From Ecuador to Amsterdam: Wilmer Alcivar's Tech Journey through CRM, Social Media Integration, and the Power Platform

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 the Netherlands. He works at Dynamics People, a Dynamics 365 and Power Platform technical consultancy. He was first awarded as MVP in 2023. He's interested in CRM, social CRM, email marketing, social media integration, customer service and adding value to CRM projects. You can find links to his bio and social media in the show notes for this episode. Welcome to the show, Wilmer. Thank you, mark. Thank you for having me. Tell us a bit about you. Tell us about food, family and fun. What do you do when you're not focusing on your career?

Wilmer Alcivar: 1:41
Well, I would like to start by saying that I was born in Ecuador. I am originally from Ecuador. In my spare time, I like to go out with my girlfriend, sometimes go to the gym, play some video games when I have the time. Sometimes, of course, I like to work in the community.

Mark Smith: 2:07
Fantastic. Tell me what's amazing about Ecuador. Give me some background. I don't know much about Ecuador.

Wilmer Alcivar: 2:17
Well, it's a Latin American country, next to Colombia and Peru. You will find everything you have mountains, you have the jungle, you have beaches. The food is really amazing. The specialty in there is seafood. My favorite dish, for instance, is the ceviche.

Mark Smith: 2:42
Is the ceviche done in coconut or lemon? What type of fish do you use?

Wilmer Alcivar: 2:48
You can use it every time of fish. Even shrimps you can use. You don't use coconut. I think that's the Peruvian version. The Peruvian version is just lemon.

Mark Smith: 3:01
Lemon Beautiful. Hopefully I'll get to go there one day. What took you to the Netherlands?

Wilmer Alcivar: 3:08
Well, that's a long story. A long story is when I was working in Ecuador, I decided to move to another country in 2015. That country was Uruguay. In Uruguay, I learned a lot. Then I decided to move to Spain in 2019 to continue my professional development. Last year I moved to the Netherlands. I'm living in Amsterdam, so far, I really like it.

Mark Smith: 3:46
What's your favorite thing about Amsterdam?

Wilmer Alcivar: 3:49
Everything, I mean the vibe of the city. The city is really beautiful. If I can complain something, it could be the weather, yeah, but some minor things. I really like it. I'm really happy here.

Mark Smith: 4:10
Nice, nice. How did you get into IT? What was your career journey?

Wilmer Alcivar: 4:16
Well, that's what I studied in the university. I started working on the Syrian word in 2012, which is another Syrian the year after I moved to Dynamics. That's how we used to call it back then. What version was that? 2011, on-premise I think the best version of the all-on-premises version.

Mark Smith: 4:49
Yeah, Before we all started moving to the cloud.

Wilmer Alcivar: 4:54
Yeah, well, I would like to say. Then I met the 2013, which I hated. Then, well, of course, 2015, 16 and go on.

Mark Smith: 5:06
What's the of all the tool sets that you have in Microsoft Business Applications, whether it be Dynamics 365, customer Service, field Service, marketing, etc. Even then, moving to the Power Platform, power Automate, power Apps, power Virtual Agents, power BI and Power Pages Watch all those. What's your favorite tool set to work with it and do projects in?

Wilmer Alcivar: 5:35
Used to be sales sales model. Nowadays, I'm more focused on the Power Platform. I would like to say that Power Automate is my favorite model, Nice.

Mark Smith: 5:50
Are you building full apps on the Power Platform, like model-driven apps?

Wilmer Alcivar: 5:56
Yeah, I'm building model-driven apps, Canvas apps, Nowadays even custom pages using the Greater Kit, which I love it. From time to time some Power Pages sites, but I think in every project I end up using Power Automate, which I love it. I even know a little bit about the Power Automate desktop.

Mark Smith: 6:22
Yeah, if you look back in your history, you would have worked with Windows Workflow Foundation as your automation tool inside of CRM back then. How do you find the difference between the automation tools there and then Power Automate?

Wilmer Alcivar: 6:41
Well, to be honest, I didn't work with the workflow foundation.

Mark Smith: 6:47
Did you do any automation back in CRM 2011?

Wilmer Alcivar: 6:50
Yeah, that was using Kinsk, kinsk, kinsk, kinsk, kinsk, kinsk, kinsk, kinsk, kinsk, kinsk, kinsk with soft using SQL Server.

Mark Smith: 6:56
I used to use King with Swaysoft. Yeah, that would have been good for migrating data in, but did you do any event reminders or any kind of email automatic emails, anything like that back in CRM 2011? No, not that I remember. Wow, that was the main automation tool which was borrowed, really, from SharePoint back in those days. One thing that it could do was workflows that were synchronous, not just asynchronous workflows. So we still don't have full synchronous workflows yet in Power Automate.

Wilmer Alcivar: 7:40
Yeah, I know, it's a pity.

Mark Smith: 7:44
What other shortfalls do you see in the Power Platform that you would like to see Microsoft build out?

Wilmer Alcivar: 7:51
Well this is a hope from my side that I would like to see more engagement on the AI Builder and BVA model With this AI skill challenge, which is really good. That's a good thing for the starters to get no more of these two models. But I have to say from my personal point of view, I haven't implemented in a big project, so the features that I know from these two models is because I like to play around with these two models.

Mark Smith: 8:34
Yeah, and what type of things do you use particularly AI? Builder for A builder yeah. What do you use it for?

Wilmer Alcivar: 8:46
Well, the times that I tested in my developer environment was to upload some documents, to recognize some key phrases or the typical model that you have to train a little bit for invoices Right Right, you mentioned that you'd work with Power Pages.

Mark Smith: 9:10
What were the use cases that you're using Power Pages for?

Wilmer Alcivar: 9:16
Well, a big part that I remember was to build a Power Apps portal back then so the user can log in to the site and they want to request a certificate as proof that they attended to a course. This could be online or on site Right. So from the Power Pages site I call. I remember that I called Cloudflow to generate a PDF document using just Word templates, and then the Cloudflow called a Power Automate Desktop sending the PDF document and the Power Automate. Desktop added a digital signature in the PDF document. In the end, I was sending an email to the customer with the PDF attached.

Mark Smith: 10:20
Wow, that's brilliant. That's brilliant. Is that the only project you work with Power Pages?

Wilmer Alcivar: 10:27
No, no, no. No, that was one of the biggest that I remember.

Mark Smith: 10:32
This one was a little bit smaller with the knowledge base cases, and was it for a utility company or a retail company? What type of company was using it?

Wilmer Alcivar: 10:43
The last project it was for it was a company that was selling licenses Gotcha, Gotcha.

Mark Smith: 10:49
Excellent, Excellent. Tell me how did you become an MVP? What was that process for you?

Wilmer Alcivar: 10:55
It was a little bit rough, I would say, because last year I applied to become an MVP. Microsoft rejected me. But I'm glad they did, because they gave me a really specific feedback, which it helped me a lot to improve. So that's why I started my own blog. That's why I'm participating more often in community events, building some solutions like I don't know PCF or some other different apps.

Mark Smith: 11:34
Okay, okay, and tell me, which do you prefer as a model-driven apps or PCF as in? Do you prefer creating controls and things like that? It depends.

Wilmer Alcivar: 11:46
I will say it depends on the requirement. Of course, my first option will be a custom page. If I cannot do it, then I will go for a PCF.

Mark Smith: 12:00
Interesting. What's the most creative PCF you've built?

Wilmer Alcivar: 12:03
Drag and drop files. To upload the files to SharePoint.

Mark Smith: 12:08
Yep, brilliant, brilliant. I see that you speak at a range of events. Are they all remote or in-person type of events? You've got your PowerPages Bootcamp, I see.

Wilmer Alcivar: 12:20
I participate in some online events. This year I started participating on on-site events.

Mark Smith: 12:27
let's say, Nice, nice, and what is easier about on-site events as opposed to online events.

Wilmer Alcivar: 12:39
Well, I will say there is no comparison. I really like to be on on-site events, the networking, the people, everything is way better.

Mark Smith: 12:52
Do you feel that you present differently in person as in to remote? Good question. I don't know, maybe I don't know. Do you do anything different as in? Do you do anything different around when you're doing presenting online, around how you engage your audience, as opposed to how you engage when you're in the room with them To be?

Wilmer Alcivar: 13:12
honest, I think it will be easy to present online, but I feel more comfortable to be on on-site. I don't know why.

Mark Smith: 13:22
Interesting. Do you get more interaction from people online or more interaction, yeah?

Wilmer Alcivar: 13:27
no, no, on-site. On-site Interesting Maybe it could be that one, I don't know, but I feel more comfortable on-site.

Mark Smith: 13:35
Yeah, interesting. What's been the highlight of becoming an MVP for you?

Wilmer Alcivar: 13:40Well it was a tough, bad bad. Once that I get it, I was so happy and I'm still trying to ignore all the emails that I get every day, but in the end, I mean, it's nice to be recognized by from Microsoft for all the work that you do for the community, but that is only one of how you say it in English, is just a small detail, because the biggest part of this is to help the community, you know, to share your knowledge. So that's why I started this bad.

Mark Smith: 14:29
What's been your experience in the last six months with AI more generally? So, outside of AI builder, things like co-pilots, things like large language models, what have you been doing in the AI space?

Wilmer Alcivar: 14:45
Not that much, to be honest, and I really I want to try the co-pilot features for, for instance, PowerPages site to create a site, and also I would like to try out these minor features with co-pilots in the sales model.

Mark Smith: 15:02
Okay, okay. Have you been doing any hands on with it, any learning of it? At the moment, just just learning on the release wave.

Wilmer Alcivar: 15:10
So I'm waiting for those features to become preview, even to try it out on the sales model.

Mark Smith: 15:19
Are you aware you have early access to it? Yeah, yeah, you've got access on your MVP tenant that you can actually the co-pilot. I think I've had co-pilot in mind now for three months, four months maybe, have you have?

Wilmer Alcivar: 15:32
you had.

Mark Smith: 15:33
have you had a look at that? No, no, no, no, not yet. Yeah, so it might be worth, but definitely I will look at it. Jumping into your MVP ten it's one of your benefits and you get early access to all that even before it hits any other wave cycles.

Mark Smith: 15:57
Hey, thanks for listening On 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.