Episode 416: Adventures ERP Business Central Style

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The frog.

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Every time I go to my door it always falls on my head and I've moved him several times.

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That's, I'm serious.

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He lives at the top of the door, the screen door.

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Just turn into a pet Listen.

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Feed all your bugs in it.

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Every time I go outside he jumps on me.

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Well, not every time, almost every time.

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And so this morning, and listen, I've relocated him, like nicely picked him up, moved him to the other side of the fence, into the woods, thinking, oh, maybe you'll stay there.

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Nope, comes back, just give him.

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He's probably eating your bugs.

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If you catch bugs, just feed it.

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He jumps on me.

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That's the point.

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I went through the door this morning and he jumped on my shoulder Yesterday.

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Jumped on me oh shit.

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At least it's not like a tarantula or a spider dude.

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Welcome everyone to another episode of Dynamics Corner.

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How do you build an ERP?

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Just like building a deck.

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I'm your co-host, chris.

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And this is Brad.

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This episode was recorded on March 20th 2025.

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Chris, chris, chris, how do you build a house, how do you build a deck, how do you prepare for an ERP implementation?

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And you have to listen to the entire episode because there were four quotes that I now put down on my list of quotes, as we recorded this episode With us today, we had the opportunity to speak with Ryan Polniak.

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Good morning, sir, good morning guys, how are you?

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Excellent, excellent.

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I haven't had the chance to talk with you in a while, but I see you doing some great things.

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I don't know about that.

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I don't know who told you that, Brad, but I do stay busy, I know you guys are doing great things.

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The podcast has taken off oh great, thank you well it's all because of individuals such as yourself who take the time to speak with us we're the boring guys it's, it's the individuals that we speak with that have a vast wealth of information to share and experiences, which makes it nice yeah well, pleasure to be here, guys, and we appreciate that.

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I've always looked forward to speaking with you.

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I get closer and closer to you every time we still have to get a hike in.

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Yeah, I know, and you know you have to turn words into action at some point.

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Right, and for me, free time is such a premium with three little girls.

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They're all in gymnastics.

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We do that, you know, every day, but Wednesday, during the week, and right now, every weekend, is a meet.

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That's it, you know busy job in the ERP business and and and between that and the gymnastics.

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That is what I do and I I'm not complaining, by the way, I do love it.

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I love hiking too, and you got to make some time for that kind of thing and I will uh, I will get up there and go for a hike up there in the, in the white mountains, with you at some point absolutely.

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I like the turning words into actions.

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Quote I'm going to steal that I think that our time.

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Everybody says that they don't have time.

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They don't have time, which is true, and everyone has busy schedules.

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It's a matter of what you do with your time and I'm happy to see that you're doing it with your little girls in gymnastics, because I'll tell everyone when your children get older all that complaining that you're doing about the meets on the weekends or the soccer tournaments, lacrosse tournaments or whatever you have.

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You miss it.

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That's right.

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You know you go through it and you're like, ah, you know it's a struggle, but you actually miss seeing it.

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And now I appreciate being able to see others in those tournaments and those meets and I miss it and I I appreciate seeing the kids having fun and doing things.

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So I hope your girls are doing well with it.

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Yeah, absolutely, and you know, don't interpret it as a complaint.

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I do love it.

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I've got the vanity plate coming, which is a surprise.

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I checked availability.

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Gym dad is available in georgia right now in my county.

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I've got like two months until my tag renewal comes, so I check it every couple days.

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It's still there.

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Um, I love it, brad.

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I mean no question about it you only get to do this for a while, right?

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yeah, short time hiking is passion of mine.

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I I love it, love hanging out with you.

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We're going to make that happen and you know I do believe big time in.

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You are what you do, not what you say.

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That was a quote that a guy from my past that I used to know in the business world gave to me and said look, say whatever you want, I am going to.

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I was going to, I meant to, I plan on.

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None of that really matters.

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You are what you do at the end of the day, not what you say that's two quotes I'm stealing from you.

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There you go.

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No, that is so true.

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You are what you do.

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Words mean.

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Uh, you know, words means just that they're words, it's, it's your actions and what you do to stand up.

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This is all philosophical.

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Do you get on the uh balance beam yourself with the girls do?

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Do you get out there and do the balance beam?

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Oh, wait a minute.

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We do have one down here, so I thought maybe it was in the background.

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No, not really.

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Anyway, I mean, I've walked across the thing a few times, which I consider a win at this stage, and they're doing cartwheels on it and turns and this, you know, that's impressive, I do not know how individuals that participate in gymnastics do some of the stuff they do.

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I'm with you, Ryan.

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I think I would just take a win as just being able to get up on a balance beam and stand for a few minutes, nevermind walking or doing some of the flips and the bounces.

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I just when you see one, like on TV, it looks like it's, you know, maybe three feet wide and you know, and you could put a party up there, but when you see them in real life they're only a few inches wide, right Four.

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Regulation is four inches right my foot's not even four inches.

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I mean my foot's larger than four inches.

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So imagine doing a back handspring right where you're literally launching yourself backwards and landing on your hands on a four-inch-wide balance beam.

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I mean it's incredible, that's impressive.

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I cannot do it.

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I'm very happy that you get to do that with your girls.

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It must be amazing to watch, and hopefully they can do it injury-free too, because I don't know, if I was on that balance beam or hanging on something like that, I'd be in the ER every day.

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My 11-year-old went to middle school on crutches.

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Today she just sprained her ankle, so not too bad.

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We've been relatively injury-free between the three of them.

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But yeah, it's a concern.

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But look, you've got to take the bubble wrap off and let them live right.

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Absolutely, absolutely.

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And they get a lot out of it too.

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A lot of lessons learned with doing athletics when you're young.

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Ok, but not a philosophy.

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I have two quotes I'm going to steal from you.

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I'll have to cite you, I think, on there.

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Maybe I won't, but at least now we know where we got them from.

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Before we jump into the conversation, can you tell us a little about yourself?

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Yeah, sure thing, you know, obviously we covered.

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I'm a father of three, you know, and a husband first and foremost.

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Family first, always.

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But right behind that is professional life.

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Right, I've been doing Microsoft Dynamics.

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I've been in the industry now it's hard to believe 17 years.

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I think I've been saying 15 for the last couple years.

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I keep forgetting that the years are progressing.

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And I've been, you know, working with Western Computer Implementation and Support Partner for Microsoft Dynamics almost 10 years.

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It'll be 10 years in May, believe it or not.

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So it's been quite a while Working with companies to understand their needs and evaluate fit and to navigate the complex world of Microsoft Dynamics, which you guys know is ever-changing, especially in the SaaS world these days.

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And so I've described myself sometimes as a Sherpa.

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You've got an executive, or you've got a business leader or even somebody who's been assigned in their organization.

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Hey, go get quotes and demos for the ERP, right?

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That's a tall order for somebody who's not living and eating and sleeping and breathing this stuff.

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So I kind of I take these people under my wing and I say you know, let me be your Sherpa, let me be your guide.

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Here's what to look out for, here's what's a fit.

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Here's what's not a fit.

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Maybe Dynamics isn't a fit, or or maybe Western Computer isn't a fit, and then send them on their way to go work with somebody you know who may be more tailored to their particular needs, and that's important, right?

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Nobody wants to get into things that they're not well-suited to help with, and so guiding people through their ERP journey, crm journey and helping them understand the Microsoft Dynamics stack well, that's what I do every day, and I do love it, I'm passionate about it, and so I consider myself lucky.

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No, you do a great job and I like and appreciate what you say as you talk with customers, prospects, individuals looking to undertake the ERP journey, and you are absolutely correct, it is changing, ever-changing.

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I think by the time we're done with this recording, things will have changed from where we started.

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But I do appreciate, as you had mentioned is finding the right fit.

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Implementing an ERP system it can be many different things to it.

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It's not so generic.

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It's what's involved in finding the right partner or finding the right application to help you or assist you or guide you on that journey is extremely important.

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And finding someone such as yourself that can take the time to tell you you know we may not be the fit for you or maybe this isn't the product for you, but also this is a product for you and this is how you can determine it's extremely important and it makes for a better relationship.

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And that's one of the most important things I'm starting to stress and emphasize because I see more how important it is.

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In this world of where everybody's thinking I hate to, I don't even want to say it but where everything's becoming more automated, you know that relationship and that guide becomes more that relationship and the trust that you have with someone, it becomes more and more important, and it's great that you're doing that stuff.

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10 years, that's a decade, that's a long time.

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And then 17 years I'm trying to think, man, so I've known you for a while.

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It's been a while.

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Yeah, I didn't have as many grays as I did back then and that ties back to the three daughters thing.

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But time flies, it moves pretty quickly.

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And that part you were just talking about ever changing, I mean now more than ever and I try to convey this to anybody looking at ERP long-term relationships with an implementation partner, consultant, whomever is going to be, you know, your guide here.

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It's more important than ever because the days of having a product NAV 2005, and you wait 10 years and then you upgrade, it's over.

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You know, and I mean this stuff is changing twice a year on a major level and more times than that on a minor level.

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You don't have somebody guiding you through the update process, taking advantage of new features and what's your long-term strategy to help me evolve as a company.

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You know that is now more important than ever because you can't the application changes constantly, so you've got to take that into account, I think, as you go, evaluate relationships with technology partners.

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With ERP software implementations and the change in implementations.

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When you're working with customers, or even maybe not someone you're working with, what is some advice or some views that someone can take when they're going to?

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This is such a big question that I'm going to say in a very small, very few words, a small amount of words.

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I hope I sometimes I can ramble when someone's undertaking their journey to look either for a new ERP software application or when they're looking to maybe upgrade their new ERP application.

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I know there's some challenges or some things that someone needs to look out for that they come along the way.

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What are some words of wisdom or some advice of somebody should go through to undertake that journey?

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Yeah, man, we could talk about this one for a while.

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So let me try to go as basic as I can.

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To start, you have to have a long term plan and vision, and so what I've heard sometimes is well, we just want to take what we have and we want to move it into the cloud and then we'll optimize processes after that, like, let me just look at the next step in the journey and then we'll figure out the rest of the way that we're going to go.

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I mean, that's a very dangerous thing to do because very likely to box yourselves in and prevent yourselves from actually achieving the things that you want to achieve down the road.

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So it's fine to take a phased approach and to walk and crawl and run and to evolve with how far you're going to take your technology, but you better have a plan that starts at the beginning and has concrete steps that you can then follow.

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So let's say, for instance, taking NAV to Business Central yeah, we have upgrade tools, we can migrate the data, we can migrate the configurations, we can take your custom code into BC, but then you're locked into quite a number of core decisions, right Locations and inventory, costing and dimensions, and all of this data that's in there now somewhat limits what you can do going forward.

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Maybe you've acquired additional companies and you need a stronger multi-entity solution, or maybe you have divested companies and you don't need half the mods you used to have.

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Well, it's okay to walk and crawl and run, but that if you're building a 10-story building and you're only building the first two stories now, when you build the foundation, it better be for 10 stories, because otherwise you're going to build two and then you're going to have to tear the whole thing down and build a 10-story building.

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Right?

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So, on a high level, that's the number one piece of advice that I would give executives, decision makers, as you plan this out.

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You don't have to do it all at once.

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Don't let anybody make you pile too much into the initial project.

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That can be daunting and that can be a pitfall as well.

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Right, change management is critical.

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If you change everything at once, you have a lot of internal bandwidth required to do that.

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You have a lot of change management challenges with people changing everything at once.

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So you don't have to do that either, but you do have to have a plan, and you better make sure that that first step has the long-term vision in mind, or you end up boxing yourself in.

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Does a conversation have to start internally before they even start looking for partners and such?

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Yeah, 100%.

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So how can you make a plan for how we're going to get somewhere until you know where you want to go?

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And that has to happen internally.

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Now it may be valuable to ask for the advice of some technology partners.

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Don't let them get you into a high pressure.

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Sign by the end of the month, sign by the end of the year, get a big discount type scenario, because it's not in your best interest, right.

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But you can glean some advice from the right people.

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And certainly that needs to start internally.

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And one part of that is informing the organization very early.

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And this has to start earlier than most people think that the change is coming.

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And you can tell people change is coming.

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And hey, we are changing our ERP, we are changing our CRM coming.

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And hey, we are changing our erp, we are changing our crm.

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So anyone who has kids, right, you tell them to do something, go do this.

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It's the first question they're going to ask in turn, like this, for your internal people, what's the first question your kids are going to ask why, why?

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Yeah, every time, right.

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So you better be ready to answer that for your people in a meaningful way.

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We are changing because we're on ancient technology.

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We can't aggregate data and drive business decisions with our data.

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We are at security risk because we're at an old on-prem system that is ripe for cyber attack.

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We're falling behind our competitors.

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They're upgrading, they're getting their data in order and preparing for taking advantage of all the great competitive advantages that AI is going to present that maybe we don't even know what those are going to be yet.

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But you better be ready.

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You can't be on disparate on-prem systems with half your data in Excel and expect to go take advantage of the AI that's coming down the track, because we won't be ready to do that.

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So, explaining the why to everybody in the organization we're changing, we're going to go evaluate solutions.

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Here's why we're doing it.

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It's important because your people will sometimes have some apprehension, right?

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Hey, people will sometimes have some apprehension, right?

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Hey, we've been using our AS400.

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We've been using GP for 20 years.

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It works just fine.

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Why are you trying to ruin my life, right?

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I mean, you've got to explain that internally if you're going to have buy-in.

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So it goes beyond that, right, it goes beyond just why are we doing it as an organization?

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But how does it impact me?

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I'm the AP clerk and you're telling me we're going to implement, you know, ap automation.

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That concerns me, right?

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You know I've been writing paper pick tickets in the warehouse for 15 years and you want me to use a scanner.

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Like, why am I doing this?

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I'm a salesperson who has this great notebook with all my notes on it and I don't need a CRM.

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You have to explain, like, well, here's what's in it for you, right?

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You have all these, you have all these notes in your notebook.

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If you can, if you can, get that into a system and allow it to prioritize your tasks for you and track your notes and update you when it's time to contact somebody and prioritize which opportunities might be most viable, it's going to help you close more business.

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It's going to help put money in your pocket.

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Just as an example on the CRM side, right, people need that.

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What's in it for me, right?

00:18:13.082 --> 00:18:22.906
Wiifm if you guys have heard that acronym like what's in it for me and that's, you have to always put yourself in someone else's shoes and think of it from their perspective.

00:18:22.906 --> 00:18:24.589
Why are we changing as an organization?

00:18:24.589 --> 00:18:25.190
It works fine.

00:18:25.190 --> 00:18:26.251
Well, here's why.

00:18:26.251 --> 00:18:27.835
Well, how's it going to impact me?

00:18:27.835 --> 00:18:29.182
Here's how it's going to impact you.

00:18:29.182 --> 00:18:30.385
It's going to be positive, right?

00:18:30.385 --> 00:18:32.030
So I think those are some.

00:18:32.361 --> 00:18:57.487
Definitely, you know, to answer your question, you've got to start that conversation internally very early, that is so important and often overlooked, because some of the most successful implementations I have seen have been those implementations that included the individuals that are going to actually go through the journey with them, because they have some what do people say?

00:18:57.487 --> 00:19:21.875
User adoption or user acceptance, in a sense, because if they understand and they feel, if they're part of it, they're going to work better to you know, help, make it successful and understand instead of being apprehensive and maybe potentially having, as you had mentioned, maybe some fear of the new system, because they have been using that AS400 system for 15 years and now you want me to use a new system.

00:19:21.875 --> 00:19:25.137
I'll be uncomfortable, you know, like to fish out of water, as they kind of say.

00:19:25.137 --> 00:19:26.498
So now what's going to happen?

00:19:26.498 --> 00:19:27.878
I'm not going to be able to do my job.

00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:32.809
So it's a question on that when you're talking about change management, what is it for them?

00:19:32.809 --> 00:19:33.781
Who?

00:19:33.781 --> 00:19:36.599
Who should deliver that message?

00:19:36.599 --> 00:19:50.209
So, especially when there's a big change coming and, um, you know you're going to have to talk to individuals or individuals who are going to be affected by this change, who should deliver that message?

00:19:51.801 --> 00:19:54.537
In my opinion, the first message should come from the top.

00:19:54.537 --> 00:20:10.616
It should be maybe it's an email, maybe you have a monthly or quarterly company meeting with everybody on board and you're updating here's the status of the organization and here's where we're at.

00:20:10.616 --> 00:20:14.448
And we do that internally and our CEO, kristen, leads that.

00:20:14.448 --> 00:20:16.507
She talks about the big things first.

00:20:16.507 --> 00:20:18.145
Right, here's where we're going.

00:20:18.145 --> 00:20:19.686
She's the captain of the ship, right?

00:20:19.686 --> 00:20:21.625
So where are we going?

00:20:21.625 --> 00:20:24.134
First of all, in general, and why.

00:20:24.134 --> 00:20:37.001
I think that message best comes from senior leadership, maybe even all the way at the top, like if we were going to make that change internally, I could tell you right now Kristen would be the one to announce it here's where we're going, guys.

00:20:37.001 --> 00:20:40.874
But then some of the more granular stuff you know, like announce it, here's where we're going, guys.

00:20:40.874 --> 00:20:48.544
But then some of the more granular stuff you know, like you know, how does it affect me personally?

00:20:48.544 --> 00:20:58.528
That probably needs to come from someone who more directly manages your role, right, your direct report, maybe, or somebody, maybe a sales VP or a marketing VP or COO or somebody one level down to.

00:20:58.528 --> 00:21:02.154
Hey, let's disseminate this on a more granular level.

00:21:03.380 --> 00:21:06.390
But the why is also probably important to come from the top.

00:21:06.390 --> 00:21:08.442
It can't be.

00:21:08.442 --> 00:21:12.833
Hey guys, we're moving off of our AS400.

00:21:12.833 --> 00:21:14.386
We need to get on a cloud-based system.

00:21:14.386 --> 00:21:16.527
So thanks for coming.

00:21:16.527 --> 00:21:17.490
It can't be that right.

00:21:17.490 --> 00:21:19.708
It has to be all the things that we talked about.

00:21:19.708 --> 00:21:22.166
Here's why our competitors are getting ahead of us.

00:21:22.166 --> 00:21:25.202
We're not able to take advantage of our data, we have security risks.

00:21:25.202 --> 00:21:29.192
We're all in the same boat, literally together as an organization.

00:21:29.192 --> 00:21:36.425
So here's why we need to steer it in a new direction, from a technological, but technology stack foundation.

00:21:36.425 --> 00:21:41.741
You know, from a technology stack perspective, I should say, and that should come from the top.

00:21:41.761 --> 00:21:45.772
But then, as you get more granular, well, how is it going to impact me personally?

00:21:45.772 --> 00:21:56.172
Also, how are you going to empower me to use this new stuff and that's a big part of it as well Are you going, you know, am I just going to be expected to watch a few YouTube videos?

00:21:56.172 --> 00:21:58.042
Are you going to give me hands-on training?

00:21:58.042 --> 00:22:00.627
Are we going to have consultants on site when we go live?

00:22:00.627 --> 00:22:03.554
Those things are going to be going through your people's head.

00:22:03.554 --> 00:22:10.464
So, after you get through the, here's what we're doing and here's why we're doing it, and here's how it's going to impact you.

00:22:10.464 --> 00:22:14.362
Well then it's well, here's how we're going to help you succeed in doing it.

00:22:14.362 --> 00:22:16.207
That part of it comes next.

00:22:16.207 --> 00:22:18.593
I mean, how are you going to empower me to do it?

00:22:18.593 --> 00:22:22.749
So that's probably not the CEO actually telling the AP clerk.

00:22:22.749 --> 00:22:29.171
Here's how we're going to help you do it, or here's how it's going to impact your particular job, and that's a few levels down.

00:22:29.171 --> 00:22:29.592
I would say.

00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:48.553
I love the clarification in that because you're right, the first message should come from the top executive, either the CEO or somebody at the C-suite or VP level that can relay the message of why the big change is happening as an organization and where the company is going.

00:22:48.553 --> 00:22:54.170
And you clarified that from the individual standpoint of what is it.

00:22:54.170 --> 00:23:03.619
For me, it needs to come from their direct who they directly report to, because then you know they interact with them more than they interact with the CEO.

00:23:03.619 --> 00:23:06.549
So I appreciate the clarification.

00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:14.493
There's always been kind of confusion of like who should be delivering that message for people that are, you know, that uses the application all the time.

00:23:14.493 --> 00:23:18.983
You know, how is that going to affect my job, the director?

00:23:18.983 --> 00:23:24.184
You know the supervisor should be working with them and they have to be on the same page, right?

00:23:24.184 --> 00:23:28.301
They have to believe this change is important for the organization.

00:23:28.301 --> 00:23:34.713
So when it trickles down to that individual person they don't feel like they're.

00:23:34.713 --> 00:23:39.390
You know they're alone, that they're hearing it from their direct supervisor.

00:23:39.390 --> 00:23:43.969
This change is amazing, so someone has to champion that change as well.

00:23:43.969 --> 00:23:52.670
It has to go all the way down to your supervisor so that your people that are using it they don't feel like you know, oh crap, I should be looking for a new job or something like that.

00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:55.182
Yeah, absolutely Christopher.

00:23:55.182 --> 00:24:06.056
And there's one more level there where the CEO has to be aligned with the next layer of management, because you can't have each manager making their own decisions either.

00:24:06.056 --> 00:24:09.470
We're still pointing this ship in the right direction.

00:24:09.470 --> 00:24:12.460
Right, we're going to the Bahamas one way or another.

00:24:12.460 --> 00:24:19.074
And if one department wants to go to Bermuda and one department wants to go to Key Largo, it's not where we're going.

00:24:19.074 --> 00:24:22.665
Department wants to go to Key Largo, that's not where we're going.

00:24:22.665 --> 00:24:27.102
So that CEO has to empower their managers to say here's where we're going, guys, and here's why and here's how it's going to affect you.

00:24:27.102 --> 00:24:30.269
And that is critical.

00:24:30.470 --> 00:24:38.349
I remember a project recently where there was one individual who was very used to doing things a certain way for quite a long time.

00:24:38.349 --> 00:24:48.503
And when the project started unfolding and we started explaining, well, this is how we're going to do it in Business Central, there's an immediate roadblock.

00:24:48.503 --> 00:24:50.388
No, we're not going to do it.

00:24:50.388 --> 00:24:52.173
That way is what the comment was.

00:24:52.173 --> 00:24:53.323
And this you know.

00:24:53.323 --> 00:24:55.931
I was having this conversation with the project manager the other day.

00:24:55.931 --> 00:24:58.703
That's very dangerous.

00:24:58.703 --> 00:25:02.824
And she said you know, no matter what we're doing it, we've got to do it this way.

00:25:03.005 --> 00:25:08.626
Now, this is someone who is one or two pegs down in the organization, throwing up a roadblock.

00:25:08.626 --> 00:25:10.613
That's a red flag in a project, right?

00:25:10.613 --> 00:25:24.085
So as a technology partner, we owe it to senior leadership to align with them and say, hey, your person's asking for this, there's a perfectly reasonable way to do it with the out-of-the-box software.

00:25:24.085 --> 00:25:36.520
They want us to do a modification that's going to cost quite a lot and really kind of, you know, cause long-term care and feeding as these updates come out.

00:25:36.520 --> 00:25:42.988
And you know, philosophically we're totally against customizing the system in order to meet everybody's unique needs.

00:25:42.988 --> 00:25:44.826
There needs to be some adoption of best practice.

00:25:44.826 --> 00:26:01.005
So it's our job as a technology partner to raise that concern with the C-level executives and say, hey, here's what your person's asking for and here's what we're telling them, and here's why writing a bunch of custom code to do it exactly the way this one person wants to do is a bad idea.

00:26:01.005 --> 00:26:04.692
So that goes along with the change management.

00:26:04.692 --> 00:26:09.971
If you want to control timeline and budget in a project, it's the only way to do it.

00:26:12.380 --> 00:26:22.326
Yeah, does the individuals, and I thank you for pointing that out, because it's important to have awareness of what's going on also at the levels of the implementation, as you had stated.

00:26:22.326 --> 00:26:35.864
That's one of the questions I actually wanted to speak with you about is how can you handle or prevent that and you had mentioned from the technology partner point of view bring that information to the leadership team or the stakeholders for the project?

00:26:35.864 --> 00:26:37.769
What about internally?

00:26:37.769 --> 00:27:05.666
Is there something that you could suggest within the change management process to help minimize the roadblocks that may sometimes derail an entire project, because you can't have one or two people that create such a challenging roadblock, either through modifications or saying that they're incapable of doing their job now because of this, and it can cause some problems for an implementation and for an organization.

00:27:07.069 --> 00:27:08.311
Yeah, absolutely.

00:27:08.311 --> 00:27:08.692
So.

00:27:08.692 --> 00:27:25.987
You know, all of these change management aspects kind of build on doing that, but when it comes down to it, it's about communication and explaining to an individual, and this should come from that individual's boss, probably, or direct report, depending on your organizational structure.

00:27:25.987 --> 00:27:36.584
Here's why what you're asking for is not in line with our vision that our CEO laid out on the company meeting two months ago.

00:27:36.584 --> 00:27:45.028
It's going to be costly, it's software as a service, it's a cloud-based solution that's updated every two times a year.

00:27:45.028 --> 00:27:54.169
So they may not know that right, they may not know the why behind it and they may not understand why it's a pitfall.

00:27:54.169 --> 00:27:58.528
So you have to be prepared to have the conversation and communicate effectively.

00:27:58.528 --> 00:28:02.391
So I'm going to give you another quote here, brad, and this one I love.

00:28:02.391 --> 00:28:03.614
It's my favorite.

00:28:03.855 --> 00:28:13.615
In all walks of life, right, but especially in business, the main problem in communication is the illusion that it's already happened.

00:28:13.615 --> 00:28:19.268
So if these people don't know why it's a bad idea, there you go, it's three.

00:28:19.268 --> 00:28:25.108
So if they don't know why it's a bad idea, they're going to push back harder.

00:28:25.108 --> 00:28:45.442
But again, getting down to the why and not assuming that they know, customization's an ERP pitfall and we want to leverage best practices and it's going to cause problem with updates and all of these other reasons that the three of us, and probably a lot of the people listening to this podcast, already know that these are pitfalls.

00:28:45.442 --> 00:28:53.250
Well, this person who's asking for this modification to make the system do exactly what their old system did for 15 years, they don't understand that.

00:28:53.250 --> 00:28:57.767
They just say, hey, this is how I operate, I need the system to do it.

00:28:57.767 --> 00:29:10.744
And they cross their arms and stomp their feet, explaining the reasoning to them and communicating what you already know and you live, eat, sleep and breathe this stuff every day as an ERP pro.

00:29:10.744 --> 00:29:12.709
They don't know that stuff.

00:29:12.709 --> 00:29:15.101
They're not an ERP pro.

00:29:15.101 --> 00:29:18.445
This is the first time they've been through an ERP project ever.

00:29:18.445 --> 00:29:21.150
Maybe, or maybe, you know, maybe they did one 15 years ago.

00:29:21.150 --> 00:29:23.634
So I think that that's where it comes in.

00:29:23.673 --> 00:29:30.873
If you want to break down those barriers, to change this method of you know, announcing it here's why.

00:29:30.873 --> 00:29:33.750
And then you know here's how it's going to affect you.

00:29:33.750 --> 00:29:36.059
And no, we're not going to rebuild the old system.

00:29:36.059 --> 00:29:38.344
And here's why we're not going to rebuild the old system.

00:29:38.344 --> 00:29:40.968
That's the only way to break those barriers down.

00:29:40.968 --> 00:29:42.830
And hey, man, I've seen it.

00:29:43.270 --> 00:29:54.981
We've gotten projects that have gone back to Microsoft and they say Business Central's terrible product or the partner blew it.

00:29:55.202 --> 00:29:57.626
Maybe it could be one reason or another.

00:29:57.626 --> 00:30:07.932
And then Microsoft, sometimes they'll bring those projects to us We've been doing this for so long and we'll get a hold of it and we'll say where are you in the process right now?

00:30:07.932 --> 00:30:19.711
Before we can help you, we need to understand where in the process your company is and what broke down, and sometimes the users haven't been in the system until it's time for UAT.

00:30:19.711 --> 00:30:34.304
That's a big problem, you know, because all of these things that we've been talking about are going to rush to the surface as you're trying to go live, as you're trying to prepare to go live, right, and so it needs to happen.

00:30:34.304 --> 00:30:41.311
To go back to what Christopher asked earlier way before the project even begins internally, that alignment needs to happen.

00:30:41.311 --> 00:31:01.047
Then you got to get the users in the system early and let them air their grievances and then explain the why and here's why we're approaching it a certain way and how they're going to still achieve their same business processes, maybe through a new method, following the best practices that the system allows them to do.

00:31:04.164 --> 00:31:40.670
Yeah, so many things are going through my mind and speaking of UAT and user acceptance testings, one of the challenges or the questions that I hear or see when someone's switching to a new system and I use the word switching loosely there, it could be moving from another ERP software system to something in the Microsoft Dynamics stack or even upgrading from a previous version is the users have a full-time position now working with their application or in the business to get orders shipped, to get vendors paid, whatever their function may be within an organization.

00:31:40.670 --> 00:32:02.873
What is a good approach to giving them the opportunity to get into the application and be able to work with the application while still functioning within the business, and how much time should someone expect to be able to, or should they allocate for someone to be able to work with and be comfortable with the system in its infancy and then back when you're in the UAT phase just about to go live?

00:32:03.940 --> 00:32:05.844
Yeah, I mean these are great questions.

00:32:05.844 --> 00:32:14.792
So you nailed the number one thing that you need to do to allow users to get into the system, and that's providing them the time to do that.

00:32:14.792 --> 00:32:21.353
I wouldn't recommend starting an ERP project or finishing one during your busy season.

00:32:21.353 --> 00:32:29.294
If you have seasonality in your business, you need to talk to your technology partner about where are the subject matter experts going to be needed.

00:32:29.294 --> 00:32:32.470
Is it on the front end, is it on the back end, is it in the middle?

00:32:32.470 --> 00:32:38.946
And typically I find that that's on the front end and the back end more so than in the middle, where we're building the system right.

00:32:38.946 --> 00:32:58.561
If we're doing custom development or integrations or configurations, those decisions are made through analysis sessions and design sessions on the front end and then they're solidified on the back end in deploying the system prepping for go live, testing and training and that's where your heavy usage is going to be.

00:32:58.622 --> 00:33:05.859
So I find that if people are already, if your people are already maxed out, you can't put an ERP project on top of them.

00:33:05.859 --> 00:33:09.488
You know to add to what they're already.

00:33:09.488 --> 00:33:14.122
You know unable to keep up with and that may mean bringing some temporary help on.

00:33:14.122 --> 00:33:20.891
That may mean you know prioritizing projects and doing things one at a time.

00:33:20.891 --> 00:33:42.681
So, along those lines, I've found hiring temporary help or even semi-permanent to permanent help is better done to backfill the day-to-day jobs of your people and let them the people who are going to use the system long-term focus on the project.

00:33:42.681 --> 00:33:49.563
If you're going to staff up for a project, right, don't staff up and have temporary people working on the project.

00:33:49.563 --> 00:33:52.269
This is what you're going to be living with for a long time.

00:33:52.269 --> 00:34:08.577
So if you're going to have to increase staff to do a project, I would say backfill the mundane stuff, the day-to-day, and then free up your people's time to focus on a very important investment In European man.

00:34:08.577 --> 00:34:10.081
It is an important investment.

00:34:10.081 --> 00:34:16.693
It's costly, it's risky, it's time-consuming, it can make or break some businesses.

00:34:16.693 --> 00:34:20.728
I mean you've got to invest the appropriate amount of time to do that.

00:34:21.471 --> 00:34:23.536
Now, that does vary by job role.

00:34:23.536 --> 00:34:35.070
You know you're going to have your subject matter experts in each area that are going to really own the processes and under normal methodology, they will be disseminating that information later on to some of the other end users.

00:34:35.070 --> 00:34:40.811
So it's not as if everybody in your organization needs to dedicate you know percentage of their day.

00:34:40.811 --> 00:34:50.835
You know your subject matter experts, though, you should probably plan on the front end of a project analysis and design 25% of your day.

00:34:50.835 --> 00:34:59.954
If you're a subject matter expert doing an ERP project maybe a little bit conservative, but I mean, you know shortcutting that is at your own peril.

00:34:59.954 --> 00:35:02.724
Conservative, but I mean, you know, shortcutting that is at your own peril.

00:35:02.724 --> 00:35:12.280
Now, if you're the internal project manager for a client, which is a critical role and sometimes this comes as a surprise to clients who, or prospective clients who, are saying, well, what do you need from my people?

00:35:12.280 --> 00:35:15.268
Well, we need someone to be an internal project manager.

00:35:15.268 --> 00:35:18.021
Okay, I thought you guys were going to manage a project.

00:35:18.021 --> 00:35:19.021
Well, yeah, we are.

00:35:19.021 --> 00:35:28.106
We're going to manage the budget and we're going to manage the resources and we're going to manage risks in analysis sessions, to take part in design sessions.

00:35:45.061 --> 00:36:01.818
Somebody at that PM level should be empowered, whether it's directly or through direct access to the decision makers, to make those design decisions and not stick a project in neutral as we're making these decisions.

00:36:01.818 --> 00:36:02.599
I've seen it happen.

00:36:02.599 --> 00:36:04.005
I had a project.

00:36:04.005 --> 00:36:07.811
They were very passionate about the end go-live date.

00:36:07.811 --> 00:36:08.983
There were some critical reasons.

00:36:08.983 --> 00:36:09.788
They wanted to go live.

00:36:09.788 --> 00:36:17.268
The project got stuck in design for eight weeks on one decision where the whole solution pivoted on it.

00:36:17.349 --> 00:36:24.989
Right, if you don't have somebody empowered to quickly move this stuff, there's no partner in the world that can control your timeline.

00:36:24.989 --> 00:36:30.568
I mean, we're waiting for them for two months and that goes both ways, you know.

00:36:30.568 --> 00:36:42.721
But I would say that you know empowering that PM internally and that PM better have 50% minimum of their time devoted to the project for the duration.

00:36:42.721 --> 00:36:47.311
And if it's a big company with a big project, it should be dedicated.

00:36:47.311 --> 00:36:50.123
I mean this is business critical stuff.

00:36:50.123 --> 00:36:54.652
So SMEs, maybe 25% on the front end of the project, 25% on the back end.

00:36:54.652 --> 00:36:58.547
As you approach GoLive, that might ramp up a little bit.

00:36:58.547 --> 00:37:11.503
You know you're going through UAT and you're really getting ready PMs I mean they should, this should be their main focus, that the internal client side PM who's going to herd the cats on the client side, so to speak, and make sure everybody's doing what they need to do.

00:37:11.503 --> 00:37:15.121
That should be their, their sole focus really during a project.

00:37:15.262 --> 00:37:45.429
You made a point there about giving them time to work on this implementation of bringing a brand new ERP, and I did a session on this early this year, beginning this year, even late last year in some of the conferences and one of the statistics I found, I think, through oakcom that focus on change management and the effects of change management if you don't do it.

00:37:45.429 --> 00:37:54.052
It's stated that 75% of employees that are going through ERP implementation or even changes in the organization suffers from moderate to high level stress.

00:37:54.052 --> 00:37:55.862
So think about that.

00:37:55.862 --> 00:38:23.077
When you don't give them time to work on this ERP implementation, 75% of your team members or employees that are part of that project are stressing out and interestingly enough, that 18% of that also the same statistics here, the same source 18% of that leave work or quit during an ERP implementation.

00:38:23.077 --> 00:38:25.409
So nearly 20%.

00:38:25.409 --> 00:38:32.028
So if you have 10 team members, two of them is more likely going to quit if you don't have proper change management.

00:38:32.659 --> 00:38:35.329
So that's very important to consider.

00:38:35.329 --> 00:38:40.211
And if they do leave even one person leave that's critical to that group.

00:38:40.211 --> 00:38:42.349
That will take you back.

00:38:42.349 --> 00:38:44.436
That's going to push your project a little further.

00:38:44.436 --> 00:38:54.427
Now you're going to find a new subject matter expert or even the person that is supposed to help decide of how you can, how you're supposed to architect your business process, leaves.

00:38:54.427 --> 00:39:00.369
That is a significant loss to a project yeah, no question.

00:39:00.440 --> 00:39:02.586
And think about everything you've invested in getting that.

00:39:02.586 --> 00:39:14.009
You know, freeing that person up and paying consultants to work with them, and they've built up all this knowledge and they've provided all this insight, and then they get burnt out and walk out the door.

00:39:14.009 --> 00:39:16.347
Yeah, christopher, great point.

00:39:16.347 --> 00:39:18.668
I mean that's a massive business impact.

00:39:18.668 --> 00:39:20.565
Think about the cost for something like that.

00:39:20.565 --> 00:39:22.510
It's hard to quantify, but it's huge.

00:39:24.061 --> 00:39:28.143
The stress is important, which goes back as you're going through the process.

00:39:28.143 --> 00:39:42.996
What type of feedback system or support system do you see helpful in an implementation during post, pre, post and pre, and then also during the UAT phase of an implementation?

00:39:44.280 --> 00:39:49.333
So are you talking about an internal feedback system for the client, or maybe between the client and the partner?

00:39:50.480 --> 00:40:00.190
I think both, because we're talking about the changes that an organization is going to undertake, and change will occur at all levels of it.

00:40:00.190 --> 00:40:16.547
It will be the individuals that are at the executive level, the individuals that are doing the task in the various departments and we talked about how someone could be a roadblock Chris had mentioned about stress levels within there and then also, if someone's going through it, then we're looking for user adoption.

00:40:16.547 --> 00:40:26.780
How can we enhance or what can we put in place for a feedback loop and a support loop to help minimize the challenges that we're going to have through an ERP implementation?

00:40:27.583 --> 00:40:28.083
Yeah, sure.

00:40:28.083 --> 00:40:31.371
So between the partner and the customer.

00:40:31.371 --> 00:40:32.012
I'll start there.

00:40:32.012 --> 00:40:36.806
You've got to have a cadence of status right.

00:40:36.806 --> 00:40:40.402
Status meetings, stand-ups could be a steer co-meeting.

00:40:40.402 --> 00:40:43.126
Not every organization is big enough to have a steer co.

00:40:43.126 --> 00:40:44.974
A steer co essentially what it is.

00:40:44.974 --> 00:40:55.561
You have the key decision makers, the key executive sponsors, the project managers on a meeting and you're providing the whole point of it is candid feedback.

00:40:55.681 --> 00:41:03.746
Now, in a status meeting it might be a bit more granular, and so, for instance, ours, you know, it's how we color code it, right.

00:41:03.746 --> 00:41:05.487
How are we doing on timeline?

00:41:05.487 --> 00:41:08.148
Is it red, is it yellow, is it green?

00:41:08.148 --> 00:41:11.891
How are we doing on budget?

00:41:11.891 --> 00:41:14.253
What are our risks?

00:41:14.253 --> 00:41:18.135
And then, how are we doing on team morale, which is what we're talking about here.

00:41:18.135 --> 00:41:22.338
Right, what is the pulse of your people right now?

00:41:22.338 --> 00:41:25.496
And that's a subjective conversation.

00:41:25.496 --> 00:41:33.974
Typically, and very commonly, that conversation starts with our team providing feedback to leadership from the client on.

00:41:33.974 --> 00:41:48.603
Here's what I'm getting from your people, and I'm sensing some pushback on a certain process, like the example I gave earlier, wanting to over-modify to meet a particular use case that could be better handled out of the box.

00:41:48.603 --> 00:41:59.646
That's a red flag that has to be raised and it goes back to communication in a status meeting and those should be common Every two weeks at a minimum.

00:41:59.646 --> 00:42:04.411
Let's get together, let's talk about the risks and let's talk about the timeline and the morale.

00:42:04.411 --> 00:42:10.336
Let us tell you what we're seeing and hearing and you tell us what you're seeing and hearing from your people.

00:42:10.336 --> 00:42:14.581
Now the steer code is a bit different.

00:42:14.581 --> 00:42:15.664
It's somewhat higher level.

00:42:15.664 --> 00:42:21.434
Maybe once a month and maybe once every two months, and that is okay.

00:42:21.434 --> 00:42:24.204
On the executive level, here's where the project's going.

00:42:24.204 --> 00:42:36.541
We're generally pointing our boat in the right direction and, you know, maybe at that point, hey, we need some more executive level change management to help us through this process.

00:42:36.541 --> 00:42:46.007
If we're going to help you that's a conversation that I've had many times, you know, coming from analysis into design hey, we need to control the budget here.

00:42:46.007 --> 00:43:05.659
Okay, well, if we're going to control the budget, we need your help to help your people understand why we're doing this the way we're doing it, why we're not rebuilding the custom Salesforce application that's been in place for 15 years and you know it's just right, in line with everything we've been talking about Now.

00:43:05.800 --> 00:43:16.483
Internally, obviously, your people have to have some type of forum to talk to your internal decision makers, project leads.

00:43:16.483 --> 00:43:29.123
That could be the project PM as kind of an initial stage like, hey, here's my concern, here's what I'm feeling, and I would say, you know, not only empowering people to do that.

00:43:29.123 --> 00:43:34.063
Maybe you have internal meetings every other week, how's the project going?

00:43:34.063 --> 00:43:50.458
Maybe it's a survey, you know, send a survey, monkey out and say, well, what are your feelings on the project right now, what are your concerns, and get that feedback internally right, and you have to not only empower people to do it, but you have to encourage people to do it.

00:43:50.458 --> 00:43:53.260
You have to maybe incentivize them some way.

00:43:53.260 --> 00:43:57.304
Fill out the survey, get a $10 Starbucks gift card, whatever it might be.

00:43:57.483 --> 00:44:08.012
Or, again, it goes back to explaining why, hey, we need to hear what you're feeling on this project, because we don't want to continue to go down a path that's causing angst.

00:44:08.311 --> 00:44:11.838
We need to know, though, down a path that's causing angst.

00:44:11.838 --> 00:44:16.074
You know we need to know, though, and so you've got to provide a forum internally, you've got to provide incentivization or at least encouragement.

00:44:16.074 --> 00:44:29.780
Hey, give us your feedback on the project and then, once you get that, as a PM, you can in turn, you know, communicate that to your project team through the status meeting or through the SteerCo, and provide that, hey, here's what we're hearing.

00:44:29.780 --> 00:44:37.461
And then you match that up with the partners, who, typically consultants, can be pretty opinionated, you know, and that's for good reason.

00:44:37.461 --> 00:44:47.605
These people are professionals, They've done sometimes 100 projects or more in their life and they've seen this kind of stuff happen and they need to say look, here's what we're seeing.

00:44:47.605 --> 00:44:50.559
I'm seeing a red flag here, I'm seeing a red flag there.

00:44:50.559 --> 00:44:53.804
And it goes back to communicating with each other.

00:44:53.804 --> 00:44:58.583
You can't assume that one party knows what the other knows, because usually it's not the case.

00:45:00.188 --> 00:45:00.789
That's some good.

00:45:00.789 --> 00:45:17.458
I'm listening to what you're saying and so many things are going through my mind and so many experiences that I've had that go along with what you're saying and where some challenges and some roadblocks had come in implementations as we've been talking.

00:45:17.458 --> 00:45:25.887
I started to think about this because you talked about budget, you talked about go-live dates, you talked about changes to an organization.

00:45:25.887 --> 00:45:41.193
What's the advice to be able to properly plan the timing of an erp implementation and the budget of an erp implementation, because there's some variables in there.

00:45:41.233 --> 00:45:50.237
In my opinion, going through some projects and I'm just looking for maybe some insights from you you have individuals that need to train, you have individuals that need to train.

00:45:50.237 --> 00:45:53.782
You have individuals that need to test, you have designs, you have testing itself.

00:45:53.782 --> 00:46:04.211
You may have some remediation because something may not work as they originally intended or they may find that the process could be slightly varied for bigger benefit.

00:46:04.211 --> 00:46:16.766
What's the best approach to take to be able to one, plan the budget, two, plan the duration, to be able to determine when to go live?

00:46:16.766 --> 00:46:23.398
Because it sounds to me Ryan build me a house, two stories, two bedrooms, I want to move in next week and some people think that oh, wow, okay, you can just do it.

00:46:23.398 --> 00:46:25.099
It's ERP software, just install it.

00:46:25.099 --> 00:46:36.510
What are some realistic expectations or processes that someone should go to to get a good sense of what it takes, so that they don't go over budget, they don't have a late implementation?

00:46:42.503 --> 00:46:44.873
I know challenges arise but I look for the realism.

00:46:44.873 --> 00:46:52.295
Yeah, the house analogy.

00:46:52.295 --> 00:47:00.677
I can't help but bring up something that our relatively new VP of sales, ben Volte, brought up the other day when we were in our internal sales marketing retreat and he said if somebody asks you for a budget, he brought up the house analogy that you just did.

00:47:00.677 --> 00:47:10.829
He said well, I can build you a two-story house, brick, with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms.

00:47:10.829 --> 00:47:12.775
Here's roughly what it's going to cost.

00:47:12.775 --> 00:47:23.710
What I can't control is when you know your wife comes and says well, here are the faucets I want, and here's a tile I want and here's the flooring that I want.

00:47:23.710 --> 00:47:33.590
And that's what your job is as a leader to control those type of nice-to-haves and peripheral type stuff.

00:47:33.590 --> 00:47:45.853
So the tendency when there's a big change is to say, okay, we're changing, guys, we're going, we're on GP, it's end of life, we're going to Dynamics 365.

00:47:45.853 --> 00:47:58.086
And then everybody from every department says, well, here's what I want, here's what I want, here's what I want, here's what I want, because they think that's their only chance and that can absolutely impact time.

00:47:58.086 --> 00:48:02.967
I mean not can it dramatically impacts time and budget, right.

00:48:02.967 --> 00:48:11.788
And so focusing on why you're making that change from a leadership perspective and reining in the.

00:48:11.788 --> 00:48:22.983
I want this, I want that from each department is really important in the first stage, Assuming that there is a target timeline and there always is a target budget.

00:48:22.983 --> 00:48:32.588
Right, you've got to say, well, hey, listen, we're using GP for accounts receivable, accounts payable and GL.

00:48:32.588 --> 00:48:44.327
And yeah, maybe we want to use Dynamics 365 for more, maybe we want to expand it into the operational side of the house and maybe we want to have a vendor portal and connect our e-commerce website.

00:48:44.327 --> 00:48:54.969
Well, if timeline and budget are constraints, you say let's focus on what we need to do first.

00:48:54.969 --> 00:48:59.666
Let's get GL and AP and AR into Dynamics 365.

00:48:59.666 --> 00:49:01.380
Could be Business Central, could be F&O.

00:49:01.380 --> 00:49:04.463
I've seen GP clients move to both.

00:49:05.195 --> 00:49:09.014
Now I will caveat that and say you do like we talked about earlier.

00:49:09.014 --> 00:49:19.119
If you're only going to replace one for one, what you have now, need to have the long-term goal in mind and make sure that you're setting that proper foundation with a roadmap.

00:49:19.119 --> 00:49:28.762
And that might mean a heavier analysis and design phase where you plan everything out and then you deploy your core business reason.

00:49:28.762 --> 00:49:30.123
Why did we make this change?

00:49:30.123 --> 00:49:38.481
You know, yes, your marketing person's asking for automation and your sales VP wants CRM integration, but you don't have any of these things.

00:49:38.481 --> 00:49:39.925
Now, you know, maybe you're producing.

00:49:39.985 --> 00:49:45.842
I've seen people I mean, I know you've seen it guys Like, hey, how are you managing your production?

00:49:45.842 --> 00:49:50.702
Schedule, whiteboard Excel Okay well, we have to have it in phase one.

00:49:50.702 --> 00:49:51.313
Why You're schedule whiteboard excel okay well, we have to have it in phase one.

00:49:51.313 --> 00:49:52.195
Why you're doing it this way.

00:49:52.195 --> 00:49:56.005
Now, right, so focus, why are you making this change?

00:49:56.005 --> 00:49:57.309
And let's do that.

00:49:57.309 --> 00:50:02.902
And let's absolutely plan for the rest and execute it in chunks and phases if need be.

00:50:02.902 --> 00:50:06.539
Here's what it looks like if we do it all at once, timeline and budget wise.

00:50:06.539 --> 00:50:14.367
And here's what it looks like if we, if we kind of chunk it out and you know, maybe there's a business critical event coming, like that's what I always try to get down to.

00:50:14.367 --> 00:50:15.737
So here's what I hear.

00:50:15.737 --> 00:50:19.972
I want to go live January 1st and I asked this question.

00:50:19.972 --> 00:50:23.101
Every time I hear that and I typically already know the answer.

00:50:23.101 --> 00:50:26.096
What do you guys, what do you typically hear around that?

00:50:26.096 --> 00:50:27.257
Do you ever hear that?

00:50:27.838 --> 00:50:34.248
Oh, I hear that all the time, and the reason is typically that's when my fiscal year ends.

00:50:34.710 --> 00:50:34.909
Yes.

00:50:35.454 --> 00:50:38.465
Which to a consultant implementing this stuff does not matter.

00:50:38.465 --> 00:50:43.726
We have done over a thousand projects at Western Computer.

00:50:43.726 --> 00:50:47.445
Very, very few of them have gone live January 1st.

00:50:47.445 --> 00:50:54.925
First of all, I mean I know everyone's fiscal calendar is not January 1st, but going live on the fiscal year is not important in an ERP project.

00:50:54.925 --> 00:50:55.967
We can, absolutely.

00:50:55.967 --> 00:50:57.818
We have tools to do GL.00:50:57.818 --> 00:51:01.204


You know true ups and measure net change.00:51:01.204 --> 00:51:09.900


We can navigate that and do navigate that on every project, and so that is not really a valid reason to constrain your organization around an arbitrary timeline.00:51:09.900 --> 00:51:10.545


People think it is, but it's not.00:51:10.545 --> 00:51:15.347


Constrain your organization around a an arbitrary timeline people think it is, but it's not, and it affects your people.00:51:15.407 --> 00:51:18.498


By the way, january 1st is around the holidays.00:51:18.619 --> 00:51:27.195


It screws everyone up that don't want to go to work time because it's the worst time to go it is you have vacations, you have holidays, people being stressed out about gifts and stuff.00:51:27.335 --> 00:51:33.945


So you saying january 1st, chris and I had this conversation recently about that it is, it's you.00:51:33.945 --> 00:51:40.304


Just, you know, you just have to pick a realistic date and think of the other constraints that are also occurring.00:51:40.304 --> 00:51:47.327


And if January 1st is the date, there has to be a reason other than, oh, it's the best time of year to do it, or it's our year end, as you had mentioned.00:51:48.474 --> 00:51:48.655


Yeah.00:51:48.655 --> 00:51:57.606


So so you know, if you put those arbitrary constraints around your project, you're not going to make the most efficient decisions for your organization.00:51:57.606 --> 00:52:03.304


Now maybe, on the other hand, you've got a more real reason.00:52:03.304 --> 00:52:15.581


Maybe my renewal for my ERP application is coming up and if I go past August 31st I'm going to be automatically signed up for three more years and I need a system to run my business.00:52:15.581 --> 00:52:20.922


That's a situation where you really need to boil it down to requirements.00:52:20.922 --> 00:52:27.077


We call it the MVP deployment right Minimum viable product.00:52:27.077 --> 00:52:29.786


And what do I need to make happen?00:52:29.786 --> 00:52:34.018


And how do we work together Because it is cannot be all partner guys.00:52:34.117 --> 00:52:35.782


I mean, this is a two way street.00:52:35.782 --> 00:52:39.318


What do we collaboratively need to do to make that date happen?00:52:39.318 --> 00:52:40.360


Because that's a real date.00:52:40.360 --> 00:53:05.480


Or I've seen, if you ever heard, of a TSA, which is essentially an agreement when you're divested from a company and you're and they say we are going to give you a TSA I forget the acronym, technology services agreement or something like that but basically what it does is it says, okay, we're spinning your company off and you could stay on our systems until X date.00:53:06.221 --> 00:53:11.061


That's a real reason to have a hard and fast go live date, you're not going to have a system to run right.00:53:11.061 --> 00:53:15.487


Or maybe there's some exorbitant fee or penalty you're going to have to pay if you go past that date.00:53:15.487 --> 00:53:20.637


Fiscal year is not one, so don't constrain yourself based on that but some of these other reasons.00:53:20.637 --> 00:53:24.847


If you have those dates, you have to be willing to boil it down to business critical.00:53:24.847 --> 00:53:25.889


What do we need to go live?00:53:25.889 --> 00:53:34.945


Don't shortcut yourself and box yourself in by foregoing the long-term vision that still needs to happen.00:53:34.945 --> 00:53:38.661


But then you know the nice to haves and the peripheral stuff and everyone raising their hand and saying what they want.00:53:38.661 --> 00:53:43.679


That's going to have to wait in those types of scenarios if you want to control the timeline and budget.00:53:44.420 --> 00:53:58.748


I love the analogy of building a home, brad, and I use that quite a bit, but a quick short story of using the deck analogy as well, because it's not just an analogy.00:53:58.748 --> 00:54:01.934


That's what I'm going through right now, setting up a timeline.00:54:01.934 --> 00:54:05.063


When I bought this house, it has a pretty huge deck.00:54:05.063 --> 00:54:06.166


I think Brad's seen it.00:54:06.166 --> 00:54:09.182


It's almost 1,600 square feet deck.00:54:09.182 --> 00:54:15.425


It's massive, and this house was built in the early 90 90s and so we have to replace it.00:54:15.425 --> 00:54:16.387


Does it still work?00:54:16.387 --> 00:54:19.318


Absolutely, it's like an erp system, like current erp.00:54:19.318 --> 00:54:20.202


Can it still work?00:54:20.202 --> 00:54:21.327


Yeah, I can still stand on it.00:54:21.327 --> 00:54:29.396


You know you still host things like that, but eventually you're gonna have to replace it, right and and because of safety reasons and things like that.00:54:29.456 --> 00:54:41.586


So when you're budgeting stuff like this and ERP implementation, similar to budgeting a deck, we have a range and then but you also don't understand, you don't know the underlying issues as well.00:54:41.586 --> 00:54:47.123


So like, let's say, they start taking it apart and they realize you may have to change some of these beams and so forth and so forth.00:54:47.123 --> 00:54:52.150


So you have to consider those gotchas and maybe a little bit of leeway.00:54:52.150 --> 00:55:01.101


You know, maybe 10%, 15, 20% of budget overrun, which is, by the way.00:55:01.101 --> 00:55:03.969


It's common in ERP implementation, there's always going to be an ERP budget overrun.00:55:04.271 --> 00:55:05.414


But I had a timeline in mind.00:55:05.414 --> 00:55:08.398


You know, it's like I want to be able to enjoy it in the summer.00:55:08.398 --> 00:55:24.184


So I'm like asking these guys now I'm becoming like some clients, right, I'm becoming some like that Like I need to get this done in like two months because summer's around the corner, I need to be able to enjoy this thing.00:55:24.184 --> 00:55:28.724


And they're like no, that's not realistic, because you may have some permitting and all that stuff.00:55:28.724 --> 00:55:38.847


And so I have to remember is like maybe a good time is to get it done after summer, where it's not much quieter and I can actually make some changes along the way.00:55:38.847 --> 00:55:42.545


Like you said, my wife wants to have better railings and stuff like that.00:55:42.545 --> 00:55:45.985


So those things to consider as well.00:55:45.985 --> 00:55:47.862


But budgeting is really really tough.00:55:47.862 --> 00:55:52.065


But you have to give it a little bit of range and plus minus.00:55:53.054 --> 00:55:55.976


Budgeting and scheduling is a challenge for the points you make and I do.00:55:56.036 --> 00:56:02.043


I always say ERP implementations is a house build or house remodel and you know what you want and you have to figure.00:56:02.043 --> 00:56:03.983


And, ryan, you hit on some other key points.00:56:03.983 --> 00:56:14.650


The partner works with you through the implementation, but you live with it after the implementation and a lot of implementations I see have struggles.00:56:14.650 --> 00:56:17.083


They put a lot of it more onto the partner.00:56:17.083 --> 00:56:24.402


Now the partner can guide you, the partner can do the work to help you get it running, but they're not there using the system day to day.00:56:24.402 --> 00:56:27.541


Nor should they be, because they're there to help you implement.00:56:27.541 --> 00:56:42.945


So your comment about the partner working with them but it's their system that they have to accept and to use, to going forward, is important, and I had a million other things I wanted to say and, as usual, it goes right outside of my brain.00:56:43.596 --> 00:56:44.882


I love the deck analogy.00:56:44.882 --> 00:56:46.139


I mean house analogy.00:56:46.139 --> 00:56:53.405


Take your pick, but I'm thinking you know, christopher, while you're explaining the deck, I'm thinking you know what is the risk if you don't do that.00:56:53.405 --> 00:56:58.159


And that is very much akin to somebody on an old on-premise SQL server.00:56:58.159 --> 00:57:00.463


I've seen it happen.00:57:00.463 --> 00:57:06.599


On-premise servers are ripe for cyber attack guys and I've seen it several times.00:57:06.599 --> 00:57:11.608


In the middle of deciding how are we going to do ERP, how are we going to get to the cloud?00:57:11.608 --> 00:57:20.121


Hacked, can't ship, can't invoice, can't pay vendors I mean business ground to a halt and the cost of that is tremendous.00:57:20.121 --> 00:57:24.385


So you know, don't wait until the deck falls off the house.00:57:25.355 --> 00:57:27.764


You know someone get hurt, it's too late, absolutely.00:57:28.076 --> 00:57:28.719


It's too late.00:57:28.960 --> 00:57:30.498


right, it's absolutely true.00:57:30.498 --> 00:57:34.588


I've seen that in implementation with somebody they did.00:57:34.588 --> 00:57:45.628


They had ransomware on their system during an implementation because of whatever reason, and they had to spend a lot of money getting their system intact before they could even do the implementation.00:57:45.628 --> 00:57:54.206


The other key point that you made, too, was again with the house analogy and what I liked what you had is do what you need to get the business operational.00:57:54.206 --> 00:57:55.858


All the stuff that you may not be doing now.00:57:55.858 --> 00:57:59.007


Have a roadmap to get there because they could delay you.00:57:59.474 --> 00:58:11.860


You're already going through enough changes, as it is through a new system, that if you can keep some of those workflows in place with the understanding that you're going to gain some efficiencies, obviously there's a reason why someone's switching, like you had mentioned, that you're going to gain some efficiencies.00:58:11.880 --> 00:58:13.842


Obviously there's a reason why someone's switching, like you had mentioned.00:58:13.842 --> 00:58:20.550


It could be because of, like you had mentioned, if you're not going to have a system if you had grown, if you're looking for operational efficiencies a number of different reasons why people switch.00:58:20.550 --> 00:58:26.202


But having that roadmap is extremely important because these oh, I can do this.00:58:26.202 --> 00:58:27.224


Oh, I can do that.00:58:27.224 --> 00:58:47.556


If you're going through an implementation it this, oh, I can do that as you're going through an implementation throws the entire implementation off, and I have seen it because they see all this cool stuff that the new system has that they don't even do today, not to say that they can't grow or their business can't change their processes to utilize those new features, but the more complexity and changes that you add to it can also slow down the implementation.00:58:47.596 --> 00:58:50.798


so you're, they get hung up with the appliances brand.00:58:50.798 --> 00:58:53.021


That's what takes forever, exactly.00:58:53.382 --> 00:59:01.990


And they forget that the roof still hasn't been put on and it's leaking and they're tied up about the appliances which can go in after the house is built, exactly Even after you move in.00:59:01.990 --> 00:59:21.378


See, I use the house model and remodel with everyone I speak with for these reasons, because you can move into a house and have shiny appliances afterwards, but you still can have a little portable refrigerator to keep things cool as you're moving into the house and you're filling it out but that's what we deal with right with the erp implementation.00:59:21.458 --> 00:59:29.943


Somehow everyone's already want to know what kind of couches and appliances they want to put in there, and and all that and how it's structured.00:59:30.826 --> 00:59:39.545


Well, they get excited, so you can put a picture on the wall of the couch and all this other stuff and say you will get there, but let's not lose sight of we need to move in and get there.00:59:39.545 --> 00:59:47.722


Yeah, speaking of all of this, we think about user adoption, we think about EAP implementations.00:59:47.722 --> 00:59:51.400


How can you measure user adoption?00:59:51.400 --> 00:59:58.440


And also, what is and how do you measure a successful ERP implementation?00:59:59.864 --> 01:00:03.016


Those metrics have to be identified ahead of time and they're different.01:00:03.016 --> 01:00:04.681


Erp is different than CRM.01:00:04.681 --> 01:00:05.985


I know you guys are ERP guys.01:00:05.985 --> 01:00:14.389


I kind of span both and just to touch on that briefly, I will say ERP user adoption is easier to drive because it's required.01:00:14.389 --> 01:00:21.309


You've got a chip, you've got an invoice, you've got to pay your vendors, you've got to receive your inventory or you can't run your business.01:00:21.309 --> 01:00:32.090


Crm, you better have a plan to have adoption or it will sit and collect dust and you will have an expensive, you know Rolodex in a digital format.01:00:32.275 --> 01:00:37.603


So, establishing metrics ahead of time, what do we hope to get out of this implementation?01:00:37.603 --> 01:01:03.795


Do we hope to, you know, decrease our day sales outstanding or optimize our inventory so that we don't have inventory that's sitting unused, which has a cost, or we don't have sales that can, you know, maybe not be fulfilled because we don't have inventory that's sitting unused, which has a cost, or we don't have sales that can maybe not be fulfilled because we don't have enough inventory, or maybe we want to be able for a manufacturer I hear this all the time we want to be able to measure our availability to promise.01:01:03.795 --> 01:01:12.969


So somebody calls our sales team and says, hey, I need a widget by July 1st, six weeks from now.01:01:12.969 --> 01:01:14.998


Can you do it?01:01:14.998 --> 01:01:17.264


I don't know.01:01:17.264 --> 01:01:19.230


Let me go consult the whiteboard, right?01:01:19.230 --> 01:01:30.719


Well, all of those parameters are able to be set up in the ERP and if your goal is to achieve availability to promise, the tools are there in any modern ERP not any, but Dynamics, certainly.01:01:30.719 --> 01:01:47.472


And you know, if the inputs aren't put in right vendor lead time and capacity on the shop floor and planned production orders and all of this data needs to still be input.01:01:52.275 --> 01:02:07.778


I was sitting in a conference room a couple months ago I'm not going to say where because that might give my customer away here but we were going through all of the ways to calculate availability to promise for them and they said, oh, yeah, yeah, we have that in our system now.01:02:07.778 --> 01:02:10.485


Okay, then where's?01:02:10.485 --> 01:02:11.967


Why aren't you available to promise?01:02:11.967 --> 01:02:13.880


Well, we don't, we don't input any of the data.01:02:13.880 --> 01:02:14.221


We don't.01:02:14.221 --> 01:02:14.782


You don't use it.01:02:14.782 --> 01:02:16.936


Okay, a system's not going to fix that.01:02:16.996 --> 01:02:19.402


Guys, you know, you've got to.01:02:19.402 --> 01:02:22.849


You've got to mandate this internally in some way.01:02:22.849 --> 01:02:25.018


We can't make your people do it.01:02:25.018 --> 01:02:43.306


We could teach them how to do it, but but defining some kind of metrics and goals KPIs, whatever you want to call them like hey, our goal coming out of this is to be able, when our salesperson asks us for an availability, to promise a widget delivery that we can actually give them a concrete number.01:02:43.427 --> 01:02:46.684


Right, that's more of a vague KPI, you know metrics.01:02:46.684 --> 01:02:52.536


Like, we want to reduce our inventory on hand by 25% and still be able to fulfill our sales goals.01:02:52.536 --> 01:02:59.039


Right, that's more of a hard metric, but those should be established ahead of the project and then measured after the project.01:02:59.039 --> 01:03:09.188


Maybe there's some kind of incentive tied to it, bonus structure, some kind of performance measurement, maybe not, maybe it's just more of a team effort, right?01:03:09.188 --> 01:03:10.398


Hey, here's why we're doing it.01:03:10.398 --> 01:03:20.344


We want to be able to, you know, have a higher level of customer satisfaction, and we can't do that if we're just guessing at, at availability, to promise and hoping that it works out.01:03:20.344 --> 01:03:21.626


Hope is not a strategy.01:03:21.668 --> 01:03:25.280


There's number four hope is not a strategy.01:03:25.280 --> 01:03:29.909


That's your fourth quote I have to write all these down.01:03:29.914 --> 01:03:31.159


When I watch this afterwards, I'm going to write all these down.01:03:31.159 --> 01:03:33.385


When I watch this afterwards, I'm going to write all these down.01:03:33.385 --> 01:03:35.643


I've been trying to get to them, but you're going too quickly.01:03:35.643 --> 01:03:41.686


Planning is so important and you hit that even for the measurement of the success, because that way you can say it's successful.01:03:41.686 --> 01:04:02.931


So if you look back, if someone says, oh, we're late or we're doing this, or they feel it's worse than it was I've gone through implementations like that, where they lost sight of that it actually is successful, because they may have had some challenges along the way, not saying it was a bad experience, but that planning is worthwhile and, just like building a house or cutting wood, all that planning up front saves you in the end.01:04:02.972 --> 01:04:21.532


Sometimes people want to cut corners, to speed things along or to save a dollar or two, but, as I always tell Chris, they don't have the time to do it the first time, but you have the time to do it three times after you go live or even fix, spend months fixing the data afterwards and, to your point about, you can't get something.01:04:21.532 --> 01:04:23.394


Systems are a tool that you use.01:04:23.394 --> 01:04:25.920


Systems aren't going to do things for you.01:04:25.920 --> 01:04:27.543


Because I hear these requests.01:04:27.543 --> 01:04:31.048


Well, I want a report that tells me this Well, you need to enter the data, you have the data.01:04:31.048 --> 01:04:33.581


I don't have time to enter the data, I just need the system to tell me this.01:04:33.581 --> 01:04:37.025


I can't tell you how many times I hear similar scenarios.01:04:37.025 --> 01:04:44.141


And the reality is it's a tool for you to use to become more efficient or to get an output, not do the output for you.01:04:44.141 --> 01:04:50.967


Well, maybe in the future it will do everything for us and we don't need to do anything, but yeah, I love the house analogy all the time.01:04:51.007 --> 01:04:53.844


It's like putting copper pipes rather than pecs.01:04:53.844 --> 01:04:59.661


You know pecs is better, but uh, hey, we got to do copper because that's what we've always been using.01:05:00.505 --> 01:05:05.217


So yeah, yeah, why not just build all the house, though, and then switch out the pipes, christopher?01:05:05.237 --> 01:05:10.956


I know, right, that's what people do, it's true right, they're in the.01:05:11.056 --> 01:05:21.826


they're in the drywall already or in the brick already, so we've got to take the whole wall down as well, because you know you want to do that you put the wrong pipes in Well, mr Ryan, sir, and also don't cut yourself short on that.01:05:22.155 --> 01:05:24.523


You do CRM and ERP, but you do so much more.01:05:24.523 --> 01:05:35.893


You deal with Business Central, F&O, f&scm, fx whatever they call it today CRM, a little of the Azure stuff too.01:05:35.893 --> 01:05:39.449


So you do quite a bit and you're quite knowledgeable with it, and I appreciate all the information that you share with us and I appreciate you for taking the time to speak with us today.01:05:39.449 --> 01:05:45.074


Time is truly the currency of life, and any moment that someone spends with us is a moment that they're not doing something else.01:05:45.074 --> 01:05:46.759


We appreciate it and we value that.01:05:46.759 --> 01:06:02.824


If someone would like to get in contact with you to learn more about change management, erp implementations or how they can have some more enhancements or features through their ERP implementation project, or how to even come up with an ERP system to use, how can someone contact you?01:06:03.606 --> 01:06:04.088


Yeah, sure.01:06:04.088 --> 01:06:06.764


So LinkedIn is tried and true.01:06:06.764 --> 01:06:11.181


There are not many Ryan Poliniacs out there on LinkedIn, so you can find me pretty easily there.01:06:11.181 --> 01:06:14.507


You can email me, you know, first name dot.01:06:14.507 --> 01:06:16.936


Last name ryanpoliniac at westerncomputercom.01:06:16.936 --> 01:06:19.121


Or, you know, come through our website.01:06:19.121 --> 01:06:20.003


We do have a chat.01:06:20.003 --> 01:06:23.702


That, admittedly, the very first chat is about.01:06:23.702 --> 01:06:26.532


Hey, brad, thanks for coming by, can we help you?01:06:26.532 --> 01:06:39.585


But the second that you put something in the chat, you're going to get one of our sales team who are all seasoned pros and they'll be able to answer your questions and, and you know, guide you and be your Sherpa along this journey.01:06:40.155 --> 01:06:40.476


Absolutely.01:06:40.476 --> 01:06:44.237


You do have a great sales team over there and a knowledgeable staff that can a team.01:06:44.237 --> 01:06:47.025


I guess you could say that I can help someone guide them through the journey.01:06:47.025 --> 01:06:47.847


Again, thank you for your time.01:06:47.847 --> 01:06:53.851


We appreciate it and I look forward to getting hiking with you after your girls get older and they're done with their gymnastics career.01:06:54.235 --> 01:06:55.481


Well, we'll try to squeeze it in before.01:06:55.481 --> 01:06:57.954


Yeah, absolutely, thank you again, thanks guys.01:06:58.135 --> 01:06:59.380


I look forward to seeing you soon.01:06:59.380 --> 01:06:59.702


Thank you.01:07:01.764 --> 01:07:06.481


Thank you, Chris, for your time for another episode of In the Dynamics Corner Chair.01:07:16.315 --> 01:07:17.338


And thank you to our guests for participating.01:07:17.338 --> 01:07:17.981


Thank you, brad, for your time.01:07:17.981 --> 01:07:19.003


It is a wonderful episode of Dynamics Corner Chair.01:07:19.003 --> 01:07:20.168


I would also like to thank our guests for joining us.01:07:20.168 --> 01:07:21.452


Thank you for all of our listeners tuning in as well.01:07:21.452 --> 01:07:35.182


You can find Brad at developerlifecom, that is D-V-L-P-R-L-I-F-E dot com, and you can interact with them via Twitter D-V-L-P-R-L-I-F-E.01:07:35.182 --> 01:07:48.547


You can also find me at Mattalinoio, m-a-t-a-l-i-n-o dot I-O, and my Twitter handle is Mattalino16.01:07:48.547 --> 01:07:52.242


And you can see those links down below in the show notes.01:07:52.242 --> 01:07:53.606


Again, thank you everyone.01:07:53.606 --> 01:07:55.161


Thank you and take care.