Is there a better way to start a week than coming to NavigateIntoSuccess.com to find a fresh new post about Microsoft Dynamics NAV or something of the sort?
Of course there is, come on.
And yet, to my surprise, Mondays seem to be the busiest days over here at NavigateIntoSuccess.com. I’ll take it you liked my new policy: a new post every Monday and every Thursday. Since it worked for both you and me, I’m going to keep it in place.
In January, I’ve introduced a lot of changes to this blog, and although I didn’t expect them to really work, you proved me wrong. So, let’s take a look back at this fantastic month.
The poll
First, I decided to ask you directly what you’d like to read. There was a poll throughout January, and 57 of you have voiced your opinion. Thank you for letting me know where your worries really were, I’d never have figured it myself. So, this is what you’ve told me:
Obviously, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 is on top of your list, which is somewhat expected. The newest version of the software is under heavy spotlight, and you’d like to have another opinion. Great stuff, I’ll be happy to share my thoughts with you.
About your second choice, I actually didn’t expect it would get that much interest. I’ve decided to start the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Functionality Catalog, but I never thought it would be the second most looked for topic over here. I’m glad though to find out that you really do want to read about it, so I’ll write about it more frequently.
Project Management is a total surprise! I expected it to be somewhere at the bottom of the list, but a great deal of you are here to read about Project Management and I won’t disappoint you. Actually, if it were up to me, I’d put it to the very top of this list now, but if I wanted it to be up to me, I wouldn’t have run a poll, now would I?
You get some, you lose some. While I expected ERP to be of more interest to you, it kind of sank below my expectations. Fair enough, I won’t press you much with ERP topics, and I’d probably cover majority of it in the functionality catalog, so I’ll have my cake and eat it.
Sure Step. Come on, people, tell me this is not for real! I started blogging about Sure Step specifically because a lot of you came here searching for it. The most searched for keyword that brought search engine traffic to my blog has been “microsoft dynamics sure step” or a variation of it—now you tell me you don’t really want to learn much about it? I’ll make it the way you tell me, so in 2009 the primary focus won’t be on Sure Step, but for those of you who do want to read about it, there will be an occasional post, at least twice a month.
Process improvement seems to be the least interesting topic to you. I thought you might want to read about it, because it goes hand-in-hand with ERP implementations (what a better chance to improve your processes than ERP implementation project?) But, such is life. You say you don’t want to read much about ERP, you want to read even less about process improvement, so I’ll need to decide what to do with these two.
What was this blog about in January 2009
At the beginning of last month, I told you about what I was going to write about. So, let’s take a look.
I explained several Sure Step topics. I started with the Degree of Fit in a series of two posts (one, and two), and I concluded the on-topic part of January by explaining the Sure Step Architecture Assessment, a useful offering from the Diagnostic phase which can help set expectations, understand the infrastructure requirements and define necessary architecture. You seem to have liked the first part of the Degree of Fit story, as it climbed to the fifth most read post on this blog in less than a month.
Another Sure Step post that you must have liked has been the We do not wear shoes, we use footwear! post in which I explained why PMBOK and Sure Step are not as far away as some people think, and that Sure Step actually builds upon PMBOK foundation. In about a week, it climbed to the seventh most read post position.
What was that about Sure Step again, are you really telling me you don’t want to read that much about it?
I’ve posted a short list of web resources that discuss the Microsoft Dynamics NAV regulatory compliance, but you didn’t seem to like it too much: while it did fairly well in the statistics, the resources it lists are mostly accessible only to partners; the prospect customers who would benefit the most from learning these things do not have access to this info. I’d like I could help here, but I can’t, sorry.
My first (which might well be the last) post about process improvement, where I asked you if you dared “resetting” your processes during an ERP implementation. While the post did pretty well in statistics, and elicited a comment, you said that you don’t really want to read about process improvement? Now, whom do I trust, the statistics, or the poll results? Who’s right, you, or… you?
And now for the absolute hits. I’ve presented a few not-too-known NAV blogs to you, and you seemed to go bananas about it: in four days it got to the number six most read post, and made you work the links like crazy. This only tells me that my idea to make a from-the-blogs digest a regular feature here was a good idea. From now on, at least once a month I’ll tell you what other people are telling you.
My cookbook user experience post has also seemed to hit the bulls eye: a few of you have left some encouraging comments, and in only two days it has got to the twelfth most read position.
But the absolute winner seems to have been the NAV functionality catalog. While the post itself didn’t do too spectacular, the catalog itself has become third most read topic of the whole blog.
This seems to have completed my to-do list for January. I’m glad I made it: the Monday & Thursday schedule, and the to-do list. You
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n expect the same for the months to come.
Enjoy the weekend, and see you in February, with the new list of topics, and a new poll.
