Dynamics SL Key Interview Plans

Carol Simonson:  You seemed 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
really 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  this guy 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.  Ideas that can help our readership, him and
me.

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 certainly
has some 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 unique
gift 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, I
interviewed Jon Augdahl, our Dynamics SL Practice Manager, last week and I
thought he did a fine job of telling people why the latest version of Dynamics
SL-version 2011 is such a large leap from version 7, is 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 known Microsoft
partners for various reasons.