ERP

Default database approach

  • Reading time:6 mins read

Last Friday, while enjoying a not-at-all healthy Salisbury steak with cheese, I had an interesting discussion with a partner: should NAV consultancies create default databases?

A default database (in this context) is a packaged solution built upon standard Microsoft Dynamics NAV, where a consultancy has introduced a number of features that they sell to all their customers as the standard solution, instead of standard NAV. The modifications to standard NAV can range from simple report adornments to minor feature improvements  to full-scale horizontal or vertical functionalities.

Continue ReadingDefault database approach

Read My Lips: Why?

  • Reading time:6 mins read

Recently, a reader, commenting on my last post about Sure Step, pointed me to an article by Karl E. Wiegers
“Read My Lips: No New Models!” I initially responded to the comment, but I figure the comments aren’t read as often as posts, so I decided to blog it.

It’s doubly funny that the reader is using Dr. Wiegers to devalue and dismiss Sure Step: firstly, the article has really nothing to do with implementation methodologies at all, and secondly, when I delivered Sure Step training at WinDays pre-conf earlier this year, I gave to each attendant a copy of Karl E. Wiegers’s latest book “Practical Project Initiation”—at the time it was the best book available that matched both the message of my training and the point of Sure Step as a methodology.

Continue ReadingRead My Lips: Why?

Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step 2.0

  • Reading time:2 mins read

A new version of Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step methodology was released yesterday and is available for download to all Microsoft Dynamics partners enrolled in a service plan. If you were a partner, and thought you had no reason to enroll in one before, now there is a compelling reason to do so. This version brings so many improvements over the previous one that it is really worth it.

Continue ReadingMicrosoft Dynamics Sure Step 2.0

How critical is business intelligence?

  • Reading time:4 mins read

I was involved with three go-lives this month. Not all of them required the same level of engagement, that was the major survival factor for me, but nevertheless I got into an interesting discussion with a colleague.

– So it was three projects this month, huh? All of the NAV? – she asked.

– No, it was one NAV, two of them were business intelligence ones.

– Ah, ok, so they are not business critical. – she concluded.

Continue ReadingHow critical is business intelligence?

Mystery laptop

  • Reading time:2 mins read

I had no clue how good my laptop was. Seriously. Today it kicked ass of an 8-processor server.

Tomorrow we have a go-live of a Microsoft Dynamics NAV deployment, with manufacturing customized to support configure-to-order functionality. Refreshing manufacturing orders now calculates dynamic BOMs and routings, and it takes time.

Continue ReadingMystery laptop

Standard enemy

  • Reading time:4 mins read

The biggest jeopardies often lurk where we least expect them. When implementing an ERP system such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV, what should be one of our best allies, turns out to be our mortal enemy. It has a simple name: The Standard. Standard processes, standard functionality, standard documents, standard system. All these gizmos can turn into gremlins in a blink of an unattentive eye.

Standards are tricky. If during due dilligence, or diagnostic or analysis phase, we hear the prospect or customer utter the word “standard”, what do we instinctively do? Well, in a standard system, it’s pretty obvious what the standard is, and when the customer says that they “just have standard processes” it means that these processes are just covered with such a standard system, right? So we instinctively tend to skip the more detailed analysis of these, because after all, they are standard.

Continue ReadingStandard enemy

Business case – do I eat it or?

  • Reading time:7 mins read

It’s a well known fact that IT projects fail every so often. Standish Group has been researching the success and failure factors of IT projects for a decade and a half, and they publish their results in their CHAOS report every two years or so. According to their 2006 report, only about 35% of projects can be categorized as successful, while 65% are declared unsuccessful. In this report, word unsuccessful can mean anything from exceeding time and/or budget (46% of projects) or failing altogether (19% of them). With such a huge proportion of projects going astray, maybe there was something wrong with these projects from the very beginning. Were the time and budget unrealistic? Were the project requirements, or even objectives, unrealistic? Maybe. Or maybe not. How can you tell?

Continue ReadingBusiness case – do I eat it or?

WinDays 2008: Aftermath

  • Reading time:3 mins read

WinDays 2008 are over. Somehow, this conference has become a milestone, in Croatian ICT community, in Microsoft community, even in my life. I met a friend there, one of those I only meet there, and realized just how quickly the year turned. Obviously, I contemplated too much, and partied too little, something to really get worried about.

Anyway, the presentations I delivered made me think about the future of this blog. It started pretty randomly, as a place where I simply dumped anything that crossed my mind, so you had all sorts of content, from programming, to development, to functionality, to theory. When I look at my blog to-do list, there is even more chaos to it, with topics ranging from SQL optimization all the way to business process reengineering. I realized I need more focus.

Continue ReadingWinDays 2008: Aftermath

Peugeot – Engineered to be enjoyed (or A simple way a car dealership can profit from an ERP system?)

  • Reading time:5 mins read

About six months ago, when I was buying a car, a friend of mine, in a typical The Good, the Bad and the Ugly fashion, told me that there were two kinds of cars: good cars, and French cars. I bought a French car. I bought a Peugeot 407 SW (Peugeot says their cars are engineered to be enjoyed) and although I could do so, I am not going to make this a post about what went wrong with this car already so far. This is going to be a post about how the simplest of the features of an ERP system can influence customer (dis)satisfaction, and create long term decisions for, or against a car vendor. Also, not typical for me, I am speaking from the shoes of a customer, rather than consultant, this time. Quite a change for me.

Continue ReadingPeugeot – Engineered to be enjoyed (or A simple way a car dealership can profit from an ERP system?)

Scrap the crap

  • Reading time:1 min read

Scrap happens. So does sh*t. In my last blog post about scrap I gave a crappy explanation of how forward calculation of fixed scrap works. So instead of disgracing myself by leaving the incorrect explanation there, I’ve just corrected it, and posted this lame excuse here. Anyone who is interested in how it really works, please accept my sincere apology for not testing my hypothesis thoroughly before posting it here. I’ve now tested it thoroughly, corrected it accordingly, and there you go.

Today is April the 1st. The April Fool’s Day. I hoped to be posting a prank here today, but it seems I’ve posted a prank few days ago. Sorry.

Continue ReadingScrap the crap