I remember one lucky story I have heard some time ago from my friend. A couple was dreaming about a trip from Europe to the U.S. They planned ahead almost everything: they booked a hotel, bought flight tickets, prepared a plan for visiting famous places. The happy holiday started with a long flight and taxi from the airport to the hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel has been actually closed almost one month ago and they hadn’t bothered telling their clients. The administrator on the phone couldn’t help either, only informed about “really bad and urgent circumstances for closing the hotel”. What to do in a busy city where a room has to be booked weeks or even months upfront? That couple browsed through their contacts on mobile phone and social networks. They found one friend living in the U.S., in the same city as they were visiting. Should they call a friend they hadn’t seen for years? When there isn’t any other way and you are only two at the late night, you can’t doubt… They called their friend asking for a night stay after they hadn’t talked to each other for years. That man admitted to help and welcomed them to stay in his flat. They were lucky this time. Next time, it could be a different story. However, was this couple relaxed, looking around and taking photos? Likely not, because they were caring a lot about that uncomfortable situation.

Do you still remember a situation when unforeseen event has encouraged you to behave a little bit differently than you have been used to? Did it make it harder to manage other activities properly when you have been into finding ways for solving the unexpected situation? Were you upset about thinking that your plans could be ruined so fast and not depending on you?

Managing unexpected situations

It’s a personal life situation, but it could happen in business, as well. Sometimes there are situations when you risk not only your holiday but your client’s project deadline. It can happen even if you have prepared the plan properly. When we talk with our clients, sometimes they say that you never know what will happen even if you think ahead or know your risks. Even if they have planned activities for the unexpected situations, they can’t change everyday operations so quickly. Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on luck.

Long-term partnership in business requires managing the unforeseen situation no matter what. The situations might be disruption of usual operations, unexpectedly large request, staff leaving. There are several alternatives to handle that:

• find a new employee (long or short term);
• lengthen the project time to have time reserve to react properly;
• create and prepare an adequate contingency plan, a plan that generally deals with unexpected events that affect the professional image, financial health, or market share of the company;
• find a freelancer.

First of all, you need to decide what’s absolutely necessary for your business to operate without interruption. Then steps to ensure that those resources are available quickly if needed should be taken.

Applying the Contingency plan to your daily operations

When creating your own contingency plan, identify what team members and staff can do now, and what they’re capable of doing if necessary. Moreover, they should immediately respond to any sort of problem in a quick, positive, and effective manner. Then make a step-by-step list of actions to take post-event. This will make it infinitely easier for staff to pick up in an unexpected situation. This plan should be updated every six months to account for staff changes, economic factors, and other issues related to your business. Since the unexpected situations aren’t common, the resources from the third party would save your time. For example, Dynamics NAV development outsourcing partner Simplanova provides Dynamics Partners with a project-oriented, zero-maintenance, high value-adding team of Dynamics NAV professionals to manage unforeseen situations in Dynamics NAV development. It works as an insurance as our Dynamics NAV developers are on duty, prepared to help Dynamics Partners with Dynamics NAV support in the case of urgency and unexpected work overload.

What your decision will be depends on your company situation, your approach to customer relationship and the scale of the unexpected situation. As Donald Rumsfeld said Think ahead. Don’t let day-to-day operations drive out planning.

If you are looking for managing the unexpected situations in your company in a timely manner, you can learn more about our Contingency Plan for Dynamics NAV projects.

 By Vilija Buteniene, Simplanova Marketing Manager

About Simplanova

Simplanova is a development company working only with Microsoft Dynamics Partners, specializing in Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision) upgrade. We help Dynamics Partners by giving the ability to acquire the skills needed, cut overtime costs and increase the efficiency of Microsoft Dynamics NAV development services.

Our services: Microsoft Dynamics NAV upgrade (all versions), Microsoft Dynamics NAV development, Microsoft Dynamics NAV Add-in development, Microsoft Dynamics NAV integration, Microsoft Dynamics NAV localization.

Learn more about our Contingency Plan for Microsoft Dynamics Partners.

Learn more about our Microsoft Dynamics NAV development services

For more information about the Contingency Plan or Microsoft Dynamics NAV outsourcing, contact our service representative here.