This article will describe the Microsoft MVP Enterprise Mobility award I received for the year 2020 – 2021 for my outstanding contribution to the community.
1. How did I get the Microsoft MVP Enterprise Mobility Award 2020 – 2021?
I got nominated a few months ago by my good childhood friend Ken Goossens, who is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft (big thx for the nomination Ken!). But it all started a bit earlier. Let me tell you my story in short, and I promise, I’ll try to keep it short…
Last year I took the step to take a course to be an Approved Technical Trainer. This on the advice of Ken. This course was thought by the one-and-only Peter De Tender (Ex-Azure MVP, Technical Author, Business Program Manager – Azure Technical Trainer at Microsoft). I aced the exam (jury in front of 3 MCT’s) and became an Microsoft Certified Trainer myself. You can find more about the MCT program here.
From there it all started. I switched jobs because I found out I was stuck at the one doing at that moment. I was a SCCM Systems Engineer at that time.
Not much later I arrived at the company Synergics. They call themselves a ‘Cloud Change Agent‘ and they work closely together with Microsoft Belgium. Synergics is also a Microsoft Gold Partner. I became a part of the Modern Workplace Team as a Modern Workplace Consultant. This team was led by Jasper Bernaers. I have to say I don’t regret joining them. They gave me a lot of opportunities and trust and up to this day I love my job. I since then grew to the role Modern Workplace Architect and since recently can call myself a Senior Modern Workplace Architect. I work closely together with Jasper on making custom offerings and standard offering packages. I’ve designed a Module Matrix for our Intune implementations so that our customers can choose a package that suits their needs. I also deliver workshops (as an MCT, but for Synergics) in-house as well as external. And this monday we will launch the Synergics Academy.
Synergics is not such a big firm and their CEO Jochen Maertens is a CEO like I’ve never had before. He’s highly skilled, can talk along in technical projects and most of all has a major human touch – big focus on keeping his employees happy. He’s one of a kind. I mean this. He always supported me in my journey to achieve more and gives me a lot of opportunities non-work related (community-wise). Big thx to you also Jochen!
In October 2019 I started my blog cloud-boy.be and started blogging about all things Modern Workplace related, but with a big focus on Microsoft Intune. I keep doing this on a weekly basis.
In the MCT workshop from Peter De Tender I met Wim Matthyssen who was at that time a Cloud Architect at Cegeka. But by now he joined our forces at Synergics. This as a side note. But me and Wim became good friends. We went to Microsoft Ignite together in November 2019. Ken Goossens also joined us. We had a great time there and had some talks about creating a new community in Belgium. Because we thought there was a need for an active community concerning Client Management and Azure. We involved some other names in this project: Peter De Tender, Tim De Keukelaere (MVP Enterprise Mobility) – also a big thx to Tim for supporting me in this journey with giving answers to all my questions, Jasper Bernaers and Peter Linders.
And this way MC2MC (Microsoft Cloud and Client Management Community) was born. After the start Micha Wets (MVP Enterprise Mobility) also joined our MC2MC Board. And by this time we had an MC2MC Board of 8. Which felt right. We had a good team going.
I got recognized by Microsoft for this by receiving the Azure Heroes: Community Hero digital badger.
We organize 4 events minimum a year. And our Kickoff event was a big success. See our photos on our website: https://www.mc2mc.be/event-photos/. But if you want more info on MC2MC, just visit our site and take a look. Or join us at one of our events. We also have a Constant Call for Speakers for our community events: https://www.mc2mc.be/call-for-speakers/.
I also mentored 4 students at Synergics. I got recognized by Microsoft for this by receiving the Azure Heroes: Mentor digital badger. This is something I love doing. It’s very satisfying seeing your students grow from zero Cloud knowledge to an amazing load of Cloud knowledge. And I wish them all the best, and hope some of them are joining our forces at Synergics.
Then on the 1st of May I received my mail that I was a Microsoft MVP in the Enterprise Mobility category! I was really shocked for a long time because I didn’t thought it would happen so fast! I am so happy with this recognition and will keep up the good work with speaking at public events (see my Sessionize profile or go to my Speaking page), weekly blogging at minimum, creating community with MC2MC, and help where needed.
Also a big shout out to my lovely wife, this wouldn’t have been possible without her full support in this, working late at night and being from home a lot.
Know that you can always contact me with questions on my Twitter account, or drop me a mail at tim.hermie@mc2mc.be. I’ll always answer and help where needed.
You can find my MVP profile here to see all my community contributions: https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/PublicProfile/5003749?fullName=Tim%20Hermie
2. What is the Microsoft MVP Program?
For more than two decades, the Microsoft MVP Award is their way of saying “Thanks!” to outstanding community leaders. The contributions MVPs make to the community, ranging from speaking engagements, to social media posts, to writing books, to helping others in online communities, have incredible impact. Key benefits to MVPs include early access to Microsoft products, direct communication channels with our product teams and an invitation to the Global MVP Summit, an exclusive annual event hosted in the global HQ in Redmond. They also have a very close relationship with the local Microsoft teams in their area, who are there to support and empower MVPs to address needs and opportunities in the local ecosystem. Other benefits include an executive recognition letter, an MSDN technical subscription, and an Office 365 subscription.
Find out more about the MVP award structure!
3. Who are MVPs?
Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, or MVPs, are technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community. They are always on the “bleeding edge” and have an unstoppable urge to get their hands on new, exciting technologies. They have very deep knowledge of Microsoft products and services, while also being able to bring together diverse platforms, products and solutions, to solve real world problems. MVPs make up a global community of over 4,000 technical experts and community leaders across 90 countries/regions and are driven by their passion, community spirit, and quest for knowledge. Above all and in addition to their amazing technical abilities, MVPs are always willing to help others – that’s what sets them apart.
4. What does it take to be an MVP?
There are 3 very simple steps: be an expert, do lots of what you love, and let Microsoft know! Really, there isn’t a long checklist of things you need to do to become an MVP. The best MVPs really excel in step #2: they LOVE what they do. And Microsoft can tell! Whether you’re a great speaker, have a talent in blogging, lead a top technical community, are a social media superstar, a top GitHub or StackOverflow contributor or have a totally different and cool way to share your passion for our products and services, they’d love to know more!
See some great examples that showcase MVPs!
5. How can I become an MVP?
Microsoft wants to award the best and brightest technical community leaders! To place yourself into consideration for the MVP Award, a nomination referral must be first submitted on your behalf by either a Microsoft Full Time Employee (FTE) or Microsoft MVP. Following this referral submission, a link to complete the award nomination will be sent to you. Once you have completed the nomination form, Microsoft will review your nomination. As you can imagine, sometimes they receive a lot of applications, this process can take up to 90 days.
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