Exploring Dynamics 365 Business Central and the Power Platform with MVP Gulshan Shubham

Today's guest is from India . He's a senior advisory consultant at IBM , same company as me . He was first awarded as MVP in 2022 . He's passionate about Business Central , or BC , and enjoys sharing his knowledge with the dynamics community . You can find links to his bio and socials in the show notes for this episode . Welcome to the show ,Gulshan

So binge watching is something which I do mostly on weekends , and other than that I like playing cricket and badminton . But I'm in a city called Bangalore . Here People just work , so I don't get much time to do that . But yes , whenever I get time , I just watch binge content on my UST TV . That's all I do .

And yes , sometimes they go out , we have food with my friends and all , so basically we can go into that .

I have born and brought up in a state called Chakran , which is completely on the northern side and this is completely at the edge on the southern side . So here the food preferences are quite different . So here people like us will go and try to look for northern foods , but still I love South Indian food . So it's for me it's good .

Unlike many North Indians , they don't specifically like South Indian food , but for me it's fine . I love South Indian foods like , as I mentioned , idli dos . I don't know if you have any idea about it , but yes , these are some good food . You will find it spicy , for sure , that I know .

I grow curry plants . I've started , you know , growing a lot of food sources etc from Asia , because it's a lot of cooking in New Zealand has Asian influences and it and of course our country has has a massive population of Indian people .

In fact , I was brought up with Indians right from a young kid , because the Indians used to own all the market gardens in our area and so they would give us . You know , as I was a kid , you know you'd go to their market garden store and that always give you , as a kid , some free , some free fruit or something like that . It was very nice .

Yes , yes , tell me about how your journey was and like how did you get into BC , did you ? You know what's that journey been for you ? How did you end up specializing in that product ?

So I started coding and six to eight months I was at least comfortable in the coding part . It was on the front-hand side coding but then I realized that this is not something which I want to do , because I had to sit on a desk Just do the coding based on the logic Developed by my team late , let's say .

And this was not something I was looking for , though it was good , but I was not really enjoying it . So then I decided to move into some field and I got a reference that okay , what if I'm not a technical consultant ? What is the other part ? What is on the other side ?

So I was seeing that , whatever I'm developing , there's a person who is presenting at the client on regular basis and he's going to implement it when the product is teleport . So I just talked to him that , okay , what you do ?

And he explained everything about his profile and I thought , okay , this is something which I want to do because it has a mix of technical plus functional . And this is what I wanted to do .

I wanted to have the technical touch , I wanted to have expertise in a particular product and at the same time get the chance to interact with people , go to places and , you know , have a lot of communications . So I believe , from there I wanted to join as a functional consultant .

Then I got the chance into a small company , into a product which was not into the field in which we have been the central NF , and all it was into the hospital industry . So that was the first product in which I worked as a functional consultant , because I had to start somewhere .

So there I learned how a business works , basically how an inventory works , because even in hospital you have inventory , you have sales and purchases . So there are the departments . Then I decided that , okay , let me switch to the main industry trading , manufacturing and all these industries . Then there's a company called TCS data consultancy services .

I joined there again as a functional consultant and the product was not any of your business center . So in TCS also , I was not aware that there is any product called dynamics , nav or business center . Then I worked for almost one and a half year , but then I realized that this is a product which is only a single company is implementing .

What if I leave this company ? What next ? So I started looking for a product which is available on the market , not only in India . Even outside of India , let's say Europe , usa , everywhere Multiple companies are implementing . There's no monopoly . If I leave this company , I don't have a dependency and the product should be good .

In TCS I faced one issue that the clients were not happy because that was not a very much customizable product . It was very hard to customize . Even in the argument people used to say that this is an as-is implementation . It means almost zero customization .

That was not something which is exciting for me , because on the ground I was able to see that the clients were not happy , the retention was not good . So I saw that in this though I'm very comfortable in this company , in this particular company , I'm good . But what if I leave this company ?

So I started looking for a product and then I resourced a few products and three products basically came out . One was into the Microsoft Dynamics side , then on the Oracle , it was NetSuite and JD Edwards . And then SAP .

First of all , my first preference was not business-central or NAV , because when I saw in the market , sap was the trending at that time and people are getting paid more in SAP . But the downside was in SAP , you have to be certified in a particular module , for example , sap MMS FICO . It was very costly for me at that time .

I was not earning that much that I was not able to do In India , a company we're not hiring . If you're not certified , either you should have experience or you should have that certification . I was having none . Then I got in and I was applying for all these three products and fortunately , I got a call from one of the companies .

They said that okay , you don't have any hands-on experience , but we can give you an opportunity . And they took me almost on the same package and I was comfortable with that and I was trying to get into a standard product . So in 2018 , there was a small company in Gujjhachar , the city of India . I get in . I learned that product in here .

I worked in that company for almost two years , eight months , and that is where I get most of my experience from and the learnings from . I got to implement multiple projects in Australia and UAE , in USA , uk . So that was extensive exposure .

Then I really liked this product and I said this is something which I want to take ahead to If the project is here and then I'll be the consultants . If the product is not here somehow in the market , then only I'll switch my product .

Otherwise , if Business Central is in the market , I'm going to be a Business Central functional consultant , though I might want to expand it to , let's say , power Platform and other areas . But yes , business Central , I'll stick to it because this is something which is a beautiful product . I have realized it's wonderful .

People are happy , clients are happy , consultants are happy . What else do we need ? So this is , in a nutshell , I would say , how I got into this product .

I would say I don't get the chance to see NAV and I'm happy about that . People are moving to Cloud , the SaaS , future , azure , everything .

I was surprised to see such a comparison , which is not right , from the official channel . Then I realized that , okay , if somebody is trying to pull you down , it means you are already above them . Then I went to see what does that seat have ? I realized that Dynamics 365 Business Central is better any day than NetSuite . So that part is done .

Now coming to SAP . Sap , I realized right now in BC I get the chance to implement finance , jobs , service , scm , inventory , warehouse , everything fixed as it . Whatever we have in the product , I , as a consultant , get the chance to implement . Now what if I have moved to SAP ?

I would be a consultant , let's say in FICO , my whole lifetime , let's say in SCM lifetime . I cannot work as a consultant in SCM , fico at the same time , because this is not how it has been designed there . If I get the certification in FICO , people will ask me to okay , you are a FICO consultant . That will be the tagging in SAP .

You will be specialized into a particular area . There it gives me an opportunity to implement everything and learn everything . Right now the trend is even FNO . The company is implementing FNO . I have seen Accenture hiding NAV and Business Central guy . Even if you don't have any experience , they will say please come , we don't have any issue .

The reason behind that is business central consultants are not specialized consultants into finance , scm , warehouse . You get the chance to implement everything . You have the domain knowledge of everything . This is what other people are looking and saying that okay , this guy is implementing a software which is not specialized .

As a consultant is not specialized into a particular part , I can grab it . So I believe both the growth learning part I believe I'm quite happy with business central because I have not been specialized into a particular area . Assuming it is an SMB software , nobody says that , okay , it is SMB , you have to be specialized .

If it is a big product , people say that okay , either you are an SCM consultant or finance consultant . This is the part where I see that , okay , this is what excites me , this is what is a pro for me . So , yes , I don't trigger it not being into SAP .

On the other hand , I'm really grateful that at some moment , unintentionally , I got this shower buffer and I'm into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central .

So we are going to have a demo and then we're going to show a few things and then the client will take on , because they've already requested a few things .

So now we are starting on this , but till that time we are not starting , because what I have seen in big companies , people always have a lot of integrations in place by default which is existing from almost 10 years , let's say , and it's very hard to replace it .

So first you have to get into and show them how the ecosystem works and how easily your existing one can be replaced , because if you're going to replace it , you have to replace it in 20 countries because the same architecture is there . So it becomes hard Still . We are now pushing it and we are going to do that . So , yes , now we are starting on that .

So almost for a year , my target was just to learn this product , not to do anything , and I was not even aware that there are a lot of platforms , there is a Dynamics community and people ask queries and you can answer .

I was not at all aware of this , but when I was learning this product , I used to sit in the office late just so I can learn , and I just used to visit places and I search for my queries and from there I found the Dynamics community and I looked at okay , many people are asking many questions and few of the questions I saw that , okay , I can also answer

these questions . So I was not even I've completed one year in this product and I realized that , okay , people are asking because there are many people who are end users , who are from client side , not consultants , so they were asking a few questions , which even I , having a knowledge of eight to nine months in this project , was able to answer .

So from there , I started answering too many questions and people were verifying my answers and you know , whenever someone acknowledged your contribution , it gets you to do more , and that is what drive me more into this . So I started putting more questions , more answers into it . Then I said that , okay , if I'm doing this , let's do one thing .

Whenever I was learning something , I was recording it in a Word document for myself so that in future I can refer it quickly . For example , I'm doing a particular scenario . That scenario doesn't come often , so what I used to do , I used to just record a video of it and keep it for myself , and then a Word document or keep it to myself .

I thought like , okay , if I'm doing all these things and keeping it my local , let's do one thing , let's just put it somewhere where other people can also see . Though , while doing all those things , I was not very confident because myself , even I was not completed one year in this industry , in this product .

So , but I said that , okay , if I'm learning something , I'm keeping it for myself . There must be few people who are not even one month old in this product . So let's do it . So I started doing this . I created a blog . I started putting everything there , similarly the videos which I had in my local . I just edited it , put few things , few thumbnails .

I put it on YouTube and I got good response . And then , when I moved further , I realized that , okay , this I can do more . I started doing more and being an MVP was never the target because I was not even aware of such a program .

But later on I realized that there's something , and a senior person who is an industry from last , say , 20 years he's an FNO he just invited me for a session on Business Central and he said that , okay , you're doing a lot , why don't you apply for this ? And I said I have never thought about it .

And then one day I said I was just sitting writing few blogs . I said , okay , let's try it . I just applied for it . So that was in a nutshell . I was not even planning that , okay , I'll want to be an MVP one day . But yes , it feels good to be a part of this distinguished community and it drives me more , to do more .

Even in future , if I'm writing 10 blogs , people will ask me to write more . I get comments on my YouTube that , okay , do more such videos of five minutes , 10 minutes , having highlighting the features and all .

So I believe yes , now if you are trying to present a content for someone , you will be more cautious , you will be more detailed into it , you will not leave anything apart . So I believe that as a consultant also has helped me in learning a particular topic in detail . So now it feels good , even as a functional consultant .

Being an MVP gives you some responsibility , but on the other hand , it gives you many other things . It gives you growth , it gives you the drive to achieve few things .

He's doing many amazing things and you were MVP at that time as well . Again , you have multiple , multi-sides MVP . So , yes , somewhere I believe your podcast was the first thing that I explored on LinkedIn . So thanks for that as well , for keeping this podcast all this .