Why Business Central Is the SMB Growth Engine

00:00:01 Mark Smith
Welcome to the power platform show. Thanks for joining me today. I hope today's guests inspires and educates you on the possibilities of the Microsoft Power platform. Now let's get on with the show.

00:00:23 Mark Smith
Today's guest is all the way from Southampton in England. She is the founder of Smarter D365. She's implemented the full project life cycle across a wide range of industries including healthcare, financial services, retail, education, hospitality. She is also a Microsoft Dynamics business Central solution architect with a wealth of technical. Financial and commercial skills acquired across various demanding roles. You can find links to her bio socials, etcetera in the show notes for this episode. Welcome to the show, Adeline.

00:00:54 Adeline Ee Leow
Thank you, mark. And thank you for inviting me. Thank you for the lovely introduction.

00:01:01 Mark Smith
Excellent, excellent. I got I got things right that's it's so good to have you on. I always like to start getting to know my guests from a a food family and fun. What do they mean to you?

00:01:12 Adeline Ee Leow
I'm a foodie. I love my food. Well, I come from Singapore originally and I've lived in England for more than 30 years, but I still have my Singaporean roots and we absolutely love our food. Yeah. To eat pretty much anything and everything's quite adventurous. Yeah. So I like spicy food, but I think being brought up in Singapore, I love rice and noodles, obviously.

00:01:50 Mark Smith
Yeah. And So what do you do when you're not working when you're not doing your technical role of business? What do you do for fun?

00:01:57 Adeline Ee Leow
What do I do for fun? I love. Winding down with. Lots of. So I like to watch so. The Bada Bing bada boom is kind. Of. Movies and. I love my Korean dramas. I'm a kid drama fan. Nice and yeah, so. I love travelling. I've been to over 50. Well actually no. Over 40, nearly fifty countries.

00:02:30 Mark Smith
Wow. Wow, that's a lot. That's a lot. Is it mainly has it mainly been in Europe or have you or or simple?

00:02:30 Adeline Ee Leow
Yeah. Yes, yes. All over all over, I've been to South America, America. I've been obviously all around Asia, of European countries, yeah.

00:02:50 Mark Smith
Very cool. Well traveled. That's amazing. That's amazing. Tell me, how did you get started in tech? What was that journey for you?

00:02:59 Adeline Ee Leow
It was quite interesting because I actually very early in career, I was in kind of finance working in Singapore in the brokerage banking industry, came over here, had the little ones and then. I got into IBM as a payroll clerk to start with and then from payroll clerk work my way up all the way. It's always in finance for me, even from a very, you know, even during a school, I learned accounting when I was at secondary school. And so that's how I kind of my career was kind of mapped out for me in the finance sector. And when I was at IBM, I moved from payroll to then finance actually into the finance department. And that's when I had to learn SQL query language because IBM is so big and there isn't. Clear, sort of like a software system that will, you know, you have to actually learn query language to get all the reports you need out of it. And that was how I kind of got into a little bit of tech with the SQL and and then. Couple of projects came on where I had to understand where all these transactions were going wrong and how to fix it. So having the finance and accountancy knowledge really helped with understand. Thing, the sort of the build of these software systems that we had at that time at IBM. And then I got hit hunted into, so I was called and asked if I'll be interested to look after Oracle for a company. So they had Oracle. They were so. I say yeah, sure. So and then went to this other company. And looked after their all of us, their system admin then. And they decided that Oracle was too big for them, and so they then moved to in the old days called navision NAV version 3.73 point 8. So I was the project manager, moving all the, you know, transitioning from. Oracle to naff. And that was how, really. My business central NAV journey started all those years ago.

00:05:48 Mark Smith
So you've obviously been through through products what has caused you to stay with NAV slash business central from Microsoft, what did you? Like about it?

00:06:00 Adeline Ee Leow
I guess it's. To be honest, when it when it first came out, because I was so used to big systems like IBM and also Oracle. Looking at now, I was thinking, hmm, it's a little bit simplistic, but then I realized that after implementing it that it was really use use of. It's more catered for kind of smaller industries. And you know, and I I wanted to get into the whole kind of smaller business sector rather than corporate. And and that we that product really appealed because we have, we have this very small finance software like your zero or your QuickBooks in the UK the these are you know the the baby what I call the baby ones. And then you've got the really big software solutions like Oracle, SAP, you know the IBM Hyperion, that kind of stuff. But you don't have that kind of middleware middle bit and nerve set really nicely there. It was like a a nice ERP that kicked it to a business that's growing that can then continue growing without having to move. Software until they become real corporate giants, you know. Yeah. So that really appealed and that was when I thought, yeah, I do want to continue with this. Product and Microsoft has gone from strength to strength because now was on Prem. You know, stand alone and look at where it is today. Integrated with the whole of the dynamics 365 platform, you know and and they've put in so many features, it's just lovely to. The Microsoft investing so much in this product, and it's Evergreen, you know, and and it's so exciting to see all this like copilot and all these agents. You know they've now just released sales agents sales older agents. To as a public preview. And yeah, it's lovely to see that they're really investing in the product.

00:08:43 Mark Smith
It's so good. It's so good to hear. And such a good, positive recommendation for the product. How many years now have you? So you you you worked at that company, you did the transition from Oracle to Navision. Bring us to you know, I I know your journey continued on.

00:09:01 Adeline Ee Leow
Yes. So to be fair, actually I after I finish implementing that project, I was called by a a bank and I will not name names, but they're one of the biggest banks in the world. And they wanted my skill sets. And I thought, OK, yeah, I've finished the project, I'll move. On. So I went and it was really looking after their software and clearing up all their financial trade. So I actually moved away from NAV for a little while and. Went into banking into corporate world, back into this big global corporate world and then after a while I was a little bit disenchanted because I think when. You've. You've been in corporate and then you move to a smaller business and then going back to corporate. There's this saying never go back.

00:10:00 Mark Smith
Yeah, yeah.

00:10:01 Adeline Ee Leow
You know and and I think it's it's true in my case never go back to corporate world. So but funnily enough, never say never because I went back to, I went to Microsoft, but I decided to take a break and I did a few years of teaching. Accountancy and teaching, accountancy and software, and also. I got into decided to start my own practice. Accountancy practice for a little while. Wow. But teaching? Just after a while. Quite a few years. Love. Love doing it, but decided that I wanted to get back into the tech world and so I contacted the people who was the part. The Microsoft partner. Who implemented it with me all those years ago and they went join us, come back. And that was how I got back into business central. I implemented the business central with this partner and a few other partners. I got the opportunity to get into Microsoft and I thought why not. So I decided to go back and go into corporate world and yeah, got in and. Looked after the partners, the business central partners in Microsoft. Yeah, and and the biz apps world for a little while. And. I don't know. Maybe it must be a midlife crisis, you know? And there were a couple of other situations that cropped up that I then decided in June last year to start on my own. And that's that's the journey. I'm here now. To be honest, kind of doing what I'm what I was doing at Microsoft, but more hands on because at Microsoft it was not really hands on in the sense that I couldn't help partners with the whole project implementation. And and you know, I could only do training at quite high level, couldn't sort of like give deep dive weeks and weeks of training on business central. So I decided that that was what I really wanted to do, go into training. Help business central partners with project implementations because I saw so many failing projects and it was quite frustrating.

00:12:45 Mark Smith
So how long were you at Microsoft?

00:12:47 Adeline Ee Leow
Couple of years only. Yeah, yeah.

00:12:50 Mark Smith
OK. So it's interesting is in, in the business that you have now, are you helping BC customers? Implement projects, but are you also helping them engage with Microsoft? Because I often find there's a lot of partners that they can be good on the tech, but they are not necessarily good on. I always say it's a a trifecta relationship. You have your practice, you have your customers and you have Microsoft and all those relationships. To run an effective practice, need to. The facilitated maintained enriched. You can't just focus on customers without, you know, bringing Microsoft inappropriately. And also Microsoft can help you as a partner many times, so you're facilitating. Are you helping them with, with not just the tech, but also the the.

00:13:39 Adeline Ee Leow
Yeah, yeah, we do. We do do that. Yes. So where require it where the partner has a prospect that's quite big. He could actually. This is quite well, you know, colour partners do not know this, but they should know that Microsoft does have what we call concierge service that, you know, you could reach out and they will step in and help you win. The project, with their support, with their presence, you know, so you do, we do get. And in a recent case we help a partner win a very big project together with Microsoft. 
 So my my contacts in Microsoft and my team and the Microsoft partner, the three together work together to win this massive project and and we won it from. SAP.

00:14:48 Mark Smith
Wow.

00:14:48 Adeline Ee Leow
So that was really good, yes.

00:14:51 Mark Smith
It's so good the, you know, I left IBM myself about a year. Year ago and in my time in IBM, I noticed that in I don't know either. Central, Eastern Europe, we had a big development centre for business Central. We had a couple of big BC clients that were global companies, but running on business central. And my question is. I've been in the dynamics community a long time and I saw the transition from NAV to BC and there was a bit of internally in Microsoft. Do we need business central? Do we need now vision where we've, you know, Great Plains is all all already kind of in the sunset phase so to speak of its life and the focus was willing to be on. For no and I saw things that went on in the leadership level of, you know, it was. Sort of in public if you like, because some things were done at conferences by leadership, which were not necessarily sanctioned by Microsoft. This is Microsoft product owners and stuff at the time, and it was tumultuous for a little period, but it seemed that business central has come out of that and just accelerated away. And and I feel that sometimes Microsoft, sorry even partners or as as in when they try to position. And BC, and they say, well, it's, you know, small but medium sized businesses and then my exposure in IBM well it can be really large organizations and they can still run quite well on BC. And so how do you really define well one a couple of questions, how big is the BC market now? Globally for business Central and how and how do you define the? You need to go to an enterprise ERP system as opposed to a mid market as opposed to a small ERP like how do you define that? If you had those conversations with customers?

00:16:51 Adeline Ee Leow
It's really interesting you bring this up because you know I've seen sort of like like you say, the transitions in the market, right? So you had at one time where everybody wanted, you know, bits of different software. I want a a solution just for project and I want a solution just for finance and people going down that hole, you know, separate solutions. Where you get the what they call best of breed kind of thing? Yes. Then after a while it then came to light. We're going to. We want one big. System, right? And that's where the enterprise. Yeah, he really accelerated. And then they find that ohh, this is. Such a beast. To control. I think that's part of the issue with enterprise ERP. Don't get me wrong, I think FN is amazing, you know? And like it has. Such rich functionality that even I think business central should have in some of its functionality. But I think it's like it's such a big beast. You know that then you now get businesses where we say, right we'll have. The enterprise solution, but then for operations we want something more controllable and I think that's why you get to see and the fact that this is central. Microsoft has also positioned the business central as a. One stop solution with ISV add-ons. That you know, a small business can step up to or get into business central from the start and grow your business all the way right to when you need this big earpieces enterprise. So I know you say. Like the likes of big organizations like IBM and and also. I don't know. You know, big car manufacturers are using business central, but they're not using business central on on its own for everything. Massive corporations like this will still require your the likes of ethanol. But they'll then have business central as so you've got like the spook and the wheel kind of situation. Yes. And. And so I think. What happened is that with business central the way Microsoft has positioned it correctly in the SMB market, that's why you've got the whole hockey stick growth, all the smaller businesses picking up business central and then the bigger businesses also using business central. For for specific operations, whereas you know and then having that integration to FNO with you know the whole consolidation and finance stuff.

00:20:07 Mark Smith
So going just back to that question, how do you define it? Microsoft team of SMB in a Europe and America is quite different than for example in Australia and New Zealand, right when you've got a country of only 5 million people, SMB is 50 people, right? Where in Microsoft SMB would be 250 people to 2000? People would be in. Space. And so small businesses then like one person in New Zealand or two people is. And so there's quite a difference in sizing. So when I go back to, you know, you would have been in situations I, I bet where people were thinking that, oh, we're big enough that we should just be F&O where you can see clearly that this is. BC will handle everything that you need. How do you take them on that type of discussion and journey?

00:20:58 Adeline Ee Leow
With business central, the architecture is very different from fno. When you buy fno, you're buying one platform. And and you can have all the different countries in one solution. So if you're a global organization where you have US, Europe, all of Europe, Asia, really, you should have F&O as your main enterprise architecture. Business central, you see, is based on per country.

00:21:38 Mark Smith
Nice.

00:21:39 Adeline Ee Leow
So. If you have. Like the whole global, you would not want to buy 20 business central solutions in different countries. It doesn't make sense. Yes, if you want to, you can. But I think the cost then. You know it's higher than if you just bought FN O I'm just being very honest. Yeah. Might have. This is my opinion, you know. Would you pay 20 and violence production and violence in different countries? You know, when you can have ethno. Because you know, the other thing is with business central. And handles operations beautifully. Don't get me wrong, it's amazing when it comes to operations, right? But when you start getting into the complexities of, like, really complex finance, complex manufacturing. Then you will need to add on ISV's. What we call third. Party solutions, you know, and then that then increase your costs again. And and then you have to make sure these integrations. Keep working every six months when Microsoft updates business central, so. It. It really depends on like I say, if you're a huge organization with lots of countries, yeah. Best to buy ethanol to start with and then think about business central in your subsidiaries for operations.

00:23:27 Mark Smith
Interesting the as we as we go to wrap up, tell me about what you've noticed in the more successful partners. As in like, do you see any patterns that appear in partners that do well? They grow, they continue innovating. They continue to adopt. And take their customers on great journeys. Is there anything you're like? There's a pattern that I've seen across multiple partners that have led them to be consistently good.

00:23:56 Adeline Ee Leow
I think the ones that are really consistently good are where they actually invest, invest in people, invest in technology, invest. So where I see, you know, making sure they've got the right. Skill set and then the resource and the resource and then they will make sure that they're creating. The latest and the greatest of developments. That's when they're very successful. So I've seen some partners where they've got some amazing people who create all these, like AI extensions, you know, and and their putting it out there, all these extensions. That enhances business central, for example, yeah. And then putting it on the app source and then marketing it successfully, yeah. That's where I think, yeah, it's about the people, really.

00:25:06 Mark Smith
Yeah, that's so good. That's so good, Adeline. Thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been a pleasure talking to you.

00:25:11 Adeline Ee Leow
Thank you very much. Thank you, Mark. Thank you.

00:25:16 Mark Smith
Hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host business application MVP, Mark Smith, otherwise known as the nz365guy. If there's a guest you would like to see on the show, please message me on LinkedIn. If you want to be a supporter of the show, please check out buy me a coffee.com/nz365guy. Stay safe out there and shoot for the stars.