Five Tips to Successfully Managing Your Dynamics AX Partner Relationship

There's more to establishing a successful partner relationship than checking out a few references and web sites. Lots more.

The consensus at a lively AX User Group Summit 2010 session on "Managing Your Partner" was that users need to be fully engaged in any number of ways. "There is no single version of the truth," said Jonathan Stypula, IT project manager for United Conveyor Corp., a provider of material handling solutions. "Only through collaboration do you get the best product."

Here are five suggestions provided by Stypula and some of the 40 users and partners who attended the roundtable discussion:

1. Don't just check out partner references, check out the background of the individuals assigned to your project. Users are especially leery of inexperienced partner consultants working on their projects. Several users said they have demanded lower hourly rates for less experienced consultants. "I don't want to be paying to train someone," said one user.

2. Challenge your partner. A partner should be comfortable hearing a user's questions or comments that may come from attending a Dynamics conference or from speaking with other users.

3. Consider working with more than one partner. Stypula says he works with partners in India, Germany, and the U.S.  "I am so impressed with my partner in India, and the rates were nice, too." He noted that he had to investigate a fair amount while traveling in India to find good candidates.

4. Determine exactly what kinds of tasks you are willing to take on yourself. As one user put it, "Figure out what expertise you want to rent and what you want ...