With end of Microsoft Dynamics SMB ERP certifications, independent authority discussed

Microsoft Dynamics GP professionals liked being able to call themselves certified professionals, and when Microsoft abruptly dropped their SMB certification standards for Dynamics GP, NAV, and SL (also known as "SMB ERP" nowadays), the community - and Microsoft heard about it from partner channel veterans.

For all their flaws, certifications meant something to people who achieved them. So who's to say Microsoft is the only reasonable judge of competency with regard to Dynamics ERP skills? GP MVP Mark Polino raised this idea soon after Microsoft's announcement:

"I suspect that the community could build considerably better exams at less cost. The CPA exam already does this by using volunteers to create the questions. There is a certain status that comes with helping to write exam questions; at least that's what my CPA question-writing professors used to tell me in college. If the exams are expensive to create and maintain, it's because Microsoft policies make them expensive."

And now Hal Howard, former CVP of R&D for Microsoft Dynamics ERP and now the executive director at Dynamic Communities, Inc., has raised the same idea with respect to his plans at DCI. In a new interview with Jon Rivers of Data Masons Software on the company's blog, he said the end of SMB ERP certifications by Microsoft offered a ...