Dynamics Profile: The education of a new GP MVP

Like many of his peers, newly minted Microsoft Dynamics GP MVP Ian Grieve didn't wake up one morning and decide he couldn't wait another moment to experience Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Rather, also like many of his peers, his introduction to the app was more like a trial by fire. Currently, a consultant with Perfect Image in the UK, Grieve got his first taste of Dynamics GP while working on the help desk at a software company.

"I started off in 2003 on the help desk supporting GP plus all the other software," he said.

Sounds great, right? All except for the fact that he didn't know one thing about Dynamics GP, or truth be told, any of the other software he was supporting at the time. So to learn he turned to his colleagues on the help desk for . . . help.

"I learned it as I went along. Finance systems themselves were new to me so I had to deal with learning finance and learning GP as well as the other software," he said. "It was challenging, which was great. And through time, I developed more and more contact with the product.  So in 2007, I became part of the finance and interfaces team with MIS and one of their key products then was Dynamics GP, so it became a big part of my role."

And that meant providing end to end project management/consultancy on Microsoft Dynamics GP implementations (from sales and discovery through implementation, modifications, liaising with ISVs, end user training and support), and consulting on interfaces between in-house social housing systems and third party finance systems.

"The company was ...