Iain Connolly's Career
After leaving school with no Higher qualifications at the end of 5th year, I went to college and completed an NC in Music Technology with Electronics. I really enjoyed this course, so I also completed an HND in the same course the following year. After college, I applied and was accepted to Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) in Glasgow where I did my degree in Music Technology with Electronics. It wasn’t until I was at university that I overheard a conversation about common traits of Dyslexia and after realising that I matched with most of the traits, I went for an official diagnosis where it was confirmed that I did have Dyslexia. Being diagnosed was like a light bulb moment for me as all my experiences from learning in school and college suddenly made sense – such as being great at Maths but struggling in English. I was encouraged to try out different learning methods that other Dyslexic peers had found success with however, as the diagnosis was a bit later in my adolescence and education, I had already developed my own coping mechanisms which worked for me.
After graduating with my degree, I went to work in McDonald’s and other retail stores whilst I decided what I wanted to do in life. I eventually got a job in a bank as a call centre rep before going back to West of Scotland University to attend night school to gain a CCNA qualification (Cisco Certified Network Associate). Once I had gained my CCNA qualification, I left the bank and got a job at a 24-hour service desk at Wipro which mainly served oil companies globally. This was my first experience working in tech and where I first discovered Microsoft CRM 4 and met Mark Christie who was working for one of the companies where Wipro acted as a service desk support.
I spent a few years at Wipro before leaving to work on the Swan Network, with Capita. I worked in the Scottish Wide Area Network where I used my CCNA qualification to help connect all of Scotland’s entire public sector together through a shared single network. As a Network Engineer in the Network Operations Centre, my main job roles were to monitor the networks, configure routers, test lines, and coordinate engineers for on-site visits. After working here for a year, I wanted to move into a consultancy-based role, so I accepted a job offer at Castle Computer Services as a CRM Support Consultant where I specialised in applications support for Microsoft Dynamics for 1 year. I then moved to TSG as a Support/Functional Consultant where I did consultancy work for CRM-specific support.
In 2016, I made the move to eBECS as a CRM Consultant. This role consisted of traveling throughout the UK implementing Microsoft Dynamics solutions in customer sites. Due to some personal circumstances I needed to be more home-based and travel less, so I took the leap going self-employed and got a contract in Glasgow doing CRM Functional Consultancy with Scottish Enterprise. During my 4 years there, I was part of a digital transformation team that was based on Microsoft Dynamics.
Now, I do full-time consultancy work with Proximo 3 alongside Mark, Andrew, and Alison. I have held a Microsoft MVP status for the last 3 years which means I am kept busy with my community contributions which date back to my time at eBECS where it was challenged that there was no Microsoft community in Scotland. In a bid to disprove this, Mark and I ran the first (and our first) Scottish Microsoft event called D365 Saturday Scotland. In the following year, this turned into Scottish Summit, which has now been running for the last 4-5 years! We are currently finalising plans for Scottish Summit on Tour 2023 which is on the 5th-6th of August in and Scottish Summit 2024 for which the location is yet to be revealed…
Through my career working with Microsoft Dynamics 365 I really feel this highlights the endless possibilities and opportunities this platform provides businesses that embrace technology for growth and success.
To find out more about Iain Connolly and the team at Proximo 3, visit our ‘Meet the Team’ page here.