Don’t underestimate the importance of choosing the right Microsoft partner

If you have been reading the news online recently, you may have come across an article (you can read it here) that mentioned that Games Workshop was having problems with an ERP migration that they had been working on with an experienced ERP partner. This has helped to help highlight how important it is to make sure that you choose the right Microsoft partner for your ERP or CRM project. Therefore, in our latest blog article, we will offer up some of our best tips for choosing the right one as well as actions that you should take if you fear a project is not progressing as well as you would like it to be. 

Tip 1: Indepth Product Knowledge 

This may sound a bit obvious but if you are looking for a Microsoft partner, you will need to make sure that they have all the knowledge and expertise that you require as it will make your life much easier in the long term. 

Tip 2: Do they do Training & Support? 

In our experience, this is often overlooked as some businesses choose to go with a partner who can deliver a project purely based on cost but are unable to support or train on it after the project has been completed. That is not to say that selecting the right partner and implementing it is still not important, however your business will need End User buy in which is only truly gained through both ongoing training and support. You need to ask the Microsoft Partner you wish to go with if they provide ongoing training & support? Can they train the Super Users as well as equip them with the right tools? 

Tip 3: Are they being transparent with you? 

It goes without saying but we would all love our projects to be completed on time and within budget, however sometimes there are some unforeseen issues that could occur. Therefore, when it comes to timelines or any extra costs these should be outlined from both the start and during the project itself. So, you need to ensure that you select a partner that can guide you through the process to meet your business requirements, no matter whether you want to be heavily involved or delegate during the process. 

Tip 4: Find a partner that can cope with your business growth 

You certainly need to source a Microsoft Partner that can cope with your demands in times of unprecedented growth and will be able to offer you a flexible solution that can be upscaled quickly for your growing business. 

What to do if your business is already with a Microsoft partner & your ERP/CRM project is not progressing or delayed? 

Now that we’ve covered how you can make the right choice of Microsoft partner, we are just going to quickly look at what steps you can take if you are a business who is currently with a Microsoft partner where your ERP/CRM implementation/project is not making any progress, is constantly being delayed or is being poorly managed. 

In our experience, we’ve had many businesses that have come to us because of suffering from the above. This is why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to offer a Project Recovery service which may range from simple retraining on software and processes, to re-imagining the solution from its basic foundations and improving your approach to work. 

Next Steps? 

If you are looking to work with a Microsoft Gold partner on a Microsoft CRM/ERP project that can offer you all of the above then look no further than Advantage. Furthermore, if you are a business that is struggling to get an ERP/CRM project completed with an existing Microsoft partner and wish to use our Project Recovery service then please get in touch with our team of Microsoft Dynamics experts today to discuss how we can help you complete it. 

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