As seeing large number of implementations ? in our case these are Microsoft Business Solutions Products: Great Plains, MS CRM, Navision ? we would like to give you our opinion on what should you consider to do to secure implementation success. These principles should work as for large corporation as well as for midsize and even small business. We will not be talking about old-wisdom, which you know from the college classes or business school about management and staff involvement into the decision making, brainstorming, etc. ? we'll be ERP specific
? In-house Technical Expertise. Well, complication of computer networking and its security, plus the fact that SQL is now standard for the database platform (Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, etc.), plus internet connection line and its support make it inevitable to have IT expertise in the company ? this might be the whole department or just coming or part time networking consultant. Our experience indicates that the lack of internal or always available onsite specialist decreases the chances of success dramatically. And the explanation should be simple to this fact. Nowadays ERP system requires minor or major customization, integration and reporting and all these steps in turn require patient coding and testing in the test environment or on the sample dataset/database
? Dedicated ERP Administrator. This is true that users could be trained and would know how to use the system. However typical ERP has its own life and somebody should assign new users, setup security roles for them, modify reports and makes custom reports available for the users, setup printers, try first to resolve the issue by looking at the techknowledge database, and so on. ERP Administrator doesn't have to be IT guru ? she/he needs to be trained on how to administer the program and how to deal with technical support. Image for a moment that if you take out manager from the company ? even if all the employees have excellent training and used to work for the company numerous years ? you will still expect performance degradation. The same should be said about ERP system
? Expect Certain Number of Issues. IT industry is not yet mature and it is probably sad, but the reality, that even very experienced consultant, developer, programmer makes errors ? or your software environment has something that make the custom piece malfunction. When you see the consultant being persistent in resolving your issues ? please be patient and try to help him or just don not make him nervous.
? Trust Your Consultant. When you decide on somebody to implement the system, you need from this moment on to trust him and let him have high security access to the ERP hosting server. Complex security makes consultant suffer from getting connected, installing the patches or custom pieces. So many times we were spinning our wheels in trying to test new custom business logic, when, say Windows or MS SQL Server security was restricting us to do the actions we needed
? Do Not Overnegotiate. This is from the sales cycle. When you purchase the system ? you should purchase the software and implementation from the same company ? otherwise your partner will place you on the second priority list. We saw numerous examples, when client purchases Microsoft CRM licenses from nation-wide distributor, and then is trying to find somebody to implement the system. Also if you are cutting software prices ? you may see your consulting company rescheduling the work for you in favor of somebody else.
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.
Chicago limo Skokie ..Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon and CRM... Read More
And kill the best layout software in the process of... Read More
You might think you don't need a firewall... Read More
Sticky Noteshttp://www.deprice.com/stickynote.htmWith StickyNote 9.0, you can create beautiful 3D notes... Read More
This article is for advanced Microsoft CRM SDK C# developers.... Read More
Google Inc. has launched a new software package that allows... Read More
Need software to record your voice, streaming audio or musical... Read More
If you have Microsoft Great Plains as main accounting and... Read More
There are two major WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You... Read More
Almost all new and major brand of PCs come with... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains might be considered as ERP... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is marketed for mid-size companies... Read More
Once a business idea is selected, it is highly recommended... Read More
Professional services firm cuts costs and improves productivity with integrated... Read More
1. Replace Dexterity cursor with SQL Stored Procedure Dexterity... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains could be tuned and setup to fit... Read More
Navision Software was purchased by Microsoft and now it is... Read More
Do you remember that frustrating feeling when you find an... Read More
If you use Microsoft Outlook (or similar applications) for e-mailing,... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains version 8.5, 8.0, 7.5, Great... Read More
When making a decision to buy any piece of software... Read More
The intentions of this short tutorial are not to teach... Read More
Microsoft Client Relation Management system (Microsoft CRM) and Microsoft RMS... Read More
Software Engineering is the Systematic Approach for analysis design implementation... Read More
You would like to protect your documents, wouldn't you? Reasons... Read More
limo O'Hare Bonfield ..Microsoft Great Plains ? ERM from Microsoft Business Solutions and... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has many years of successful... Read More
New post-recession era has new features, which didn't exist in... Read More
As seeing large number of implementations ? in our case... Read More
We'll give you non formal view, based on our consulting... Read More
Spyware is software or hardware installed on a computer without... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains might be considered as ERP platform to... Read More
What is RAID RECOVERY?RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive... Read More
You turn on your computer, and it doesn't look quite... Read More
IntroductionSurprised, by the title? well, this is a tour of... Read More
We will base our prognosis on our Microsoft Business Solutions... Read More
Task Manager is a Windows system utility that displays thetasks... Read More
The purpose of one of our projects was MS Exchange... Read More
I suggest that you do not spend a lot of... Read More
In the previous ISDN article, we looked at how and... Read More
When you buy a computer, it most likely comes with... Read More
In this article you will find some background information about... Read More
The Software 2005 conference is now a wrap. This conference,... Read More
Microsoft CRM was designed to be easily customizable. Microsoft CRM... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino, being... Read More
In this short FAQ style article we would like to... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has Project Accounting module where... Read More
If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it... Read More
While I was in college, if you would have asked... Read More
Hi, Guys,I believe a lot of programmers are trying to... Read More
Software |