Welcome to the MVP Show . My intention is that you listen to the stories of these MVP guests and are inspired to become an MVP and bring value to the world through your skills . If you have not checked it out already , I do a YouTube series called how to Become an MVP . The link is in the show notes . With that , let's get on with the show .
Today's guest is from Nigeria . He is a Dynamics AX 2012 and Dynamics 365 FNO Technical Consultant at GEM Consulting . His first award is MVP in 2023 . He is a Microsoft certified trainer who's delivered both functional and technical training to users both in French and English . He's also bilingual and amazing .
You can find links to his bio and social media in the show notes for this episode . Welcome to the show , Kermi .
Hi . Thank you , Smith . I'm very , very happy to be here .
I'm pleased to have you on the show . Before we get started , I always like to find out a bit about the when my guest is from , the geography , a bit about their family , what they do for fun when they're not doing Microsoft business applications work . Then , if I was to come to your region , what's the best food that I should eat ?
Okay , also to start with , I'm originally from Togo . Togo is a French-speaking country in West Africa . Currently I am in Nigeria where I'm working as a Dynamics consultant , all right . So when we talk about the climate , it's basically the same thing in West Africa it's either sunny or it's rainy , yeah .
So talking about the food , I would say we have what we call the Nigeria Jollof , which everybody likes to taste whenever they are either in Nigeria , in Ghana or in Togo .
Tell me a bit about that food . What's it made of ?
All right . So most of our foods here are made of corn or maize and we eat a lot of soups that are made of vegetable . So we have varieties of food , of soups , whether in Nigeria alone we have thousands of soup . So some of them are a goosey soup , vegetable soup , a gikai called okra , so on , and so forth .
Nice Sounds like fun . If people are to visit Nigeria or your home country , what do you recommend that they do and see ?
All right . So in Nigeria , or let me be specific about Lagos , lagos means the economic city of Nigeria , so we have what we call the mainland and the island , all right .
So the island is , of course , surrounded with water and there you have the big industries when it comes to tech , when it comes to oil and gas , when it comes to foreigners and the rest of them All right . And we have beautiful beaches around Lagos .
And when you come to the mainland , we have some museum , we have the theater center , we have the national stadium and we also have a lot of bars where you can go and taste these local drinks and local food .
Nice , nice . What's the biggest sport in Lagos ? Is it soccer ? Is soccer what everybody follows ? Football , football .
Yes , it is .
Nice .
At the amount of fat we have . We have a lot of football fans . Some of them prefer Messi over Ronaldo . So you see them arguing all the time Ronaldo is the best . This one said Messi is the best . So football is the most predominant sport here in Lagos , Nice .
Nice , how did you get into technology ?
All right . So I would say I got really interested in technology way back in . So I had a cousin , so I do visit him and he has a brother then . So we're just discussing and he started telling me about his whole web development team , how you can create websites , so on and so forth .
So from there I picked interest and I think a week later I came back to him and I told him hey , I'm currently interested in learning this web thing you talk about the other day . So at that time I was a French language teacher , so I was teaching French in high school , right , so it was a part-time job . So I told him I'm not fully occupied .
After my classes I can come to you and you teach me this web development . So he said , okay , fine , then we started with HTML , from HTML1 to CSS , from CSS , then one to JavaScript . All right , so after the first four weeks of the classes that we had , I tried to create a simple website using WordPress .
So from there I was able to see how I can manipulate WordPress using CSS , html , javascript , and we went on a length PHP . Of course WordPress is built with PHP , so I can easily modify this PHP code by going to thedev file , remove the folder and put my own folder and some other things like that .
So with that I was able to find much more interest in programming , especially the web development , and I was able to get some jobs in web development . I was able to design websites with some schools . I was able to also design an e-commerce website for a friend who lives in France . So with that I was able to build more on the web development skills .
So that's how I finally got into it .
Wow . So that's a big jump , though , because you went from web design front-end development into ultimately now being in Dynamics 365 Finance . Is that right ?
Yes , exactly .
How did you make that jump ? What was the initial Dynamics related project ? How did you get involved in Dynamics ?
All right . So while I was teaching , I happened to find myself in a WhatsApp group where you meet friend speaking fellows . So there was a day , I think there was a post that came into the group that talked about PHP , a PHP framework , so I was able to comment on it . Then someone inboxed me and said hey , so you know how to write code .
I said yes , so it became friend . At the time he was already working as a Dynamics expert . It was a technical consultant , so it became friends . Two years later he told me hey , how are we doing for you ? Will you be interested ? So in my mind I was like , is he a teaching job ? He said no , you will like teaching so much .
So he told me I want you to venture into something new , which is Microsoft Dynamics environment . So at that time it was really AX 2012 , ax 2009 , and AX 7 , rather .
So all on premise , right . All on premise to premise , yeah on premise .
So he explained everything to me and told me the company at the time wants someone that speaks French as well . So the plan was to see how the company can venture into the Francophone market . So that was how I got into Dynamics , without having any prior knowledge of what business processes is . So that's just how I did .
I took that leap from being a work developer into Dynamics space .
How many projects have you worked on now ? How , like , what's your depth of knowledge around Dynamics ? Did you just focus on finance , or do you do supply chain or anything else ?
All right , so not just finance , supply chain , human resource . I would say the exemption is just the commerce I got with .
But for all the information that I've done I've worked on finance modules , human resources , supply chain modules- Interesting because if you did commerce then you would be going full loop right , because commerce is the frontier that you can get into the e-commerce side of things as well , which is back on web design again . Why have you stuck with finance ?
Have you looked at Dynamics 365 customer service and looked at what's available in there , like in the CRM space ? Do you do any work in that space and do you do any work on the Power Platform ?
All right . So when it comes to CRM , yes , I've done a few works there because I had a project where I need to do some integration between F and O and the customer engagement . So , with the help of Dwarite , I needed to test my integration . So with that I wouldn't have to wait for someone from CE to validate my integration .
So what I need to do is to do some hands-on on CE how to create contact , how to create accounts , how to create product in CE , how to create orders , push them to F4 and see how they're really right . So a little bit of Power Platform as well .
I could remember my very first task when , I joined GEMS Consulting was to do an automation using Power Automate . So when a vendor is created in F and O , send an email notification to Gmail . So that was my very first back and it was wow , I was receiving emails over and over and over because the trigger will just continue so I had to stop it .
So I'll say that I have a little bit of experience with Power Platform and also customer engagement .
Excellent , excellent , what , out of all the different modules , et cetera , that you work with in the Dynamics 365 portfolio , what do you like working with the most ?
So I would say human resource module , the general manager , six asset module , the system administration module , of course , the organization administration module , cache and Bank module . Yeah , those are the main ones .
Are you still doing a lot of training or are you just now consulting only ?
Okay , yeah , so I do more of consulting and I also offer trainings . Of course , when we have implementations during the life cycle of the program , there are times where we need to train those users . So I also do partake in these trainings .
Yeah , fantastic . How did you become an MVP ? What was your journey to becoming an MVP ?
All right . So the journey to becoming an MVP started exactly one year ago . So I had a colleague in the office where we're talking about some what I call them some products in the F1O People like Andre Pitarama . There's this other guy on the community who's Martin yes , martin . So we're like it's something we can also have in Gems Consulting .
So I told him you know what ? I'm going to become the next MVP or the first MVP in Gems . So that's how it all began . I went to the community , I had to answer questions . I also quoted a blog where I tried to post some of my works also . So with that , I think , what actually filled full and I became MVP . Wow .
So you're the first one in GEM to become the MVP .
Yes , I am .
Wow , that is fantastic . It's fantastic . I only took you a year to get to that point . When you look at your MVP contributions , are they mainly on the forums that you're doing or mainly on blogging ?
Yes , so both forums blogging and sometimes also do speaking at some events online .
Ah , okay , okay , and do you enjoy doing the online speaking events , and are they more in English or more in French ?
Yes , so I enjoy both . So far , I've done just two in French and I'm looking forward to doing more in French , actually .
Awesome , awesome . I just think that it's really important that you know there's lots of English speaking content around the world . I think that to create content in other languages is so important because it makes it more accessible to people . If that's their first you know language or primary language , it makes it easier for them to learn and consume content .
So I think that's . I think that's amazing . I see you've got a heap of badges on the Dynamics 365 community 1444 posts , 1493 comments . You do a lot up there .
Yeah , yeah , yeah , actually I so last year before December . Yeah , so my science at Dynamics is normal-wise . She always pushes me to go to the community , right , because there was a time where I was going into cryptocurrency . I always tried to check my portfolio . So she would be like is . I doing crypto or you are in the community .
So when she sees that I'm actually in the community , she doesn't say anything , but when she sees me doing crypto , she tends to complain . So I want to say she has really been a push to me . She has really motivated me because I told her the goal is I want to get the MVP or I want to be able to contribute to the community .
And one other thing I also learned here that contributing to the community helps me to learn more . Right , because there are some questions that , before you answer them , you even learn more .
Are you familiar , so I think that's .
Herion yeah , so I think that also helped me in many .
Yeah , agreed . Are you familiar with the FastTrack Recognized Solution Architecture program ? Yes , I am . Are you planning on becoming one ?
Yes , how much have you applied to becoming one ?
Yeah , I think it's a smart move For somebody in the finance and operation side , following the principles of success by design that Microsoft have published , and I think that that covers around 7,000 implementations around the world . All the learnings and that success by design book , plus the there's a Dynamics 365 implementation portal .
I don't know if you've got access to that , but if you start putting all the projects that you're working on in that portal , it's definitely a pathway to facilitating that FastTrack Recognized Solution Architecture title , which I think , in my opinion , it's more valuable than an MVP title , because it shows your deep technical skills and handling projects using Microsoft's
best practice for your customers . So I hope to see you as a FastTrack Recognized Solution Architect in the future and perhaps come back on the show and tell us about that . Last question for you what's a one bit of advice you'd give to other people in Africa wanting to become an MVP ?
Okay . So the advice is you just need to learn and be patient , Right ? Whether you wanna become an MVP , you wanna become anything else , I think the key is keep on learning and be patient , but once the time comes , everything that you've done in the past will help you get to the top .
Hey , thanks for listening . I'm your host Business Application MVP Mark Smith , otherwise known as the NZ365 guy . If you like the show and wanna be a supporter , check out buymeacoffeecom . Forward slash NZ365 guy . Thanks again and see you next time .