Yesterday, Panorama Consulting Group has published their new ERP report, and it was a really interesting read. It shows some interesting effects of economic recession on ERP industry, but it proves once again that ERP projects are risky, prone to budgeting and scheduling issues, and still chances to get reasonable benefits are roughly 50:50.
“Are we all in” – asks Hunter Richards on The Software Advice blog in his Monday post, giving a view of Microsoft’s Cloud strategy in perspective of Microsoft Dynamics. He argues that while Microsoft is indeed betting heavily on the Cloud, its Dynamics line of products is not nearly ready for the Cloud.
In his argumentation, Hunter gives four challenges that Microsoft is facing, and that are main obstacles in Microsoft’s way to Cloud Dynamics ERP: architecture, multiple products, partner channel and market readiness.
I believe in the Cloud. And I believe in Microsoft Dynamics ERP in the Cloud. So I do not agree with Hunter’s views on this, and here I’m offering a counter view. Okay, I must say that my views are limited exclusively to NAV, so whatever I say applies to NAV, and may not apply to AX, SL or GP.
Years ago, when I didn’t know what consultant was, let alone thought about eventually becoming one, I was sitting in a cafe in Zagreb with then my boss and now my friend Marko, sipping cream with coffee and mostly sharing random thoughts. He then introduced me to a commodity-convenience-solution concept which shaped a lot my customer approach and my work.
You might be a customer of an ERP. Or you might be a company offering implementation services to customers. In any case, this post is for you—how you think about your ERP implementation project(s).
Some say that ERP will solve all your problems. A deus-ex-machina which takes you to the promised land and brings you years of prosperity and bliss. Reduced operating costs and administrative overhead, improved inventory, higher customer retention, better profitability. It will streamline, improve, integrate, leverage, increase all your good things, and reduce, decrease, eliminate all your bad things.
You don’t buy it, do you?
ERP may help you solve your problems. Eventually.
First thing it will do, though, is—expose them. The question is… are you ready to face them?
Today I’ve completed delivering the Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step course in Belgrade, Serbia, and I totally enjoyed it. The discussions were great, there was a lot of experience accumulated in that room, and all of the thirteen people attending the training were participating and contributing knowledge. If ever, this time during training I got zillions of ideas for blog posts, too bad I forgot most of them immediately thereafter 🙂
One of the discussions we led was about waterfall and its (in)effectiveness. Some of the people, those who primarily come from development background, expressed their belief that waterfall is a bad and an outdated approach which usually leads to failed projects. I shared some of my thoughts on the topic, but I still believe that I didn’t give a good explanation when the waterfall approach works better than an agile one.
After successful Decisions NAV 2009 and Decisions AX 2009 virtual conferences, MSDynamicsWorld.com has went for it once again, this time expanding the conference to cover full range of Microsoft Dynamics products, and merging it into a single event.
Long time no see, eh? I know I’ve promised to write about a lot of stuff here, and I see this queue of you hardly waiting to read my next topic on process manufacturing, but I am just far too lazy to think it out thoroughly. So, an easier one, but still about manufacturing.
I spent this week delivering two courses about manufacturing in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Usually, these trainings are gatherings of partners who discuss geeky stuff over coffee breaks. This time, it was kind of different – there were two people from the customer front, and it was really amazing to listen to customer perspective when learning about standard NAV.
One of the points raised today, in the midst of closing of Manufacturing II course, was about parallel routings. Do we do them, or do we not. A tough one, indeed.
When implementing NAV in manufacturing companies, I’ve sometimes heard complaints that the type of manufacturing supported in NAV doesn’t fit the customer needs.
And sometimes that’s completely true. NAV supports discreet manufacturing, and it handles it pretty well. But the things do get bumpy when you venture into process manufacturing world.
Sometimes customers or even consultants don’t really understand why this happens. It’s simple: there is a big difference between process and discreet manufacturing, and to successfully implement NAV in these two fundamentally different environments you need to understand and appreciate these differences.
Panorama Consulting Group, the authors of the ERP report, have just made available two interesting tools: ERP Quick Diagnostic, and ERP Readiness Assessment.
According to their website, if you are “in the early stages of selecting a new ERP software or if you’ve already completed your project, our ERP Quick Diagnostic will help you benchmark with other ERP projects across the globe”.
On the other hand, if you are thinking about starting an ERP project, you can take advantage of the ERP Readiness Assessment which can “determine how ready you really are for ERP”.
All in all, two simple online tools which can help you understand how well your ERP project is going or completed, or what can you expect if you decide to venture into one. Click here to check this out.
I’ve just got the news about Part III of Panorama’s ERP Report in my inbox. If you missed my analysis of the report, please read it first: part three builds on findings of the first two. I know that I am biased when writing about this, but how can I not be? Microsoft Dynamics is the best choice ERP and the report (as a whole) clearly shows why exactly.