Customizing Microsoft Dynamics GP? 5 Excuses You Will Want to Bury Once and For All!
In recent days I have been reading a number of articles on customizations, some from David Musgrave and Patrick Roth over at Developing for Dynamics GP, and multiple questions on the Microsoft Dynamics GP newsgroups, among others. All these articles and questions have a common theme: how and why we customize the system. The answer to this question may be apparent to many, but you would be surprised by some of the reasons companies engage in this practice.
When carefully planned, customizations can be the difference between a successful and smooth business operation and a system that only gets you 80% of the way, leaving you with exhausting manual processes and missing functionality. However, I have seen my fair share of customizations implemented for all the wrong reasons. Let's take a look at the typical reasons:
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Thoughts to live by, if you don't want ulcers or loose more hair
Amen, you are preachin to the choir on this one. As I have commented before, customs often radically reduce the ROI and set expectations that cause problems in the long run. It is tough to turn down a job in this economy, but some partners have lost their business in good times with these problems.
If the customer will not back down, try moving the initiative to a second or later phase. "Try it you'll like" pitch may get you the reprieve to get the project going where it should. Then pad the estimate to make sure you are covered and profitiable upfront, because this is the real exposure for turning a project unprofitable. Besides transfer the risk of the actual cost to the client, they may say that it is working okay as is and not worth the cost.
Clark