Designing Microsoft Dynamics NAV Implementations

Design is one of my passions.  Throughout my career, I have had the privilege and opportunity to design implementations and solutions on Microsoft Dynamics NAV from small informal businesses to large, global corporations.  I have learned a few things over the years which I will now share. 

Pre-Design

Pre-design are those activities prior to design which will facilitate the design process.  This may include agreeing upon a design approach, business process mapping/re-engineering, training on the base product, and preparing for the design requirements meetings. 

Discussing the design approach early in the process will prevent heartache downstream.  By design approach, is meant the manner in which the design process will be carried out.   The design activities can then be steered accordingly.   Here are some important points to consider:

• Is your client adverse to customizing the product?
• Is your client open to changing key internal processes to suit the software?
• Are the key internal processes inflexible due to technical reasons, contractual obligations, or otherwise requiring customization?   
• Is the budget inflexible or fixed? 
• Is efficiency and ease-of-use more important than avoiding customization?
• Has the legacy system been heavily customized?  

The answers to these questions should guide the designer in how the meetings are conducted and how the design activities are carried out.  The design approach could be summed up in a statement such as:

Client prefers an out of the box approach, customizing only in the X module, where customer obligations dictate specific requirements not supported by NAV out of the box.  Code changes are to be heavily scrutinized. 

Another one might be:

Budget is more or less fixed, requiring lengthy board reviews and approvals for changes to the budget.  Core requirements have been identified in spreadsheet X. Anything outside of the core requirements will be placed on hold to be discussed after the initial go live.  

Another example:

A key target is to streamline the current manufacturing process.  It has been acknowledged that NAV's out of the box manufacturing process will require customization to reduce keystrokes and to prevent data entry errors.  Great attention will be placed on efficiency throughout the manufacturing process.  Finance and sales will use NAV primarily out of the box.   However, the sales order entry will be customized to reduce keystrokes and place key functions on the users roles for quick access.  Speed of sales order entry is key.  

Now, it would be very wise to ensure the entire implementation team is briefed on the design approach prior to the process mapping and design meetings and to lead the meetings accordingly. 

Business Process Mapping

Business process mapping may include the as-is processes as well as the to-be processes.  The to-be processes should be mapped in coordination with the desired ERP system.  Otherwise, the to-be processes may veer far from the out-of-the box processes and the resulting to-be processes will be out of sync with the standard ERP system requiring major customization. 

Business process mapping is of value in several aspects.  Often it is the first time personnel have had open discussions on how their job relates to other jobs in the company and it gets the team involved in an open dialog.  Discussions can get heated as viewpoints shift and new patterns and agreements are made.   Secondly, it moves the processes and procedures of the organization out of the "minds" of individuals into the material universe where it can be visualized, discussed and improved.   Thirdly, it lays the foundation for the design of the ERP system and facilitates a smooth transition from business process to design requirements.  

Is business process mapping required for all implementations?  No, successful implementations have been done with and without them.  Larger, more complex implementations would benefit from business process mapping.  However, any company would benefit from documenting and understanding their internal processes. 

Pre-Design Training

Pre-design training is highly recommended for implementations where the implementation is not an obvious out-of-the box installation.  Armed with a better understanding of the system, the client can better collaborate during the design process.  

Preparing for Design

This includes items such as preparing an agenda, ensuring the room is properly set up, the meeting sizes are not too large, access to legacy systems, projectors, and so forth.

In the next series of this blog, I will cover the design process.