How Jobs in Microsoft Dynamics NAV Improve a Dynamics Partner’s Delivery and Execution

The following article is based on an excerpt of Mark Brummel's new book Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Application Design.

As professional services firms, Microsoft Dynamics NAV partners face various operational challenges in managing and scaling the delivery of their services to clients.  And like their clients, the partners themselves can benefit significantly from managing their critical business processes in Dynamics NAV.

The process

The two main processes for Microsoft Dynamics NAV partners are implementing new projects and providing services such as support and upgrades to existing customers. A third process is selling infrastructure and assembling computer systems, but this is an extra service, not the core business.

To support the projects (jobs) the company needs people, software licenses and hardware. The people (resources) need to be carefully planned on the projects as they are the least flexible part of the company. Hardware (items) and software licenses (G/L accounts) will be purchased from vendors such as Microsoft.

The projects can be divided into large and small projects. The larger projects are new implementations and upgrades. Smaller projects include implementing small features and helping users with regular support issues.

Invoicing can be done in various ways. New implementations and small projects can be invoiced per billable hour while upgrades are sold fixed price. For hardware we will use items. Licenses are invoiced directly to the General Ledger.

Large projects also have budgets and a plan that need to be maintained. If the budget is fully used and the planning milestones have not been reached there ...