Ideas in the cloud

4th rule of agile ERP: avoid heavy customizations

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You can’t avoid customizations. Vanilla ERP is a great first step, and a valuable tool for establishing common language between the customer and the consultant. But in the long run? Probably not. Pristine uncustomized ERP won’t be sufficient, because of the gaps between your way and ERP’s way. Sooner or later, gaps will have to go.

Two most common ways of closing functionality gaps are customizing the software, and changing the processes. You can almost always touch general processes, optimize them, twist them, bend them, make them more efficient or even eliminate them. But when it is about industry specifics that add true value or contribute to company’s competitive edge, customization is the answer.

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3rd rule of agile ERP: focus on value

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image – “We need a report which groups our sales by product components.”

– “And we need it broken down by cost centers.”

– “And it must show comparison with last month, quarter and year, and with budget and forecast, with indexes and trends. In linear regression.”

– “And it must let you choose if it is by posting date or by document date. Or by shipment date. Maybe some other date as well.”

– “And it must exclude returns, and include only those re-shipments that were linked to original returns in the shown period.”

And it must be a disaster if you agree to half of these.

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2nd rule of agile ERP: deploy gradually

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Eat an elephantHow do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Swallowing it all at once might be tempting as it has all the potential you need to get into the next edition of Guinness World Records. Likewise, trying it with an ERP implementation has all the potential you need to get into to the next edition of Chaos Report. One way or the other.

ERP software is huge. It contains thousands of features potentially touching every single tiniest aspect of your business. Implementing ERP is about introducing change into your company, and change can be evolutionary, or revolutionary. Your pick.

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1st rule of agile ERP: deploy vanilla ERP

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image“Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” That’s the very first principle of the Agile Manifesto.

The problem with ERP is that the first deliveries are all but early: they typically occur only after about twenty months.

Twenty months is a heck of a long time. And value achieved after a twenty-month implementation is often far below expectations.

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Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Test Drive

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Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009

Many people have asked me about availability of a downloadable Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 demo. Unless you are an existing Microsoft Dynamics NAV customer on a support plan, or a Microsoft Dynamics partner, you can’t download a demo version from a public Microsoft web site.

You can download your copy from a community web site though – check the links at the bottom of this post. Be advised that some of the downloads are larger than a gigabyte, which might not be too download friendly.

So, if you can’t download the demo, there is still a great option for trying Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009: go to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Test Drive website at http://www.dynamicsnavtestdrive.com/ and access the online virtual environment where you can try Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 for free.

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