Darin Vialpando has joined Boyer & Associates as a Dynamics GP consultant and support technician. He has 13 years of experience in the industry and a passion for GP software.
Vialpando got his first look at Microsoft Dynamics GP while working the IT help desk at Denver-based Pendum LLC in 2007. He offered support for field service technicians and assisted with GP support tickets.
“I just like the software. For some reason it really intrigues me,” he said. “The things you can do with this piece of software amaze me because it’s not just an accounting platform.”
A thirst for more knowledge about the GP software drove him to get involved with the local GPUG chapter meetings. He quickly learned that he was not alone in his love for GP. In fact, he said, GP’s user group meetings became so popular that other software providers started to take notice and adopted similar events for their own software solutions.
“For the most part people love to talk about (GP), they love to work with it, and they love to have your support,” he said.
Vialpando remains an active member in the GPUG community, serving as GPUG chapter leader for the Denver area for the last five years. He’s in charge of organizing content for the local meetings and has gotten to know several Microsoft MVPs in the GP world, such as Belinda Allen, Mariano Gomez Bent and Steve Endow.
“They have an undying passion for GPUG, for GP and these guys have really helped people understand and learn about the systems,” he said.
“I’ve always had that passion for GP. There’s a level of comfortability that I feel when I’m working in GP.”
— Darin Vialpando
His own undying passion for GP is what part of what prompted him to accept the job at Boyer & Associates. Before joining Boyer in January 2021, Vialpando was working on a lot of third-party implementations. The job was decent, but he was eager to get back into GP software support, his first true love.
“I prefer support. I just prefer interacting with people,” he said. He especially enjoys interacting with GP users because they are “pretty dynamic themselves,” he said.
Vialpando said issues with batches, printing and permissions are the three most common problems he sees when working a GP help desk. He would love to have a quick fix for those top three, but the reality is often a bit more complex.
“You have to be kind of a detective in some aspects because of the way everybody uses GP,” he said. Since everyone’s system looks a little different, the fix always looks a little different too, even for a similar problem. The same is true with year-end updates and annual upgrades.
To Vialpando, that’s the beauty of the software — that a company can customize it to fit their needs. It makes his job both challenging and fun.
Vialpando and his wife of 20 years, Jamie, live in Colorado. The couple has six children, the youngest two of which are still at home. They live on the eastern plains in a small town of 2,500 people. There’s one stop sign, two or three restaurants and a gas station.
“Life here is simple. You know your neighbor,” Vialpando said. He has spent most of his life in Colorado, except for six years in the late 1980s when he lived in Las Vegas while in the U.S. Air Force.
When he’s not at work, Vialpando enjoys hunting, fishing, camping, white water rafting and working on cars. (He once had a ’66 Galaxy 500.)
He’s also a big sports fan and always roots for the local Colorado teams. In fact, he once worked for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, the organization behind both the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets. He spent six years as an IT business applications manager, supporting their GP system.
Now he plans to support Boyer’s GP clients while continuing in his position at GPUG.
“I’ve always had that passion for GP,” he said. “There’s a level of comfortability that I feel when I’m working in GP. You want to do something that keeps you happy. Well, this keeps me happy.”
