Managing scope to bring a Microsoft Dynamics NAV + CRM implementation back to life

"The bigger the scope the longer the implementation, and the more exhausted people get," describes CEO Elliot Fishman of Catapult. "Stakeholders drift from the project, budgets get exhausted, and you get fatigue."

British Columbia-based Catapult delivers support and implementation services for Dynamics NAV, CRM and the new Dynamics 365 (among other solutions) to midsized businesses. It offers a lean deployment service, and one of its specialties is rescuing stalled projects, either internal projects or ones begun by another Dynamics partner.

One such takeover client is Precision Gutters, based in Surrey, B.C. The company had struggled for over a year with a previous Dynamics partner to implement and integrate Dynamics NAV 2016 and Dynamics CRM Online, both hosted by a Vancouver-based provider. The CRM was implemented easily enough, but the NAV implementation was going nowhere, a year later.

Precision Gutters since 1989 has offered residential gutter installation and servicing in Lower Mainland Vancouver, and resells product through much of Canada. It introduced a high-end Swedish rain gutter system to North America, and brokers shipments directly from a European factory to Canadian resellers. On top of that, it engineers and manufactures gutters and components of its own design.

Precision Gutters' owner Martin Dennis says of the company's growth plans, "The service side is a really good, stable platform for revenue, and distribution of product is where we can really expand and increase revenue. So our focus is to cut cost on service and increase revenue on distribution. So we needed something robust to help control inventory and help control costs."

Like a good many engineering companies, Precision Gutters ...