The most powerful tool that a Dynamics NAV consultant can use.
So you are planning to become a Navision consultant. You are going to show people how to use Navision, how to run their business, and more importantly how to make their business run better.
Of course you already know that NAV application from start to end. You can post any Sales Order, and know exactly how it will affect the G/L. You know exactly which tables will be hit and what the entries will be. You understand Business Process Re-engineering. You are able to perform an ROI on any request that a client gives you. You have studied the clients business model, sought out its weaknesses and strengths, found where those strengths best work with which Navision functionality, and how to best utilize Navision to circumvent the weaknesses. You will be able to guide the client not how to mould Navision to fit their business, but how to best tune their business process, and tune Navision to an ideal balance.
But still we have not gotten to that most powerful tool that you have in your Navision Tool box. That tool is of course.
The word NO! Ne! Nein! Non! Nej! Nyet! Nie! Nem!
There is nothing else that will make the implementation more success full, nor give you a happier client than the proper use of the word no.
Generally one of the golden rules of sales is "The Customer Is Always Right". Well in the ERP world, that just isn't true. Of course as Dynamics NAV Consultant, you arrive on the scene after the sales process. So you have some work to do. When you get assigned to a Navision project, the first thing you must do, is go through all the paperwork, and review all the promises that the sales person made, and then get out a big NO from your tool box, and start using it.
All too often, one or two yes's sneak through the early project phases, and yes's are like rabbits, they bread like crazy. At first it all sounds great and happy, but a month or two down the line when you are trying to work around all these promises, you will realize that it would have been better to have been up front at the beginning. You will read some humorous statements like "We want to use pop-up to speed up data entry and make it more accurate". As a consultant you know that pop-ups make data entry much slower, and reduce accuracy, so say NO now, don't wait till the customer is live six months and then finds all the data errors.
Clients respect honesty.
This seems to have been lost somewhere, but if a customer makes a suggestion, that is just wrong, then … Just … Say … NO … ! it won't hurt you. When you tell the client why their suggestion is wrong they may react with disbelief, but give it time and that disbelief will grow to respect. It is very important to understand that your client most likely does not know Navision very well. That is why they engaged your services. They need you to tell them the best way to use the system. And sometimes that means just saying "No that just is not the right way to do this". Suggest to them the proper way.
I don't know.
Also don't be scared to say "I don't know", just make sure to follow-up with a "I will discuss it with the team back at the office and get back to you on ..." Just be sure that there is a team back at the office, and at your weekly team meeting don't forget to throw the issue around for ideas.
Anyway I just wanted to have this little rant, because I believe that if you are not capable of saying "NO" sometimes, then you are absolutely not capable of working with Navision, and you should leave and go to a different industry.