Carol Simonson: You seem to have caught on to this idea of interviewing other people for your Dynamics SL posts now. Why are you doing this?
Jack Boyer: I’m doing this because it occurred to me that my thoughts and ideas are only so interesting due to my limited experience as mainly a sales and marketing professional and business owner.
I’m also doing it because it allows me to learn more. One of the nice things about blogging is that you need to come up with-research, create, or in this case borrow thoughts on a pretty much daily basis. This allows you to learn a lot of new things. I thought to myself if I could not only learn new things but get introduced to people I admire and/or know but want to know more about their ideas-an interview is perfect.
Carol Simonson: Who are some of the people that you admire and would like to interview for your blog?
Jack Boyer: Jeff Wallis is Microsoft Dynamics Product Unit Manager.
I have heard Jeff speak several times at various events and always admired his enthusiasm for the software and his ability to drive real improvements, from a user’s perspective, into the software. I’ve never actually had a proper conversation with him, but I’d like to. A blog like this gives me the perfect opportunity to grab his best ideas to share with Dynamics SL users. Ideas that can help our readership, and help him too.
Ruth Ann Ellerbrock is another person similar to Jeff in that she has a passion for improving Dynamics SL and deep knowledge of how the software
works. Even though Ruth Ann is currently Chief Operating Officer for Plumbline, she is someone that is extremely down to
earth and approachable. A difference between Ruth Ann and Jeff is that I’ve known Ruth Ann for a long time from the
days when we worked at Solomon Software together 20 or so years ago, until now.
Tom Higginbotham is another person that I’ve known for about the same time and who I admire greatly. I don’t need an introduction to meet Tom, but I can share with you that he has strategic ideas you can benefit from if I can get him to do an interview. I’m confident that he will want to do one. Hopefully he will have time to do one.
Dan Mayleben was my next-door neighbor and still a friendly neighbor but one that has moved into the high rent district in my Twin Cities suburb. He worked for Deloitte right out of school and has worked as an analyst and CFO at Fortune 30 firms here in Minneapolis. Dan has been a user of Softrax and is currently running a number of smaller software firms here locally. Dan always says what he thinks which makes him very readable. He’s smart and he knows how to make money as his CFO and M&A track record shows.
Tim Jones, from our staff, is a person that I’ve worked with for over 11 years. Tim also is direct, knowledgeable and really knows not only the software but the Dynamics SL SDK and integration tools intimately. Tim has the uniqueness of not only being able to think abstractly and articulate those thoughts clearly but also the ability to solve tough hands-on issues.
Bill Aiton is a partner for a similar sized Dynamics SL and GP VAR in the Washington, DC area–SSI. Bill has done some things for his clients in terms of project management and firm infrastructure that I would like to know more about. Bill is a loyal supporter of Dynamics SL and has a strong staff as well. He is also a warm person and someone that is willing to help people without needing something in return. He is genuine-but a very good business person also.
Carol Simonson: Have you done this before-interview someone you thought would have good ideas?
Jack Boyer: Yes, Jon Augdahl, our Dynamics SL Practice Manager, did an interview for us last week and did a fine job of telling people why the latest version of Dynamics SL-version 2011 is such a large leap from version 7, it’s predecessor.
Kurt Bradley, a strong and analytical Dynamics SL consultant in Houston did another interview for us.
I would also like to interview several other people that Jon and I just discussed as additional candidates-Scott Boedigheimer, Jim Sheehan COO of PowerObjects, and Mike Reinhart COO of RBA Consulting. The last two are well respected Microsoft partners for various areas of expertise. Both are Dynamics SL clients also.
