If you don’t know about the legend of John Wooden, he was one of greatest college basketball coaches in history – winning ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period (7 of them in a row) while head coach at UCLA. But beyond coaching, he was an incredible leader. So in honor of the Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden, and since March Madness is upon us, here are some of his most striking quotes that can be referenced during any Dynamics GP implementation:
- “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” When working with your Dynamics GP partner to lay out your implementation plan, be realistic. Plan for the added workload the best you can while remembering vacations, sick days, and holidays will also be thrown into the mix.
- “Be prepared and be honest.” During my time as a consultant there really wasn’t anything worse than arriving at a client site to find team members ill-prepared for the day’s sessions. In the long run, being unprepared will increase the cost of the implementation. When laying out the initial implementation plan, be honest with what can truly be accomplished in a given timeframe.
- “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” Implementations of any new system require additional time and resources, with many client team members having dual duties. They will have to maintain their normal responsibilities, with the added tasks of implementing the new system. It can become a bit overwhelming for team members and needs to be planned for. In addition, having executive support for the project is imperative.
- “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” Communicating both internally and with your Dynamics GP Partner is key. If the details of your business processes aren’t translated effectively, the design of your system may not complement your true business methods. A good implementation team speaks up. Likewise, a good partner will listen intently and recommend .
- “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.” Sure enough, mistakes will be made along the way. How you may have anticipated a business process to work, may not be the ultimate design. Training and testing is one of the most significant components to an implementation with or without your Dynamics GP Partner on site. Validating user knowledge and process design is incredibly important. I assure you, I have never had a client tell me they trained or tested too much.
- "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." After Go Live, it’s important to remember that there’s a whole new implementation phase awaiting you called Optimization. Perhaps there was a module you held back on due to time constraints or an ISV product, such as those offered by , that can make a process more efficient. Now’s the time to explore what you really can do with Dynamics GP!
If you'd like to learn more about the time-saving tools that WilloWare offers for Microsoft Dynamics GP, visit www.WilloWare.com or send an email to sales@WilloWare.com
