From Textiles to Tech Excellence: Alicia Keener’s Journey from Manufacturing to Microsoft MVP and Award-Winning Innovation

Mark Smith: 0:06
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 the United States. She is a director at RSM. She's first awarded her MVP in 2024. She has been in the Microsoft Dynamics space since 2009. In 2023, her team won the Microsoft Partner of the Year Award and was a finalist for the Worldwide Healthcare and Life Science Award. She is active in the Microsoft community and has following across 134 plus countries, and she shares Microsoft Dynamics, finance and supply chain tips on her social media channels as well as YouTube. I will make links available to you in the show notes for her bio, social media etc. So you can explore further through this podcast. And with that, Alicia, welcome to the show.

Alicia Keener: 1:17
Thank you, mark, thank you for having me.

Mark Smith: 1:19
Was that all correct?

Alicia Keener: 1:21
Yes, it was.

Mark Smith: 1:23
Fantastic, fantastic. There's questions that come out of that that I will get to in a moment. Before I go there, I always love to start with food, family and fun. What do they mean to you? What do you do when you're not working? Tell us a bit about you.

Alicia Keener: 1:38
So family? I have twin girls. They just turned 18 years old and so we're starting a new chapter of our life now that they're out of high school, which is a huge accomplishment for them and, frankly, it was a big accomplishment for me. I really didn't anticipate feeling a certain level of relief than being out of high school. They were both straight A students, so they're very good students, very academic, but just truly getting out of the school system and allowing them to experience a new chapter in their life was super rewarding and exciting for me. As far as family goes, that's like and I have the two girls, and then we have two Siberian cats and a golden tree red dog. When it comes to food, I eat just about everything. I am not picky at all and I've traveled around the world and if I don't know what it is, I order it off the menu, because I love to explore and be adventurous.

Mark Smith: 2:32
I love it. I love it. My boy has just gone to university this year, so he's about the same age as your daughters, I'd say and do they go straight to university? Are they take a gap year? What's the situation there?

Alicia Keener: 2:45
So one of them, I think, is going to take a gap year and the other one's going to go ahead and go into college.

Mark Smith: 2:50
Okay, so I wanted my boy to take a gap year and go overseas, but that didn't happen. So he's doing law and psychology and he's loving it, so I'm happy he's getting into it. So one of the things I wanted to ask you from your headline Microsoft Partner of the Year Award in 2016. I won such an award. I received it in where was it? Toronto is where the Microsoft Partner Conference was happening that year, and I got to have lunch with Satya, which was just amazing. That was and that's a lot 2016, a long time ago. So what did you win for and tell us about it?

Alicia Keener: 3:30
Yeah, it was a fantastic project.

Alicia Keener: 3:32
It was actually in the UK and it was a company called Quanta Dialysis Technologies and they make at-home dialysis machines and it was a really just a fascinating process to learn about their business and actually how they care for their patients.

Alicia Keener: 3:46
They are currently operating primarily in the United States now and one of the really cool things about the work that we do is whenever I go in and work on a project or a team goes and works on a project, it's not really about the product, it's about who they're serving. So even though we're not actually helping people directly with people with dialysis in a very small way, we're a little cog in a very big wheel. So us doing implementations for ERP is allowing us to add value to our customers' customers. So for me, it's super gratifying and I get so much satisfaction out of knowing that we're actually helping a mom or helping someone's aunt, their uncle, their child, their grandparent. There's actually something called Mortality Mondays for people with dialysis. There's a third more deaths on Mondays for people that do traditional dialysis. So being able to add value and quality of life to people is super rewarding.

Mark Smith: 4:43
I love it, I love it, and so that was what. Just last year you won that.

Alicia Keener: 4:47
It was yeah.

Mark Smith: 4:48
That's very cool. How long have you been at?

Alicia Keener: 4:53
RSM A little over three years.

Mark Smith: 4:54
Okay, okay, tell us a bit about RSM and the reason. I'm curious because I had a chat with Seth Bacon on your team. It would have been in March, I think this year. I was in Seattle, I had a chat with him and I just see that RSM is doing a lot of exciting things and are really, I don't know, breaking out of the traditional business apps type partner model. So what's the thinking, what's going on in the organization?

Alicia Keener: 5:26
model. So what's the thinking? What's going on in the organization? You know RSM is really transitioning to a one Microsoft type mentality. So when we go into the marketplace, we're not talking about just Microsoft Dynamics, d365, finance and supply chain. We're talking about the Microsoft stack and the way Microsoft is unfolding their product, is putting in AI and Copilot. It's all intertwined with Teams and all the other Microsoft components and the Power BI tools and the Power Apps and all of that. So RSM is really embracing that mentality and so when we go to market, we're going to the market holistically.

Alicia Keener: 6:01
And one of the really cool things about RSM is we have a department for all of those different pieces. So we don't we get very specialized. So if you want someone that says, hey, I really want a lot to do with Power BI and data reporting and stuff like that, we have a department for that. So internally we collaborate with those different teams. So when we go to our customer, we're one team. So when they look at us, they don't go to our customer, we're one team. So when they look at us, they don't go oh, you're from a different department. They look at us holistically across the organization. But we're allowed to have. That gives us the ability to have experts, very deep expertise, in the different areas. So my rsm and microsoft are getting really close um. We're really trying to carry that Microsoft message to the marketplace and again, rsm is empowering us to do that, which I think is really key to our success.

Mark Smith: 6:51
How big is RSM?

Alicia Keener: 6:53
Oh, my goodness. So we're a global company. We have about 800 Microsoft consultants, so I don't know exactly globally what the number is. I would have to look, but it's a big firm.

Mark Smith: 7:07
So it's roundabout, that's okay. So what do you do outside of Microsoft? Sorry, what does RSM do outside of Microsoft? Because you said you've got 800 Microsoft consultants. I take it you do something else.

Alicia Keener: 7:17
We do so. We do a lot of stuff in tax and audit and cybersecurity and acquisitions. We do a lot of international things as well. So if you wanted to actually create a company in the UK or New Zealand or something like that, we have a team of people that know what the regulatory requirements are to do business in that country. So, like on my team, even with the Quantity Dialysis Technologies Project, we pulled in different pieces or different lines of businesses within our side of RSM to deal with value-added tax, to deal with regulatory requirements and all the different pieces that kind of go into that.

Mark Smith: 7:56
Nice, nice. So are you targeting like Fortune 100-type companies? Is that your target profile? Are you in the top-end enterprise?

Alicia Keener: 8:04
So we typically go for. The mid market is our target market. It's the mid market, so we're not hitting the super, super big companies, but we're not hitting the smaller companies. We're hitting like the middle market, so it's like our sweet spot.

Mark Smith: 8:15
It is the sweet spot, in my opinion, yeah.

Alicia Keener: 8:18
It is nice because you don't have so much bureaucracy when you go into the companies, so there's still pretty agile but they have enough money and enough capacity and enough business need to make it really fun.

Mark Smith: 8:36
I like it. I like it. And one last question on RSM, because I just wrote a post recently that blew up and I talked about the Microsoft partner is dead a couple of weeks ago and it's been my most successful, trafficated post of all time and of course, it got a lot of commentary over 220-odd comments and the reason I was taking a poke at really the enterprise GSIs, that they're really a resource organ, no longer outcome-based. They just how many bodies do you want? You want 100? Great, we'll give you 100. You want 1,000? Great, we'll give you 1,000.

Mark Smith: 9:06
But no more outcome delivery, no more. We own the problem you're trying to solve as a customer. We're not owning that. You own it as a customer. We'll just give you people that you tell them what you want us to do, and I reckon it's a failing model and it's what the top four or five GSIs and I was in the top five gsi just after I wrote that post um globally. And so that's why I'm interested, because I think the mid-market is where the game's at. I think that's where the opportunity you can still deliver outcomes.

Mark Smith: 9:35
You're not there. They don't want, just want bodies. They want you to deliver something. It's going to be transformational, um, and they don't believe they know everything which the big companies feel that, like, we can do this ourselves. Um, and uh, yeah, we had a motto in my last company called your mess for less, and it was just a race to get the cheapest consultants in there to deliver, you know, at scale. Um, anyhow, I digress um, tell me about your journey to tech. How did you get into tech as a? Uh, you know, and how did you end up then in F&O?

Alicia Keener: 10:07
Oh, my goodness, the story. This is an interesting story. So I was 18 years old, I had finished my freshman year of college and I was sitting in a microeconomics class, because I was one of these like super ambitious people always took summer, school and stuff to get ahead. And this company, this consulting firm, had posted a job at our school and said hey, we're looking for a college student to work at this consulting firm. I'm like, okay, fine, you know. So I go and I get interviewed and they hired me. Well, little did I know that that would become the start of my consulting journey. So since I was 18 years old, I have worked at a consulting firm. So it really is quite an interesting thing.

Alicia Keener: 10:55
Because when I graduated from college, I said, hey, do you want to stay on full time? And I was like, yeah, sure. And I remember the day I got on the airplane I was like, man, there's going to be so many women out there doing what I'm doing. This is so exciting. I got on the airplane and I literally remember stopping and I looked across the airplane. There was only one of me and so, and I was in the manufacturing world too.

Alicia Keener: 11:26
So even outside of the travel, you know, and I was in the manufacturing world too. So even outside of the travel, you know, and I went into a manufacturing facility, I really had to work extra hard to earn the trust of the people in the plants and stuff like that. So I did a lot of stuff inside of apparel and textiles so really anything you could put a needle to shirts, pants, footballs, outdoor furniture. I traveled all over the place. I worked in Turkey and Mexico and Canada and Puerto Rico and El Salvador and all over the United States, and then from that I went into the Microsoft world in 2009. And then I started doing stuff in other industries and now I do life sciences, which I absolutely love.

Mark Smith: 12:05
So was it X-Apta that you got on board with?

Alicia Keener: 12:08
It was AX 2012. Excuse me, I'm sorry. Ax 2009. 2009, sorry, Yep.

Mark Smith: 12:13
That's incredible in that it's taken you all over the world.

Alicia Keener: 12:16
Oh, my goodness, To me it's absolutely priceless, and the journeys and the people that I have met along the way it has truly molded me into the person that I am, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Mark Smith: 12:30
Incredible. How did you end up at RSM?

Alicia Keener: 12:33
So I was working when I started. So in 2009, I started my own company. So I left the place I had been at for 15 years. I started my own company, I became an independent consultant, got a bunch of Microsoft certifications and I was traveling a lot. My kids at the time were in elementary school and I was just like you know, I have this project with a company called Frito-Lay. He's like well, you can do this project for me. And I was like well, you know, it's not, they are not doing Microsoft or doing Infor. And I was like and he's like well, it's really not that different. And we kind of talked through some stuff and he's like, hey, you don't have to travel much, you'll go to Plano, okay, great. So I went and I did that for 13 months and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed learning the process and stuff. I was on the fleet side of Frito-Lay. So Frito-Lay has 22,000 trucks at the seventh largest fleet in North America. So I really had a hard time getting excited about trucks. I mean, for me I can only talk about batteries and tires and lockdown, tag out and so much.

Alicia Keener: 13:47
And the company that I was doing a lot of contract work for before that with Microsoft. He kept calling me up and he's like, hey, why don't you come work for me? And so he hired me as a director of finance at his firm. It was a Microsoft Gold partner at the time. I was there for a few years. Then some people had left and went to a different firm and a friend of mine had. So I kind of followed him and became an implementer or a program manager really, for a very, very large marketing firm it's the second largest marketing firm in the world and over a period of four years our team implemented Microsoft AX 2012 around 40 times at 40 different marketing firms. And I have set up three different shared service centers one in Canada and Dallas, and then we have support one in New York. And then that project kind of started winding down because they were getting all their agencies already on 2012,. And that's why I went to RSM.

Mark Smith: 14:54
Just to cotton back onto you going out and going alone, I get a lot two last night book meetings with me from the other side of the world to look at how they could exit their partner and go freelance, because you know partner can be the same deal, different logo, you know, and a bit of a chance that they want a bit more independence, a bit of lifestyle control. What's your advice to somebody that is considering going independent like you did back then?

Alicia Keener: 15:54
You know I absolutely loved it and in fact, whenever I before I came to RSM, I didn't plan on coming to RSM. I had, in fact, I had no intentions of going back to a firm because I had I kept my company open all those years.

Alicia Keener: 16:07
I just kind of, you know, kept on filing my taxes kind of thing. Because I enjoyed the independence. I enjoyed the fact that I could pick and choose which projects I worked on. I picked my own hours. I enjoyed the fact that I didn't have any office politics. I literally just did what I loved and I didn't care about anything else. I didn't have to worry about getting a promotion or having a review or this, that and the other. So for me, I really enjoyed my autonomy, and so, in fact, I was already lining up contracts before I came to RSM.

Alicia Keener: 16:40
I knew I was going to be leaving the other company. I didn't know it at the time, but I knew I was leaving and I was getting everything lined up, and a guy that had connected with me on LinkedIn about a year before that called me up out of the blue and he's like hey, alicia, you know, would you be interested in coming to RSM? And in the back of my mind I was thinking well, maybe I can get some subcontract work from RSM. I really didn't know. I mean, I literally had no intention of it at all. And so we were on the call and we started he was telling about the company and stuff and I was like, okay, so you know what are the benefits, what's the pay?

Alicia Keener: 17:12
And this was on a Monday. And then I was like, okay, that sounds pretty good. And then I thought, well, let's just see where this goes. So, long story short, between that Monday I ended up having, like I think it was, four interviews and they hired me the next Monday. And the reason I came to RSM is because I could either go solo on my own and be a consultant the rest of my career, which I was kind of okay with, or I could come to RSM and potentially become a partner. I came to RSM to become a partner and so now I'm at the director level and the next step up is partner. If they hadn't had that growth path for me, I would have never come. So that was really the carrot that got me to come.

Mark Smith: 17:55
Fantastic. How did you then become an MVP?

Alicia Keener: 17:59
That was a little bit by accident. So I was literally sitting at my desk I think it was March, the 6th of 2023. And I was on LinkedIn and I had about 900 connections at the time and I tell you I have tons of user guides because I document so many processes and stuff like that. And I was sitting there thinking and I had to learn AX and D365 the hard way, like I was never officially trained. It was me and Google and I was.

Alicia Keener: 18:27
We used to work at a small firm, so I didn't couldn't ask anybody any questions. They didn't know the answers either. So I had lots of documentation and I was sitting there and I'm like I have 900 people and I'm giving them nothing. And I was like if I can make one person's day better, it's worth it. And so that began my journey. So I started. I literally I didn't plan it. I was just sitting there and I was like I just got this peck on my shoulder and it was like, alicia, you need to do this. So I just started tip of the day and I just started posting. And here we are, a little over a year later and I had, I checked right before we got on the call and I have almost 6,900 connections now.

Mark Smith: 19:08
Wow, wow.

Alicia Keener: 19:10
Amazing. Yeah, and it's just because in my mind I wasn't looking for a reward. I'm like if I could just make one person's day better. But what I learned was when you speak to one, you speak to many. And then, about November of last year, andre, which is another MVP on the Netherlands, reached out to me and said hey, would you like for me to nominate you? And of course, once I started getting traction, I'm like, hey, maybe I'll make it to MVP who knows right? So he nominated me. We talked in November and he's like you probably need a blog for you know like 10 months. So he nominated me in January and then I got awarded MVP May 1st of this year.

Mark Smith: 19:49
Wow, that is so cool Cause I was like, why didn't I see you at MVP summit? But that makes sense. It was two months after the MVP summit. That that is phenomenal, and what a story of just trying to influence one and the snowball effect of it. And so I take it, your main thing is you're writing these guides and they're they're what they're quick help. How, how does it? How does it work?

Alicia Keener: 20:15
guides and their quick help. How does that work? So I'm a Gen Xer, okay, and so I'm aging myself with Haywright. It's great. And we Gen Xers traditionally cut to the chase. We don't have a lot of fluff. We just we're like just tell us what you want, 100%, and we'll give it to you. So my posts are just that. It's like how do you do X? Like how do you do a specific thing, and that's what the post is about.

Alicia Keener: 20:36
And I do YouTube videos. I started doing YouTube videos in October and so far I've had over 25,000 views on my YouTube videos since October. So, again, they're short, to the point. Sometimes my posts and my videos come from people asking me like hey, will you post about this? Sometimes it's the fact that I was in the system and got stumped about something and I'm like, oh, you know, that wasn't so hard. But if you didn't know, you didn't know, and so I'm like if I got it, you know. No, you didn't know, and so I'm like if I got it, you know. So that's really what it is.

Alicia Keener: 21:14
It's short and to the point, and I know that a lot of my viewers are people that are starting out. They're not other MVPs and I don't want, I really don't care to cater to other MVPs. They're they're great already. They don't need. So if I can help other people on their journey, when they're starting out, and let them get those wins you know they have a problem. They get a win that gives them the hope and the encouragement they need to do the next thing, then that's all I need. That's the only gratification I'm after.

Mark Smith: 21:43
Superb. Final question Recommendations that you would have to other people, either starting their career in business applications or yeah, let's just go with that. What advice would you give them?

Alicia Keener: 22:01
I think you need to create your circle, and LinkedIn is a part of that. It's like who you follow.

Alicia Keener: 22:08
I think that there's a part of you learn from other people and I think you need to find out who you read or who you watch videos on that kind of resonate with you and then follow those people and then start to understand how they communicate things or how they maybe solve a problem. Because a big part of becoming a good consultant is learning how to think. And it's not just learning how to think but it's learning how to ask good questions. Because you may know what button to click, but you don't know why you click the button, or you don't know what the business application is behind, why you would want to do that setting or that configuration. So you need to start asking yourself why. In fact, for me, if you were to ever work on a project with me, I ask this all the time. I'm always like what's your business objective? When I'm working with a client, what's your business objective? I don't really want to know what buttons you click today.

Mark Smith: 23:03
I really don't know what.

Alicia Keener: 23:04
I want to know what you're trying to accomplish. And then I want to know why. Because when you start peeling that onion and you start asking good questions, then you start actively listening. Lots of times a customer is asking you something entirely different than the words they're saying and then all of a sudden you're like, oh, you need to do this. And then you can almost see this light bulb and this relief kind of go off, Go like, yes, I need to know that and that's what a good consultant does. So I think if someone's trying to get into the consulting world, they need to start following certain people, find somebody that they again they resonate with, read books, listen to podcasts and start kind of learning how to think as a consultant, Because I can tell you a lot of consultants don't know how to think, they just know what buttons to click. So that's going to be what sets you apart.

Mark Smith: 23:56
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 NZ365guy. Thanks again and see you next time. Thank you.