Use an Experienced Implementation Services Team for your Dynamics implementation!

Modern software solutions are easier to understand and use than they older generations. Current technology empowers user with a lot of tools and means to see and manipulate data efficiently.

However, an enterprise system is more than just a simple tool for some users. It’s the foundation for the day-to-day operations and the collaborative management of the company’s resources.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Navision) is a complete ERP package, but in the same time it is an open platform providing tools and ways to design and develop new functionality or change the existing ones. The ability to map it on different business needs using the standard application or designing changes means also that the same problem or business case may be implemented in different ways.

Therefore, the deep knowledge of he product and the experience in implementing it in similar companies are crucial in a successful implementation.
Our main objectives when defining how we’ll work in a project are to:

  • Eliminate confusion
  • Improve collaboration
  • Efficiently manage people’s time dedicated to project activities
  • Drive outcomes predictability and customer satisfaction.

Here is what we’ll need to do in a project to ensure that at the end you will receive a a solution that will fit into your organization and deliver the value you expect from your investment.

Client’s Organization Processes Diagnostic

Processes diagnostic is an activity deployed before taking the final decision regarding the new system’s implementation. Its objectives are:

  • To establish the high level requirements for the future software solution
  • To identify operational requirements regarding a new system
  • To identify hardware or infrastructure needs to support a new software solution
  • To allow the customer have an overview on the solution’s capacity to meet his organization’s requirements, expectations and objectives
  • To reduce the risks and uncertainty related to the implementation process
  • To lead to a more objective implementation plan, defining more precisely the project’s scope, required resources, phases, duration, costs and risks involved
  • To offer a better understanding of the organization’s problems and processes needing improvement or increased IT support, and thus allowing a more appropriate definition of the project’s objectives and expected benefits
  • To prepare the change in Client’s organization induced by the new system’s implementation, allowing users to be involved in the process as early as possible.

The final diagnostic report will contain:

  • Main processes high level description
  • Identified pains and possible solutions
  • Project’s scope definition
  • Comparison of possible solutions or approaches, including the way they respond to the identified pains
  • Suggestions regarding hardware and software infrastructure need (operating systems, networking, printing etc.)
  • Budget estimation for software licenses and services
  • Implementation plan
  • Identified risks and contingency measures

The diagnostic is an optional phase, suggested mainly in companies with a complex business. In case the diagnostic is not required prior to the implementation decision, the activities included in this phase will be part of the analysis phase.

The diagnostic is deployed by experienced implementation consultants, who conduct 1-3 days workshops sessions with key users (most often Client’s company management)

Requirements Analysis

Using specialized consultants to perform the implementation is mandatory to assure a proper implementation and maximize the benefits brought by a comprehensive ERP solution like Dynamics 365 Business Central (Navision). Therefore, we suggest to use a skilled team and proven implementation practices. In short, the implementation process will include the following main phases:

  • Detailed requirements analysis
  • Solution design
  • System setup

The detailed requirements analysis is mandatory to describe precisely and exhaustively the business process the new system should support. It also describes the required customizations, interfaces and the data conversion needs.
If a system diagnostic was conducted prior to the analysis, than this phase extends diagnostics’ findings to all the aspects within the project scope, not only the major ones, which were mainly described in the previous phase.

The detailed description of the business processes is followed by the mapping of those processes with the application’s functions. This occurs through workshop sessions where the client can see how the solutions proposed to his needs and can validate these solutions.
The main deliveries of this phase are the Functional Requirements Document (FRD) and the Gap-Fit analysis document.

The Client should study and accept formally these documents before going to next steps.

The main activities during the analysis phase are:

  • Project preparation and planning
  • Team project preparation
  • Demo version installation for the key users
  • Technical team preparation
  • Data collection (from previous system) for the new system’s initialization
  • Interviews and workshops
  • Questionnaires fill-in
  • Functional requirements documentation
  • Functional requirements validation
  • Project plan review and next phases preparation.

Deliverables:

  • Project Quality Plan
  • Functional Requirements Document (including gap-fit analysis)
  • Reviewed project plan

Followong the analysis we launch  the Design phase where we design and validate with you the implementation solutions for your requirements. The design will be described in an Enterprise Design Document – EDD.

The main actions during this phase are:

  • Client’s and Supplier’s team joint application design sessions
  • Templates definition for reports and user interfaces (where different from the standard product)
  • Data conversion (migration from the previous system) detailed definition
  • Development plan validation

Now the development team can start working on customizations and the consultants can proceed to system configuration as decided.

Implementation Services

The Implementation phase includes configurations setup and software customizations, as described in the previous phases.
If there are software developments or customizations to produce, these will be built and incrementally added to create the final system. During this phase, the configured and customized system is installed on Client’s platform.

The main actions are:

  • Dynamics 365 Business Central installation and configuration on Client’s site
  • Developments build and testing on Supplier’s platform
  • Developments installations on Client’s platform
  • Data conversion programs testing
  • Interfaces with other systems testing (if interfaces were included in the implementation)
  • Overall system test

Deliverables

  • System installed and operational on Client’s platform
  • Parameters setup document

Going Live

Once tested and confirmed that it’s conform to agreed requirements, the system is now almost ready to go to production. There is one more step to go, which is loading data from the previous applications. At a minimum, the new database should include the chart of accounts, customers and suppliers data, items and item categories, dimensions (like cost centers, customer groups, item groups, brands, regions etc.), price lists, fixed assets, open documents, opening account balances and opening item inventory.

Data files preparation is customer’s responsibility, but we’ll work together with you to load the prepared data files in the new database.

Our Training Services

User training (for end-users):

  • Detailed product presentation (each module to users concerned by those functions)
  • Workflows presentations: how to use the product to perform your daily tasks
  • Practical exercises (users will work on the product)
  • Graduation test
  • Trainer’s feedback regarding each user’s performance and evolution during the training
  • Training support delivery
  • User guides adapted to follow the implementation particularities

Technical training (for IT people or system administrators):

  • Administration tools presentation
  • Software installation presentation
  • Software configuration presentation
  • Maintenance procedures presentation: system backup and recovery tools and procedures, disk space management, user roles and security

Management preparation to implement the change in their organization:

  • Overall product presentation
  • User profiles, abilities, concerns
  • Implementation risks contingency measures
  • Change preparation
  • User preparation for their participation in the implementation process