Dynamics Profile: Adding functional expertise to the AX MVP roster

Although André Arnaud de Calavon was just awarded Microsoft Dynamics AX MVP status, he wasn't always an AX aficionado.

"I started my career in 1996 with Navision. Then Navision and Axapta were acquired by Microsoft," he said. "And in the Netherlands I think I was one of the first people who went from Navision to AX because I wanted to change my job."

The year was 1998, and Arnaud de Calavon was worked  for  a Microsoft partner focused on the commercial real estate business using Navision, as it was still called at the time.

"I looked into the details of AX version 1.0 because we wanted to check out what the product was to see if we wanted to start selling that product as well. But we didn't end up selling AX," he said. "That was my first experience with AX."

Despite his company's decision not to invest in AX, Arnaud de Calavon was drawn to it as a more mature technology than NAV. And ultimately, Arnaud de Calavon left that job and went to work for Pylades, a Microsoft Dynamics AX partner in the Netherlands. The first implementation Arnaud de Calavon did with AX in 2001 went very well, in part because he was working with a very friendly customer - Hollandse Telecommunicatie Maatschappij, a provider of electrical and electronic equipment including telephone cables and lines.

"The company also wanted to do some service management so ...