Boyer & Associates recently added a new member to the company’s ERP consulting team. Melanie Moncrief is our newest consultant for Managed Services & Support.
Moncrief did a term in the U.S. Air Force and then spent 20 years in the purchasing and logistics industry. She always felt like she wanted to do something different, but by then she had a baby and little time for education so a career switch was put on the back burner.
“Once you get into an industry … you’re kind of stuck,” she said. “It’s easier to get a job in a field that you already have experience in.”
When her daughter graduated from high school, Moncrief decided it was time for a change. She went back to college and got a bachelor’s degree in computer software engineering to pursue her dream of software development.
“Fortunately I have some experience because of my thirst for knowledge,” Moncrief said. “I always grabbed on to those roles where I was the lead implementation person when we changed systems.”
When Buffers USA moved to Microsoft Dynamics GP in 2007, for example, Moncrief’s boss asked if she would learn the system to teach her coworkers. She did and quickly became the company’s GP guru. She stayed with the company for 12 years, continually finetuning her GP skills and learning more about the world of software development and consulting.
“I always stuck it in my back pocket for when I might have a chance,” she said.
That chance came in 2021, when she landed a position in her second career as a junior developer and consultant. While her passion lies more in the development side, she’s also a social person and loves the interpersonal aspect of consulting.
“I’m kind of a jack of all trades. I like to get my hands on a lot of things,” Moncrief said.
In that position she shifted from Microsoft’s on-premise solution to its cloud ERP, Dynamics 365 Business Central. While she misses the SmartLists in GP, Moncrief said that Business Central is definitely more user friendly and more easily customizable.
When she learned about the ERP consulting job at Boyer, the idea of moving to a company with a larger client base in Business Central intrigued her. She’s looking forward to seeing how other companies use the versatile software.
“There’s so much more I can learn … Every business is different in one aspect or another in the way that it operates,” she said.
At Boyer, Moncrief will be working with existing consultants to enhance their Business Central environment. She’s looking forward to learning new things, seeing how different industries operate and pitching in with development tasks.
Moncrief lives in rural New Jersey with her husband, Basil, who is stationed with the Navy at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. She has a grown daughter in Texas and additional family in Virginia and Illinois.
“I pretty much spend my life in the gym if I’m not working,” Moncrief said. She is currently training for a bodybuilding competition. She also enjoys riding her motorcycle and for a change of pace, crocheting.
