Episode 416: Adventures ERP Business Central Style

Buckle up for a lively chat that’s equal parts heart and hustle! This episode of Dynamics Corner finds our hosts Kris and Brad diving into the wild world of ERP implementation with Ryan Pollyniak, who explains how to juggle family life while steering massive tech projects. We’re talking about Microsoft Dynamics, change management, and the art of keeping everyone from stressed-out employees to top executives on the same page. From why your users need to be in the loop from day one to the magic of clear communication (hint: it starts at the top!), Ryan breaks down the must-haves for nailing an ERP rollout. Expect practical gems like why budgeting isn’t just number-crunching, how user acceptance testing saves the day, and the power of long-term planning to avoid project chaos. Whether you’re a tech nerd, a family-first pro, or just curious about making changes stick, this episode’s got you covered with real talk, relatable stories, and a few laughs.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The frog.
Every time I go to my door italways falls on my head and I've
moved him several times.
That's, I'm serious.
He lives at the top of the door, the screen door.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Just turn into a pet Listen.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Feed all your bugs in it.
Every time I go outside hejumps on me.
Well, not every time, almostevery time.
And so this morning, and listen, I've relocated him, like
nicely picked him up, moved himto the other side of the fence,
into the woods, thinking, oh,maybe you'll stay there.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Nope, comes back, just give him.
He's probably eating your bugs.
If you catch bugs, just feed it.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
He jumps on me.
That's the point.
I went through the door thismorning and he jumped on my
shoulder Yesterday.
Jumped on me oh shit.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
At least it's not like a tarantula or a spider
dude.
Welcome everyone to anotherepisode of Dynamics Corner.
How do you build an ERP?
Just like building a deck.
I'm your co-host, chris.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
And this is Brad.
This episode was recorded onMarch 20th 2025.
Chris, chris, chris, how do youbuild a house, how do you build
a deck, how do you prepare foran ERP implementation?
And you have to listen to theentire episode because there
were four quotes that I now putdown on my list of quotes, as we
recorded this episode With ustoday, we had the opportunity to

(01:20):
speak with Ryan Polniak.
Good morning, sir, good morningguys, how are you?
Excellent, excellent.
I haven't had the chance totalk with you in a while, but I
see you doing some great things.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
I don't know about that.
I don't know who told you that,Brad, but I do stay busy, I
know you guys are doing greatthings.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
The podcast has taken off oh great, thank you well
it's all because of individualssuch as yourself who take the
time to speak with us we're theboring guys it's, it's the
individuals that we speak withthat have a vast wealth of
information to share andexperiences, which makes it nice
yeah well, pleasure to be here,guys, and we appreciate that.

(02:06):
I've always looked forward tospeaking with you.
I get closer and closer to youevery time we still have to get
a hike in.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, I know, and you know you have to turn words
into action at some point.
Right, and for me, free time issuch a premium with three
little girls.
They're all in gymnastics.
We do that, you know, every day, but Wednesday, during the week
, and right now, every weekend,is a meet.
That's it, you know busy job inthe ERP business and and and

(02:35):
between that and the gymnastics.
That is what I do and I I'm notcomplaining, by the way, I do
love it.
I love hiking too, and you gotto make some time for that kind
of thing and I will uh, I willget up there and go for a hike
up there in the, in the whitemountains, with you at some
point absolutely.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
I like the turning words into actions.
Quote I'm going to steal that Ithink that our time.
Everybody says that they don'thave time.
They don't have time, which istrue, and everyone has busy
schedules.
It's a matter of what you dowith your time and I'm happy to
see that you're doing it withyour little girls in gymnastics,
because I'll tell everyone whenyour children get older all
that complaining that you'redoing about the meets on the

(03:13):
weekends or the soccertournaments, lacrosse
tournaments or whatever you have.
You miss it.
That's right.
You know you go through it andyou're like, ah, you know it's a
struggle, but you actually missseeing it.
And now I appreciate being ableto see others in those
tournaments and those meets andI miss it and I I appreciate
seeing the kids having fun anddoing things.

(03:33):
So I hope your girls are doingwell with it.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, absolutely, and you know, don't interpret it as
a complaint.
I do love it.
I've got the vanity platecoming, which is a surprise.
I checked availability.
Gym dad is available in georgiaright now in my county.
I've got like two months untilmy tag renewal comes, so I check
it every couple days.
It's still there.
Um, I love it, brad.
I mean no question about it youonly get to do this for a while

(03:57):
, right?
yeah, short time hiking ispassion of mine.
I I love it, love hanging outwith you.
We're going to make that happenand you know I do believe big
time in.
You are what you do, not whatyou say.
That was a quote that a guyfrom my past that I used to know
in the business world gave tome and said look, say whatever

(04:20):
you want, I am going to.
I was going to, I meant to, Iplan on.
None of that really matters.
You are what you do at the endof the day, not what you say
that's two quotes I'm stealingfrom you.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
There you go.
No, that is so true.
You are what you do.
Words mean.
Uh, you know, words means justthat they're words, it's, it's
your actions and what you do tostand up.
This is all philosophical.
Do you get on the uh balancebeam yourself with the girls do?
Do you get out there and do thebalance beam?
Oh, wait a minute.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
We do have one down here, so I thought maybe it was
in the background.
No, not really.
Anyway, I mean, I've walkedacross the thing a few times,
which I consider a win at thisstage, and they're doing
cartwheels on it and turns andthis, you know, that's
impressive, I do not know howindividuals that participate in
gymnastics do some of the stuffthey do.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
I'm with you, Ryan.
I think I would just take a winas just being able to get up on
a balance beam and stand for afew minutes, nevermind walking
or doing some of the flips andthe bounces.
I just when you see one, likeon TV, it looks like it's, you
know, maybe three feet wide andyou know, and you could put a
party up there, but when you seethem in real life they're only

(05:28):
a few inches wide, right Four.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Regulation is four inches right my foot's not even
four inches.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
I mean my foot's larger than four inches.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
So imagine doing a back handspring right where
you're literally launchingyourself backwards and landing
on your hands on afour-inch-wide balance beam.
I mean it's incredible, that'simpressive.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
I cannot do it.
I'm very happy that you get todo that with your girls.
It must be amazing to watch,and hopefully they can do it
injury-free too, because I don'tknow, if I was on that balance
beam or hanging on somethinglike that, I'd be in the ER
every day.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
My 11-year-old went to middle school on crutches.
Today she just sprained herankle, so not too bad.
We've been relativelyinjury-free between the three of
them.
But yeah, it's a concern.
But look, you've got to takethe bubble wrap off and let them
live right.
Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
And they get a lot out of it too.
A lot of lessons learned withdoing athletics when you're
young.
Ok, but not a philosophy.
I have two quotes I'm going tosteal from you.
I'll have to cite you, I think,on there.
Maybe I won't, but at least nowwe know where we got them from.
Before we jump into theconversation, can you tell us a
little about yourself?

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah, sure thing, you know, obviously we covered.
I'm a father of three, you know, and a husband first and
foremost.
Family first, always.
But right behind that isprofessional life.
Right, I've been doingMicrosoft Dynamics.
I've been in the industry nowit's hard to believe 17 years.
I think I've been saying 15 forthe last couple years.
I keep forgetting that theyears are progressing.
And I've been, you know,working with Western Computer

(07:06):
Implementation and SupportPartner for Microsoft Dynamics
almost 10 years.
It'll be 10 years in May,believe it or not.
So it's been quite a whileWorking with companies to
understand their needs andevaluate fit and to navigate the
complex world of MicrosoftDynamics, which you guys know is
ever-changing, especially inthe SaaS world these days.

(07:26):
And so I've described myselfsometimes as a Sherpa.
You've got an executive, oryou've got a business leader or
even somebody who's beenassigned in their organization.
Hey, go get quotes and demosfor the ERP, right?
That's a tall order forsomebody who's not living and

(07:49):
eating and sleeping andbreathing this stuff.
So I kind of I take thesepeople under my wing and I say
you know, let me be your Sherpa,let me be your guide.
Here's what to look out for,here's what's a fit.
Here's what's not a fit.
Maybe Dynamics isn't a fit, oror maybe Western Computer isn't
a fit, and then send them ontheir way to go work with
somebody you know who may bemore tailored to their
particular needs, and that'simportant, right?

(08:11):
Nobody wants to get into thingsthat they're not well-suited to
help with, and so guidingpeople through their ERP journey
, crm journey and helping themunderstand the Microsoft
Dynamics stack well, that's whatI do every day, and I do love
it, I'm passionate about it, andso I consider myself lucky.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
No, you do a great job and I like and appreciate
what you say as you talk withcustomers, prospects,
individuals looking to undertakethe ERP journey, and you are
absolutely correct, it ischanging, ever-changing.
I think by the time we're donewith this recording, things will
have changed from where westarted.
But I do appreciate, as you hadmentioned is finding the right

(08:53):
fit.
Implementing an ERP system itcan be many different things to
it.
It's not so generic.
It's what's involved in findingthe right partner or finding
the right application to helpyou or assist you or guide you
on that journey is extremelyimportant.
And finding someone such asyourself that can take the time
to tell you you know we may notbe the fit for you or maybe this

(09:15):
isn't the product for you, butalso this is a product for you
and this is how you candetermine it's extremely
important and it makes for abetter relationship.
And that's one of the mostimportant things I'm starting to
stress and emphasize because Isee more how important it is.
In this world of whereeverybody's thinking I hate to,
I don't even want to say it butwhere everything's becoming more
automated, you know thatrelationship and that guide

(09:35):
becomes more that relationshipand the trust that you have with
someone, it becomes more andmore important, and it's great
that you're doing that stuff.
10 years, that's a decade,that's a long time.
And then 17 years I'm trying tothink, man, so I've known you
for a while.
It's been a while.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
Yeah, I didn't have as many grays as I did back then
and that ties back to the threedaughters thing.
But time flies, it moves prettyquickly.
And that part you were justtalking about ever changing, I
mean now more than ever and Itry to convey this to anybody
looking at ERP long-termrelationships with an

(10:17):
implementation partner,consultant, whomever is going to
be, you know, your guide here.
It's more important than everbecause the days of having a
product NAV 2005, and you wait10 years and then you upgrade,
it's over.
You know, and I mean this stuffis changing twice a year on a

(10:38):
major level and more times thanthat on a minor level.
You don't have somebody guidingyou through the update process,
taking advantage of newfeatures and what's your
long-term strategy to help meevolve as a company.
You know that is now moreimportant than ever because you
can't the application changesconstantly, so you've got to

(10:59):
take that into account, I think,as you go, evaluate
relationships with technologypartners.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
With ERP software implementations and the change
in implementations.
When you're working withcustomers, or even maybe not
someone you're working with,what is some advice or some
views that someone can take whenthey're going to?
This is such a big questionthat I'm going to say in a very
small, very few words, a smallamount of words.
I hope I sometimes I can ramblewhen someone's undertaking

(11:30):
their journey to look either fora new ERP software application
or when they're looking to maybeupgrade their new ERP
application.
I know there's some challengesor some things that someone
needs to look out for that theycome along the way.
What are some words of wisdomor some advice of somebody
should go through to undertakethat journey?

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah, man, we could talk about this one for a while.
So let me try to go as basic asI can.
To start, you have to have along term plan and vision, and
so what I've heard sometimes iswell, we just want to take what
we have and we want to move itinto the cloud and then we'll
optimize processes after that,like, let me just look at the

(12:14):
next step in the journey andthen we'll figure out the rest
of the way that we're going togo.
I mean, that's a very dangerousthing to do because very likely
to box yourselves in andprevent yourselves from actually
achieving the things that youwant to achieve down the road.
So it's fine to take a phasedapproach and to walk and crawl

(12:34):
and run and to evolve with howfar you're going to take your
technology, but you better havea plan that starts at the
beginning and has concrete stepsthat you can then follow.
So let's say, for instance,taking NAV to Business Central
yeah, we have upgrade tools, wecan migrate the data, we can

(12:55):
migrate the configurations, wecan take your custom code into
BC, but then you're locked intoquite a number of core decisions
, right Locations and inventory,costing and dimensions, and all
of this data that's in therenow somewhat limits what you can
do going forward.
Maybe you've acquired additionalcompanies and you need a

(13:17):
stronger multi-entity solution,or maybe you have divested
companies and you don't needhalf the mods you used to have.
Well, it's okay to walk andcrawl and run, but that if
you're building a 10-storybuilding and you're only
building the first two storiesnow, when you build the
foundation, it better be for 10stories, because otherwise

(13:37):
you're going to build two andthen you're going to have to
tear the whole thing down andbuild a 10-story building.
Right?
So, on a high level, that's thenumber one piece of advice that
I would give executives,decision makers, as you plan
this out.
You don't have to do it all atonce.
Don't let anybody make you piletoo much into the initial
project.
That can be daunting and thatcan be a pitfall as well.

(13:59):
Right, change management iscritical.
If you change everything atonce, you have a lot of internal
bandwidth required to do that.
You have a lot of changemanagement challenges with
people changing everything atonce.
So you don't have to do thateither, but you do have to have
a plan, and you better make surethat that first step has the

(14:19):
long-term vision in mind, or youend up boxing yourself in.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Does a conversation have to start internally before
they even start looking forpartners and such?

Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah, 100%.
So how can you make a plan forhow we're going to get somewhere
until you know where you wantto go?
And that has to happeninternally.
Now it may be valuable to askfor the advice of some
technology partners.
Don't let them get you into ahigh pressure.
Sign by the end of the month,sign by the end of the year, get

(14:52):
a big discount type scenario,because it's not in your best
interest, right.
But you can glean some advicefrom the right people.
And certainly that needs tostart internally.
And one part of that isinforming the organization very
early.
And this has to start earlierthan most people think that the

(15:15):
change is coming.
And you can tell people changeis coming.
And hey, we are changing ourERP, we are changing our CRM
coming.
And hey, we are changing ourerp, we are changing our crm.
So anyone who has kids, right,you tell them to do something,
go do this.
It's the first question they'regoing to ask in turn, like this
, for your internal people,what's the first question your

(15:35):
kids are going to ask why, why?
Yeah, every time, right.
So you better be ready toanswer that for your people in a
meaningful way.
We are changing because we're onancient technology.
We can't aggregate data anddrive business decisions with
our data.
We are at security risk becausewe're at an old on-prem system

(15:59):
that is ripe for cyber attack.
We're falling behind ourcompetitors.
They're upgrading, they'regetting their data in order and
preparing for taking advantageof all the great competitive
advantages that AI is going topresent that maybe we don't even
know what those are going to beyet.
But you better be ready.
You can't be on disparateon-prem systems with half your

(16:22):
data in Excel and expect to gotake advantage of the AI that's
coming down the track, becausewe won't be ready to do that.
So, explaining the why toeverybody in the organization
we're changing, we're going togo evaluate solutions.
Here's why we're doing it.
It's important because yourpeople will sometimes have some
apprehension, right?
Hey, people will sometimes havesome apprehension, right?

(16:43):
Hey, we've been using our AS400.
We've been using GP for 20years.
It works just fine.
Why are you trying to ruin mylife, right?
I mean, you've got to explainthat internally if you're going
to have buy-in.
So it goes beyond that, right,it goes beyond just why are we

(17:05):
doing it as an organization?
But how does it impact me?
I'm the AP clerk and you'retelling me we're going to
implement, you know, apautomation.
That concerns me, right?
You know I've been writingpaper pick tickets in the
warehouse for 15 years and youwant me to use a scanner.

(17:28):
Like, why am I doing this?
I'm a salesperson who has thisgreat notebook with all my notes
on it and I don't need a CRM.
You have to explain, like, well, here's what's in it for you,
right?
You have all these, you haveall these notes in your notebook
.
If you can, if you can, getthat into a system and allow it

(17:49):
to prioritize your tasks for youand track your notes and update
you when it's time to contactsomebody and prioritize which
opportunities might be mostviable, it's going to help you
close more business.
It's going to help put money inyour pocket.
Just as an example on the CRMside, right, people need that.

(18:11):
What's in it for me, right?
Wiifm if you guys have heardthat acronym like what's in it
for me and that's, you have toalways put yourself in someone
else's shoes and think of itfrom their perspective.
Why are we changing as anorganization?
It works fine.
Well, here's why.
Well, how's it going to impactme?
Here's how it's going to impactyou.
It's going to be positive,right?
So I think those are some.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Definitely, you know, to answer your question, you've
got to start that conversationinternally very early, that is
so important and oftenoverlooked, because some of the
most successful implementationsI have seen have been those
implementations that includedthe individuals that are going

(18:52):
to actually go through thejourney with them, because they
have some what do people say?
User adoption or useracceptance, in a sense, because
if they understand and they feel, if they're part of it, they're
going to work better to youknow, help, make it successful
and understand instead of beingapprehensive and maybe
potentially having, as you hadmentioned, maybe some fear of

(19:15):
the new system, because theyhave been using that AS400
system for 15 years and now youwant me to use a new system.
I'll be uncomfortable, you know, like to fish out of water, as
they kind of say.
So now what's going to happen?
I'm not going to be able to domy job.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
So it's a question on that when you're talking about
change management, what is itfor them?
Who?
Who should deliver that message?
So, especially when there's abig change coming and, um, you
know you're going to have totalk to individuals or
individuals who are going to beaffected by this change, who
should deliver that message?

Speaker 3 (19:51):
In my opinion, the first message should come from
the top.
It should be maybe it's anemail, maybe you have a monthly
or quarterly company meetingwith everybody on board and
you're updating here's thestatus of the organization and
here's where we're at.
And we do that internally andour CEO, kristen, leads that.

(20:14):
She talks about the big thingsfirst.
Right, here's where we're going.
She's the captain of the ship,right?
So where are we going?
First of all, in general, andwhy.
I think that message best comesfrom senior leadership, maybe
even all the way at the top,like if we were going to make
that change internally, I couldtell you right now Kristen would

(20:34):
be the one to announce ithere's where we're going, guys.
But then some of the moregranular stuff you know, like
announce it, here's where we'regoing, guys.
But then some of the moregranular stuff you know, like
you know, how does it affect mepersonally?
That probably needs to comefrom someone who more directly
manages your role, right, yourdirect report, maybe, or
somebody, maybe a sales VP or amarketing VP or COO or somebody

(20:57):
one level down to.
Hey, let's disseminate this ona more granular level.
But the why is also probablyimportant to come from the top.
It can't be.
Hey guys, we're moving off ofour AS400.
We need to get on a cloud-basedsystem.
So thanks for coming.
It can't be that right.
It has to be all the thingsthat we talked about.

(21:19):
Here's why our competitors aregetting ahead of us.
We're not able to takeadvantage of our data, we have
security risks.
We're all in the same boat,literally together as an
organization.
So here's why we need to steerit in a new direction, from a
technological, but technologystack foundation.
You know, from a technologystack perspective, I should say,
and that should come from thetop.

(21:41):
But then, as you get moregranular, well, how is it going
to impact me personally?
Also, how are you going toempower me to use this new stuff
and that's a big part of it aswell Are you going, you know, am
I just going to be expected towatch a few YouTube videos?
Are you going to give mehands-on training?
Are we going to haveconsultants on site when we go
live?
Those things are going to begoing through your people's head

(22:03):
.
So, after you get through the,here's what we're doing and
here's why we're doing it, andhere's how it's going to impact
you.
Well then it's well, here's howwe're going to help you succeed
in doing it.
That part of it comes next.
I mean, how are you going toempower me to do it?
So that's probably not the CEOactually telling the AP clerk.
Here's how we're going to helpyou do it, or here's how it's

(22:24):
going to impact your particularjob, and that's a few levels
down.
I would say.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
I love the clarification in that because
you're right, the first messageshould come from the top
executive, either the CEO orsomebody at the C-suite or VP
level that can relay the messageof why the big change is
happening as an organization andwhere the company is going.
And you clarified that from theindividual standpoint of what

(22:53):
is it.
For me, it needs to come fromtheir direct who they directly
report to, because then you knowthey interact with them more
than they interact with the CEO.
So I appreciate theclarification.
There's always been kind ofconfusion of like who should be
delivering that message forpeople that are, you know, that
uses the application all thetime.

(23:14):
You know, how is that going toaffect my job, the director?
You know the supervisor shouldbe working with them and they
have to be on the same page,right?
They have to believe thischange is important for the
organization.
So when it trickles down tothat individual person they
don't feel like they're.

(23:34):
You know they're alone, thatthey're hearing it from their
direct supervisor.
This change is amazing, sosomeone has to champion that
change as well.
It has to go all the way downto your supervisor so that your
people that are using it theydon't feel like you know, oh
crap, I should be looking for anew job or something like that.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, absolutely Christopher.
And there's one more levelthere where the CEO has to be
aligned with the next layer ofmanagement, because you can't
have each manager making theirown decisions either.
We're still pointing this shipin the right direction.
Right, we're going to theBahamas one way or another.
And if one department wants togo to Bermuda and one department

(24:15):
wants to go to Key Largo, it'snot where we're going.
Department wants to go to KeyLargo, that's not where we're
going.
So that CEO has to empowertheir managers to say here's
where we're going, guys, andhere's why and here's how it's
going to affect you.
And that is critical.
I remember a project recentlywhere there was one individual
who was very used to doingthings a certain way for quite a

(24:37):
long time.
And when the project startedunfolding and we started
explaining, well, this is howwe're going to do it in Business
Central, there's an immediateroadblock.
No, we're not going to do it.
That way is what the commentwas.
And this you know.
I was having this conversationwith the project manager the
other day.
That's very dangerous.

(24:58):
And she said you know, nomatter what we're doing it,
we've got to do it this way.
Now, this is someone who is oneor two pegs down in the
organization, throwing up aroadblock.
That's a red flag in a project,right?
So as a technology partner, weowe it to senior leadership to
align with them and say, hey,your person's asking for this,

(25:22):
there's a perfectly reasonableway to do it with the
out-of-the-box software.
They want us to do amodification that's going to
cost quite a lot and really kindof, you know, cause long-term
care and feeding as theseupdates come out.
And you know, philosophicallywe're totally against
customizing the system in orderto meet everybody's unique needs

(25:42):
.
There needs to be some adoptionof best practice.
So it's our job as a technologypartner to raise that concern
with the C-level executives andsay, hey, here's what your
person's asking for and here'swhat we're telling them, and
here's why writing a bunch ofcustom code to do it exactly the
way this one person wants to dois a bad idea.
So that goes along with thechange management.

(26:04):
If you want to control timelineand budget in a project, it's
the only way to do it.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah, does the individuals, and I thank you for
pointing that out, because it'simportant to have awareness of
what's going on also at thelevels of the implementation, as
you had stated.
That's one of the questions Iactually wanted to speak with
you about is how can you handleor prevent that and you had
mentioned from the technologypartner point of view bring that
information to the leadershipteam or the stakeholders for the

(26:35):
project?
What about internally?
Is there something that youcould suggest within the change
management process to helpminimize the roadblocks that may
sometimes derail an entireproject, because you can't have
one or two people that createsuch a challenging roadblock,
either through modifications orsaying that they're incapable of

(26:56):
doing their job now because ofthis, and it can cause some
problems for an implementationand for an organization.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
You know, all of these changemanagement aspects kind of build
on doing that, but when itcomes down to it, it's about
communication and explaining toan individual, and this should
come from that individual's boss, probably, or direct report,
depending on your organizationalstructure.
Here's why what you're askingfor is not in line with our

(27:32):
vision that our CEO laid out onthe company meeting two months
ago.
It's going to be costly, it'ssoftware as a service, it's a
cloud-based solution that'supdated every two times a year.
So they may not know that right, they may not know the why
behind it and they may notunderstand why it's a pitfall.

(27:54):
So you have to be prepared tohave the conversation and
communicate effectively.
So I'm going to give youanother quote here, brad, and
this one I love.
It's my favorite.
In all walks of life, right, butespecially in business, the
main problem in communication isthe illusion that it's already
happened.
So if these people don't knowwhy it's a bad idea, there you

(28:18):
go, it's three.
So if they don't know why it'sa bad idea, they're going to
push back harder.
But again, getting down to thewhy and not assuming that they
know, customization's an ERPpitfall and we want to leverage
best practices and it's going tocause problem with updates and
all of these other reasons thatthe three of us, and probably a

(28:41):
lot of the people listening tothis podcast, already know that
these are pitfalls.
Well, this person who's askingfor this modification to make
the system do exactly what theirold system did for 15 years,
they don't understand that.
They just say, hey, this is howI operate, I need the system to
do it.
And they cross their arms andstomp their feet, explaining the

(29:02):
reasoning to them andcommunicating what you already
know and you live, eat, sleepand breathe this stuff every day
as an ERP pro.
They don't know that stuff.
They're not an ERP pro.
This is the first time they'vebeen through an ERP project ever
.
Maybe, or maybe, you know,maybe they did one 15 years ago.
So I think that that's where itcomes in.

(29:23):
If you want to break down thosebarriers, to change this method
of you know, announcing ithere's why.
And then you know here's howit's going to affect you.
And no, we're not going torebuild the old system.
And here's why we're not goingto rebuild the old system.
That's the only way to breakthose barriers down.
And hey, man, I've seen it.
We've gotten projects that havegone back to Microsoft and they

(29:48):
say Business Central's terribleproduct or the partner blew it.
Maybe it could be one reason oranother.
And then Microsoft, sometimesthey'll bring those projects to
us We've been doing this for solong and we'll get a hold of it
and we'll say where are you inthe process right now?
Before we can help you, we needto understand where in the

(30:11):
process your company is and whatbroke down, and sometimes the
users haven't been in the systemuntil it's time for UAT.
That's a big problem, you know,because all of these things
that we've been talking aboutare going to rush to the surface
as you're trying to go live, asyou're trying to prepare to go

(30:32):
live, right, and so it needs tohappen.
To go back to what Christopherasked earlier way before the
project even begins internally,that alignment needs to happen.
Then you got to get the usersin the system early and let them
air their grievances and thenexplain the why and here's why
we're approaching it a certainway and how they're going to

(30:53):
still achieve their samebusiness processes, maybe
through a new method, followingthe best practices that the
system allows them to do.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah, so many things are going through my mind and
speaking of UAT and useracceptance testings, one of the
challenges or the questions thatI hear or see when someone's
switching to a new system and Iuse the word switching loosely
there, it could be moving fromanother ERP software system to
something in the MicrosoftDynamics stack or even upgrading

(31:25):
from a previous version is theusers have a full-time position
now working with theirapplication or in the business
to get orders shipped, to getvendors paid, whatever their
function may be within anorganization.
What is a good approach togiving them the opportunity to

(31:45):
get into the application and beable to work with the
application while stillfunctioning within the business,
and how much time shouldsomeone expect to be able to, or
should they allocate forsomeone to be able to work with
and be comfortable with thesystem in its infancy and then
back when you're in the UATphase just about to go live?

Speaker 3 (32:03):
Yeah, I mean these are great questions.
So you nailed the number onething that you need to do to
allow users to get into thesystem, and that's providing
them the time to do that.
I wouldn't recommend startingan ERP project or finishing one
during your busy season.
If you have seasonality in yourbusiness, you need to talk to

(32:24):
your technology partner aboutwhere are the subject matter
experts going to be needed.
Is it on the front end, is iton the back end, is it in the
middle?
And typically I find thatthat's on the front end and the
back end more so than in themiddle, where we're building the
system right.
If we're doing customdevelopment or integrations or
configurations, those decisionsare made through analysis

(32:46):
sessions and design sessions onthe front end and then they're
solidified on the back end indeploying the system prepping
for go live, testing andtraining and that's where your
heavy usage is going to be.
So I find that if people arealready, if your people are
already maxed out, you can't putan ERP project on top of them.
You know to add to what they'realready.

(33:09):
You know unable to keep up withand that may mean bringing some
temporary help on.
That may mean you knowprioritizing projects and doing
things one at a time.
So, along those lines, I'vefound hiring temporary help or
even semi-permanent to permanenthelp is better done to backfill

(33:33):
the day-to-day jobs of yourpeople and let them the people
who are going to use the systemlong-term focus on the project.
If you're going to staff up fora project, right, don't staff
up and have temporary peopleworking on the project.
This is what you're going to beliving with for a long time.
So if you're going to have toincrease staff to do a project,

(33:56):
I would say backfill the mundanestuff, the day-to-day, and then
free up your people's time tofocus on a very important
investment In European man.
It is an important investment.
It's costly, it's risky, it'stime-consuming, it can make or
break some businesses.
I mean you've got to invest theappropriate amount of time to

(34:20):
do that.
Now, that does vary by job role.
You know you're going to haveyour subject matter experts in
each area that are going toreally own the processes and
under normal methodology, theywill be disseminating that
information later on to some ofthe other end users.
So it's not as if everybody inyour organization needs to
dedicate you know percentage oftheir day.

(34:40):
You know your subject matterexperts, though, you should
probably plan on the front endof a project analysis and design
25% of your day.
If you're a subject matterexpert doing an ERP project
maybe a little bit conservative,but I mean, you know
shortcutting that is at your ownperil.
Conservative, but I mean, youknow, shortcutting that is at

(35:02):
your own peril.
Now, if you're the internalproject manager for a client,
which is a critical role andsometimes this comes as a
surprise to clients who, orprospective clients who, are
saying, well, what do you needfrom my people?
Well, we need someone to be aninternal project manager.
Okay, I thought you guys weregoing to manage a project.
Well, yeah, we are.
We're going to manage thebudget and we're going to manage
the resources and we're goingto manage risks in analysis

(35:25):
sessions, to take part in designsessions.
Somebody at that PM level shouldbe empowered, whether it's

(35:48):
directly or through directaccess to the decision makers,
to make those design decisionsand not stick a project in
neutral as we're making thesedecisions.
I've seen it happen.
I had a project.
They were very passionate aboutthe end go-live date.
There were some criticalreasons.

(36:08):
They wanted to go live.
The project got stuck in designfor eight weeks on one decision
where the whole solutionpivoted on it.
Right, if you don't havesomebody empowered to quickly
move this stuff, there's nopartner in the world that can
control your timeline.
I mean, we're waiting for themfor two months and that goes

(36:29):
both ways, you know.
But I would say that you knowempowering that PM internally
and that PM better have 50%minimum of their time devoted to
the project for the duration.
And if it's a big company witha big project, it should be
dedicated.
I mean this is businesscritical stuff.

(36:50):
So SMEs, maybe 25% on the frontend of the project, 25% on the
back end.
As you approach GoLive, thatmight ramp up a little bit.
You know you're going throughUAT and you're really getting
ready PMs I mean they should,this should be their main focus,
that the internal client sidePM who's going to herd the cats
on the client side, so to speak,and make sure everybody's doing

(37:10):
what they need to do.
That should be their, theirsole focus really during a
project.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
You made a point there about giving them time to
work on this implementation ofbringing a brand new ERP, and I
did a session on this early thisyear, beginning this year, even
late last year in some of theconferences and one of the

(37:42):
statistics I found, I think,through oakcom that focus on
change management and theeffects of change management if
you don't do it.
It's stated that 75% ofemployees that are going through
ERP implementation or evenchanges in the organization
suffers from moderate to highlevel stress.
So think about that.
When you don't give them timeto work on this ERP
implementation, 75% of your teammembers or employees that are

(38:03):
part of that project arestressing out and interestingly
enough, that 18% of that alsothe same statistics here, the
same source 18% of that leavework or quit during an ERP
implementation.
So nearly 20%.

(38:25):
So if you have 10 team members,two of them is more likely
going to quit if you don't haveproper change management.
So that's very important toconsider.
And if they do leave even oneperson leave that's critical to
that group.
That will take you back.
That's going to push yourproject a little further.
Now you're going to find a newsubject matter expert or even

(38:46):
the person that is supposed tohelp decide of how you can, how
you're supposed to architectyour business process, leaves.
That is a significant loss to aproject yeah, no question.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
And think about everything you've invested in
getting that.
You know, freeing that personup and paying consultants to
work with them, and they'vebuilt up all this knowledge and
they've provided all thisinsight, and then they get burnt
out and walk out the door.
Yeah, christopher, great point.
I mean that's a massivebusiness impact.
Think about the cost forsomething like that.

(39:20):
It's hard to quantify, but it'shuge.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
The stress is important, which goes back as
you're going through the process.
What type of feedback system orsupport system do you see
helpful in an implementationduring post, pre, post and pre,
and then also during the UATphase of an implementation?

Speaker 3 (39:44):
So are you talking about an internal feedback
system for the client, or maybebetween the client and the
partner?

Speaker 1 (39:50):
I think both, because we're talking about the changes
that an organization is goingto undertake, and change will
occur at all levels of it.
It will be the individuals thatare at the executive level, the
individuals that are doing thetask in the various departments
and we talked about how someonecould be a roadblock Chris had
mentioned about stress levelswithin there and then also, if

(40:13):
someone's going through it, thenwe're looking for user adoption
.
How can we enhance or what canwe put in place for a feedback
loop and a support loop to helpminimize the challenges that
we're going to have through anERP implementation?

Speaker 3 (40:27):
Yeah, sure.
So between the partner and thecustomer.
I'll start there.
You've got to have a cadence ofstatus right.
Status meetings, stand-upscould be a steer co-meeting.
Not every organization is bigenough to have a steer co.
A steer co essentially what itis.
You have the key decisionmakers, the key executive

(40:48):
sponsors, the project managerson a meeting and you're
providing the whole point of itis candid feedback.
Now, in a status meeting itmight be a bit more granular,
and so, for instance, ours, youknow, it's how we color code it,
right.
How are we doing on timeline?
Is it red, is it yellow, is itgreen?
How are we doing on budget?

(41:11):
What are our risks?
And then, how are we doing onteam morale, which is what we're
talking about here.
Right, what is the pulse ofyour people right now?
And that's a subjectiveconversation.
Typically, and very commonly,that conversation starts with
our team providing feedback toleadership from the client on.

(41:33):
Here's what I'm getting fromyour people, and I'm sensing
some pushback on a certainprocess, like the example I gave
earlier, wanting to over-modifyto meet a particular use case
that could be better handled outof the box.
That's a red flag that has tobe raised and it goes back to
communication in a statusmeeting and those should be

(41:56):
common Every two weeks at aminimum.
Let's get together, let's talkabout the risks and let's talk
about the timeline and themorale.
Let us tell you what we'reseeing and hearing and you tell
us what you're seeing andhearing from your people.
Now the steer code is a bitdifferent.
It's somewhat higher level.
Maybe once a month and maybeonce every two months, and that

(42:20):
is okay.
On the executive level, here'swhere the project's going.
We're generally pointing ourboat in the right direction and,
you know, maybe at that point,hey, we need some more executive
level change management to helpus through this process.
If we're going to help youthat's a conversation that I've
had many times, you know, comingfrom analysis into design hey,

(42:44):
we need to control the budgethere.
Okay, well, if we're going tocontrol the budget, we need your
help to help your peopleunderstand why we're doing this
the way we're doing it, whywe're not rebuilding the custom
Salesforce application that'sbeen in place for 15 years and
you know it's just right, inline with everything we've been

(43:04):
talking about Now.
Internally, obviously, yourpeople have to have some type of
forum to talk to your internaldecision makers, project leads.
That could be the project PM askind of an initial stage like,
hey, here's my concern, here'swhat I'm feeling, and I would

(43:26):
say, you know, not onlyempowering people to do that.
Maybe you have internalmeetings every other week, how's
the project going?
Maybe it's a survey, you know,send a survey, monkey out and
say, well, what are yourfeelings on the project right
now, what are your concerns, andget that feedback internally
right, and you have to not onlyempower people to do it, but you

(43:48):
have to encourage people to doit.
You have to maybe incentivizethem some way.
Fill out the survey, get a $10Starbucks gift card, whatever it
might be.
Or, again, it goes back toexplaining why, hey, we need to
hear what you're feeling on thisproject, because we don't want
to continue to go down a paththat's causing angst.
We need to know, though, down apath that's causing angst.

(44:11):
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 leastencouragement.
Hey, give us your feedback onthe project and then, once you
get that, as a PM, you can inturn, you know, communicate that
to your project team throughthe status meeting or through
the SteerCo, and provide that,hey, here's what we're hearing.
And then you match that up withthe partners, who, typically

(44:32):
consultants, can be prettyopinionated, you know, and
that's for good reason.
These people are professionals,They've done sometimes 100
projects or more in their lifeand they've seen this kind of
stuff happen and they need tosay look, here's what we're
seeing.
I'm seeing a red flag here, I'mseeing a red flag there.
And it goes back tocommunicating with each other.

(44:53):
You can't assume that one partyknows what the other knows,
because usually it's not thecase.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
That's some good.
I'm listening to what you'resaying and so many things are
going through my mind and somany experiences that I've had
that go along with what you'resaying and where some challenges
and some roadblocks had come inimplementations as we've been
talking.
I started to think about thisbecause you talked about budget,

(45:20):
you talked about go-live dates,you talked about changes to an
organization.
What's the advice to be able toproperly plan the timing of an
erp implementation and thebudget of an erp implementation,
because there's some variablesin there.

(45:41):
In my opinion, going throughsome projects and I'm just
looking for maybe some insightsfrom you you have individuals
that need to train, you haveindividuals that need to train.
You have individuals that needto test, you have designs, you
have testing itself.
You may have some remediationbecause something may not work
as they originally intended orthey may find that the process

(46:01):
could be slightly varied forbigger benefit.
What's the best approach totake to be able to one, plan the
budget, two, plan the duration,to be able to determine when to
go live?
Because it sounds to me Ryanbuild me a house, two stories,
two bedrooms, I want to move innext week and some people think

(46:21):
that oh, wow, okay, you can justdo it.
It's ERP software, just installit.
What are some realisticexpectations or processes that
someone should go to to get agood sense of what it takes, so
that they don't go over budget,they don't have a late
implementation?

Speaker 3 (46:42):
I know challenges arise but I look for the realism
.
Yeah, the house analogy.
I can't help but bring upsomething that our relatively
new VP of sales, ben Volte,brought up the other day when we
were in our internal salesmarketing retreat and he said if
somebody asks you for a budget,he brought up the house analogy
that you just did.
He said well, I can build you atwo-story house, brick, with

(47:08):
three bedrooms and two and ahalf bathrooms.
Here's roughly what it's goingto cost.
What I can't control is whenyou know your wife comes and
says well, here are the faucetsI want, and here's a tile I want
and here's the flooring that Iwant.
And that's what your job is asa leader to control those type

(47:30):
of nice-to-haves and peripheraltype stuff.
So the tendency when there's abig change is to say, okay,
we're changing, guys, we'regoing, we're on GP, it's end of
life, we're going to Dynamics365.
And then everybody from everydepartment says, well, here's
what I want, here's what I want,here's what I want, here's what

(47:50):
I want, because they thinkthat's their only chance and
that can absolutely impact time.
I mean not can it dramaticallyimpacts time and budget, right.
And so focusing on why you'remaking that change from a
leadership perspective andreining in the.

(48:11):
I want this, I want that fromeach department is really
important in the first stage,Assuming that there is a target
timeline and there always is atarget budget.
Right, you've got to say, well,hey, listen, we're using GP for
accounts receivable, accountspayable and GL.

(48:32):
And yeah, maybe we want to useDynamics 365 for more, maybe we
want to expand it into theoperational side of the house
and maybe we want to have avendor portal and connect our
e-commerce website.
Well, if timeline and budgetare constraints, you say let's

(48:52):
focus on what we need to dofirst.
Let's get GL and AP and AR intoDynamics 365.
Could be Business Central,could be F&O.
I've seen GP clients move toboth.
Now I will caveat that and sayyou do like we talked about
earlier.
If you're only going to replaceone for one, what you have now,
need to have the long-term goalin mind and make sure that

(49:16):
you're setting that properfoundation with a roadmap.
And that might mean a heavieranalysis and design phase where
you plan everything out and thenyou deploy your core business
reason.
Why did we make this change?
You know, yes, your marketingperson's asking for automation
and your sales VP wants CRMintegration, but you don't have

(49:37):
any of these things.
Now, you know, maybe you'reproducing.
I've seen people I mean, I knowyou've seen it guys Like, hey,
how are you managing yourproduction?
Schedule, whiteboard Excel Okaywell, we have to have it in
phase one.
Why You're schedule whiteboardexcel okay well, we have to have
it in phase one.
Why you're doing it this way.
Now, right, so focus, why areyou making this change?
And let's do that.
And let's absolutely plan forthe rest and execute it in

(50:01):
chunks and phases if need be.
Here's what it looks like if wedo it all at once, timeline and
budget wise.
And here's what it looks likeif we, if we kind of chunk it
out and you know, maybe there'sa business critical event coming
, like that's what I always tryto get down to.
So here's what I hear.
I want to go live January 1stand I asked this question.
Every time I hear that and Itypically already know the

(50:22):
answer.
What do you guys, what do youtypically hear around that?
Do you ever hear that?
Oh, I hear that all the time,and the reason is typically
that's when my fiscal year ends.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
Which to a consultant implementing this stuff does
not matter.
We have done over a thousandprojects at Western Computer.
Very, very few of them havegone live January 1st.
First of all, I mean I knoweveryone's fiscal calendar is
not January 1st, but going liveon the fiscal year is not
important in an ERP project.
We can, absolutely.

(50:55):
We have tools to do GL.
You know true ups and measurenet change.
We can navigate that and donavigate that on every project,
and so that is not really avalid reason to constrain your
organization around an arbitrarytimeline.
People think it is, but it'snot.
Constrain your organizationaround a an arbitrary timeline
people think it is, but it's not, and it affects your people.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
By the way, january 1st is around the holidays.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
It screws everyone up that don't want to go to work
time because it's the worst timeto go it is you have vacations,
you have holidays, people beingstressed out about gifts and
stuff.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
So you saying january 1st, chris and I had this
conversation recently about thatit is, it's you.
Just, you know, you just haveto pick a realistic date and
think of the other constraintsthat are also occurring.
And if January 1st is the date,there has to be a reason other
than, oh, it's the best time ofyear to do it, or it's our year
end, as you had mentioned.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Yeah.
So so you know, if you putthose arbitrary constraints
around your project, you're notgoing to make the most efficient
decisions for your organization.
Now maybe, on the other hand,you've got a more real reason.
Maybe my renewal for my ERPapplication is coming up and if

(52:08):
I go past August 31st I'm goingto be automatically signed up
for three more years and I needa system to run my business.
That's a situation where youreally need to boil it down to
requirements.
We call it the MVP deploymentright Minimum viable product.
And what do I need to makehappen?

(52:29):
And how do we work togetherBecause it is cannot be all
partner guys.
I mean, this is a two way street.
What do we collaboratively needto do to make that date happen?
Because that's a real date.
Or I've seen, if you ever heard, of a TSA, which is essentially
an agreement when you'redivested from a company and
you're and they say we are goingto give you a TSA I forget the

(52:52):
acronym, technology servicesagreement or something like that
but basically what it does isit says, okay, we're spinning
your company off and you couldstay on our systems until X date
.
That's a real reason to have ahard and fast go live date,
you're not going to have asystem to run right.
Or maybe there's someexorbitant fee or penalty you're

(53:13):
going to have to pay if you gopast that date.
Fiscal year is not one, sodon't constrain yourself based
on that but some of these otherreasons.
If you have those dates, youhave to be willing to boil it
down to business critical.
What do we need to go live?
Don't shortcut yourself and boxyourself in by foregoing the
long-term vision that stillneeds to happen.

(53:34):
But then you know the nice tohaves and the peripheral stuff
and everyone raising their handand saying what they want.
That's going to have to wait inthose types of scenarios if you
want to control the timelineand budget.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
I love the analogy of building a home, brad, and I
use that quite a bit, but aquick short story of using the
deck analogy as well, becauseit's not just an analogy.
That's what I'm going throughright now, setting up a timeline
.
When I bought this house, ithas a pretty huge deck.

(54:05):
I think Brad's seen it.
It's almost 1,600 square feetdeck.
It's massive, and this housewas built in the early 90 90s
and so we have to replace it.
Does it still work?
Absolutely, it's like an erpsystem, like current erp.
Can it still work?
Yeah, I can still stand on it.
You know you still host thingslike that, but eventually you're
gonna have to replace it, rightand and because of safety

(54:28):
reasons and things like that.
So when you're budgeting stufflike this and ERP implementation
, similar to budgeting a deck,we have a range and then but you
also don't understand, youdon't know the underlying issues
as well.
So like, let's say, they starttaking it apart and they realize
you may have to change some ofthese beams and so forth and so
forth.
So you have to consider thosegotchas and maybe a little bit

(54:51):
of leeway.
You know, maybe 10%, 15, 20% ofbudget overrun, which is, by
the way.
It's common in ERPimplementation, there's always
going to be an ERP budgetoverrun.
But I had a timeline in mind.
You know, it's like I want tobe able to enjoy it in the
summer.
So I'm like asking these guysnow I'm becoming like some

(55:12):
clients, right, I'm becomingsome like that Like I need to
get this done in like two monthsbecause summer's around the
corner, I need to be able toenjoy this thing.
And they're like no, that's notrealistic, because you may have
some permitting and all thatstuff.
And so I have to remember islike maybe a good time is to get

(55:32):
it done after summer, whereit's not much quieter and I can
actually make some changes alongthe way.
Like you said, my wife wants tohave better railings and stuff
like that.
So those things to consider aswell.
But budgeting is really reallytough.
But you have to give it alittle bit of range and plus
minus.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Budgeting and scheduling is a challenge for
the points you make and I do.
I always say ERP implementationsis a house build or house
remodel and you know what youwant and you have to figure.
And, ryan, you hit on someother key points.
The partner works with youthrough the implementation, but
you live with it after theimplementation and a lot of
implementations I see havestruggles.

(56:14):
They put a lot of it more ontothe partner.
Now the partner can guide you,the partner can do the work to
help you get it running, butthey're not there using the
system day to day.
Nor should they be, becausethey're there to help you
implement.
So your comment about thepartner working with them but
it's their system that they haveto accept and to use, to going

(56:35):
forward, is important, and I hada million other things I wanted
to say and, as usual, it goesright outside of my brain.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
I love the deck analogy.
I mean house analogy.
Take your pick, but I'mthinking you know, christopher,
while you're explaining the deck, I'm thinking you know what is
the risk if you don't do that.
And that is very much akin tosomebody on an old on-premise
SQL server.
I've seen it happen.
On-premise servers are ripe forcyber attack guys and I've seen

(57:05):
it several times.
In the middle of deciding howare we going to do ERP, how are
we going to get to the cloud?
Hacked, can't ship, can'tinvoice, can't pay vendors I
mean business ground to a haltand the cost of that is
tremendous.
So you know, don't wait untilthe deck falls off the house.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
You know someone get hurt, it's too late, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
It's too late.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
right, it's absolutely true.
I've seen that inimplementation with somebody
they did.
They had ransomware on theirsystem during an implementation
because of whatever reason, andthey had to spend a lot of money
getting their system intactbefore they could even do the
implementation.
The other key point that youmade, too, was again with the
house analogy and what I likedwhat you had is do what you need

(57:52):
to get the business operational.
All the stuff that you may notbe doing now.
Have a roadmap to get therebecause they could delay you.
You're already going throughenough changes, as it is through
a new system, that if you cankeep some of those workflows in
place with the understandingthat you're going to gain some
efficiencies, obviously there'sa reason why someone's switching
, like you had mentioned, thatyou're going to gain some
efficiencies.
Obviously there's a reason whysomeone's switching, like you

(58:13):
had mentioned.
It could be because of, likeyou had mentioned, if you're not
going to have a system if youhad grown, if you're looking for
operational efficiencies anumber of different reasons why
people switch.
But having that roadmap isextremely important because
these oh, I can do this.
Oh, I can do that.
If you're going through animplementation it this, oh, I
can do that as you're goingthrough an implementation throws

(58:34):
the entire implementation off,and I have seen it because they
see all this cool stuff that thenew system has that they don't
even do today, not to say thatthey can't grow or their
business can't change theirprocesses to utilize those new
features, but the morecomplexity and changes that you
add to it can also slow down theimplementation.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
so you're, they get hung up with the appliances
brand.
That's what takes forever,exactly.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
And they forget that the roof still hasn't been put
on and it's leaking and they'retied up about the appliances
which can go in after the houseis built, exactly Even after you
move in.
See, I use the house model andremodel with everyone I speak
with for these reasons, becauseyou can move into a house and
have shiny appliances afterwards, but you still can have a
little portable refrigerator tokeep things cool as you're

(59:16):
moving into the house and you'refilling it out but that's what
we deal with right with the erpimplementation.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Somehow everyone's already want to know what kind
of couches and appliances theywant to put in there, and and
all that and how it's structured.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
Well, they get excited, so you can put a
picture on the wall of the couchand all this other stuff and
say you will get there, butlet's not lose sight of we need
to move in and get there.
Yeah, speaking of all of this,we think about user adoption, we
think about EAP implementations.
How can you measure useradoption?

(59:51):
And also, what is and how doyou measure a successful ERP
implementation?

Speaker 3 (59:59):
Those metrics have to be identified ahead of time and
they're different.
Erp is different than CRM.
I know you guys are ERP guys.
I kind of span both and just totouch on that briefly, I will
say ERP user adoption is easierto drive because it's required.
You've got a chip, you've gotan invoice, you've got to pay
your vendors, you've got toreceive your inventory or you

(01:00:20):
can't run your business.
Crm, you better have a plan tohave adoption or it will sit and
collect dust and you will havean expensive, you know Rolodex
in a digital format.
So, establishing metrics aheadof time, what do we hope to get
out of this implementation?
Do we hope to, you know,decrease our day sales

(01:00:42):
outstanding or optimize ourinventory 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'ssitting unused, which has a cost
, or we don't have sales thatcan maybe not be fulfilled
because we don't have enoughinventory, or maybe we want to
be able for a manufacturer Ihear this all the time we want
to be able to measure ouravailability to promise.

(01:01:03):
So somebody calls our salesteam and says, hey, I need a
widget by July 1st, six weeksfrom now.
Can you do it?
I don't know.
Let me go consult thewhiteboard, right?
Well, all of those parametersare able to be set up in the ERP
and if your goal is to achieveavailability to promise, the

(01:01:26):
tools are there in any modernERP not any, but Dynamics,
certainly.
And you know, if the inputsaren't put in right vendor lead
time and capacity on the shopfloor and planned production
orders and all of this dataneeds to still be input.

(01:01:52):
I was sitting in a conferenceroom a couple months ago I'm not
going to say where because thatmight give my customer away
here but we were going throughall of the ways to calculate
availability to promise for themand they said, oh, yeah, yeah,
we have that in our system now.
Okay, then where's?
Why aren't you available topromise?
Well, we don't, we don't inputany of the data.

(01:02:13):
We don't.
You don't use it.
Okay, a system's not going tofix that.
Guys, you know, you've got to.
You've got to mandate thisinternally in some way.
We can't make your people do it.
We could teach them how to doit, but but defining some kind
of metrics and goals KPIs,whatever you want to call them
like hey, our goal coming out ofthis is to be able, when our

(01:02:36):
salesperson asks us for anavailability, to promise a
widget delivery that we canactually give them a concrete
number.
Right, that's more of a vagueKPI, you know metrics.
Like, we want to reduce ourinventory on hand by 25% and
still be able to fulfill oursales goals.
Right, that's more of a hardmetric, but those should be

(01:02:56):
established ahead of the projectand then measured after the
project.
Maybe there's some kind ofincentive tied to it, bonus
structure, some kind ofperformance measurement, maybe
not, maybe it's just more of ateam effort, right?
Hey, here's why we're doing it.
We want to be able to, you know, have a higher level of
customer satisfaction, and wecan't do that if we're just

(01:03:17):
guessing at, at availability, topromise and hoping that it
works out.
Hope is not a strategy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
There's number four hope is not a strategy.
That's your fourth quote I haveto write all these down.
When I watch this afterwards,I'm going to write all these
down.
When I watch this afterwards,I'm going to write all these
down.
I've been trying to get to them, but you're going too quickly.
Planning is so important andyou hit that even for the
measurement of the success,because that way you can say
it's successful.

(01:03:41):
So if you look back, if someonesays, oh, we're late or we're
doing this, or they feel it'sworse than it was I've gone
through implementations likethat, where they lost sight of
that it actually is successful,because they may have had some
challenges along the way, notsaying it was a bad experience,
but that planning is worthwhileand, just like building a house
or cutting wood, all thatplanning up front saves you in

(01:04:02):
the end.
Sometimes people want to cutcorners, 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 thefirst time, but you have the
time to do it three times afteryou go live or even fix, spend
months fixing the dataafterwards and, to your point
about, you can't get something.
Systems are a tool that you use.

(01:04:23):
Systems aren't going to dothings for you.
Because I hear these requests.
Well, I want a report thattells me this Well, you need to
enter the data, you have thedata.
I don't have time to enter thedata, I just need the system to
tell me this.
I can't tell you how many timesI hear similar scenarios.
And the reality is it's a toolfor you to use to become more
efficient or to get an output,not do the output for you.

(01:04:44):
Well, maybe in the future itwill do everything for us and we
don't need to do anything, butyeah, I love the house analogy
all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
It's like putting copper pipes rather than pecs.
You know pecs is better, but uh, hey, we got to do copper
because that's what we've alwaysbeen using.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
So yeah, yeah, why not just build all the house,
though, and then switch out thepipes, christopher?

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
I know, right, that's what people do, it's true right
, they're in the.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
they're in the drywall already or in the brick
already, so we've got to takethe whole wall down as well,
because you know you want to dothat you put the wrong pipes in
Well, mr Ryan, sir, and alsodon't cut yourself short on that
.
You do CRM and ERP, but you doso much more.
You deal with Business Central,F&O, f&scm, fx whatever they

(01:05:34):
call it today CRM, a little ofthe Azure stuff too.
So you do quite a bit andyou're quite knowledgeable with
it, and I appreciate all theinformation that you share with
us and I appreciate you fortaking the time to speak with us
today.
Time is truly the currency oflife, and any moment that
someone spends with us is amoment that they're not doing
something else.
We appreciate it and we valuethat.
If someone would like to get incontact with you to learn more
about change management, erpimplementations or how they can

(01:05:55):
have some more enhancements orfeatures through their ERP
implementation project, or howto even come up with an ERP
system to use, how can someonecontact you?

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
Yeah, sure.
So LinkedIn is tried and true.
There are not many RyanPoliniacs out there on LinkedIn,
so you can find me prettyeasily there.
You can email me, you know,first name dot.
Last name ryanpoliniac atwesterncomputercom.
Or, you know, come through ourwebsite.
We do have a chat.
That, admittedly, the veryfirst chat is about.

(01:06:23):
Hey, brad, thanks for coming by, can we help you?
But the second that you putsomething in the chat, you're
going to get one of our salesteam who are all seasoned pros
and they'll be able to answeryour questions and, and you know
, guide you and be your Sherpaalong this journey.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Absolutely.
You do have a great sales teamover there and a knowledgeable
staff that can a team.
I guess you could say that Ican help someone guide them
through the journey.
Again, thank you for your time.
We appreciate it and I lookforward to getting hiking with
you after your girls get olderand they're done with their
gymnastics career.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
Well, we'll try to squeeze it in before.
Yeah, absolutely, thank youagain, thanks guys.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
I look forward to seeing you soon.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
Thank you, Chris, for your time for another episode
of In the Dynamics Corner Chair.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
And thank you to our guests for participating.
Thank you, brad, for your time.
It is a wonderful episode ofDynamics Corner Chair.
I would also like to thank ourguests for joining us.
Thank you for all of ourlisteners tuning in as well.
You can find Brad atdeveloperlifecom, that is
D-V-L-P-R-L-I-F-E dot com, andyou can interact with them via
Twitter D-V-L-P-R-L-I-F-E.
You can also find me atMattalinoio, m-a-t-a-l-i-n-o dot

(01:07:43):
I-O, and my Twitter handle isMattalino16.
And you can see those linksdown below in the show notes.
Again, thank you everyone.
Thank you and take care.