The 365 pod

Imogen DeVille   0:03
Adeline, thank you so much for coming on. The reason we wanted you on is obviously I’ve known you for quite a while from back in my like old school recruiter days. We have spoken over the phone several times and it was so lovely to get to meet you.
In person, at various events, and you’ve had a really established career within finance working at the likes of IBM and then you ended up working within the NAV space or BC space for just shy of a decade now.

Adeline Ee Leow   0:20
Mm hmm.

Imogen DeVille   0:28
How does and I really want to do on here to see how does somebody from go from finance?
Working for Microsoft and now running their own business within this Microsoft space that’s growing from strength to strength.
So welcome to the pod.
Thank you so much for coming on Adeline.

Adeline Ee Leow   0:41
You very much imagine it’s an honor and a pleasure to be here.

Imogen DeVille   0:46
Great. Great.
So I mean, I think one of the most amazing things about yourself is.
Your story? Really.
So did you want to tell the pod listeners a little bit about who you are, where your backgrounds from and you know how you ended up from finance to working for Microsoft to tell everybody a little bit background there?

Adeline Ee Leow   1:08
All right, adlea. I come from Singapore.
Originally.
And.
When I was very young, when I met my then husband, he’s English and.
He brought me over to this country, to England, so I live in England now for many, many, many years, more years than I’ve lived in Singapore.
Two lovely kids, but when I first got over here, I couldn’t work.
Because of visa and then I fell pregnant and so I had two lovely babies that I was looking after and.
And then you know, I was a housewife.
And when the kids started going to school?
So, to be honest, like because I came over so young, I didn’t have a lot of education background only had.

Imogen DeVille   2:04
Mm hmm.

Adeline Ee Leow   2:05
I only had gcac, you know, like.
In the equivalent old days they were called old levels.

Imogen DeVille   2:09
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   2:10
Yeah, secondary.

Imogen DeVille   2:11
Yeah, yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   2:12
And that was it.
And when the kids started school, I found myself like, what do I do? You know, I didn’t want to be a housewife.
Nothing wrong with being a housewife. I really respect housewives.

Imogen DeVille   2:27
Definitely not.

Adeline Ee Leow   2:28
Yeah, but I wanted more and so.
I.
Let you in on a little secret. I actually started as a cleaner because I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t really know the country. And you know, I was living in a village, so.

Imogen DeVille   2:46
Mm hmm.

Adeline Ee Leow   2:50
I I started going around to people’s houses in the village, cleaning their properties, but then I then decided, no, I want a proper, you know, nothing wrong with being a cleaner, but I wanted something.

Imogen DeVille   2:55
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   3:07
More so.

Imogen DeVille   3:08
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   3:10
I start at night school.
I did AAT so when the kids were, you know, after school, look after them. When the husband came back, I’ll go off tonight school and yeah, and did at and then.

Imogen DeVille   3:13
OK.
Wow.

Adeline Ee Leow   3:31
Then at the weekends, I would hold down.
I started getting like a little.
Bureau Dijon.
Money changing, you know?
Yeah, yeah. And I I got a little job there. And and then IBM came along.

Imogen DeVille   3:40
Nice.

Adeline Ee Leow   3:48
They wanted a payroll clerk, so I applied and I got the job I was.
I just finished my AAT. Then and yeah, and then I I stayed at IBM and they then.
Funded my ACCA training.
And as when from Pero, I did went into finance.
I worked for the finance department and in IBM and I did my CCA there.

Imogen DeVille   4:17
Yeah.
Mm hmm.

Adeline Ee Leow   4:21
And I qualified.
So I was like knee deep in finance, but the good thing at IBM also was I learned sequel SQL a little bit of it.
I’m not, like amazing at it, but I.
Did understand and I didn’t know how to write reports. You know, I guess that’s what landed me the next job because I was.
Called by a company who was looking for an accountant and.
A someone who knows little bit of you know ERP systems and they wanted someone to look after the systems administrator basically.
And they made me an offer.
I couldn’t refuse.
So.
This is going back 20 years, so I’ve been in finance over 25 years now all my life. But in 20 years ago, I kind of went into the what I’ll call fintech.

Imogen DeVille   5:14
Yeah.
Mm hmm.

Adeline Ee Leow   5:26
Yeah, finance technology, because that’s where I got exposed to Oracle. Then in those days, it was I was looking after Oracle.

Imogen DeVille   5:35
OK.

Adeline Ee Leow   5:38
But that company then decided that they wanted to implement NAV.

Imogen DeVille   5:43
OK.

Adeline Ee Leow   5:44
In those days was navigation.
It was called version 3.8.
Yeah, that’s how long ago it was.
And so obviously project manager super user administrator did everything, basically rolled the whole project out once the project was rolled out.

Imogen DeVille   6:02
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   6:09
I was approached by JP Morgan.
They wanted my banking.
Well, my actually my finance skills and the fact that I know it.
So I went into banking for a little while.
I left after I finished the project.

Imogen DeVille   6:25
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   6:27
You know, I thought, yeah, I need a little bit more always.
I’m always challenging myself.

Imogen DeVille   6:34
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   6:35
But I really did not like JP Morgan. I’m sorry to say nothing wrong with the people there.
People were lovely cultures, OK?
I think it was just a whole distance having to travel everywhere.

Imogen DeVille   6:46
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   6:51
You know, I was up to London down to Bournemouth and whatever and.

Imogen DeVille   6:55
Yeah, it’s a law. And trains were definitely not as well.
I say good as they are now, but they definitely would have been back then. Would have taken a long time, yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   7:01
Yes, yeah, yeah.
And it was at that point that I decided, you know what, I’ve had enough of working in.
Corporate space commercial.

Imogen DeVille   7:14
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   7:15
And.
So when?
When I was studying it for my ACCA, it was.
At then it was called FTC.
It’s now called Cat Lane.
So.

Imogen DeVille   7:28
Oh yes, yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   7:31
So the the tutors who used to teach me call me and say, you know, you’ve got all these real world experience all that.
Do you want to get your hand in teaching?
I’m like, OK, yeah, sure.
Yeah, so I ditch all my skill sets. Everything I’ve, you know, learning the IT side and went into teaching.

Imogen DeVille   7:47
Mm hmm.

Adeline Ee Leow   7:58
But I loved it.

Imogen DeVille   8:00
Yeah, yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   8:00
And I taught findings for a long time.

Imogen DeVille   8:03
Why do you think that you enjoyed it though? Adeline.
Like what gave you that satisfaction?

Adeline Ee Leow   8:08
It’s definitely the fact to see all these students, you know, these cohorts excel.

Imogen DeVille   8:15
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   8:17
Where you see them progressing, you know.
And like myself, when I first started.
And and then achieving what they achieve getting their chartered, you know membership from.

Imogen DeVille   8:32
Yeah. And obviously, you know how much that graft that takes to get into anything, any finance, which is why I I believe in you probably will agree with me that anyone who comes from the finance space is already grafted. So hard to get their qualifications, that ERP IMP.

Adeline Ee Leow   8:37
Yes.

Imogen DeVille   8:49
Is a walk in the park sometimes.
Sometimes, maybe not. Back then, when it was when it was no vision.

Adeline Ee Leow   8:53
Yes.
I think I must say having that finance background, but also having that commercial background.

Imogen DeVille   9:05
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   9:06
Made allowed me to kind of provide that sort of training, you know, and I’m I’m teaching, I’m training.
Any subject in finance I could then draw on my experience and come up with stories.

Imogen DeVille   9:22
Yeah, yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   9:23
That the students, even now like 10 years on some of them.
And when I bump into them right in London or anywhere they recognizing they go and leave Mrs. Barbie.

Imogen DeVille   9:38
Well, that’s great.

Adeline Ee Leow   9:38
Oh, because I used to use. I used to kinda use Barbie dolls and you know to teach kinda like machines and.

Imogen DeVille   9:46
Yeah, well, like you use a metaphors that they couldn’t understand rather than just from a book.

Adeline Ee Leow   9:47
Production.
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   9:52
Yeah, that makes sense.
I mean, that’s the great thing about a teacher is being able to speak the students language and actually put it into real world terms that they understand rather than just being like Pythagoras. You know what I mean?

Adeline Ee Leow   10:03
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I and that’s where I think, you know, having that finance background having that.
Project management rolling implementing a project.
On NAV.
Then.
And other projects. When I was at JP and then all this training, that kind of accumulated my skills and it was like after 20 years of training.

Imogen DeVille   10:24
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   10:35
The industry has changed.
You know, all lines come on a lot.

Imogen DeVille   10:40
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   10:41
And I wasn’t that much of A face to face interaction anymore in the classroom. And I was.
And I was very late in my career. To be fair, you know, was in my late 40s when I decided.
I’ll go back to Tech again.
So applied for, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   11:01
But that’s good though, because again, you came with that real world experience and you’re not coming.
Not like it’s a bad thing.
Anyone could go into technology at any time, but I’ve supported people who have been very well established, finance directors or Cfo’s, and then they’ve gone down to be a junior NAV consultant because they were like actually I need something new. I need something different.
And you know, I love the tech side.

Adeline Ee Leow   11:22
No.

Imogen DeVille   11:24
Let’s explore that.
They’ve helped a couple of do that.

Adeline Ee Leow   11:26
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   11:27
So yeah, it’s very similar, but it shows that any at any time.
Just chase your dreams. Call me to say, but you’ve got to do it.
You’ve got to do it.

Adeline Ee Leow   11:35
Yeah, yes, yeah.
And I’ve never regretted it.

Imogen DeVille   11:41
Yeah. Amazing.

Adeline Ee Leow   11:42
I love what I’m doing now.
Absolutely love it, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   11:44
Yes, and why?
Why do you think that is then?
Where do you like? Why do you love it so much?
Because I whenever I see you’re always happy, which I think is just part of your personality. But you know some some people in this space can be a little bit grumpy.
So why do you love it?

Adeline Ee Leow   11:58
Oh, don’t get me wrong.
I I do get stress.
I do get stress and I, you know, behind closed doors, sometimes I’m like renting and raving.

Imogen DeVille   12:02
Yeah.
Understandable. And I think any job brings out of you.
But why would you say that you love it so much?

Adeline Ee Leow   12:13
Yeah, yeah, I love it because.
Even you know the whole journey, like helping a client going through from start to finish of an project implementation.
Because I get don’t think board is the right word, but I need challenges. You know, I’m that self personality that I want to.
I can’t just do the same thing.
I have this sort of like, well, Microsoft has this word called growth mindset.

Imogen DeVille   12:48
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   12:49
And I think that that’s very difficult.
Me, I need to challenge myself, learn more, learn.
Anything really.
And that’s why, yeah, I love being.

Imogen DeVille   13:00
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   13:04
So I started as junior consultant, you know.
Back I went to the Nef people then.
That was, yeah, everybody knows the nafeo.

Imogen DeVille   13:15
Hi everybody knows that.

Adeline Ee Leow   13:20
And yeah, and you know, you get all this variety of calls.
And so I started in support. You get all these support questions.

Imogen DeVille   13:30
OK.
So just was it first line that you would have started in then or was it mail or first second line?

Adeline Ee Leow   13:36
They had a great culture.
You just pick any support calls that come in, look at it and think, OK?
I’ll try and solve it or or I know the answer, I’ll solve it, but I would try and push myself and look at that and go.

Imogen DeVille   13:48
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   13:53
I like that’s a challenge.
Let’s try.
And so that’s what I would do. Just and and they start throwing me baby projects, you know? Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   13:56
Yeah.
OK.

Adeline Ee Leow   14:05
So have a baby project.
And it was just finance and it was NAV 2016 for a small business.
And that’s how I got back into.

Imogen DeVille   14:20
Attack.

Adeline Ee Leow   14:20
The business, now called Business Central world, you know, and I love, I love the whole journey. Where I’ll go visit the client, understand their pain points, you know, and then try and come up with the right solution that would fit.

Imogen DeVille   14:24
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   14:37
That pain point.

Imogen DeVille   14:39
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   14:40
And the best is when you know the project go live and the feedback is fantastic and and you know that if you’ve crafted the whole solution correctly and I think like also the training bit because of my background being able to train users how to use the system.

Imogen DeVille   15:02
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   15:02
And and have them, you know, come back and say love it love.
The system.
And that’s that’s the thing. Because, you know, the business central is a product.

Imogen DeVille   15:09
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   15:14
It’s just a product.
It is how you deliver that product, how you so get people to embrace that.

Imogen DeVille   15:23
Yep, agrees. Agreed up. They definitely do. And I’ve.

Adeline Ee Leow   15:24
People hate change.

Imogen DeVille   15:27
I mean, I’ve been in the BC space since 2018, obviously working with hundreds and hundreds of customers, hundreds of consultants through my recruiter background, and I cannot tell you the amount of times I spoke to an FD or somebody who were like, yeah, just can’t get the.
Team to change or to use the system and I’m like OK, so user adoption and that’s why.
Our our boss is obviously created a user adoption program because that’s you can have.
Bleach in the cupboard.
But if you don’t use it, your house isn’t gonna be clean. You know, I mean, and I think that.

Adeline Ee Leow   15:57
Yes, exactly.

Imogen DeVille   15:59
And that’s the user adoption.
It’s how most implementations fail at the end of it all, heavy customization.
So they not actually manage the user expectations and they’ve just created the same system that they’ve been using for the past 20 years.
So they’re the two biggest downfalls, aren’t they?
And it’s it’s madness because to us it’s common sense.
You buy something, you learn how to use it.
But some people, they’re just so against it, aren’t they?
And the I suppose a lot of consultants.
Unlike yourself, don’t necessarily enjoy that side of the business.
They’d rather they love the techie like the more hands on EBIT, doing all the house, they don’t see the value in the training.
So yeah, it’s mentors.

Adeline Ee Leow   16:36
I see every aspect.
I think like no, the implementation is you know the solution itself.
Crafting it right is important, but the training itself is, I think, even more important.

Imogen DeVille   16:47
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   16:50
You know, actually like getting the message across that and it’s not saying just press F8.
It’s about I like to take the user on a journey and say you know why you doing what you’re doing, how you’re doing this and what’s the implication and that’s where I think the whole training background for the last, you know, in the 20 years that.

Imogen DeVille   17:11
Yeah.
Mm hmm.

Adeline Ee Leow   17:24
That helped me a lot with project with business Central.

Imogen DeVille   17:27
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   17:29
And the whole project implementation training, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   17:33
Yeah, I agree.
And I do think people within finance need to know how things work out to understand it.
Like, I think that’s a mindset.

Adeline Ee Leow   17:39
Yes.

Imogen DeVille   17:40
So you’ve definitely got that advantage as well where you can work things out because you understand how it works. And I’ve got a lot of friends in finance and they’re very similar to that.

Adeline Ee Leow   17:41
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   17:48
So yeah, it’s it’s an obviously really exciting. And I mean one of the things I was keen to really found out is about what is the most challenging thing you do at the minute or what’s the most exciting project you’re doing at the moment.

Adeline Ee Leow   17:49
Fantastic.

Imogen DeVille   18:02
All have planned for 2025. If you’ve got anything coming up with your company.

Adeline Ee Leow   18:06
Oh, gosh, yes. I started the business last June.

Imogen DeVille   18:09
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   18:12
Actually I decided.

Imogen DeVille   18:13
Last June.
Yeah. Excellent.

Adeline Ee Leow   18:15
Yeah, I decided.
So I my the highlight of my career was.
Being employed by Microsoft to look after the business central partners.
But last June I decided that right. I’m going to start my own because I.
I really love the training bit.
I love evangelizing business central.
I also love the training part of it.

Imogen DeVille   18:45
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   18:46
And so I started this business to four partners, but you know, God, Lord knows where long term will lead.
Maybe you give us some customers as well, but the idea is to help partners.

Imogen DeVille   19:04
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   19:04
Any type of partners in the Microsoft space?
And I would love helping.
I think like helping partners that want to get into the business central space.
That’s those are the that’s like what this business is about.

Imogen DeVille   19:21
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   19:22
So I’ve teamed up with smarter D 365.
I’ve teamed up with TD SYNNEX in this and we’ve got a program which 365 talent is also part of, Yes.

Imogen DeVille   19:27
Nice.
Yeah. Yeah, it’s been good, hasn’t it so far?
Excellent programme. The practice accelerator program and then is your training side. Is that also called accelerate?
Remind me what that one’s called?

Adeline Ee Leow   19:43
They’ve called it business central.
Technical training, hasn’t it?
The yes, yeah, the technical.

Imogen DeVille   19:46
Yeah.
Inspiring title.
I mean it says it does what it says on the tin, I guess.

Adeline Ee Leow   19:56
Yeah.
Mm hmm.

Imogen DeVille   20:03
Again, quite a difficult thing to challenge.
There’s a lot of compete partners coming in, which is amazing to see because they understand the ERP side.
There’s obviously a lot of modern work as well, and that’s a totally different kettle of fish.
Is that the? Is that the right thing?

Adeline Ee Leow   20:16
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   20:19
Which again, it’s it’s something to be excited about and you know, I love being in the BC space, I am biased.
I obviously have doubled in other erp’s, I’ve doubled in. I do a lot of copilot at the minute, which I do love, but.

Adeline Ee Leow   20:27
Yes.

Imogen DeVille   20:33
BCI just think it’s got a little place in my heart and probably the same view.

Adeline Ee Leow   20:36
Yes, yeah, yeah. And that’s why I decided that much as a love, you know, being at Microsoft, doing biz apps, my heart is business central.

Imogen DeVille   20:37
Please.
Yeah, very cool.

Adeline Ee Leow   20:47
So I decided that’s it.
Anything. Everything. Business Central, we will pick up.

Imogen DeVille   20:54
Fantastic.

Adeline Ee Leow   20:55
Our business smarter D365 will pick up. So yeah, we’re doing the training.

Imogen DeVille   20:58
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   21:00
We are also helping partners with implementation.
And, but what’s most exciting for this year is we are working on an extension.

Imogen DeVille   21:07
Fantastic.

Adeline Ee Leow   21:17
Which we hope will be valuable to a lot of partners so.

Imogen DeVille   21:23
Yeah. And I guess in terms of the technical side, is it just technical training or do you have any say sales E training or anything like that coming like because obviously technical is difficult and you are teaching people how to actually walk and pass the exam, but underst?

Adeline Ee Leow   21:24
Yeah.
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   21:38
The theory behind it understand what it means and why they do it, which is key rather than just people going on to Ms. Learn and trying to.

Adeline Ee Leow   21:43
Mm hmm.
Yes. Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   21:47
I just saw that information and just learning how to pass the exam because that’s the issue.
Is that sometimes that can be difficult because you have the theory and then obviously you don’t have the application of the theory, so it’s good that you guys are tackling that issue.
What else have you got going on then?

Adeline Ee Leow   22:02
So I’ve got pre sales training now.
I’m not trying to step on.

Imogen DeVille   22:05
OK.
That’s exciting.

Adeline Ee Leow   22:08
Yeah, that I’m not trying to step on like sales people shoes, but it’s more about on how to demonstrate business central, how to sell the benefits and what to do in business central to make it.
So really quick wins, you know.

Imogen DeVille   22:29
Yeah, ’cause I I think yeah from a pre sales perspective that is a skill set that I’ve I mean anyone within the BC space has always struggled to find.

Adeline Ee Leow   22:30
Online, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   22:38
So when you when I last checked it was probably last 2023.

Adeline Ee Leow   22:39
Mm hmm.

Imogen DeVille   22:43
There was actually only about 6 people on the whole of LinkedIn within the United Kingdom who had that skill set in their job title.
Obviously people have that skill set.
They just don’t necessarily say about it, but yeah, so that’s.
An in demand, something that a lot of consultants.
Need or the companies really need to invest in?
So it’s exciting that you guys are doing a specific module for that.
Yeah, that’s exciting.

Adeline Ee Leow   23:06
Yes, and you know.

Imogen DeVille   23:06
Love to hear that.

Adeline Ee Leow   23:09
It I know how pressure, how pressurized it is to do a demo.

Imogen DeVille   23:14
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   23:15
You know, to win a prospect, but I think.
The what I’ve learned over the years is not to sell the business.
You know how some of them they they go on about.
How great.
How wonderful.
Their business is that’s not what the prospect wants to hear.

Imogen DeVille   23:34
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   23:35
They just want to see the product and you just have to sell this product can make your pain points go away.

Imogen DeVille   23:46
It can ultimate everything.
Less time wasted, less mistakes, less human error, and obviously it’s all of the data and everything like that.

Adeline Ee Leow   23:48
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   23:54
So that’s an issue in itself.
We could probably spend another two hours talking about that, but yeah, I mean pre sales is definitely something difficult doing the demos.

Adeline Ee Leow   23:57
Yes.

Imogen DeVille   24:03
I’ve heard some horror stories as well from.
Other from people who have been demoing, like other ERP systems, and they’ve come in been like, oh, sorry, it’s going really slow and they’re like, oh, yeah.
Does this all the time and I’m like, why would the person say that?
Admit it like it’s horrendous.

Adeline Ee Leow   24:19
I’ve made those mistakes hand hand on how I’ve made those mistakes, you know? And I’ve learned, like all the hacks, all the tips and tricks of what not to do.

Imogen DeVille   24:22
Yeah.
Yeah. And also not to say that the system can do something about it, can’t do.

Adeline Ee Leow   24:32
And that’s yeah.

Imogen DeVille   24:35
That’s another thing about the can.

Adeline Ee Leow   24:37
Yes.

Imogen DeVille   24:39
There’s a few funny means going around on LinkedIn about that at the minute. Makes me chuckle.

Adeline Ee Leow   24:39
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   24:47
But yeah, fantastic.

Adeline Ee Leow   24:48
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   24:50
But yeah, it’s exciting and obviously smarter 365 that came out of yourself is it?
Is it just you as a team or have you got a whole squad behind you now?

Adeline Ee Leow   25:00
I’ve got a very small team at moment, but yes, I’ve got Leah.
She’s the she’s a solution actor in business central and FN 0.

Imogen DeVille   25:06
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   25:11
FNSEM now it’s called, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   25:14
OK.
Yeah. Fantastic.

Adeline Ee Leow   25:16
Yeah. So.
Maybe next year you might see FNSCM you know, as a product person after D365.

Imogen DeVille   25:23
Oh, that’s exciting for us to look forward to.

Adeline Ee Leow   25:25
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   25:26
Yeah, fab, cool.
I’m I guess one of the other things I think would be really interesting to put your brains on is how have you seen the product? I mean, we know it’s evolved quite significantly and it’s got so much better BC than when I first started working with it, so.
But you know what?
How has business central?
And like the features in the functionality has changed for the better.
Would you say that there’s anything in particular that you’re really loving that they’re releasing at the moment?

Adeline Ee Leow   25:55
Oh, there’s so many things from like all those years ago when you first log in and it was just a grey screen and now it’s like, wow, this is really fancy.
You know you can change your role and all the cues change and you can kind of make a little bit of color here. And now they’ve brought in subscription billing.
And that’s really exciting, you know, and The thing is, it’s such a big.

Imogen DeVille   26:23
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   26:26
System and it’s always evolving.
It’s Evergreen, it’s evolving. And even I, with all my years of and I I use the system every day I play with it every day, you know, and I I still hang on her still can’t say I know it all and that’s what’s exciting for me, you know.

Imogen DeVille   26:30
Yeah.
Definitely.

Adeline Ee Leow   26:46
It’s like for example, the other only the other day I learned that the.
UK depreciation method.
Are different from W one and I was like what? I never knew that.

Imogen DeVille   26:57
OK.
I mean, I didn’t know that either, but I’m not spooked.

Adeline Ee Leow   27:08
And I’m like, wow, OK.

Imogen DeVille   27:08
Every day is a school day.

Adeline Ee Leow   27:09
I’ve learned something. Yeah, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   27:12
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   27:12
So yeah, it’s it’s really exciting to learn and and then now with AI with a copilot and what?

Imogen DeVille   27:18
Yeah, I was going to ask what your opinions on that is as well.

Adeline Ee Leow   27:22
It’s exciting because they’re they’re bringing in sales order agent, aren’t they?
Well, hoping to.
I know it’s in private preview but.

Imogen DeVille   27:31
Yeah. Did we see a little demo of directions for that or did I make that up?

Adeline Ee Leow   27:34
Yes.

Imogen DeVille   27:35
Yeah, that was pretty sick, wasn’t it?

Adeline Ee Leow   27:35
Yeah. Yeah, I was.

Imogen DeVille   27:36
Really, really like that.

Adeline Ee Leow   27:38
I was sleek, wasn’t it?
And then they say, you know, under your chair, the 100 tickets, did you get, did you get the ticket?

Imogen DeVille   27:39
Yeah.
House.
Sadly not.

Adeline Ee Leow   27:46
No, I did.

Imogen DeVille   27:48
I’m jealous. Jealous.

Adeline Ee Leow   27:52
Yeah, it was like I was a real chaf.
And then I ran to the. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You got my e-mail. And you’ve messaged me. That is pretty cool, you know? Yeah. So.

Imogen DeVille   28:03
Yeah, very impressive.
So that’s obviously coming out so soon.
Well, I’m not sure. As you said it’s in pre like cannot user testing at the minute, isn’t it?
But pre release.

Adeline Ee Leow   28:13
It’s it’s private preview.
So for and, it’s only in us and us, so environment. So unfortunately you have to actually fill in a form and request for the extension from Microsoft. Yeah, so.

Imogen DeVille   28:16
OK.
Gosh, the Americans always get it all first, don’t they?
Now I’m joking.

Adeline Ee Leow   28:34
I know.

Imogen DeVille   28:37
But I remember when I used to call people, but oh, have you got BC yet?
Like different countries in Europe.
They’re like, no, no.
And then I remember I was working with a couple of companies in Ireland and they still didn’t have like BC at the time when it been released and we’d had it for like a year and the UK and I was like, whoa, but you forget, they’ve got to.

Adeline Ee Leow   28:51
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   28:53
Roll it out themselves as well.
Interesting to know.
Yeah. I mean for you with copilot, I think it’s really important because a lot of some of the listeners on this are also end user focused.

Adeline Ee Leow   29:02
Hmm.

Imogen DeVille   29:08
So I think there’s a lot of fear mongering around AI and it’s definitely a buzzword and it probably will be for the next 50 years. And I even have like people in my close friendship group who like I won’t even use like copilot because I’m scared of it.

Adeline Ee Leow   29:15
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   29:21
And I’m like, well, it’s just, yeah, it, you know, they don’t work in fields, whether it’s fully tech driven. OK. But they just don’t really compare them like. Well, it’s basically just a glorified search tool. So don’t panic.

Adeline Ee Leow   29:23
Hi.

Imogen DeVille   29:32
But what would you say to?
Your students or your users, you know, if you were still back in the finance side.
You are a bit more worried about it or a bit anxious.
Is there anything that you would say to them?

Adeline Ee Leow   29:43
Wow, it’s not.
Skynet Dominator is it.

Imogen DeVille   29:48
Yeah, it’s not.
John took a mustache.

Adeline Ee Leow   29:49
It’s not.

Imogen DeVille   29:51
I agree.
I agree.
I’ll make that joke quite a lot when I do my copilot training. It’s funny.

Adeline Ee Leow   29:58
Well, to be fair, on a serious note, the word why?
Microsoft have done what they’ve done with the word copilot.
It’s that the user is still the pilot.

Imogen DeVille   30:06
Mm hmm.
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   30:10
The user is still the main person that will review everything that copilot or AI is handling.
Yeah, and that is the one that’s very important for users to understand that Microsoft got that right.

Imogen DeVille   30:23
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   30:32
Really got that right by making sure that there is.

Imogen DeVille   30:32
Mm hmm.

Adeline Ee Leow   30:35
Always that button of generate discard generate discard.
You know ’cause, it is for the user to make that decision.

Imogen DeVille   30:41
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   30:46
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   30:47
Yeah, agreed.

Adeline Ee Leow   30:49
The whole idea, sorry. Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   30:49
No, there’s always a. No, no, you go.
You go.

Adeline Ee Leow   30:53
I was gonna say the whole idea of copilot is just to make your life easier.
For and and to let you as a user focus on what’s important and not the mundane. You know who who wants to generate a sales order.

Imogen DeVille   31:04
Mm hmm.
Yeah.
No one wants to do that.
My thing is but for me like copilot’s just helping me so much with the graphics of proposals, because I used to spend, even though we had a standard template, I used to spend like hours on that and now it takes me 30 seconds to do a REL.
Attractive PowerPoint, obviously.
Again, it needs tweaking these things and I just put it to a 60 PDF ready to go.
But you know, it’s it really just assists me and I think a lot of people a bit worried that the jobs going to be replaced by.
But fundamentally, what’s going to do is create more jobs.

Adeline Ee Leow   31:43
I think so, yes, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   31:45
Yeah. And it also, as we said, frees up so much time.
I I probably save two or three hours a day now because I’m able to use it to streamline everything, so I can’t imagine what people who are very admin focused are benefiting from.

Adeline Ee Leow   31:58
Hmm.

Imogen DeVille   31:59
So yeah, I’m excited and I’m excited to work with people to train them on it as well.
I love it.

Adeline Ee Leow   32:04
Yeah. And you know when it frees you with the so frees you from the mundane, the time you save, you then put it to better use.

Imogen DeVille   32:04
Yeah, love it.
Mm hmm.
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   32:16
You know, yeah.
And you’re for me? I like. Yeah. I’m learning more, and I’m loving it.

Imogen DeVille   32:21
Mm hmm.

Adeline Ee Leow   32:22
I’m learning the different depreciation.

Imogen DeVille   32:25
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   32:26
It’s a different countries.

Imogen DeVille   32:27
Yeah. And I feel like the best thing about copilot is it’s obviously you’ve always kind of got a Fact Check.
Just be like, where did you get the sauce from? If you do sauce you don’t 100% agree what it’s saying, but if you ask copilot what it can do, it also tells you which I think is fantastic.
I’ve been teaching my dad on it and he’s, you know, retired police officer. So he’s not technical at all and he’s like, oh, can I do this?
Can I do that?
And I yes, Dad, just trying to teach him, like. And he goes well, what can I do?
I’m like, well, just ask it.
And he’ll tell you.
Now you know those text messages only come like once a day.
OK, now rather than 10 times a day about what you can do with your blessings.
But yeah, it’s it’s an interesting tool.
I mean, do you guys do copilot training yourselves or are you just more on the BC side at the minute?

Adeline Ee Leow   33:12
It’s on ABC side in a minute, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   33:14
BC Well specialised though, which is which is good, and then obviously we’ll interject probably to copilot when all the real things get released. So that’s exciting.

Adeline Ee Leow   33:23
Oh yes, yes. Working with Microsoft and TDC next on the yeah, on sales agent and also look out for the next space which is finance agent, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   33:24
Yeah.
Exciting.

Adeline Ee Leow   33:38
That I’m really excited.
I’m a bit biased, you know? Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   33:42
Yes, I’m. I’m just biased to everything Microsoft now, but.

Adeline Ee Leow   33:46
Yes, I know.

Imogen DeVille   33:48
One of my friends, they joined a company.
They were a Google house and like, wait, what?
What happened?
Yeah, because I just.
I’ve never worked for a company that’s been a Google focus.
It’s always been Microsoft, everyone of work for so yeah, interesting.

Adeline Ee Leow   34:00
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   34:01
But yeah, so one of the things as well that I wanted to like pick your brains about. So that sentence twice now, but it’s genuinely about when you were working with.
Plan and BPP and within your finance training.
I imagine that you came across quite a lot of graduates and young talent.
And I just wanted to see I find in my experience there’s a huge reservation from hiring managers to hire Gen. Z. And I was at a conference the other day on Friday where they were speaking how how one of their colleagues had fired three of the four Gen.

Adeline Ee Leow   34:18
Mm hmm.
Mm hmm.

Imogen DeVille   34:37
Z employees that they had hired because they had no work ethic and all these things and I speak, I’m quite passionate about.
Encouraging people to hire young people rather than just going for the middle ear.
So what’s something that you would say and why is it important to hire graduates and bring fresh talent into the industry as somebody who’s come into the industry from a different field?
So what’s your thoughts on that?

Adeline Ee Leow   35:01
I think you know people like me, old hat.
We’re quite stuck.
I try very hard not to be stuck in my ways, but it’s I think it’s like part of life. As you get older you you get more risk adverse and you get more stuck and you you try to be more conservative.

Imogen DeVille   35:10
Yeah.
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   35:23
I get excited when I’ve got young blood that you know coveted and it didn’t come all right.

Imogen DeVille   35:31
Yes, we know what you mean.
Don’t worry, we know you’re not a vampire.
You’re OK.

Adeline Ee Leow   35:36
And they come up with some really interesting ideas and really, you know, ideas that never, ever would have thought of in a million years, you know.

Imogen DeVille   35:48
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   35:49
Yeah. So like, I wouldn’t have thought of.
So we were talking about investors, you know.
And I would never have thought of crowdfunding.

Imogen DeVille   36:03
OK. Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   36:04
Yeah. So that’s just an example of how much you can learn from a younger generation. Definitely, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   36:13
Yeah, definitely.
And I think it’s important to note that that generation I am in the Virginia generation, but I’m 996. So I’m like on the border, right.
So I’m kind of old, but in within the grand scheme of things, but they are the tech.

Adeline Ee Leow   36:29
Mm hmm.

Imogen DeVille   36:29
We are the tech native generation and I think it’s really important that, like we were learning Microsoft Office back then from year, the age of nine. So for for, for us everything’s quite standardized. When a new tool comes out, we learn it like that.

Adeline Ee Leow   36:37
Yeah.
Yes.

Imogen DeVille   36:43
We don’t have to, so that’s something also really to consider is that you know.

Adeline Ee Leow   36:43
Yeah, but.
Do you?
Yeah. Do you know my? I’ve got an employee called Natasha.

Imogen DeVille   36:49
First standard.

Adeline Ee Leow   36:52
She’s a business development manager.

Imogen DeVille   36:52
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   36:54
She’s around your age.
She’s got a little girl Pippa’s, only 8 years old, and they’re teaching her coding in school now.

Imogen DeVille   36:57
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, my friends teach coding at school.

Adeline Ee Leow   37:06
That is like, wow, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   37:08
Yeah, for like reception and well, not reception, but year one and year 2 for the advanced level. I just think that’s isn’t that so cool.
Just think it’s so impressive.

Adeline Ee Leow   37:15
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   37:16
Yeah, I remember when we had the little zoom, a robot thingy that kind of looks like the hoovers that people have these days. And you would program it. But that’s as that’s as fancy as we got. But whereas, I mean, I think they call for that child be.
In the general for generation.
They’ll be all tech whizzes.

Adeline Ee Leow   37:35
Yes.

Imogen DeVille   37:35
By the end of 15, if obviously they enjoy it and it’s their cup of tea.
But yeah, that’s really cool.

Adeline Ee Leow   37:39
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   37:40
So I think that’s something. I mean, I’m going to speak at fingers dynamics minds.
That’s really excited to see about this.

Adeline Ee Leow   37:46
Oh, we have to look at going there, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   37:49
So yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s going to be amazing.
Yeah. And I think we’ll definitely have more conversations about that and what your advice would be and how you’re hiring that young talent and what strategies you’re replacing.
We are really cool.
Another thing is, what advice would you give to someone?
Who’s thinking of following a similar career path as you or that are thinking? We need to take from finance.
What would you say to them?

Adeline Ee Leow   38:15
Well, if you’re in finance, you always just start with just finance. If you’ve got, you know, a CCACA qualification.
That’s the first step.

Imogen DeVille   38:27
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   38:28
To, you know, bigger and brighter things. But I think also what’s important is.
The next step is leverage.
On that success.
So even if it’s like.

Imogen DeVille   38:42
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   38:44
Project management. You go and get Prince. Two certification or if you want to go into like ERP get like MBA 100 Business Central certification.
When you’ve done your ACC, anyone of these exams will be a walk in the park.

Imogen DeVille   39:04
Yeah, very true.

Adeline Ee Leow   39:05
And at least like to have these qualifications on top of what on top of the ACCA or ACA or Seema, you know?

Imogen DeVille   39:18
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   39:20
Membership.
It will just set you up for life.

Imogen DeVille   39:25
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   39:25
And the great thing about ERP especially is that every ERP system, not just business central.
Is that it is based on a finance that the underlying is based on finance. So you need to know your finance to actually then use be able to understand the ERP system, the features, the functions, why? That’s what it does.

Imogen DeVille   39:42
Yeah.
Mm hmm.
Yeah. Fantastic.

Adeline Ee Leow   39:54
And I would say to anyone listening, start with business Central, you’ll never regret it.

Imogen DeVille   39:55
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   40:01
You have a job for life.
There is this sort of there’s a shortage of pool of resource, isn’t it in this space?

Imogen DeVille   40:04
Yeah.
Yeah, there’s a there really is. And I remember I’ve been working with partners for years trying to convince people to hire from industry and rather than, you know, from other partners, like, let’s hire this person who’s got the industry experience and the finance experience and the qualifications and.

Adeline Ee Leow   40:11
Yeah.
Exactly.

Imogen DeVille   40:27
Understand it, because let’s focus on the soft skills and there’s a lot of companies out there who are making positive strides in that. And obviously I think people are being a lot more open minded to it these days, which is positive.
But you know, I mean it’s.

Adeline Ee Leow   40:38
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   40:40
Yeah. It’s exciting. And obviously Microsoft thrown a lot of money in certain projects as well, which is cool to see. Yeah. But you would definitely recommend the career path that you’ve taken then finance and then go into tech.

Adeline Ee Leow   40:45
Yes. Yeah.
Yes, I mean, I have a lot of past students and my daughter included, got the qualification and then never used it again. But it was a stepping stone to bigger and brighter things, you know? Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   40:53
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I feel like ’cause, CCA and those qualifications like semro I think are so difficult to get by the time you’ve got, like, actually, I I don’t.
I can’t do it anymore because it’s so difficult.
I’ve been put on.
I’m not saying that, but for me I feel like that’s how I would feel because I’ve seen a lot of my friends go through that and they’ve got this huge tower of books in their spare room.

Adeline Ee Leow   41:21
Oh yes, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   41:27
It’s taller than them and I just think it’s majest.

Adeline Ee Leow   41:30
You know, I I still keep my hand in the teaching or I used to until about a couple of years ago when I started the business, I stopped.
But I would still take like used to take just one week a year just to continue teaching.

Imogen DeVille   41:39
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   41:46
I start, you know, teaching at BPP face to face because I love it so much and I love seeing the journey these students.

Imogen DeVille   41:48
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   41:56
Yeah, sort of like where they get to it is amazing.
Amazing. Some of them are directors and then not in finance, you know.

Imogen DeVille   42:03
Yeah.
Mm hmm.

Adeline Ee Leow   42:07
But I think the main thing is you got to love what you do.

Imogen DeVille   42:11
Yeah, yeah. Fantastic.

Adeline Ee Leow   42:12
Yeah.
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   42:14
Then every. Well, what do we say? If you I can’t think you were saying that’s great.
Well, it’s what you don’t.
It’s not work if you love what you do isn’t on those lines like you don’t feel as if you’re going to work every day. If you actually enjoy it, which is I think, something that we all need to need to focus on really.

Adeline Ee Leow   42:27
Yes.
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   42:32
But yeah, I mean, I’ve got one final question for you.
And this is a question that we ask all of our.
Guests on the podcast because we like to really focus.
On turning negatives into positives, that’s what our company is about and that’s what we really want to inject into the space is how do you turn what you people refer to as a failure into something positive.
Obviously, we don’t like that term, but can you share something that’s significantly kind of set you back or could be considered as a failure in your personal professional life?
How did it make you feel, and how did you overcome that situation and make you into a stronger person today?

Adeline Ee Leow   43:09
When there is a saying.
When the when you handed lemons, make lemonade out of it.
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   43:18
Yes.

Adeline Ee Leow   43:20
Yeah, and.
What I learned at Microsoft is there’s no such thing as the word fail or wrong.

Imogen DeVille   43:29
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   43:30
We just learn from.
Error we it’s a learning curve.
Biggest thing I have learned I guess.
Or my supposed fail?
It’s it’s an interesting one.
I I have been made redundant before and you know and when you get made redundant.
It’s quite a shock to the system and you feel like you are failure.

Imogen DeVille   43:55
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   43:56
But.
Actually, what I’ve learned is it makes you stronger.

Imogen DeVille   44:01
Mm hmm.

Adeline Ee Leow   44:02
It gives you the opportunity to re evaluate what you want to do.
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   44:08
Kind of gives you that.
Oh wait, what?
What is important to me?
Where do I think so? Yeah, I think a lot of people have heard that story where they’ve been made redundant or they’ve lost and then they’ve actually been like I need to reset is that was actually just twiddling my thumbs and coasting.
I’m not saying that you were specifically, but some people do find themselves coast a little bit and then then they’re made redundant and then they actually don’t do that all and go down a different route, which is, yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   44:27
Mm hmm.
Yeah.

Imogen DeVille   44:34
Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   44:34
On a personal note, and this is on a personal failure, I would say, and I I still feel like I’m not great at that is I work too many hours.

Imogen DeVille   44:45
OK. Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   44:47
Gen.
Z has taught, and now you’ve got all these people saying, you know what? Life balance, what life balance.
I’m still trying very hard to get to that.

Imogen DeVille   44:56
It’s ’cause. She worked in corporate, though.
That’s why for a while you see you’ve still got that guilt.
I mean, I’ve obviously worked for a big company as well, and even when I shut my laptop now like even 60 clock and you know that’s how I should have finished a while beforehand, still have this guilt even though I know my boss who would be like.

Adeline Ee Leow   45:02
Yep.

Imogen DeVille   45:14
What you do it just chill out.
But because we’re brainwashed by big corporations.

Adeline Ee Leow   45:17
Yeah, exactly.
So you’re like.

Imogen DeVille   45:20
So you have to work 14 hours a day.

Adeline Ee Leow   45:23
And I think it doesn’t help working from home now, right?

Imogen DeVille   45:27
You can’t escape your laptop, yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   45:27
Because it’s like, oh, when it pings, you’re like, oh, oh, let me get on with it.

Imogen DeVille   45:31
Yeah.
Yeah, I I find that hard as well.
I, but I mean do you?
I mean, do you separate like the work from home?
Do you have like an office?
I even have like different slippers, different mugs and everything that I drink from to have a full to have a full separation of the two two pairs of slippers.

Adeline Ee Leow   45:43
Oh wow.
See I’m learning.

Imogen DeVille   45:50
I know it sounds silly, but when I put my work slippers on, I’m in a different mindset. Yeah.

Adeline Ee Leow   45:51
Wow.
That gives me an excuse to go and buy a new pair of slippers now.

Imogen DeVille   45:58
Exactly. Get yourself embarrassed like.

Adeline Ee Leow   46:01
Love that.

Imogen DeVille   46:02
It’s the.

Adeline Ee Leow   46:03
See, I’m learning from you as well.

Imogen DeVille   46:03
It’s the little things that make a difference.

Adeline Ee Leow   46:06
Wow, OK, yeah.

Imogen DeVille   46:07
But yeah, I mean, every, every day is a school day and I’ll send you a funny meme as well from the life give you lemons thing as well. You’ll laugh at that after this.
But yeah, well, thank you so much for today.

Adeline Ee Leow   46:16
OK.

Imogen DeVille   46:20
It’s been so lovely to get to know you on a deeper level and I hope our listeners enjoy the podcast and you know, if you want any support with BC training or anything along those lines.
Or, you know any any Microsoft training, just drop us a message and we can support you out here. And Adeline can really help you as well.
So it’s fantastic to have you on and well enjoy the rest of January. We’ve got I think 2 days left.

Adeline Ee Leow   46:38
Thank you.
Yes, thank you very much.

Imogen DeVille   46:44
Scaring but yeah, thanks so much, Ellen.

Adeline Ee Leow   46:46
Thank you.
Thank you. Bye.