Ideas in the cloud

Top 7 reasons why to avoid (much) customization

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image To customize or not to customize, that is the question. When you see a complex business process far from the standard ERP system, a knee-jerk reaction is to reach for customization tools and do the development.

Many ERP theorists say that ERP is only as good as it is an exact match for your processes. And they are mostly right about it. But majority of ERP systems are very generic (Microsoft Dynamics NAV included), and to exactly match your processes, they require customization. When it doesn’t work out-of-the-box, you customize it, it’s that simple, isn’t it?

It’s not, sorry.

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Do you trust your vendor: 9 good reasons to reveal your project budget up front

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imageLast week I participated in a discussion about budgets and whether you should ask your potential customers their budget. It made me think: how often do customers reveal their project budgets before the consultants bid?

From my personal experience—not too often. What a waste! Of time, money, and opportunity.

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What did NAV bloggers blog in January?

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When I started blogging just short of two years ago, there weren’t too many NAV blogs. I don’t bother to go do the count, but I figure there was no more than ten of them. Then it exploded: today, there are about forty.

Keeping track of forty RSS feeds has become a complete nightmare for me, so I decided I’d keep a monthly digest of the most valuable blog posts in the NAV blogosphere, as a reference I can refer back to, later on. If you find it useful as well, even better.

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A look back: January 2009

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imageIs 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.

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Sure Step in action: Architecture Assessment

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Implementing a new Microsoft Dynamics solution doesn’t merely introduce a new piece of software into your environment. Yes, the software is an important part, you need to deploy it successfully, configure it as necessary, probably even customize it and change the business logic under the hood.

One component, however, is easily overlooked, and you wouldn’t believe how often it’s not addressed until late. Or too late. It’s the infrastructure.

Infrastructure is tough. It’s not just servers and desktops with some wires, switches and access points in between. Its a lot more. What kind of hardware do you need for your servers or desktops? What kind of performance do you really need? What kind of network layout is optimal for your transaction volume? Should you run the client on desktop machines, or would a remote desktop access be a preferred method? Do you virtualize your servers? What kind of failover capacities do you need? Can you retain any of your old hardware? How many users will use the system? Tomorrow? In five years? What about interfaces and integration to other systems or applications?

A couple of wrong answers, and down you go.

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