G.Mick Smith:
Well, welcome once again. This is The Doctor of Digital, the Doctor Digital podcast. The purpose of the show is to transform your business and life with education and inspiration. I introduced busy business leaders to trends in business, technology and marketing to highlight people you should know.
Did you know that within the Microsoft Dynamics world, experts can tailor solutions to not only large corporations, but also help small businesses thrive? With an expert diverse background spanning sales, project management and executive leadership, a business leader brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. Today we'll be diving into signature topics from selecting the perfect dynamic solution for your business size, to harnessing the power of AI and everything in between. Thus, get ready to unlock the true potential of Microsoft Dynamics for your organization.
During this episode, I'm joined by Greg Williams, a man who's practically lived and breed dynamics for over two decades. Greg's journey from Consultant to VP of Strategy at Western Computer reflects his deep understanding of the entire dynamics ecosystem. He's not just a technical whiz, but a seasoned strategist who help Western Computer explode in growth. During this episode, we'll do a deep dive into the changes in hot topics of Microsoft Dynamics for business growth and successfully running a company. We will leverage the expertise of my guest and how to navigate the unique dynamics of the field. By the end of this episode, you'll be better equipped to know what to do, and I encourage you to contact my guest, Greg Williams, VP of Strategy, Western Computer. With that, thank you for joining me today. How are you doing today, Greg?
Greg Williams:
Great. Nice to meet you.
G.Mick Smith:
Likewise. So I'm always curious how you got in your field and what got you going in the first place. Could you tell us a little bit about your background?
Greg Williams:
Sure, yeah. So I grew up in Michigan and went to college there. Always wanted to go into business. I had some people in my family that were in the software industry. Detroit area has a very long legacy with software going back to some of the first computer companies such as Burroughs and NCR, some of those old names. So I was able to know about technology as an option even in the nineties, and as something that I wanted to go into for my career.
G.Mick Smith:
I see. So it's been a while and Detroit is great. I always tell people I have Detroit muscle, it's great because I remember back in the day. But I had a 1957 Buick Special. So yeah, I know a lot about that, in any case. Since it's been a while, could you tell us a little bit about some of the changes that you've seen in the recent years?
Greg Williams:
Yeah, there's really been ... in my career, there's been really two big changes that I've seen. The first one was the change from character-based systems to Windows-based systems. Where Microsoft really started to take over. And that just changed the whole game of being able to point and click, and search for things instead of having to be trained in which function button to use on the keyboard. That was a big change from a usability standpoint. But then when systems get more usable, then they get more adaptable and people want to do more with them.
And then after that, the big change in my business for the last five to ten years has been the transformation to the cloud. Having systems that are easier to implement, you don't have to worry about maintaining the infrastructure for them and maintaining that kind of talent in-house. Just the ability to quickly deploy systems that are cloud-based and secure has been a big game changer for our business.
G.Mick Smith:
Sure, and I mentioned in the introduction something about AI and would you consider that like a lot of people, it's a hot topics. Or there are other things along with AI that you would identify are some of the hot topics in terms of strategy?
Greg Williams:
I think overall data management is a hot topic with AI as a subset of that. All companies have been ... now that they've deployed good systems over the last 10, 20 years, now they have more data than they know what to do with. And so now it's a matter of properly warehousing that data and storing it and then finding insights in it. Being able to crawl that data for the right information. Then of course, AI is going to take that to the next level. AI is still a little immature, but it is really going to change that world over the next 10 years.
G.Mick Smith:
Can you anticipate some of these things? I know it's very difficult to be a prophet, but is there some things that you see coming?
Greg Williams:
Yes, I think the biggest difference is that business decision makers and business people will be able to find the data they need without having to have the technical knowledge to get it. For example, in a SQL database, we do select the top 100 rows from the customer table and we have to know how to write that syntax as IT guys. And with AI, a business decision maker or a business person can just say, give me my top 100 customers in plain English. So that's what's really going to change the world is that it'll empower business people to get data without having to have the technical know-how to extract it.
G.Mick Smith:
Not putting words in your mouth, but it's almost like what you're describing in the nineties where all of a sudden things were not just for the geeks, but also the ordinary people who could access information and get a Windows system and know what to do. Is that kind of what you're describing?
Greg Williams:
That is right, yeah. It's more democratization of data.
G.Mick Smith:
And that's probably helpful on the staff side too. So you wouldn't necessarily have to have the person going to somebody else to get the information for you. So it's going to be quicker and faster, more efficient.
Greg Williams:
Right. But it'll be useful for ... the person that is asking for the data will have to have some type of cursory knowledge of how these AI tools work, and know how to troubleshoot them, and how to get the most out of them. And that'll be a new skillset. And then the old kind of programming skillset will slowly be going away.
G.Mick Smith:
Is there a way that you would say that some folks in the IT field should be adjusting now given some of the changes that are taking place? Would it replace jobs? I mean, this is one of the debates that are going on.
Greg Williams:
Right. I don't think things like this replace jobs. We've had constant technological improvement over the last 50 years here. And we have still the same unemployment rates in general. So what you see is that jobs get redefined, jobs get reclassified. But overall, I don't see AI as just unilaterally getting rid of jobs.
G.Mick Smith:
Okay. Is there anything else that you would address as a hot topic from your field? Anything else you see in addition to AI?
Greg Williams:
In addition to AI? Just overall the whole data management strategy. How do you manage all your data from your different systems to get the most out of that data? Modern companies are more focused on data than their products in some ways.
G.Mick Smith:
Right. That's true. So what would you generally recommend business owners and business leaders to be thinking about now as they adjust? And maybe again, given your background, strategically, what should they be thinking about?
Greg Williams:
First thing is if you still have any on-premise systems, get them into the cloud into a SaaS platform where they're secure. Because on-premise servers just aren't secure. We see a lot of ransomware attacks. That's the first advice I would give. Second is think about your overall data strategy. What are you going to do with your legacy data from your old systems? What are you going to do with your data that you have from your new systems? And how are you going to bring that data into one secure cloud storage area so you can report on it? But not just report on it, but have it ready for AI in the future in the next few years as it starts to mature.
G.Mick Smith:
Are people behind if they haven't moved in the cloud? Or you're saying that this is still current because it has been going on for several years?
Greg Williams:
I mean, at this point, I would say that if you still have on-premise systems, then you're at risk of falling behind. Yes. Because you're not going to have access to the same analytical tools on-premise that cloud services have.
G.Mick Smith:
Could you explain the difference? Because you had mentioned about the security differences. What's the difference between your on-site as opposed to in the cloud?
Greg Williams:
Well, if you're on one of the major clouds, say Microsoft or Amazon, they have military grade level security across all those systems. They also have your data geo-located in multiple regions at the same time geographically. So if you're operating off the New York data center and there's a massive earthquake, then you roll over and start working off the Chicago one. Most small to medium-sized businesses don't have the luxury of investing in redundant data centers. They just hope that the closet in their office continues to run.
G.Mick Smith:
Yeah, they cross their fingers and hope for the best.
Greg Williams:
Yeah, exactly.
G.Mick Smith:
I found ... and the reason I'm asking a question too is I've found that some organizations feel as though they're losing something because they're not in control of the data, and that's one reluctance. Have you found that? Or is that not something you've run into?
Greg Williams:
There is some, what I would call, myths about that. I think with most cloud systems, you still have full access to your data. You might just have to access in a different way. In a cloud system, they can't give you full access to the SQL server because if they did, that would make it insecure. But there's other ways to extract the data and work with it and have ownership of your data.
G.Mick Smith:
And then in terms of strategy, then that's really the way to go, and that's what you would see as what a company like across the board should be doing. Small, medium and large organizations.
Greg Williams:
Yes. From what we've seen, most of the large ones already have made the decision to go with one of the major clouds. Some of the small ones are still holding out. And some of the mid-sized ones, it's just such a big investment for them to move that they've been putting it off as long as they can.
G.Mick Smith:
Right. That's kind of what I'm seeing, that the small organizations tends to hang onto it, the medium size and say, "Wow, we've got a huge investment." And so before moving forward, they're kind of holding a pattern there.
Greg Williams:
Yep.
G.Mick Smith:
Would you say then, there are some things that you would offer in terms of expertise? In other words, what kinds of things do you offer? And why would somebody be working with you? What is your strong suit?
Greg Williams:
So our strong suit is that we're experts across all of the Microsoft Dynamics cloud systems, whether it's ERP or CRM or Power Platform, which is their mobile app development platform or their data stack of Fabric and Power BI. We know all those systems and how they work together. And we know how to give you a successful transformation plan to the cloud across all your different systems. And then if you have some other systems that don't fit within the Microsoft stack, we have an integration team that can integrate with them. So what companies find working with Western is we're really a one shop stop for those needs, where you don't have to worry about managing multiple vendors anymore.
G.Mick Smith:
So this almost might be an obvious question and too obvious, but why Microsoft? What is it about Microsoft that you feel that that's really where you concentrate in?
Greg Williams:
They've been a great partner of ours for over 20 years. Microsoft is a partner first organization, meaning that when you reach out to Microsoft, they're going to typically refer you to a partner or support the partner that you're working with. So the advantage of that is you're talking to a company that is not just focused on selling you software. We do do licensing, but really we're focused on your long-term success and the type of projects that we can help you with. And that's different from a software company that just wants to sell you a license and then hope you figure out how to use the software.
G.Mick Smith:
So a long-term play, I guess this would come back to the end strategy. Do you want to try to be out of date tomorrow? Or would you like to stay in business for a long amount of time?
Greg Williams:
Exactly, yeah. And we have a lot of customers who have been with us 10, 15 years or longer, and they really trust that relationship.
G.Mick Smith:
So it's almost like Microsoft needs you just as much as you need them. So I mean, it's a mutual beneficial relationship.
Greg Williams:
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Microsoft needs their partners, and of course we need Microsoft to continue to deliver the best software.
G.Mick Smith:
Now, one of the things I was interested in is that you've experienced a great deal of growth as well, too. So I think that's a part of your story. So what would you say is the success of your company? Why have you grown so well?
Greg Williams:
We always focused on long-term customer relationships, getting customers to give us referrals. We focused on customer sat overgrowth. And then when Microsoft Dynamics products really came into their own in the cloud, we were just well positioned then to take advantage of that product line and move forward with it.
G.Mick Smith:
And then having the experience of the 20 years really makes a whole lot of sense too. So it's not like you're new to the game.
Greg Williams:
Exactly. Yeah. It just was instead of deploying systems on premise, we were deploying them in the cloud. And there was minimal change for us and we were ready to do it, but there was just a lot more customers that needed a company like us to help them.
G.Mick Smith:
Are you limited geographically at all? I mean, is there ... now with the cloud, it's probably less of an issue, so I mean it doesn't really matter. Or what would you say?
Greg Williams:
I mean, we focus on North America, US and Canada. The name Western Computer is very old. We're not concentrated on the West coast in any way. We have just as many people everywhere else. I'm in Michigan, we have probably 20% of our employees in Canada and just people all over the United States as well.
G.Mick Smith:
So we talked about some of the changes and the hot topics, and you've given some really helpful advice. What would you recommend and how would people get a hold of you if they're interested in working with you?
Greg Williams:
So we have a great website at WesternComputer.com with hundreds of videos of different topics out there that can help you get trained on a certain area or just get an introduction to Dynamics. But our website is very popular because the amount of content that we have. Or you can just reach out to sales at WesternComputer.com and we can get back with you immediately.
G.Mick Smith:
Awesome. It's really helpful to hear your perspective because it tells a lot of what's going on in the field currently. So I appreciate you being able to take some time and tell us the changes and the hot topics and also the expertise, which is really helpful for a lot of companies. And it's small, medium, and large too, right? You can work with any size company.
Greg Williams:
That's right. Yes, we can.
G.Mick Smith:
Awesome. Greg, thank you so much for taking some time out and telling us about the background and what you've been able to do. I appreciate all the things you've been able to share today.
Greg Williams:
All right, thank you very much. I appreciated being here.
G.Mick Smith:
All right, thank you so much. So if you're interested, you've got to get a good organization like Greg because he knows what he's doing, he's been in business for a long time.
Hopefully that you've learned something as I have and like, subscribe, positively review, and of course, share with others because that's how we can keep the episodes coming. So this is the Doctor of Digital signing off for this time. I want to thank my sponsors, both Burning America and the publisher of On Track, Ian Hunter for their support of the program. Until next time, this is The Doctor of Digital signing off.
