Three factors are key to building and growing a successful Microsoft Dynamics NAV partner‘s company. In our blog post we will discuss and analyze further factors deeper:
- The ability to plan and focus the business around customers ‘requirements.
- A policy of using best practices and continuous improvement.
- The strategy of adding value through successful partnerships with other providers and companies.
Together, these factors help Dynamics NAV partner build a successful, profitable business that continues to win new projects and grow strong customer relationships.
Meet Customers‘ Requirements
It‘s easy to focus your business on a particular technology if you have great skills and experience in that sector. But, that specialization is only a valuable asset if it meets the customers‘ needs.
Take the cloud, for example. As more and more businesses move their key processes to the cloud, software development must follow.
That makes market research an essential part of your business plan. What are the trends in software? What are customers‘ concerns about different types of software? What do they look for in a software development company?
Many of the answers to these questions can be found on the websites of leading technology analysts like Gartner, IDC, Forrester, Ovum or Infonetics Research. These analysts conduct annual surveys that can help you understand where to focus your future development plans.
It‘s also important to talk to your customers. What are their plans? How could Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Dynamics NAV partner help them improve their own business? In some cases, they may want to improve or streamline their business processes. Others might want to use technology to offer their customers a better service.
Develop Best Practices
How good is your Microsoft Dynamics NAV development process? Are you using agile techniques to accelerate development times? Have you got a continuous improvement process in place?
The annual Standish Group Chaos Report surveys thousands of software projects to identify factors that make a successful project. Four contributing factors were revealed. How does your Dynamics NAV development business rate on these factors and what‘s your preferred approach?
- Delivery on schedule: Do you deliver on time according to the schedule or do you prefer to deliver when the system is ready to be shipped?
- Budget and Return on Investment: Are your projects always within budget and are you estimating the ROI of all your development?
- Added value: Do you build the system to the original specification or do you aim to exceed the real needs of your customers?
- Product quality: Should you be content to deliver on time and on a budget, or take longer and deliver a high-quality, easy-to-maintain solution?
PA Consulting Group believes that agile techniques combined with traditional development skills are important for project success. PA reports that almost one-third of software development teams now use agile to accelerate time to market, cut costs, reduce risk and increase project flexibility.
However, they point out that it is essential to create and communicate a clearly articulated plan to all stakeholders, including customers, so that everyone is working towards the same goal.
PA also stress the value of creating interdisciplinary teams so that different aspects of a project do not happen in silos. Prototyping during the iterative process can focus all team members on progress and ensure that each aspect of the development is synchronized.
Add value through partnerships
Partnerships are now an established part of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV development business. Companies aim to build ecosystems of partners who can add value to their own products and help them deliver complete solutions to customers.
When businesses evaluate potential software suppliers, they take into account the strength and depth of a company‘s partnerships. High-profile partners add credibility to your own brand because customers recognize that the ability to attract quality partners is an indication of a Dynamics NAV partner‘s status and success.
A strong Dynamics NAV development partner can help you in a number of ways. They may have expertise in technologies or processes that will enhance your own products or services. They may have a reputation for innovation that will help you rethink your own approach to Microsoft Dynamics NAV development projects and offer useful Dynamics NAV tools, which can save time for upgrades and reporting. Or they may simply have the capacity to handle outsourced development that will help you deliver your products faster.
Don‘t limit your partnerships to other software companies. Universities and research companies can provide a valuable source of innovative ideas. They may be working on great concepts with strong market potential, but do not have the resources to take the project forward to a development or commercial stage.
Recipe for success
Building these three factors into your operations can help you deliver successful projects, attract more customers and grow a profitable Microsoft Dynamics NAV development service business. They are proven to work and are critical for companies that operate in the highly competitive market for Microsoft Dynamics NAV.