Ramit Paul on The MVP Show

[mark_smith]: 1:28
Today's guest is from India. He works as a senior consultant at EY. He was the first awarded his MVP in 2022. He's into AI, so I'm looking forward to unpacking that with him. You can find links to his bio, social media, et cetera, in the show notes for this episode. Welcome to the show, Ramit.

[ramit_paul]: 1:51
Thanks so much Mark, I am so privileged and honoured to be here with you and thanks for having me here.

[mark_smith]: 1:58
It's good to have you on the show. I always like to get to know my guests before we kick off So tell me a bit about what you do when you're not working. Tell me maybe food family fun What are those things that you enjoy in life outside of work?

[ramit_paul]: 2:15
Yeah sure, so when I'm not working I love to watch movies if I am not traveling. If you know most of the time these days I used to travel. So if I'm traveling I used to visit pubs, I used to visit some places where I have not explored before and I wish I you know I love to read books and I love to you know spend some time with the people, with the like-minded people. Yeah, that's what I do.

[mark_smith]: 2:43
I like it. I like it. What part of India you are located in?

[ramit_paul]: 2:50
I am currently living in Kolkata,India.

[mark_smith]: 2:52
The best thing to eat there is what?

[ramit_paul]: 3:00
Kolkata is very famous for street food. So if you are good, if you love the kababs, right? So you would love to eat lot of kababs, you can kababs, mutton kababs and also this place is very famous for its sweets. The famous sweets is rasgulla in Kolkata. So whenever you visit you must try the rasgulla and other sweets over there.

[mark_smith]: 3:26
sounds awesome. What area do you specialize in? When it comes to Microsoft business applications, there's a lot of apps to choose from. What is kind of the key ones that you work with and you specialize in?

[ramit_paul]: 3:40
I am specialized in Microsoft Dynamics 365 finance and operations and I am from basically from the finance background. So I always, I always work with functionalities called finance, core finance also specialized in supply chain as well.

[mark_smith]: 3:59
Excellent Excellent. How many years have you been working in those technologies?

[ramit_paul]: 4:06
It's around eight, nine years probably.

[mark_smith]: 4:08
So you've seen the journey from on-prem to online, AX

[ramit_paul]: 4:14
Yes.

[mark_smith]: 4:14
and all the way through. Are you seeing as just out of interest, you know, when you look at other ERP solutions out in the market, how are you seeing it compare to the other, you know, whether it be SAP, Oracle solutions, that type of thing, how are you seeing it in that landscape?

[ramit_paul]: 4:33
Landscape, I mean Microsoft Dynamics 65 the evaluation have been very very I would say awesome because you know like you said the journey I have seen from on-premise then you know AX 2012 R3 then from 2016 it has been from cloud so now over the past few years I have seen lot of investment in Dynamics 65 so I can where it can compete to the world largest ERP like SAP, Info. So it's not like that they cannot or we cannot compete with them. Yes, we can compete having said a good consultant and good methodology for the implementation.

[mark_smith]: 5:22
yeah. Tell me about how you got into this. Did you start with kind of like an accounting or finance background? How did you get into this area of tech?

[ramit_paul]: 5:33
Yes, you guessed it right. Since I am from the finance area, I have started my career after my graduation as a finance analyst, junior analyst. Then I got into, I would say fortunately or unfortunately, I got into a company called Tata Consultant Services and then was in the dynamic 365 so I used to get some interest and I used to learn on my free time and since I had some good consulting behavior or something so I started consulting with them and then I got into the Microsoft practice and then I have started my journey as a finance consultant dynamic 365 finance consultant.

[mark_smith]: 6:25
Got yah, got yah. Have you ever done an integration to SAP from Dynamics 365?

[ramit_paul]: 6:35
Yes, we have done a lot of integration from SAP to the NM65, which I would say most common integration I have done is SAP Success Factor. So from there, I mean, in these days SAP Success Factor is over, I mean, most of the companies, they are using SAP Success Factor in India, dynamic is different.

[mark_smith]: 7:04
and you're just using Logic Apps as part of that integration.

[ramit_paul]: 7:12
Yeah, some of the time we use logic apps, some of the times our technical team uses Azure.

[mark_smith]: 7:19
Now, very good, very good. How did you, as in, your career's been in the finance side of Dynamics, are you touching anything in the Power Platform, Power Apps, that type of thing, like building apps over 365 finance areas? Are you coming across that?

[ramit_paul]: 7:43
Yes, not me specifically, there is a hands on but in one of the largest shipping company, we have built apps in power apps, which is for a shipping container, shipping pool, vessels, voyage, so we have built everything over there and we integrated that application to Dynamics 65.

[mark_smith]: 8:05
Now, very cool, very cool. Tell me about what you've done in the area of AI.

[ramit_paul]: 8:15
AI artificial intelligence I would say from the AI we have Microsoft Dynamics 65 has inbuilt capability like catch flow forecasting and lot of AI functionality is now coming into the picture so we are basically exploring the AI

[mark_smith]: 8:37
Nice.

[ramit_paul]: 8:37
over Microsoft Dynamics so that's how we are managing the AI in Dynamics 65 I have lot of interest in AI like I used to when I was learning dynamic so I used to work with some application called Python, some application called R so I used to do some coding so that time I had that interest but not now in this days I basically into the consulting so when I basically solve business problems whatever they are facing

[mark_smith]: 9:10
Personally, have you got onto chat GPT and started to investigate any of that side of things?

[ramit_paul]: 9:18
chatGPT is like famous now is become a celebrity kind of thing but personally I have not been into the chat gbt as of now but I have that in the wishlist that I will find.

[mark_smith]: 9:36
Nice, nice. It's definitely interesting times there. Tell me about, how did you first hear about the MVP program? How did you come across it? And what was your MVP journey?

[ramit_paul]: 9:52
MVP journey I would say it's very much a roller coaster and very interesting first time I have been introduced with the MVP word is like from I think you know Dr Ludwig and Andre. So you know when I was learning Dynamo 65 and I used to write a lot of questions in the community How to do that and what what it takes to be MVP and what is the privilege to have an MVP? So then they have you know introduced me with the MVP how prestigious is this how Responsible what are the responsibilities you get will get and I was so amazed to know that and then I started and I have ensured them that Whenever after two or three years, I will have some target and whenever you see that I am eligible and I am doing good and nominated me if I am looking good to be an MVP. Then I have worked really hard. I have presented, I have helped a lot of people in the community. Then Dr. Ludwig basically came and nominated me to become an MVP. And then it's honored to be an MVP right now. And I can understand now.

[mark_smith]: 11:43
It's so good. So when you look at the activities, right, one of the things we need to do as MVPs, of course, is be active in the community. You've talked about speaking, et cetera. Some people do, you know, videos, some people do podcasts like me, and some people do YouTube channels. Some people are on the forums answering questions. What kind of area do you kind of do most of your activities

[ramit_paul]: 12:14
Yeah, so that's very interesting for me. When I've started my journey to the community, I used to write a lot of answers to the community. In one month, I used to get, you know, best suggested top 10 suggested answers, top 10 verified answers. So right now I'm focusing on mainly on YouTube blogs,YouTube videos to share my tips to But that's the two thing I am now focusing to write blogs either in community directly or I know publishing videos and the second in speaking in the community so that my connections also will be no get to know that new technology and new investment is coming to Dynamics is different and that can also anyhow will help the business right so I am doing for to educate people so comes they can also suggest the same thing some same solution to their business so that business problem gets solved so that is what I am doing.

[mark_smith]: 13:52
Tell me about your YouTubing as in tell me about your process, because a lot of people want to do YouTubes and how do you one come up with ideas I want to talk on how do you you know how do you create your format I see you do very attractive thumbnail images on them just step us through just because it might help some people that are process end to end.

[ramit_paul]: 14:24
Yeah, so I would say, you know, I had started YouTube, I have started YouTube from couple of months ago, five, six months ago. So looking at the, you know, psychological evaluation, I could say, previously, people used to have a lot of times, I would say, in weekend and now. So for that reason, they used to write books, they used to write blogs. But now, you know, in a fast emerging world, I think people have gadgets like movies.

[mark_smith]: 16:23
Awesome. That's really cool, really detailed. Once you became an MVP, what's the impact been? Is there anything you were surprised that once you're in the program that you weren't aware of? What are you like most about it? What's your experience with the MVP program?

[ramit_paul]: 16:47
see I was so obsessed with MVP that I have done a lot of research in the MVP so I was a little bit of aware that what happens after becoming an MVP so I was well prepared I had done a lot of research like you know to sign the NDA to be in the distribution list to have the PGI you know calls and all so can have access to send emails to the team so that Microsoft team, product team also can come into the picture and help us. That I wasn't aware. So now I'm taking the advantage of that. But apart from that, I was pretty a bit of aware that what I will be having. But the total surprise that when I got the email from MVP, I was not expecting. I was three years I could wait for six months more but the day it came it was total surprise and see I know that I will become MVP someday but not within the three or four months of nomination so that was surprising but I was aware and I knew that I will become MVP someday

[mark_smith]: 18:06
That is so, so awesome. I love your determination. I love that you stuck with it. Rabbit, it's been a pleasure to have you on the show today. Thank you.

[ramit_paul]: 18:17
Thank you so much, Mark. And it has been a pleasure. And I would say one thing to you that when I had the dream to become MVP, I also had a dream to be in this show so that I can present myself and I can tell my story that how I became the MVP. It's not impossible thing. Anyone can become MVP if they have patience, determination and hard work and sharing knowledge to the community. The main thing is that it's not a certification. to share our knowledge and will help to the business or the other people in the community so that business real problem gets solved. So thank you so much Mark once again. I wish I could meet you in person but yeah not a problem. So much Mark have a good day.

[mark_smith]: 18:59
I love it. One day, one day. Thanks, Ramit.