The Dynamics Laggard, Part 2: Why Has Expertise for Microsoft Dynamics NAV Become So Scarce?

Veterans of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community contend that the parent company, Microsoft, must shoulder at least some of the responsibility for the difficulties now confronting partners and recruiters seeking to attract Dynamics NAV experts. 

Part 1 of this two-part series described the growing difficulties facing Dynamics NAV partners and customers in attracting top-quality expertise to oversee installation and customization projects for user of Dynamics NAV. 

"The NAV community is a big community and there are a lot of professionals but there seems to be more work out there then there are resources," said Marc DiGiorgio, VP of JustFoodERP, a Microsoft NAV partner. "So it's been a real challenge over the years. It's probably one of the biggest constraints to our business because right now we're looking to hire three or four people and it's really hard to find them. If you're looking for people with NAV experience, they're quite content living the lifestyle of a contractor, working on their own terms going from project to project just contracting. There's a huge community of those guys. That's not what we're interested in. We want employees."

DiGiorgio said the NAV professionals can be hard to recruit as employees because they like working on their terms and financially it's more lucrative for them to work as contractors than as employees.  Whenever possible, JustFoodERP has taken to cultivating its own talent.

"So what we focus on is taking consultants from other ERP applications or people who have experience with ERP and training them on NAV," he said. "We've had a lot of success taking people from the industry we focus-the food industry and if they have ERP experience ...