Alexander Ermakov on The MVP Show

[mark]: 1:35
yeah today's guest is from russia he works for a war it as a managing partner he got his first v p and twenty sixteen so he's been an m p for some time you can check out in the show notes take a look in old places linked in twitter website et cetera alexander welcome to the show

[alexander_ermakov]: 1:56
hello hello more

[mark]: 1:58
oh hey good to have you on the show i always like to understand where where people come from before we get into the show so can you tell us a bit about what you do when you're not where king where you live in russia and and what's the best thing when it comes to food in your culture

[alexander_ermakov]: 2:21
well i live in saint petersburgh at least i have a flat in saint petersburgh however i have to travel quite a lot and i still travel quite a lot however i have to travel quite a lot and i still travel quite a lot between the cities and also between the countries um normally i don't spend much free time with family because i have to sacrifice a lot of that time to learning and education and also lot of work however doing joy my kids i have two sons with almost ten years difference between them so that's the thing i enjoy the most well talking about the food i actually try to maintain my diet because i have to fight with with gaining the weight a little bit but i enjoy i see food and when i come to seattle or hamburg or other nice city where we have some confidence or whatsoever sessions i have to handle i enjoy sea food very much

[mark]: 3:41
nice nice now i understand correct me if i'm wrong you're also original director is that right

[alexander_ermakov]: 3:47
yes that's true actually i'm double n v p into categories in business applications and asia and i also have a hat of microsophoriginal director so these are little bit to frentrols while being n v p you try to connect the technical community with the product group being original director you try to connect the business community with the top management of micrasoften try to explain the difficulties business has with microsoth products in my region

[mark]: 4:19
yeah this is so good this so good so tell us a bit about your story how did you get into technology to start with your

[alexander_ermakov]: 4:28
um honestly i came from finance part and i'm still a state certified auditor and i work as chief accountant and financial controller and auditor all my life before i i work as chief accountant and financial controller and auditor all my life before i came to it an i think has been always kind of hobby yeah and when within my working experience in a group in consultancy group of companies as an auditor the thought kind of start up a new business inside the group of companies to provide it services to our customers i thought that this might be good opportunity for me to combine hobby and and work and this is how we came to it and then microsoft at that time already has been quite an important part of the the technologies and probably you know at the moment there is no other wander that offers such a wide stage of of business applications and generally it solutions specifically in the cloud um though das it was two thousand six to five and seven in the cloud um though das it was two thousand six to five and seven we already saw that this this is actually the case microscope is the wonder that would offer quite a lot so we focused on that and we never regret at some point in time where we started to deal with with erpimplementations and business applications and i was personally focused on microsodenemics i v a vision those days now it's then in the sixty five business central um then we were also started to look at a ax which is now finance leperations part of the namix family and then slowly we started to look more to other offerings of micro soft like asia and power platform and those days i was a little bit suffering and tied up with with lack of information you know product had bugs roduct came quite often and there has been lack of information how to use them there has been a lot of ideas how to improve the products and better use the products and local microsoft it was not able to give me the right answers honestly the most of the questions i asked they couldn't answer themselves so this is how i came to idea to became envy p because i have heard that basically it can give you kind of better communication with with a product group and i learned that actually i i'm already doing quite a lot of daily business that nips are doing i'm sharing the knowledge i'm working with community s help with with moderating and answering questions and forms i write blogs and um applied and quite cool clear my obligation went through and then it allowed me to enjoy quite a lot of benefits that my envy program offers and the most benefit because benefit for me is is actually too m have an option to influence and modify the product that would be used by millions of people all over the world like me alone can effect how the product would look like and millions of people would use that it's like wow and all enjoy communication with the product because you know odu team they are like really really crazy guys they are so focused on one the product they tell that we would do the best have product in the world they're like even doing permanent tattoos on their hands best have product in the world they're like even doing permanent tattoos on their hands best have product in the world they're like even doing permanent tattoos on their hands with a log type of the products and when i come to meet them like they invite for couple of days with pits beer like let's generate new features so on i'm so like like electricity comes through my body i mean it's i'm so fired up returning from these kind of sessions and this is the passion i'm trying to pass through to to communities and to to other partners and local microsoft as well

[mark]: 9:17
i like it i like it tell me how much are you seeing the power platform and dynamics three six five finance together as in projects are you using that platform and dynamics three six five finance together as in projects are you using that these two technologies together

[alexander_ermakov]: 9:31
oh yes absolutely and first of all we personally have been always focused on on finance part and licrization part and creating the solutions that kind of ultimate the daily life for finance people and when power platform appears it has been a significant step forward using then mix products of course the concept of flow called no code is amazing the power baportunities are also amazing because you don't need more to create outdated h h the reports that were used in dynamics were kind of outdated in that sense and people would like not only to to see the the report in order to learn what happened they want to learn why it happened and if you want to learn why it happened you want to play with figures you want to drill down you want to filter you want to do inside and this is what what power be offers but this is not not not the only thing they want they want to no what will happen oh and these were the power of machine learning agar and i is coming in and business applications from microsoft started to use the predictions and mining algorithm already years ago and they are like embedded inside business applications even in the cold structure for example in an v there are even functions to do that and then on the very top level you actually people even functions to do that and then on the very top level you actually people would like to learn the answer to the question what should i do not only what will happen but the suggestion s what should i do and this is where a i s is the most powerful thing at the moment and this is where we go finance people specifically they want suggestions what will happen what should i do and this is what business supplications from microsoft offers them

[mark]: 12:00
nice nice tell me you know i assume you have like a lot of mvps people asking you how do i become an n v p what should i do that type of thing what recommendation do you give

[alexander_ermakov]: 12:15
i'm actually through those years i have been consulting several people and like but dozens of m v p received the their titles based on my coaching so i'm interested to get more mvps in my riginal general in the world of course these i don't believe we have lack of envy pies and lack of people who transfer the knowledge to communities to universities to schools to start up and my men as you probably know you can't get this this title just by passing a certain concrete steps or certifications whatsoever you have to be kind of noticeable in that sense but i have my own formal if if you dedicate proximately half an hour forty five minutes every day of your time to do the activities that account it it's like moderating forms or answering questions or speaking on the on the on the events or organizing events posting blogs giving feed backs to product groups using get cap with your project even the average if you spend like half an hour every day in half a year nine months most likely you could be nominated

[mark]: 13:45
i like it that's that's really good advice what you know you've seen some changes particularly in the product team you know from microsoff business applications probably in the last four years we've seen a massive growth um you know in the number of engineers now involved in bizaps and of course the bridge between bizaps and zur is becoming very blurred right there you would hardly ever build a solution that you were going to use as zer ad vice versa what's what's been the biggest change that you've noticed or that had you excited that you have seen in the past for four or five years yeah

[alexander_ermakov]: 14:22
i think the biggest change i have noticed is when satya came to power inside microsoft and he managed to turn the microscope around from from a vendor that historical y has been said this is what you want we know better what you want take this and they're kind of living in their own pen cloud in that sense and so you managed to turn it around well now microsoft is constantly asking us tell us what you want we will give you this this has been the major drastic change in all the applications not on the business applications now many people not on the envipies they can actually suggest things and there is a pipeline of suggestions that microsoph actually processes and every half a year they both as thousands of suggestions and the implement new features based on what action market demands and this is very open attitude to build up the products it's very close now to crowd source if you if you look at at what is being published it in terms of documentation which we as normal users we can edit if you look at the code of the applications which we as users can branch out and suggest changes and microsoft actually can include them into the standard functionality this is where close now to crowd sourcing this is like wow this this has been the change that that i enjoy because this is the only way how you can create the more more than applications there is again no any other brander that does this it's it's the feature of microsoft it's now in the blood uhmicrosope creates such a product that the most recent the most up to date and this is what customers enjoy kay at the moment we leave in the world at the moment we live in the world that the changes actually quite quite a lot and quite quickly and most customers they would like to invest in such an it landscape that allows them to modify and adapt to this change uh without significant cost and quite quickly so we usually recommend microsofstagof technologies as the one that matches this this expectation

[mark]: 17:17
oh yeah so so good it's so good it's so good to hear you know even though like i'm at the bottom of the globe and you're at the top of the globe in in the world sense is that you know there's such a similarity in and then alignment thanks so much for coming on the show today

[alexander_ermakov]: 17:36
thank you thank you much