Erik Ernst, founder of the Dynamics UserGroup and Number 10 on the Microsoft Dynamics Top 100 List for 2009.His insight and technical ability mark him out as one of the strongest in our community and who better to be our first MVP Profile.

 

 

My first job in the Dynamics world was in 1991. Or rather it was in the Navision world, as there no thing such as a Dynamics world back then. But it was not the first time I was working with an accounting system. I was working as a trainee in a small furniture factory in 1985, and as I had a computer at home and since I was the one who knew most about computers, then when we were to get a ERP system then I got a very central role in that project. It was the company's first ERP system, which was to replace their old systems, which were a General Ledger System, an accounts/receivable (A/R) and accounts/payable (A/P) system, a payroll system and an Order Management/Invoicing and Manufacturing System (MAPICS). Neither of the of the systems was integrated, so as the trainee and the youngest then one of my main jobs was to re-enter invoices into the a/r and g/l system. So when we were to get the new system I was very enthusiastic as the new system was fully integrated. It was great. But the system was actually not quite as good as we thought. Not only didn't it really have all the functions we were used, but it was in fact not very user friendly. When the project was over and my trainee period was also coming to an end, then I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to create an ERP system, which was much easier to use and also could be customized to each company much easier. So in 1988 I started in college again and here I met PCPlus. This was in reality the first version of Navision. And anyone who saw product and the first version of Navision can see that. I basically fell in love with PCPlus. Except that it was only a single user system, then it had everything I had been looking for. Out of college again in1990 my first job was with a company selling CRM systems (before it was called CRM). I was the trainer and supporter. But when the opportunity came to work with Navision I said yes, and in January 1991 I started my Navision career as a Navision Instructor, primary working with implementing Navision in small companies with between 1 and 5 users.

 

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this question. But if you mean who I would like to thank for having achieved what I have in the Dynamics world, then I would first mention Jesper Mentz Rasmussen and Michael Falk. They where the support guys at Navision Software Denmark back in 1993-95 and they were the bosses on the Navision support BBS (bulletin board system). The Navision support BBS was a great community and I used it a lot, both to ask and answer questions. But it was only for Danish partners, so when I moved to the US in 1995, then I couldn't use it anymore. In the US I started the Navision Online User Group (which later became the Dynamics UserGroup - DynamicsUser.net), simply to replace the BBS. The homepage Navision.net was the first page about Navision. The domain Navision.com was a consultant from San Francisco who called himself the Navigators. Navision Software's first homepage wasNavision.dk.

 

 

My biggest achievement as clearly been that I started and build the Dynamics User Group from that small mailing list in 1995 into it's now more than 36000 members in 2009.

 

 

Well the first many years of the user group it was only Navision and officially they didn't support the community at all. Their employees were not allowed write in the forums, except under alias. But I always had a very good cooperation with Navision Software even before Microsoft. For some years they sponsored our server (located in their internal server room in Vedbæk). The best thing that Microsoft has done to the community has really been to show that they are appreciating the community. The MVP award as such was a beginning. But it took them a few years before the people in Vedbæk also understood what the MVPs’ are and how they can/should use them and how not to use them.

 

 

Well Microsoft Dynamics is not one product. Its many different products, which Microsoft is just trying to sell under one name. I think that the biggest problem here is that Microsoft still doesn't have the right answer for that question themselves. They have been trying to sell the different systems as one system, and just market them towards different markets. Like Axapta is the enterprise system, Navision the all-round system for the midsize market and Great Plains for the small to midsize markets. The real problem is that neither Microsoft's employees (most of them) nor the clients understand what Microsoft Dynamics is. So there is no clear answer to that question.

 

 

The biggest challenge is really the same as above. Only a few people in Microsoft understand what Microsoft Dynamics is. If you ask different Microsoft employees what Microsoft Dynamics is, then you'll get different answers. Instead try to ask what Navision is, or what Axapta or Great Plains. Then you can get some much clearer answers. As I wrote in my blog before, then I really think that Microsoft is killing Navision and the channel with the Dynamics NAV name. Everything is getting to anonymous. Customers want to see a clear profile. So Microsoft needs to rethink its whole Microsoft Dynamics naming strategy.

 

 

I just want to see a clear picture of where we are going. I know that Microsoft have created very nice looking statements of directions for each of the Dynamics products. But I really need to see where Microsoft Dynamics is going.