From IT to Power Apps: Ahmed Salih's Inspirational Journey to MVP and Beyond with 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 US. He works at St Jude's Children Research Hospital as a senior Microsoft Power Platform solution architect and developer. He is first awarded as MVP in 2023. He creates innovative software solutions that enhance business efficiency, raising the industry's standards of excellence, and he is a loving owner of an endearing cat. You can find links to his bio and social media etc. In the show notes for this episode. Ahmed, welcome to the show.

Ahmed Salih : 1:35
Thank you so much for having me.

Mark Smith: 1:38
Good to have you on. How long ago did you become an MVP?

Ahmed Salih : 1:42
It's actually just last July. Last month I received my award. I was nominated like four months prior to July, back in February I think late February. I didn't know anything about actually the MVP program until I met one of the community Power Platform super users in the last year Power Platform Conference in Orlando, florida. He obviously noticed the work that I'm doing in the community by providing answers and getting my answers marked as solutions. I became super user in July of last year and he introduced me to the MVP program and then eventually asked me if I'm willing to be nominated and I said yes. That was how I became MVP.

Mark Smith: 2:40
Wow, this is such a good story. Tell me a bit about what you do outside of technology. Tell me a bit about food, family and fun in that category.

Ahmed Salih : 2:52
So I'm a father of four kids, so I have two high schoolers, one middle school and one in elementary, so very busy. A lot of people ask me where do you find time between work and the community? And I'm really grateful for the family support so they understand how important this to me and they are 100% supportive. Time I record the time I am busy writing articles or blogs overnight. Very, very supportive, so very family-oriented man. So it's either work or home. And now obviously the community is my third partner. I love outdoor, so I used to play hockey when I was in middle school Ice hockey and now a little bit old, I guess. So I do online skating, so I take my kids. They all know how to skate, so we go to skate Outdoor. We love camping, we love hiking, traveling, road trips, long and short. You know that's especially in the United States. You can travel for 16, 17, 20 hours from one estate to another, and other than that is just really is the excitement and the satisfaction you get by helping other in the community, whether it's actually related to the Power Apps or anything other than the Power Apps.

Mark Smith: 4:37
You covered almost everything except for food.

Ahmed Salih : 4:39
Yes, so this is the thing, because I'm on diet.

Mark Smith: 4:45
You're not talking about this.

Ahmed Salih : 4:47
So I love food. You know this is the thing. So I love all type of cuisines. You know, obviously I grew up in United Arab Emirates between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, and over there the food culture is very diverse A lot of Indian, a lot of Lebanese, a lot of, you know, syrian and Mediterranean food. I'm originally from Sudan, so also the Sudanese cuisine is there here in Memphis, tennessee, it's the barbecue city, right. So it's all these. You know, beautiful barbecue sauce, but I have high cholesterol, pre-diabetes and obviously I have, from my mom's side, type 2 diabetes and also high cholesterol. So a year ago this is when it became very serious that they had to put me in medication to control my cholesterol and stuff. So that's why I'm taking it slow now in food. So basically I try to eat healthy, exercise daily and just taking care of my body, and I think it's taking care of my body, helping me even to take care of my mind, especially with you know amount of work that we do in tech and you know to have you need to take care of yourself sometimes and I found it is just like you know, taking care of my diet and exercise is actually definitely is the way to go, and this is one of my goals, actually, before earning my next MVP is to lose at least 40 pounds Nice.

Mark Smith: 6:21
Nice, and I understand that struggle. How long has it been since you've been to the Sudan?

Ahmed Salih : 6:27
Oh yeah, it's actually been a long, long time. I actually came to the US back in 2009, and that was from Sudan. So after I finished college, I finished my college in Egypt and then I, after I finished in 2005, I went to Sudan. I worked in Sudan and I came here in 2009. And because all my immediate family members here, so they all in Colorado, so my mom, my dad, my, my siblings so I didn't have really to travel back, so I don't have like really immediate family members to go visit, so I didn't go. But my wife from Egypt and and you know, obviously we just have to follow the wife steps and her family is still in Egypt. So we travel to Egypt vacations.

Mark Smith: 7:14
The closest I've been to Sudan is Eritrea.

Ahmed Salih : 7:17
Eritrea if you'll be. Oh, you went to, you've been to Eritrea. That's awesome.

Mark Smith: 7:20
Yeah, I worked for two weeks there.

Ahmed Salih : 7:23
Yeah, this, this was like very close culture, very close culture. There's a lot of Eritreans that lives in Sudan and we share a lot of traditions, whether it's, you know, like talking about a peerless traditions or, you know, cultural tradition in marriages and stuff like that. Obviously the food as well. There is a lot of similarities.

Mark Smith: 7:47
Do you know what a?

Ahmed Salih : 7:48
Zibib is no, I don't. So what is? What is the ingredients?

Mark Smith: 7:52
It was an Eritrean alcohol. Well, it was Eritrean spirit that they made, and they cook Okay.

Ahmed Salih : 7:58
Yeah.

Mark Smith: 7:59
And there was two. They were the other one I can't remember, but it was made from honey and it was in a Goid type and and I was invited to a wedding while I was there and they were handing these around and on the foreigner right and I bet that was very strong right. Well, the thing is, I drank it and I'm like, wow, this is so tasty, right Cause it was made from honey, and I'm, and, and I'm drinking, and the older people are going, you know, they're like, and what happened? Is that? Um it? Yeah, it just knocked me out, like it was so strong, as you say. And then for the next I don't know 12 hours, yeah, they pretty much carried me around and I was. It was so strong, and you know, but it tasted so good to start with, so it was good fun.

Ahmed Salih : 8:53
So, yeah, I don't drink. You know, I'm a Muslim, so alcohol is not part of the religion. And in Sudan specifically I don't think until I left Sudan there was no like legally. You can, you know, sell or buy alcohol in the whole country.

Mark Smith: 9:11
So this was all homemade. This was all homemade, and the thing is is that I'm sure that the wedding I went to, it can't have been, because you know the Muslim culture was all around where I was, you know the masks and everything like that. So I don't know the specific wedding I went to, what their religious beliefs were, because I never understood any of it, but it was all. Do they speak Arabic there? Or Tigrani? And I think they're native languages? But yeah, it was interesting. They definitely.

Ahmed Salih : 9:42
It was definitely alcohol, though, ha ha ha, it's like you know, I believe, like all the homemade liquor is very strong. Like you know, you have the moonshine and even in Sudan it was obviously illegal, but still people also, you know people who drinks, you know they still make it at home and it's very similar to the moonshine.

Mark Smith: 10:03
Oh, it definitely is. Yeah, I'd agree, yeah.

Ahmed Salih : 10:06
Yeah, yeah so.

Mark Smith: 10:08
Interesting. Tell me about your specialization. What area in the power platform or dynamics suite of products? What's your specialist area? What are you most attracted to?

Ahmed Salih : 10:22
So I, in 2019, I started with SharePoint and PowerApps and just a hint, that I'm a software developer. I'm aNET developer. So I was, you know, heavily since 2005,. All the way to 2011,. I was NET developer developing application based on geographical information systems using ISRI technology, which is Environmental System Research Institute, so anything related to digital mappings, whether we build standalone applications or web application based on these digital maps. I moved to IT in around 2013. And then I wanted to just be like more kind of going to the IT ladder to become an eventually, like you know, it manager and you know, manage IT team. So I went through you know, system admins. But in 2019, we had this project that I wanted to build in-house, you know product to using SharePoint and PowerApps. That was my first actually interaction with PowerApps and I found it very obviously for someone as a pro developer, you know, using PowerFX, it's kind of like a piece of cake we call it. You understand the logic behind these type of formulas and you can definitely learn it very fast. And that's exactly what happened. Within six months, I have a full product that was based on SharePoint. But when I got my recent job, or my current job in St Jude, I had to interact with Dataverse and in Dataverse, actually it was something new for me and then I became very passionate about Dataverse really and I really love Dataverse and I'm a big advocate for Dataverse, obviously when it comes to which data source you select when you're building Power Apps. So it's been mainly around building Power Apps, canvas Apps, sharepoint SQL as data source, or also Dataverse as well, and ModerDivenApp heavily and also heavily customizing ModerDivenApp using JavaScript as well. So, yeah, and recently I started working also with Dynamics 365 FNO and that was new for me and I was shocked about how we can integrate Power Apps, canvas Apps, with Dynamics FNO for these seamless process driving small, tiny apps that you can open in each form to do a lot of these processes. That you have to jump from one screen to another in Dynamics FNO to do a certain process. You can just have it in one app that will actually pop up to the side of your screen and just do everything, not to mention that you can interact also with the data using the Power Automate in cases like we had to do certain kind of calculation and decide about the financial dimensions, and it was all based on Power Automate and, to be honest, I know that the content that we have as documentation and think it's not really enough, and I think part of the reason even though that maybe there's a lot of people that, or at least many people who are not familiar with Power Automate or at least many people who works with Dynamics FNO and Power Apps is obviously the licensing and you cannot find more than I think three months or maybe even a month, if I remember, for a tenant to test or to play with Dynamics FNO and Power Apps. But I believe that's a great, great opportunity for most of the customers who are using Dynamics FNO and they want to just simplify the process or even add some kind of customization to make Dynamics FNO is really UX friendly, because I think it's a great product 100%. I didn't know anything about FNO until I worked in this recent project, but really very, very powerful and I believe it's just. It's a rough user experience with the amount of steps that some people that they have or some users that they have to do to do certain tasks specifically. If you have any kind of customized modules there, that might even add to the roughness of the user experience and Power Apps there is just play a role. That it's just unbelievable is how it's easy, it's fun, it's amazing.

Mark Smith: 15:57
Yeah, powerful tool and I love the way that you've done your transition and seen what's available. Sap is at another level again of when SAP customers inlay power apps to part of the story. It's a game changer and very powerful when you use it on these traditional ERP systems that are very they're not UX, ui friendly. They're very systematized and what their function is to do. So now, that's interesting observation. Tell me about resources for new learners, beginners, that type of thing. What are you doing in that space?

Ahmed Salih : 16:38
Okay. So for the resources that I would definitely recommend and again, it's part of my experience. So I'm one of the first Microsoft Power App or Power App Program Champs or instructors and we get to meet. I actually just finished a session that almost two hours with first week in the program for new, actually cohorts, and from there we see all these different backgrounds and you will be surprised. I have people like I would say, 90% of the people that comes to learn Power Apps and know about the Power Platform are non-technical people and this is completely fine. As a matter of fact, it was meant for that and actually we call the Power App Program. It's the career switcher program to help you actually to switch career.

Mark Smith: 17:30
Is this internal and internal to St Jude, or is it external?

Ahmed Salih : 17:34
No, no, no, this is a Microsoft Program. So the Microsoft Power App Program, yes, and having all this experience in the community and even my learning, my personal learning experience but again being pro developers or technical people, we know how to read SDKs. You know like software development kits and data modeling and object modeling, but for someone non-technical sometimes it might be even hard for them to search for the right word or technical term, to find the right answer, even in Google. So that's when it comes into play. I think that Microsoft Learn is phenomenal. I personally went through them when I first started in 2009,. Just quickly, you know, go through the whole thing just to know what this Power Platform is, and it's just amazing. You know from reading from one page to another, take you a step at a time and then you have all these slaps that you can go through and implement stuff and see the result of it. I've been showing you how to sign up for developer plans and have your own environments. It's just amazing. So, definitely, learning path is number one. Number two is the community forum and again in 2019, 2020 and 2021, I was that person who actually go search for something in Google. I found the answer that come in the first page, I click it takes me to the Microsoft Power App forum, but I just read the answer and then I go and solve it and that's it. It's done, it's easy. So I don't need to subscribe. I did not register until I think I resisted in 2019, but just to go and look into the questions and see if it's something relevant to what I'm doing, but really signing up and registering this community, not only going there to just find what you're looking for, you can actually just go and ask questions and don't just go and scroll down and ask a question and you will get answer by going there and just reading, exploring these different issues and see the solutions. That's another learning path that you can take and it's very, very, very efficient because these are life projects, issues people are having, and you're always going to have this back and forth of discussions, which is make you understand the root of the problem and even change your mindset of how, if you decided to post a question, how are you going to post that question? So that's going to be. Number two is learning path Microsoft learning path. Number two is going to be the Microsoft Forum. Number three is going to be this is not a theoretical field. You have to have a developer environment for free. You can have a Microsoft Office 365 developer program where you can have a full tenant with even users and all licensed, and you can have multiple environments. Go there and build apps. Just keep building apps. Every time you watch a video, you see an article, a blog, just go ahead and try to play with it and build it and test different functions. You have, obviously, the documentation, which is very well organized, and you can go through these functions, all the functions. I mean they are inclusive, I mean you can count them, you can actually play with them and you can cover them maybe in a month and you know what each function does. And in the documentation you have the function description, you have the syntax and you have examples, which is just amazing, like it's just you know. So that's definitely building apps using the documentations. It's going to be my third way of learning. And again, programs, workshops by Microsoft partners. I know that they make these PowerApp in a day, or Virtual Agent in a day or PowerApp. So all these free workshops are amazing resources for someone considered to be a beginner.

Mark Smith: 21:49
Yeah, I like it. I like it so useful. We're already at our time for the recording, but I want to ask you one last thing around how you juggle and handle the pace of technology change. How do you balance life, the constant new features since AI has come out you know as a well generative AI, large language models, et cetera has come out since December last year, we have seen more than an explosion of new things to learn, get up to speed with. How do you balance?

Ahmed Salih : 22:28
Yeah, as you see, this is a big deal. I mean, this is a Microsoft Power Platform and I think low code, no code in general and ERP in general. It's a very, very fast evolving technologies and really you have to have a strategy for it. And my strategy is principle is subscribing to those newsletters where actually they announce Microsoft announced any kind of like new updates, new features in preview and stuff like that. They have actually now also the release planner where you can subscribe and see what is life now that you can try what is even planned and what is have been already. You know in general availability and you can subscribe to a certain area, maybe like Dynamics 365 CRM. You know new updates and every time you get there is an update there coming. Either it's a planned update or it's something that now it's in preview. You get actual notification. You can not just go and look up to see like, ok, today I'm going to go and look up for, look for, like you know what is new. You have to have a strategy to sign up, to register, to have these. You know email organized folder and rules where new stuff come. You know in certain places in your email and you can check it out and then from there, obviously I just try to really set a certain time for my own technical growth and the community. So I would say, like it's about 14 hours a week and that's it. So I have 40 hours in my job. 14 hours is a community and technical growth, following up with all these new features, new updates, and then the rest of the time, if there is a time rest is actually obviously it's the time that I can get relieved, stay with the family and, you know, have just the you know quality life after that.

Mark Smith: 24:34
Hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host business application MBP 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.