Microsoft Dynamics Profile: To become a better AX/365 developer, broaden your business skills, says new MVP

As head of Microsoft Dynamics AX for UK-based JJ Food Service Ltd, new Microsoft MVP Vilmos Kintera, lives by the philosophy that programmers should be more than just coders; rather, they must expand their knowledge of the business as well as their technical knowledge.

Based on his experience Kintera, who was named an MVP in August, believes that Dynamics AX developers perform best when they understand the ins and outs of an ERP system, including database, infrastructure, build and release processes, maintenance tasks - basically everything that falls under the development and operations category.

At JJ Food Service (profiled here by MSDynamicsWorld), one of the largest independent food distributor in the United Kingdom and a company with a demonstrated willingness to adopt new Microsoft technology for predictive analytics and advanced customer service, it is Kintera's responsibility to be up to date with the latest IT trends and solutions. That corporate culture improves his skills and helps his team expand their skills to add value to the business.

Understanding the customer

In the Dynamics AX business since 2003, Kintera began his career as a coder for a Microsoft Dynamics global systems integrator, and counts himself lucky that his first implementation project was a large integration across several countries. He had to learn both the business side of the implementation as well as the technical.

"I had to understand how the customer ran its different departments, financials, warehousing, logistics, distribution, sales, because I was not aware of how a real business ran before ...