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

Mark Smith: 0:37
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 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

Gulshan Shubham: 1:29
Thanks a lot, mark. Thanks a lot for inviting. This is our first podcast for me anywhere, I believe, and it's a real honor to be with you, even virtually. Thank you for inviting.

Mark Smith: 1:40
My pleasure. It's so good to have you on the show. I didn't realize until doing the research that I find out that you work for IBM, which is the same as me. Do you know if there's many other MVPs that are also at IBM? Do you know? Are you aware of any others?

Gulshan Shubham: 1:55
No, no, you are the only one that I know that is from IBM and is an MVP. Others than that, I know I was not there.

Mark Smith: 2:02
Yeah, there's a guy called Andrew Lee in South Australia. He's also works for IBM. He's an MVP as well. He's also a fast track recognized solution architect for the power platform. Yeah, so we've got a few.

Gulshan Shubham: 2:16

Great.

Mark Smith: 2:17

Yeah, so tell me a bit about you. Tell me a bit about food, family and fun. What do you do when you're not working?

Gulshan Shubham: 2:25

So basically, when I'm not working, I watch movies. I watch Netflix a lot. I'm a big fan of few series. For example, there are a few series which are very old. For example, friends I've watched it a lot of time. Big Bang Theory I've watched it a lot of time, and even in Hindi we get a lot of series recently, so that I watch a lot. 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.

Mark Smith: 3:14
So what part of India are you based in?

Gulshan Shubham: 3:17
On the southern part, which is Bangalore.

Mark Smith: 3:20
Bangalore. Okay, and the best dishes to eat there. What's the best things to eat?

Gulshan Shubham: 3:28
It's the South Indian state. So here, if you come, they have a specific foods, like, for example, they have dosa, they have idli, they have vada, and this is something which is specific to the Taste of the people in South India. If you ask, in North India the food is completely different. So I basically belong to North India. 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.

Mark Smith: 4:24
Yeah, and I'm not the best on spicy food, as in I have cayenne pepper. Have you heard of cayenne pepper?

Gulshan Shubham: 4:32
I have put.

Mark Smith: 4:33
Yeah, I have that every day, but I actually I make my own capsules of it and then I just swallow it so I don't have to have the burning sensation and I'm wondering if I'm getting the full benefits, because I'm not. But cayenne pepper is very good for your, your heart, you know from, particularly from heart disease, so hence why I do that. But I do. 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?

Gulshan Shubham: 5:50
Okay, so basically started from 2014. I completed my engineering degree in 2014 and you know, in engineering, most of the people doesn't actually know that okay, what exactly they want to do, but Most of us got placed as software engineer. Basically, you have to code. I got placed as a software engineer and the first company are from my college. 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.

Mark Smith: 11:26
I like that you say people are happy, consultants are happy and the customers are happy. You don't often get the trifecta of all of those being happy on an item of software.

Gulshan Shubham: 11:38
Exactly.

Mark Smith: 11:38
Interesting. So that brings you. You obviously went through now vision, and do you do anything in NAV these days, or are you all on Business Central?

Gulshan Shubham: 11:47
Now I don't even get to see NAV. Everybody has moved to Business Central Right now. From last two years few months I'm in IBM and IBM everything is from Europe, so I don't get to see anything in NAV, though my current client is in NAV, but I'm in a project in which I have to handle Business Central. They're migrating, so no NAV. 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.

Mark Smith: 12:17
So it's a good thing. Do you regret not going down the SAP side or the Jetty Edward side?

Gulshan Shubham: 12:26
Recently somebody posted the net suite official channel on LinkedIn posted a comparison between Oracle NetSuite and Dynamics 365 Business Central. The reaction to that from many MVP and consultants from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central was not very good because the comparison was something like okay, we have intercompany, business Central doesn't have intercompany. 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.

Mark Smith: 15:18
In the project. What do you do? Do you do much integration between the Power Platform and Dynamics 365 Business Central?

Gulshan Shubham: 15:27
It has been started recently and the previous company we did, but in IBM it has been recently started. Even in this week we are going to start it. So we are going to present a micro so the client how this complete integration between Power Platform and Business Central works. 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.

Mark Smith: 16:33
Interesting. Yeah, I'm hearing that more and more people are doing that type of integration. Tell me your journey to becoming an MVP. How did that come about for you?

Gulshan Shubham: 16:43
So when I joined the first company for Dynamics and a VVT which was, I said, in 2018, so for almost one year I was not doing anything because the target was just to learn Almost in four to five months, I got assigned the first project with a senior consultant, so I started going to the client side with him. I started learning. 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.

Mark Smith: 20:54
So yes, Gulshan that's a fantastic story. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Gulshan Shubham: 20:59
As I said, the pleasure is mine and it's a real great honor to be with you. I have seen you on LinkedIn and, just to mention, when I started, I saw your podcast, it was almost in 2018. And some day I explored your podcast. I just listened to a few podcasts and realized that, okay, this guy is really good and he's quite professional. 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.

Mark Smith: 21:41
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 want to be a supporter, check out buymeacoffeecom forward slash NZ365 guy. Thanks again and see you next time.