Winthrop Development Consultants … One year on

One year ago on 17^th October 2014, I left Microsoft after thirteen and a half years and restarted the consulting business that I had before joining Microsoft.

Winthrop Dexterity Consultants was formed in September 1999 and when I joined Microsoft in December 2001, my wife Jennifer continued to run the business for almost five years before the Omni products were acquired by Rockton Software. The business as a Microsoft partner was put on hold at that time. When I found out I was leaving Microsoft, I restarted the business as Winthrop Development Consultants.

Now, as I sit in my hotel room in Reno, Nevada before I start flying home tomorrow, it is one year on and I can reflect on what has been an amazing year. Below is a summary of the achievements for the year:

• November 2014: Attended and presented at reIMAGINE 2014 conference in Fargo, ND, USA.
• March 2015: Successfully negotiated an exclusive license with Microsoft for the three tools I developed while at Microsoft.
• March 2015: Attended Pre Game 2015 partner conference day in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
• March 2015: Attended and presented at Convergence 2015 conference in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
• April 2015: Released the product Visual Studio Integration Toolkit to replace Menus for Visual Studio Tools.
• June 2015: Negotiated a mutually beneficial partnership with Mekorma to exclusively distribute and support Winthrop Development Consultants products worldwide.

• August 2015: Released the product GP Power Tools to replace the Support Debugging Tool.
• September 2015: Released new product Batch Posting Service Toolkit based on Service Based Architecture.
• September 2015: Sat the Installation and Configuration exam offered by the Association of Dynamics Professionals (DynamicsPro).

• September 2015: Attended and presented at reIMAGINE 2015 conference in Fargo, ND, USA.
• October 2015: Awarded Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) status.

• October 2015: Obtained Dynamics Professional credentials after passing the exam.
• October 2015: Attended Pre Summit 2015 in Reno, NV, USA.
• October 2015: Attended and presented at GPUG Summit 2015 conference in Reno, NV, USA.
• October 2015: Awarded GPUG All Star status by the Dynamics GP User Group yesterday.

Wow, what a ride. Thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey.

A special thanks must go to many people (in no particular order):

• To my conference co-presenters Mariano Gomez and Beat Bucher.
• To the Dynamics Communities team, especially Kim Peterson and Joe Carroll.
• To Pam Misialek from Microsoft who worked hard to make the License with Microsoft a reality.
• To the Mekorma team, including Craig Klapman, Ora Goldman, Jay Manley, Angel Blum, Mike McDowell, Steve Linz, Michael Hildebrandt, Boun Phommarth, Daniel Lee and Peter Vien.
• To all the Microsoft Dynamics GP MVPs who nominated me for MVP status.
• To Chad Sogge from Microsoft who approved the MVP award.
• To everyone who voted for the GPUG All Star awards.
• To my other “Conference Buddies” who I only get to see in person once or twice a year.
• To the subscribers and readers of my blog.

Finally, I have to thank my family for supporting me while I work too hard and letting me spend an entire month away from home.

Stay tuned for blog articles on my time in Arcata, California and Reno, Nevada.

David

This article was originally posted on http://www.winthropdc.com/blog.