From golf club management to ministry to sports writer, Boyer’s newest consultant brings a lot of diverse experiences to the table. Rob Grubbs, Jr. joins the Boyer team as a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central consultant.
Grubbs didn’t put much forethought into choosing a career as a young man. In fact, he was a junior at the University of West Georgia before he stumbled onto accounting.
It was deadline day for choosing a major, but athlete Grubbs was more concerned with making his intramural softball game. Someone had suggested he look into a management degree so he went into the business building with that intent. Glancing at the clock and eyeing the long line, he grew impatient and jumped over to a shorter line — which just happened to be for accounting.
Grubbs excelled in the subject and graduated in 1987 with a degree in business administration and accounting. He earned his CPA and spent 12 years working in the industry.
“It came easy to me. I was pretty good at it,” he said.
His life took a turn for the better when his wife, Natalie, convinced him to go to church with her. At the age of 32, he found faith in Jesus Christ and decided to go into ministry. He attended Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He then spent six years working with local youth and elderly.
In 2006, Grubbs moved back into the finance industry as a controller for Sequoia Golf. The Georgia-based company owned multiple golf clubs across the nation and bought half a dozen new ones each year. Grubbs was living the jet life, flying first class and playing golf for free.
“(It was) probably the coolest job I’ve ever had,” said Grubbs. “It was a very intoxicating lifestyle.”
This was also where he got his first look at Microsoft ERP software. The company used Microsoft Dynamics GP, then called Great Plains, for its accounting system. The bulk of Grubbs’ job consisted of showing up to a newly acquired club, firing the existing administrative team and taking over management in an effort to increase efficiency.
“Basically, we were playing Monopoly,” said Grubbs, adding that “Everybody knew the game was going to run out at some point.”
Sure enough, in 2014, Sequoia was bought out by a larger company themselves. Grubbs was without a job — but not for long. As part of his job at Sequoia, Grubbs had worked closely with a Toronto-based company that developed club and resort management software.
When the team at Total E Integrated heard what had happened, they offered Grubbs a job. He said yes before he even knew exactly what the job entailed. When he arrived, he was surprised to discover that his new job title would be Dynamics GP consultant.
“I was their only GP consultant, and I knew nothing. I had to sink or swim so I learned to swim,” Grubbs said.
He replaced a consultant who had been known for his technical expertise but didn’t have much in the way of soft skills. Grubbs had the opposite skillset. Though he felt ill-equipped to be a consultant at first, he discovered that he could use his own experience as a GP end user to help solve problems for his clients.
“I ended up liking it,” he said. “You have to make a transition in life where you realize that hey, I do know something that would help somebody else.”
From GP to Business Central consultant
He worked for the Toronto company for 5 years and has worked for an ISV and other Microsoft partners since then. Grubbs spent the last two years as a Business Central consultant. He worked on migrating Dynamics GP clients to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud.
Grubbs is big on the relationship aspect of consulting. He strongly believes clients won’t listen to his ideas until they know they can trust him. He does his best to foster those relationships, identifying with clients and steering them away from the fire alarms to focus on finding a solution to the problem.
“I know what it feels like when the system’s broken. I know how frustrating it can be so I feel like I take that knowledge into what I do now. I bring in urgency. I bring in a fresh perspective. Mostly it’s just helping people,” Grubbs said.
Jack Boyer reached out to him a year ago when Grubbs’ last company was bought out — the fourth time Grubbs had been in that situation. They communicated back and forth, and Grubbs eventually accepted a job as a Business Central consultant with the Minneapolis-based Microsoft partner in December of 2022.
The big piece that drew him to Boyer was the collaborative atmosphere. Up until now, he’s always worked in an environment where each consultant was on their own.
“I just felt like the collaboration (at Boyer) was different. It’s more of the community and working together,” he said.
When he’s not working, Grubbs loves to write. He serves as the sports editor for his local community newspaper, the Newman Times-Herald. He’s a big fan of sports — and young people — so enjoys sharing the highlights of the local high school games.
He and Natalie have now been married for 35 years and have three grown children, Robbie (the third), Joshua and Brielle. They recently bought a lake house on Lake Jackson, less than two hours from their Atlanta, Ga. home.
