Dynamics projects have grown in scale quite dramatically in recent years, this has resulted in some rapid growth within the Microsoft Partner community and we have seen many new entrants come into the market place with varying degrees of ERP experience.
Rapid growth is often difficult to sustain without there being some negative impact on resource availability and quality. With new entrants, some more recognised for their accountancy and audit credentials than a background in ERP, there’s a lot to learn before they become proficient in the art of delivering ERP.
The unfortunate result is that too many projects show signs of stress, with spiralling costs, high consultancy churn rates, lengthening delivery timelines and other indicators that suggest all is not well. A third party review using people that know what they are looking for and how to correct it becomes a prudent countermeasure in such circumstances.
A review is not necessarily all about producing a negative report on your supplier’s performance. Issues could sit with either party and we recognise that the path to success is often one where you can restart and rebuild the relationship once the issues have been identified and rectified, rather than starting afresh with a new supplier.
Phased Assurance
Rather than waiting for potential issues to materialise some savvy users are assuring projects independently, taking the approach that preventative action is more cost effective in the long term than risking having to be reactive at a later stage of the project or programme. You are after all putting your entire business into the hands of a primary supplier, which is a risky strategy when thought about logically, ask yourself the question as to how confident you would be of your supplier telling you that they were struggling to deliver within the planned timeline for example.
By using a third party organisation such as Axsoftware, with many years of successful ERP delivery experience (more than 12 years with Dynamics), you can set assurance check points right from the outset and demonstrate a level of diligence that’s worthy of the investment you are making in your new business systems.