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 all the way from India . He's the principal consultant at Himbap . He was first awarded his MVP in 2010 . So a long , long time ago . He's authored three books on Dynamics 365 in the CRMCE space . He has implemented Dynamics CRM for various domains like pharma , media , insurance , automobile and education .
You can find full links to his bio , social media resources , etc . In the show notes for this episode , so check that out . Welcome to the show , Mahender .
Thank you . Thank you , Smith . Thank you very much for having me on your show .
It's good to have you on here . My first question is you've been an MVP since 2010 . That's a heck of a long time .
Yeah , so basically I started around 2007 . I got opportunity to work in a technology company so in August 2007, . I joined as aNET and GP developer . Great plans we used to have the great plans for it . So I was good at that time in NET and they hired me to be part of the GP team and work on theNET as well .
And luckily , like in 2000 , I was a guest , I joined and there was no project on GP side . In 2007 , gone and now 2008 came Again , there was no GP project where they can apply me as a resource . So luckily , that time we had CRM practice there and at time there was CRM 3.0 . And we got a project where company wanted to implement the duplicate detection .
So that time there was no duplicate detection in CRM 3.0 . And because I was good in NET , they said that , okay , just like using as aNET resource to build these web pages .
And there was another resource , one of my friend . He was working as a CRM consultant .
So we both started working on that project and that was my first interaction with Dynamics CRM . So that I feel connected , like because I was from the NET and everything that we do from the technical side is basically related to scripting and that's from the NET side only . So that I felt like connected on that .
And then I started taking interest in CRM and they provided some functional training of this Dynamics that like sales module , marketing module and service module . So that's how my journey started with Dynamics CRM . But this company was not that big so we were not getting that much project , so there was no chance for learning new things .
So then time started passing . So one day I was working on something and I found a link for the Dynamics forum and that was my first interaction . I saw that , okay , what is this ? So I saw there was lots of questions and everybody was posting their questions that they are trying to do this that's not working and how to do this .
So I feel like , okay , there is a chance to get problems from there and try to do it my own so that I can learn something . So let's learn from other mistakes or let's learn from other requirement if we are not getting any requirement .
So then around 2008 , I started participating in forum and it was I was like I was spending so much time on that that , in you know , around 2010 August , I got email from Jim Glass and he said that you're very good , you know , actively involving in the community and working lots of you know forum on that , so are you interested for the 10PP program ?
And I was like you know . So I said yes , of course , and he you know that I was .
I was not writing any blog post , so he has , so you should also write some blog post and in August I created my blog and I started working on that and in 2010 , october , I got that wonderful email from Microsoft and I got a chance to become first MVP from India for dynamics .
Wow , I didn't realize that you were the first one yes , first MVP from CRM , you know yeah yeah , yeah .
So then , like it's like 2007 , and then they started in 2010 , I got my first MVP that's .
That's . That's brilliant , because I'm just trying to think when was the first dynamics CRM MVPs awarded ? What year was it ? What was the very first year ? Because I was awarded in 2012 and I know that you know David Yack , for example . He was already an MVP , but in another technology area , and he transferred .
But I wonder which year was the very first year of a , the first business application MVP , whether that be in the ERP or the CRM site ?
I wonder what year it was yeah , I'm sorry , I don't know that because I'm not sure if it was 2009 2008 .
I might have to ask David Yack . I might have to flick him a message after this and see what that situation was . I've never thought about it . Anyhow , tell me a bit about what you do when you're not doing Microsoft stuff . You know what's fun for you .
Tell me a bit about your family and the best thing to eat where you live yeah , so basically I am , you know , from the Himachal , you know state , if you know that in India we have a Himachal , that land of ice , so I'm basically from there , but right now I'm , you know , staying in the Delhi NCR , so it's Haryana , sonipath .
So there I stay with my family . So my I'm not working on the technology . I like to travel different , different places , you know . I like to try different food and I like to cook . So , like you know , that type of thing I do like .
But traveling I , whenever I get chance , like you know , I take my car and my family and we go somewhere , you know , to meet somebody or switch it some place . So that's right .
Now you've written a lot of books three books now . You know I'd blow my mind to write one book , but you've written three . That's pretty phenomenal . How's how you know how come you haven't retired yet ? Doesn't not make you a millionaire on writing all those tech books .
But you're correct , like you know , especially it's it's very difficult for a family person because you have a small Possibilities for your families . You have kids . So when I started working my first book in 2012 that 2011 version I wrote my book .
That time my kid was small , so you know they were not you know much I'm directing , like Distributing me or you know so that kind thing was there .
But after that , when I , you know , wrote my second book and third book that time they were , you know it was I was feeling like you know , I had to spend a lot of time writing on these books , especially if you're any single author , right , so it's very Like you're not spending time your kids and all the weekends you are spending on writing chapters and you
know so they take a lot of efforts . So that's that's how it went . And I also got , you know , other Opportunities to write the book , but now I have limited that , so I don't take any opportunity now .
So , whenever , especially if they will ask , like you know , if I want to write it as a single author , so I just prefer them that if there is another that I can take part and you know we can write Actively , but it's very difficult for a family person . You know , Do that .
It's a lot of work . It's a lot of work , right , and you obviously enjoyed writing , though , because you did it three times , like one . I can understand . Like you know , you make a big career goal . You decide how . I'm gonna write a book , yeah , but what was your thinking around writing the second book ? You know , did you feel that ?
Well , like did it last time . I know how I do it better . What were your thoughts around book number two ?
Yeah , so actually you know the first , let me give you the first thing , like why I wrote my first book was that you know that there was already very , very good Books available in the market and there was like but when I used to read them , I feel like some of the books were very hard to , you know , understand , like their language was very not a easy
language . So , like you know , it was very difficult some some sentence were very difficult and they were not very you know . You know it's not easy to understand . So that was the idea . I thought that let me try to make it simple and write something in a very simple language so that you know who is reading a fresher is when it reading it .
Then they can read it very , you know , simply and they can understand it very quickly . So that was the first thing .
And when I saw that response on the first book and it was good response , like I was getting you know feedback from my you know readers and emails and then it then I got another book chance and then I said , okay , let's try with the new version and let's add some more Capability to books and because I worked on the same concept , so it was basically how to
use Dynamics , you know , crm , a XRM platform , to build different domain application . So that was the main you know idea for the books and my whole three books are basically kind of you know , surrounding all the same idea .
So that was the reason that , you know , I just tried to make it simple as much as I can do , so that that was a whole idea for writing them ?
How did ? How did you find the , the promotional efforts of packet ? I take it you're pet with packet the whole time as your publisher .
Yes , yes , they are there .
How well is their Promotion ecosystem , like , how well did they get your book out in front of the audiences Around the globe ? Because and the reason I ask you this is because you've been publishing books before Amazon , you know , had the Kindle out there before that became so you're back when the big thick books right that that would sit on your , your shelf .
How did , how did you find them ? Getting there ? That packet got those out into the global you know , bookstores and things like that and really got that exposure .
Yeah , no , I think they did very well all the marketing things and they started with the initial , you know , just like sending email to that all the you know Industry experts to provide their view on the different Janets , like on the packet website , and they also all most of that .
Mike , this , like whoever any website which are selling Microsoft books that they have published everywhere and they , they , they are basically doing lots of marketing activities and running that you know campaigns , where they , you know , sent bulk emails to that different users that these are the books and you do want to Try , and they also offer some kind of ebooks
on that you know Some less price so that you can check that . Okay , how this book is that ? Then maybe you can go for the paper book .
So I think , from what I think , that they have done very good marketing and to make it , you know , this book I'm labeling for globally because I , when I see in the different website , I see the comments from the users and they are from the different you know space .
So that's , I think they did a good Marketing on the good if you look at the work that you do today as opposed to the work You're doing . Ten years ago in the space and and you know you said your books are focused around XRM story You've seen Microsoft separate I what we now call data first off from the , the , the premium app player of dynamics .
Are you finding you're building more solutions like I'm talking about , even model driven apps , built directly on Data first , rather than building with the first party skew like a dynamics ? You know , in the old days , right when we did the next rm solution would take dynamics rm and we would turn it into another thing .
Right , we turn it into a , you know , a first aid management system . We turn it into a dog training . You know , guide dog training solution would turn it into , you know , a tool to track I'm stolen cars for police agencies . You know we do . It would turn it into all sorts of things . Now we don't have to do that , right , we can .
We can grab the data verse . We can build any app . The type of work you're doing all the time nowadays is it much more that you're just building custom applications directly on data verse for customers .
Yeah , so we do both type of you know customer decision and type of you know it depends on , basically , you know how , what is the requirement right ?
So sometimes , basically they want to , the customers are using you know like , for example , if they are working on that you know , field service and so they want to utilize the field service First party app , and sometimes they want to utilize the first party apps only .
But if that's totally custom and that's not a traditional sales purchase things , then we start from the model river apps . For example , you know , maybe You're building some app for that pharmaceutical right and you have lots of Custom entity that need to be built and no , no up of the box and they are not using any up of the box entity .
They are not using any traditional you know Sales service or marketing life cycle , so they have their own . We need to build our own custom life cycle for them based on their requirement . Then we start from the model river .
So that's what we are most of our requirement that we are getting from that only so , for example , you know cleaning service app , you know that Looking for that of physician , nearest physician app , so these type of apps we are getting so Like working with that .
You know email parsing using the AI , so you know getting like bidding emails , a parsing email , so that kind of work differently . Yes , now we got where and it's easy .
Actually , you know , when we go with the model river app , it's easy from to build it as well as you get support from the out of the box so you know what platform provides , so you don't need to go to that core level and build from the scratch , right , so out of the box things are there . And licensing parties also easy , right .
So if you go to first party of the lessons is very costly compared to the model river , so that that's basically starting something from $5 , $10 , right , so that's that's easy there . But now still sometime there they're kind of the dependency . You know , sometime , knowingly or unknowingly , sometime customers build something .
They are all and they , you know in track , combine the both if they're custom entity and the first party , and which introduce some kind of dependency and when they are deploying the solution and that require , okay , we need this entity and that's not present and that's so you some fear . So that's kind of things still there sometime .
Have you looked much into AI lately ?
Yeah , so we recently we have done two projects and where we have utilized that AI capabilities . So , as I said , like we recently , we done one project for our US customers where we've got on the bidding emails . So we were , you know , the requirement was to get the email and pass the contents of the email and identifies .
You know there was some core data set that we need to identify and put it on that different entity . So that was utilize AI and that that basically the email was unstructured email . So that was a different thing Because if it's easy , you know it's structured , it's easy that you have that you know model that you can utilize and get the data from there .
But in our case it was totally unstructured . So we utilize two , three models there and work on that and build that model driver app as well as canvas app to you know , so that they can use on the mobile device and tablet device to work that .
Yeah , very good , very good . My final question for you is You've been in MVP for a heck of a long time . What's what brings you the most joy in being an MVP ?
This thing like what I will say , that you , you are known globally , right . So I was working , like you know , technology space and I was writing that Sajjwal that also you know , I introduce you globally , but in the MVP has their , it has its own space , right .
So now globally they know that , yes , there is a person you sitting on the India and that you know represent and because when I was in company I know we used to hear , like you know , this whenever you have a MVP resource in your company there is a different . you know what ?
do you say like ?
They treated a different , like MVP , and when you go to any office . I remember I , you know , and I was in Australia , so I went on the client side and they were I . When , I you know , first day I went there , everybody was so excited that that MVP is coming here for the review that project and that was , you know , great feeling that you know .
So that that's , that's different .
Very cool . Is this ? Where is this when you're working at SMS management technology ? Yes , yes , because I didn't realize that , because that I set up that practice there and huge you . I left in February 2017 and I think you joined in December 2017 , right ?
Yes , I miss that part and I was like oh yes , I wish that .
You missed the exciting build for the three-year build experience that was was amazing fun times . Yes in Atlanta . Sorry , no , no , an Atlanta campus , right yeah we've been in the Atlanta campus here . I don't even know that Microsoft has the Atlanta campus anymore . I think they've .
They've left the building right , they've moved all over to main campus now , oh , oh , the the biceps team . So so I don't think we'll ever visit that building again . Aventa A and Aventa B back in the day . It's a long time ago . It's 10 years ago . Crazy , crazy , crazy . Mahender , it's been great talking to you . Thank you so much for coming on the show .
Same here , same here . Thank you very much for having me on the set . Hey , thanks for listening On your host business application MVP Mark Smith , otherwise known as the NZ365 guy . If you like the show and want to be a supporter , check out buymeacoffeecom forward slash NZ365 guy . Thanks again and see you next time .