January 1st I received my third Microsoft MVP Award for my contributions to the Dynamics community, the category is still "Business Solutions" as Microsoft did not make new changes to the MVP Award structure.
It's an honor for me to be part of this group, to "celebrate" the event I will use this post to write some of my thoughts about the MVP/Dynamics world.
Currently there are a bit less than 100 MVP awarded for the Dynamics CRM competency (I don't have the exact number) but between my Twitter feed and the Dynamics Community forums I can easily write a list of another 100 great people that works with Dynamics CRM and are not MVP. They write blog posts, create useful tools, tweet relevant news and their contributions are valuable to everybody in the community. The fact that they don't have an award doesn't make their job, their opinions, their experiences less important, in the same way my contributions have not an higher value because I am an MVP, I can consider the award a small proof of my competences, but it doesn't define totally me or what I do.
The community is central, without users sharing questions/answers/thoughts, no matter if the topics are basic or advanced, the MVP program will not have reason to exist.
During the last year I had the chance to participate also to some "offline" events: April in Rome I joined the Western Europe MVP & Community Day 2016, October in Milan I joined the Microsoft Future Decoded and November in Seattle the annual MVP Summit.
All these three events were amazing, I had finally the opportunity to meet in person fantastic people and I hope to meet them soon again. If you want to get an idea you can read Leon Tribe post about the summit https://thatcrmblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/19/post-summit-debrief/
Regarding my contributions in 2016, I think the most important is the Dependent OptionSet Generator, it's a small tool but I know people using it and they find it useful, when you create a tool the goal is to simplify a process, not everybody sends spaceships to Mars (I am looking at you Elon Musk), and the saved time can be used for something else or spent outside work.
Another contribution that I am proud is that I got back the Microsoft Community Contributor (MCC) badge, it's assigned every 6 months, and in the last year my number of answers were not enough to get it.
What I failed regarding my contributions in the last year? Definitely blogging, I wrote only few posts, maybe 2017 will inspire me to write more.
2016 is also the year the Dynamics ecosystem changed and it's now toward a new direction. The "Dynamics 365" momentum now can look like just a rebranding, but it's definitely more, inside and outside of what was formerly known as Dynamics CRM. The platform is HUGE with all the available solutions like Field Service, Project Service and the Portals, it's TERRIFIC considering the integrations with PowerBI, Azure and AX, it's a GREAT future for the Dynamics platform and for the people works with it (the MVP summit was held during the US elections, so now I unintentionally use some words).
If you arrived at this point of my unexpected long post, I wish you Happy New Year and I hope you will reach your goals for 2017!
It's an honor for me to be part of this group, to "celebrate" the event I will use this post to write some of my thoughts about the MVP/Dynamics world.
Currently there are a bit less than 100 MVP awarded for the Dynamics CRM competency (I don't have the exact number) but between my Twitter feed and the Dynamics Community forums I can easily write a list of another 100 great people that works with Dynamics CRM and are not MVP. They write blog posts, create useful tools, tweet relevant news and their contributions are valuable to everybody in the community. The fact that they don't have an award doesn't make their job, their opinions, their experiences less important, in the same way my contributions have not an higher value because I am an MVP, I can consider the award a small proof of my competences, but it doesn't define totally me or what I do.
The community is central, without users sharing questions/answers/thoughts, no matter if the topics are basic or advanced, the MVP program will not have reason to exist.
During the last year I had the chance to participate also to some "offline" events: April in Rome I joined the Western Europe MVP & Community Day 2016, October in Milan I joined the Microsoft Future Decoded and November in Seattle the annual MVP Summit.
All these three events were amazing, I had finally the opportunity to meet in person fantastic people and I hope to meet them soon again. If you want to get an idea you can read Leon Tribe post about the summit https://thatcrmblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/19/post-summit-debrief/
Regarding my contributions in 2016, I think the most important is the Dependent OptionSet Generator, it's a small tool but I know people using it and they find it useful, when you create a tool the goal is to simplify a process, not everybody sends spaceships to Mars (I am looking at you Elon Musk), and the saved time can be used for something else or spent outside work.
Another contribution that I am proud is that I got back the Microsoft Community Contributor (MCC) badge, it's assigned every 6 months, and in the last year my number of answers were not enough to get it.
What I failed regarding my contributions in the last year? Definitely blogging, I wrote only few posts, maybe 2017 will inspire me to write more.
2016 is also the year the Dynamics ecosystem changed and it's now toward a new direction. The "Dynamics 365" momentum now can look like just a rebranding, but it's definitely more, inside and outside of what was formerly known as Dynamics CRM. The platform is HUGE with all the available solutions like Field Service, Project Service and the Portals, it's TERRIFIC considering the integrations with PowerBI, Azure and AX, it's a GREAT future for the Dynamics platform and for the people works with it (the MVP summit was held during the US elections, so now I unintentionally use some words).
If you arrived at this point of my unexpected long post, I wish you Happy New Year and I hope you will reach your goals for 2017!
