Boyer & Associates is thrilled to announce that a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central expert has joined our consulting team. John Ponzio has more than 25 years of developer experience with the ERP solution, starting back in its early Avista days.
Ponzio started programming when he answered an ad posted on a bulletin board in his college computer lab. That was the 1980s, and he’s been solving software problems ever since.
“I like the challenge. I like inventing things, figuring out how to solve problems and that hasn’t changed all these years,” Ponzio said.
He was one of the first to see what is now called Microsoft Dynamics NAV, the on-premise precursor to Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud. He worked on the solution back when it was first introduced in the U.S. as Avista.
Ponzio attended one of the first developer classes in the U.S. to learn about the new ERP solution. Shortly after, he started his own company, Calypso Business Computer Systems, to support some of the first U.S. clients using Avista. After three years, he sold the company and eventually wound up working directly for Navision, the Danish company that sold Avista.
To date, that’s still his favorite job, Ponzio said. The team of 80 worked well together, and the Danish owners offered great benefits including a free cafeteria, pool hall and generous vacation time.
“It was good work, and everybody got along. It was very pleasant,” he said.
Ponzio’s work at the time was split among three areas: developer support, training and localizations (writing code to meet the needs of U.S.-based companies).
One key localization he wrote was bank reconciliations, since that was nonexistent in the Danish version of the software. He wrote a bank reconciliation from scratch, but the first version quickly popped up with dozens of errors that he then had to fix.
“When you start coding for these larger audiences they definitely find more bugs … You learn after getting burned like that,” Ponzio said.
While beginning coders can write code to meet one specific user’s needs, Ponzio can now write code that is, as he said, “more fault tolerant.” He learned how to write code that can accommodate the variety of errors that might crop up in a larger audience, a true sign of a seasoned developer.
When Microsoft bought Navision, Ponzio was promoted to escalation engineer. A lack of variety in his daily routine led him to pursue a new position at another Microsoft partner. Over the years he has worked for other Microsoft partners, for Dynamics NAV ISV Lanham Associates or as an independent freelancer.
As a developer, Ponzio has a unique perspective on the differences between Dynamics NAV on-premise and 365 Business Central in the cloud. One key difference he noted is that while the two appear similar to the end user, Business Central is actually written in a different coding language. The language adjustment has made developing more complicated, but the cloud version does allow for faster connect time to a new client’s sandbox.
“I’ve always been a problem solver so I enjoy the challenge,” Ponzio said. “I do enjoy the puzzle.”
He started with Boyer in early January as a contractor, but the Minneapolis-based ERP reseller quickly recognized his talent and offered him a full-time position. He was looking for a friendly place to work, and Boyer’s work culture seemed to fit that picture.
While his official title is consultant, Ponzio’s role consists more of senior developer tasks related to Microsoft Dynamics NAV/365 Business Central. He’s already well under way with several projects. In addition to development tasks, the Business Central expert is also helping with upgrades, estimates and discovery calls to determine what development work might be needed for new implementations.
Ponzio is especially excited to cross train other Boyer employees. When he was just starting out in the industry, certifications and free training programs for Dynamics NAV were common, but that’s not the case with Dynamics 365 Business Central. Because there is no official training through Microsoft, Ponzio has taken up the challenge to cross train fellow consultants himself.
Ponzio is a Nashville native but currently lives with his wife, Deborah, in the mountains of North Carolina. He has four grown children, two boys and two girls, and four grandchildren (also two boys and two girls).
Ponzio used to participate in Legends car racing. Many Nascar racers get their start in these small, one-seater cars designed specifically for racing. A crash into the wall that sent his car cartwheeling across the track a few years ago left him unscathed but totaled his car and shook up his wife, a retired nurse. He finally gave up racing a year later.
These days Ponzio spends most of his spare time on do-it-yourself projects for their new house. He just finished building a carport and plans to build a workshop next. His love for vintage cars remains, and he’s hoping to sell his old race car to buy a 1950s Chevy truck that he can restore.
