Billur Samdancioglu on The MVP Show

[Mark Smith]: 1:46
Today's guest is from Istanbul,Turkey. She is a Dynamics 365 F&O App Solution Architect and expert. She was first awarded her MVP in 2023. You can find full links to her social media,blogs, et cetera, in the show notes for this episode. Welcome to the show Billur.

[Billur Şamdancıoğlu]: 2:09
Hello Mark, thank you for inviting me to this show. I watched the previous episodes and they were fantastic. I can tell. So I'm very happy to be here today.

[Mark Smith]: 2:21
so good. You live in one of my favorite cities in the world. I have visited Istanbul. I stayed for about a week, maybe a week and a half. I was living in London at the time and my wife and I flew over there. We went to Cappadocia,did the balloon ride, but then we went all down through Gallipoli. Troy, it has so much history, your region of the world. It's really The connection point between Asia and Europe, it's such an exciting place. And the food of course is amazing, which is my first question for you. When you think about, when we put work to one side and not talk about that for a second, tell me about food, family and fun, particularly what's the best food to eat in Istanbul.

[Billur Şamdancıoğlu]: 3:16
Oh, actually Istanbul is not very famous for any food, but Turkey is, so everything is in Istanbul because it's a metropolitan city.I like Turkish dumplings the best.I love Turkish bacon.And I have of course kebab, baklava.So I love eating. So you know that Turkish people eat a lot. We love eating. We... have a Turkish breakfast which is very famous and you can have like 20,30, 40 pieces,different pieces in the breakfast as well. So it's very early morning in here, it's 7.30, I'm already very hungry.So yes, in Turkey what you can do is that you can ski, you can swim, and in very historical places there is nature, so you can do everything in different places. But while I'm living in Istanbul, I like its history as well,because you know, in the history it's been a capital of lots of countries back then, not now. for Turkey, but it was for like Byzantines and Rome and etc. So I really like going to the places which has histories. There are like churches, there are some other palaces and etc. So it's good to be in Turkey if you want some historical place to see history.

[Mark Smith]: 5:02
Yeah incredible history. That's what I couldn't get over living there. Tell me how did you get into technology and how much is Microsoft dynamics used in businesses and organizations in your area?

[Billur Şamdancıoğlu]: 5:24
Let me go with how I start.So I've been in the university for business administration and I want to be an accountant, right?But I couldn't find a job when I start searching for jobs as an accountant because they always ask for an experience and I have zero experience.One day while I was searching,my mom come into my room with a newspaper half page of an ad in there telling that 28 people lives will change. And there was a Microsoft logo and some local training partner logo and saying that there will be an ERP course, which in the end will be a payment for a month,which we will go in as a how I say that we will work in a company for a month and take it back after one month education.And my mom come in and say, they are saying that there is an ERP course,what's an ERP, is it a good thing? And I say, actually it is because in technology class,I took the ERP homework and I checked what it was in 80s, 90s, and20s, and I gave homework and ERP, and I barely know it, but I knew that it's a good thing. And then apply, and I'm accepted, and I had a class for one month, and in the end, they asked us to select our area.If either it's manufacturing, either it's...supply chain or either it's finance. Well I wanted to be an accountant I of course selected the finance part and then I go in for a job and I like it because it was like too many travel and I have almost traveled all of the Turkey for projects and every project some new and different thing happening even if and accounting. I was not just doing the finance part, but I was also doing the manufacturing time to time and also supply chain back then because it was easier.In AX older versions,it was accepted back then. So I can really say that Microsoft was true. So it really changed my life. I worked a little bit. I didn't know about any cogeneration.Back then I have seen SQL in university, but I was like, what I'm going to do with SQL because I'm going to be an accountant,right? I just jumped into the technology right away. So after a couple of years, I think that I should be a little bit better in developing,but I was not able to because I don't have that education. So I'm married to developers.So it was the easy way to fill the gap.Also he is a dynamics developer.Yes, he is. So it's just like a family business.I hope my son who is11 years now will be a SCM consultant,so we can fill that gap as well.actually dynamics is a little bit of all my world I've been working since 2004 and I like it It's also my hobby.I can tell because I don't have a much anymore hobbies.I like reading I like To be in LinkedIn and searching for new things and I allow writing blogs So it's very very lovable dynamics for me,I can tell you. Then after doing 40 plus projects, something special in my life has happened to me, it was a little bit sad, I can tell,so I was just searching in my life for something else,right?Okay, I love to make the projects, I can tell, but something was missing. So basically I quit.And while my hobby is dynamics, I said that, okay, let's do something else. And then I start taking my certifications.I already have the finance certificate, but I have the others like basics and solution architect certificates. And I say that, okay, this is still not enough. I love to train people.The best part of the project for me is just analyzing and doing the training part.So I say I want to be an MCT.So I applied for it and I got that as well.And I say, okay, I need more. During learning, I see that there is Microsoft Community.Actually, I was using Microsoft Community before as well. Because when I... whenever I search for a solution, it's either Microsoft documents or either community, right? And I always see that for my questions,there is Andre Clavon or there is Ludwig has the answers.So I know what it is basically, but I never go in and just put a comment in it. So I start commenting on the community.in my free time and Then I say that okay, let's start writing blogs.So I started writing the blogs and Okay, let's say let's create some videos of it and I start my video blog back then I Didn't know what an MVP is honestly speaking. I know it's a great thing, but that's all I know about it So I asked Andre,we are community. I asked him, what is an MVP? Can I be an MVP? And I thought that MVPs are just the ones that know what the system is,is good what they do.But Andre explained it very clearly that it's not about being the best,it's about contributing to the community. And to contribute to the community, explain that what needs to be done,what can be done. It's not say that what needs to be, but what can be done. And it's not about the quantity, it's about the quality.So I said, okay, because I've already been contributing to the community,I didn't do anything else. I didn't do much more. But one day I was shocked that all over the seas, all over the oceans in America,Kelly has seen what I've done and asked me if she can nominate me. And that day I remember that they were well, that I was just hoping at home, you know, and my husband came and said, what happened?I say... See, Kelly has nominated me and I was very shocked, I was very happy and it was a good thing to be nominated and of course in the end to be selected,to be seen as a worthy,to be an MVP. So I'm very happy where I am now and I hope I can contribute more for my community. Right.

[Mark Smith]: 14:10
It's so good.

[Billur Şamdancıoğlu]: 14:11
And I think everything can, everybody can do this. I'm often being asked how to become an MVP. And I'm always saying that yes, being an MVP is a wonderful thing because you have some privileges when you become an MVP,but it's not something that you have to achieve.You have to earn and you have to get it as a badge. It's something that you want willingly to do. So if you like helping people, if you want to help your community,and if you like it, you can make it. But that is how it is. It's not like a badge to make yourself seem worthy, right?But of course, the privileges are. are the best things that you have in the end, then you become an MVP.

[Mark Smith]: 15:10
It's so good. Tell me about the community specifically in Turkey. Are there many people that work with Dynamics and the Power Platform across businesses in your region?

[Billur Şamdancıoğlu]: 15:27
Of course. Actually,in Turkey there are four MVPs now in BizApps.We can tell. And we have lots of MCTs as well,not just for BizApps,but for the other parts as well. I don't know,more than a hundred,I believe,MCTs that we have. But they can be Microsoft Office,MVPs,Power Platform MEPs and as well. And in Turkey, yes, we use dynamics a lot, you know, because in the end, there are lots of big companies in Turkey that use it.I've made more than 30 projects in Turkey,all around Turkey, not just in Istanbul.And also there are some companies which have... their subsidiaries placed in Turkey.So when they go live,for example in London or in America or in Holland,all over the world, we take the Turkey subsidiaries also to production. I made a project in London before and in their Turkish subsidiary in Turkey as well. So... I can say that it's very commonly used by big companies and it's not just like Dynamics 365FNO, but there's lots in BC as well in Turkey.

[Mark Smith]: 17:10
right, right. Do you, in the community there, do you have things like user groups?And do people mainly communicate in English or Turkish? What's the common, and what I'm leading to here is that I see a lot of people creating content in the MVP community in English, even though English is not their native language.And I'm like, why aren't you...using your native language and helping all the people in your area, you know,locally outside of, you know, just English contribution. So what's the situation for you?

[Billur Şamdancıoğlu]: 17:52
Actually, yes, English can be a very big problem in this case, but you know, I can say that lots of people do know English in Turkey as well.But the problem is that sometimes it's very normal that they get afraid to talk in English language.It's not that they can read, they can write.but they are very afraid of talking mostly.So they are better in writing. They can write blogs and they can watch videos and they can attend meetings. So that's for sure.But a little bit, I think they need to work on talking part.I never, I never been afraid of talking another language. I'm now learning German.right now. So I'm always a bit of a talker. I can tell. That's why I think Turkish community is not much attending for global community talks and etc.But you know, I have my own page in Dynamics community saying that Dynamics 365, Turkey, Pileş, Mgrubu and there are now 106attendees that we can talk in Turkish and I can reply them or if they can send me emails or if they send me a message from LinkedIn I try to reply.And also we have Friday night talks time to time. It's in English.It's really in Friday night talks or we talk in Turkish.And see what's new and we... collaborate together and it's like 20or 30 people attending those Friday night talks.We have not

[Mark Smith]: 19:57
so good.

[Billur Şamdancıoğlu]: 19:57
been doing for a while because it's Ramadan in Turkey you know and then before you know there was a huge earthquake in Turkey we lost 50,000people so we have not been doing till February because we are a little bit broken inside for these purposes. But I think we will continue and one of the MVPs are leading that talk. So I think it's also very valuable. And we have Microsoft in Turkey, we have MS How-To Community is also supporting not just like BizApps but Power BI, Azure and others. So I think... The community is also very big.You know, in Turkey there are 80 million people.It's like Germany. So we cannot say we are just down in technology.And when it comes to Microsoft, and also in Microsoft products are really used commonly in Turkey as well.Apart from just dynamics,there is, as you mentioned,power tools. and we have offices and etc.

[Mark Smith]: 21:18
Do you have a Azure data center,Microsoft data center in Turkey?

[Billur Şamdancıoğlu]: 21:27
I don't think so. I'm not so sure if we have a data center. I'm not so sure for that one.

[Mark Smith]: 21:33
Well, it's been so good talking to you. Look at our time is flowing so quickly It's been a real pleasure. Thank you for coming on the show

[Billur Şamdancıoğlu]: 21:44
Thank you Mark, it was good to be in here.