If you have not heard already, I am leaving Catapult Systems to go join the team at EPS Consulting.
Catapult Systems is a fantastic company. They are a NSI (National Systems Integrator) and have 12 Microsoft competencies. They were awarded the 2009 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference Award for Custom Development Solutions.
I will have to put a little plug in here and say I was part of the team at Wisenbaker. :)
My departure has nothing to do with an exodus from Catapult. Catapult has positioned itself as a Microsoft Consulting company. I focus on Custom Application Development. What that means is I have very little interest in Sharepoint, EPM, Infrastructure, etc. I view selling and producing custom software products as a very different task than rolling out Windows 7.
I also really want to focus more on training, presenting, and overall community activity. While Catapult encouraged this behavior (particularly Mark Whitmire), it was all done outside my normal duties. With EPS and some changes Markus has in store, we hope to make that part of my duties and expectations.
My move is about my goals being slightly different than Catapult’s goals while EPS’s goals are more aligned with what I want to achieve. For example, at Houston TechFest I had some EPS coworkers come up and offer their support and advice. It was greatly appreciated. Their attendance and conversations made it clear they are pleased to have me on the team and are there to make me better at what I want to do.
I still have lots of good friends at Catapult : Ryan Riley, David Morton, John McPherson, Apollo Gonzalez, Rafael Perez, etc.
They have great ideas on revolutionizing the Application Development practice and I wish them the best of luck.
For me, I am really looking forward to working with the team at EPS. I’ve gotten to know Markus and Claudio (and others at EPS) over the past couple of months and am really impressed with them. This is my first time to be going to a company where I already know people (and respect their professionalism and skill level).
I will still be doing Virtual Brown Bags with Claudio and will now be in a situation where it should be easier for me to participate. Before I had to arrange rooms with the client and never knew if I could have privacy, etc. It was a pain.
My last day at Catapult will be Sept 30th. I then go on a brief vacation to Colorado to visit my Dad at the family mountain home. I come back on the 7th and start the new gig on the 8th. :D