"I started working in the shop while studying computer science. One day, my boss came up to me and said, 'I'm going to ask you a question but I don't want to know the answer until tomorrow.' He asked if I knew dBase. After everyone in the office area left for the day, I went up and grabbed all the dBase manuals and read them that night. When Glenn came by the next day and repeated his question, I confidently replied, 'Yes, as a matter of fact I do know dBase,' and showed him a program I had just written."

"That's how I became the database administrator for our dBase program running on a Novell server. I studied, took the test, and became a certified Novell server administrator. When our sales department decided to implement Clientele on Microsoft SQL Server 6.0 for customer support and CRM, I obtained my Microsoft SQL Server Database administrative certificate. With knowledge of both systems, I had an urgent need to make them talk to each other. After much effort, I purchased the ODBC connector for dBase, allowing me to connect to both databases independently and create an interface in Clientele that displayed dBase information for users."

"When the company wanted to upgrade their ERP system from dBase to Prophet 21, I extracted data from dBase and started importing it to the SQL Server Prophet 21 database, which at that time was called 'Activant Prophet 21.' Connecting our Clientele database to Prophet 21 seemed easier since they were both on SQL Server. But the real breakthrough came when our sales team purchased a Mytel phone system. After persistently asking, I finally found the right person who provided an ODBC connector for $200 that let me integrate Prophet 21 with our phone system. This allowed users to see ERP data, sales information, and instantly view all incoming and outgoing call data in one place."