. As with previous posts in this area, I’ll be focusing on the Customer Service side of things, and also more precisely with a focus on the… Continue Reading...

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Geetha Sivasailam on The Oops Factor
Jul22

Geetha Sivasailam on The Oops Factor

Having a great chat with Geetha on cooking, gardening, & the ‘wonders’ of customer security requirements. Obviously security is important, but when it’s enforced in the wrong way, it can have VERY unintented consequences! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that…...

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Recognition as Microsoft Partner for Business Application Solutions
Jul19

Recognition as Microsoft Partner for Business Application Solutions

It’s been a little while since I’ve previously blogged around developing customer solutions and the Microsoft Specialisations. Since I spoke about it last year (Apps & Microsoft Partner Specialisations) the landscape has moved on a little, and I thought that it would be good to take a look again at it. Currently in the Business Applications space, there’s a single specialisation. This is… Continue Reading...

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Peter Ward on The Oops Factor
Jul15

Peter Ward on The Oops Factor

Discovering with Peter how he got into yoga initially, upgrading customers to the latest technologies, & the importance of focusing on the positives during projects! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Peter Ward on The… Continue Reading...

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Justin Carter on The Oops Factor
Jul08

Justin Carter on The Oops Factor

Talking to Justin about his love of Jeeping (some REALLY cool things that he gets involved in), & why it’s SO important to keep the BIG PICTURE in mind for projects! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Justin Carter on The… Continue Reading...

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Paul Slade on The Oops Factor
Jul01

Paul Slade on The Oops Factor

Chatting to Paul Slade as to why he decided to start training on an Army Medic course, recognising technology limitations, & the importance of our relationships with vendors for projects! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post

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Mat Batterbee on The Oops Factor
Jun24

Mat Batterbee on The Oops Factor

Finding out from Mat as to how he got into social media creation, his time in Army training, and how the challenges along the way have taken him to where he is now! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Mat Batterbee on The… Continue Reading...

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New Platform DLP Capabilities
Jun21

New Platform DLP Capabilities

DLP (or Data Leakage Prevention) is a very important capability in the Power Platform. With being able to bring together multiple data sources, both within the Microsoft technology stack as well as from other providers gives users amazing capabilities. However with such great capabilities comes great responsibility. Of course, we trust users to be able to make proper judgements as to how… Continue Reading thecrmninja’s...

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Robin Rosengrün on The Oops Factor
Jun17

Robin Rosengrün on The Oops Factor

Chatting to Robin to find out how he got to love mountain biking, a recent biking episode, & what happened when a last-minute finance app was deployed using SharePoint lists as the datasource! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The… Continue Reading...

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Roma Gupta on The Oops Factor

Talking to Roma about gardening in a small space, touching on pigeons, and delving into MDM. No, it’s not Master Data Management, it’s Dynamics 365 Marking 1.0! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Roma Gupta on The Oops… Continue Reading...

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Environment types, capabilities & backups
May24

Environment types, capabilities & backups

Interesting title to start a blog post with, right? I can’t tell you how much I tried to work out what to call this, but then I figured that I’d just put at a high level what I’m going to be talking about! So let’s start at the beginning. Environments within Dataverse. An environment is essentially a container for all sorts of different components, such as data models, apps, code, etc.

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Joy Ibeabuchi-Emedom on The Oops Factor
May20

Joy Ibeabuchi-Emedom on The Oops Factor

Chatting to Joy about her love of reading, the education system she came up in, & how getting caught up in the ‘focus zone’ can make us forget the world that’s going on around us! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Joy… Continue...

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Foyin Olajide-Bello on The Oops Factor
May13

Foyin Olajide-Bello on The Oops Factor

Talking about Foyin’s love of animated movies (including times away from the kids!), the ‘joys’ of DLP changes, and what might happen as a result of doing work on an app, to then find out that though you thought you were working in the Development environment, you actually weren’t! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you…...

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Rachel Irabor on The Oops Factor

Talking to Rachel about her love of reading, some favourite authors, her journey into #PowerPlatform #technonolofy, Imposter Syndrome, and much more! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Rachel Irabor on The Oops Factor… Continue Reading...

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Sharing multiple knowledge articles
May03

Sharing multiple knowledge articles

Most of us are aware of the knowledge article functionality within Dynamics 365. For those who aren’t familiar with it, knowledge articles can empower users within any organisation with access to existing information. Types of knowledge articles can include solutions to common issues, product or feature documentation, answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), product briefs, and more…. Continue Reading...

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Joy Kirkwood on The Oops Factor
Apr29

Joy Kirkwood on The Oops Factor

Talking to Joy Kirkwood about how she got into knitting to begin with, some interesting projects she’s done, and why it is SO important for us to embrace the concept of a growth mindset in order to enable us to move forward! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos… Continue Reading...

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Staying up to date with release information
Apr26

Staying up to date with release information

Microsoft releasing new functionality can be an interesting experience, to say the least. As a cloud platform (SAAS – Software As A Service), functionality is released the entire time. A user could log off on Friday for the weekend, and come back on Monday morning to find that something has changed slightly, or a new button is present in the interface. Over time, most of us have come to accept… Continue Reading...

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Updates to the Power Platform Admin Center
Apr19

Updates to the Power Platform Admin Center

There’s a saying amongst seasoned IT professionals who deal with Microsoft software. It goes something like this – ‘Why make do with one admin centre, when you could just have MULTIPLE admin centres to carry out functions!’. It’s a bit of a tongue-in-check response to the numerous different admin centres that Microsoft technology seems to have. Now, I/we totally understand that over time,… Continue...

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Garry Trinder on The Oops Factor
Apr15

Garry Trinder on The Oops Factor

Talking to Garry about his love of #OpenSource projects, some of the amazing things that he’s working on, and what exactly ‘Agile’ means when it comes to scoping out work! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that are available to watch. The post Garry Trinder on… Continue...

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‘Swarming’ for Customer Service
Apr12

‘Swarming’ for Customer Service

You might be wondering as to what I mean by ‘swarming’ in the title for this post. Don’t worry – it’ll become clear pretty soon! But first of all, let’s understand the story behind this new functionality. Where to begin? Well, let’s take a look within an organisation. It doesn’t really matter what sort of organisation it is, as most organisations will have something similar...

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Vivek Bavishi on The Oops Factor
Apr01

Vivek Bavishi on The Oops Factor

Talking to Vivek about his love of home automation (we may find out how many devices he currently has!), how he got into API usage in the first place (hence being called thatAPIguy), and lessons learned from cycling! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it! Click here to take a look at the other videos that… Continue Reading...

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Simon Owen on The Oops Factor
Apr01

Simon Owen on The Oops Factor

Finding out from Simon about how he decided to go about starting a car collection, why he loves playing around with Tesla’s so much, and discovering just what happened one day when he was diving the English Channel! If you’d like to come appear on the show, please sign up at http://bit.ly/2NqP5PV – I’d love to have you on it!Click here to take a look at the other videos that are… Continue Reading...

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