Lessons learned...

djswim

This is mostly regarding NAV, but I'm sure there are general answers which could help cure my curiosity on this subject.

My question to the community: Based on your experiences in this business, what would you do differently if starting a practice from scratch?

The reason I ask is because I was recently thinking about starting my own practice (not going to any more) and realized that even though I've been in the business for 12 years, I hadn't the slightest idea about where to begin! It was a really interesting mental exercise for me and I wanted to get other peoples thoughts.

David_Singleton

djswim wrote:

This is mostly regarding NAV, but I'm sure there are general answers which could help cure my curiosity on this subject.

My question to the community: Based on your experiences in this business, what would you do differently if starting a practice from scratch?

The reason I ask is because I was recently thinking about starting my own practice (not going to any more) and realized that even though I've been in the business for 12 years, I hadn't the slightest idea about where to begin! It was a really interesting mental exercise for me and I wanted to get other peoples thoughts.

Its quite an interesting question. Many years ago, a large chunk of NAV business was showing people how to make their NAV business run profitably. Of course form the outside, clients see _HUGE_ hourly rates, and seem to think that running a NAV business is a veritable gold mine. Which again is coincidentally odd because before I started in Navision I used to run Gold Mines. And the definition of a Gold Mine is "A big hole in the ground that you throw money into".

Of course a lot of people make good money selling NAV, but its a very tough business, and very tough to make big money. It can be done, but it needs to be done right from the beginning. Once you have a base of a few badly installed clients, where you are continually having to give away free works, and a team that have gone down the path and find it hard to get the right motivation, it can be hard to get back on track.

You might want to change the Topic of this thread, because it may end up being a long one.

David_Singleton

Hmm I am amazed that this topic died. Was it because of the unclear topic, or really are so few people interested in making a NAV Partnership successful? Or maybe the successful ones don't want to let the secret out of the bag.

AdamRoue

Get your shareholding correct - trust me on this one Who runs the business and makes the decisions is very critical.

Getting the skills is important, you need the skills to meet the needs of the customer, it is an expensive resource, or do you train up. This all needs to be nicely balanced with timing because you have to make a sale, and just because you know NAV and can implement it does not mean you can sell it.

You need to meet the Microsoft entrance criteria for NAV.

You need to consider your direction, are you verticalising, are you doing CRM, what other revenue streams are you considering? Will you alter this plan for the needs of a customer?

Don't do free days, once it is set in the early relationship with a client it becomes expected - if you are small they want the earth and want it for free - you have to fight this. there will come times when making a sales may save the business, but if you compromise on the sale it maybe the sale itself that ends the business.

Sort out a legal support contract, and do not alter the T&C's for individual customers.

Have a web based support desk, it is expected.

Have an implementation strategy, SureStep or not, with all of the supporting documentation complete or considered.

If you can take clients with you so you have a ready made base this will make it easier, but there has to be an incentive for them to go with you and this will be cost, so establishing the base will cost you, but it will anyway.

Timing - is it the right commercial time to do this, what is the market doing, what is the future of the market, can you get into the market?

As David says this is a massive topic, I helped establish a reseller in 2000 and take it through administration in 2007 - lots of lessons learned, so if you have any specific questions just as, otherwise I will be typing all day

generic

I would to hear what lessons people have learned that have started solution centers.
I'm interested in the first 3-6 months process that they went through, and their first sale.
The basic requirement from Microsoft. Like you need certain certification and certain number of people.

Alex_Chow

generic wrote:

The basic requirement from Microsoft. Like you need certain certification and certain number of people.

https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program

This site will get you started if you want to meet MSFT's requirements.

Alex_Chow

I just want to add that starting a NSC is easy. It's what you do with it is the hard part.

generic

Alex Chow wrote:

I just want to add that starting a NSC is easy. It's what you do with it is the hard part.

Have you started an NSC? If yes, what were the hard parts?

AdamRoue

generic wrote:

I'm interested in the first 3-6 months process that they went through, and their first sale.

The first 6 months of the process did not include the first sale in my experience.

So where are your reference sites - why should a potential client go with you over established resellers? You need the help of Microsoft here but what are you bringing to the table to benefit Microsoft?

How are you generating leads, when you get in front of a client what is the pitch, if you intend to show the software you need to be a partner to get the VPC, so you need the people with the appropriate exams/points (this changes regularly so you will need to check) and of course to apply to be a partner and be accepted.

So what is your support desk like? You have no clients so you will not have one, but the potential customer wants to see evidence of one.

Assuming you do not walk across the road with a ready made customer base you convince to go with you and a list of very close leads in your back pocket the hardest part of the first 6 months will be staying in business, people will tell you it gets easier after a year, you reach a year they tell you two, you reach two they tell you five . . . .

ssingla

My Personal experience:

I left my job with Indian software giant in Oct. 2007 and started my own company having only one full time resource (myself) and one part time technical consultant . Within the first month I got 2 contract (Re-implementation, roll out, support), one of which is still under roll out stage. The first sale came 4 months later which I booked through another partner (I was not a partner at that time).

Revenue for services was coming and I started expanding my company. I applied for MS partnership and recruited 5 technical consultant.

The revenue from services started falling in Nov 2008 but again picked in Feb 2009. I recruited 10 resources in the same month. First sale came this April 2009 and at present there are lot of potential customers but with less conversion but revenue from services is sufficient to run the company.

Major problems we faced :
a) Lack of proper marketing people ready to work with a start up company. The same is true with consultants.
b) Presentation of credibility/stability in the first year and label of "One Man Company" (now the problem is over).
c) Managing cash flow for office expenses and salary.
d) Support from MS people was not so encouraging (except for a single exception).

djswim

This is all great stuff. I'm currently going through the process of growing a NAV partner from scratch (although I'm not the owner) so I'm seeing a lot of the same pains that are mentioned here.

By "from scratch" I mean I'm the only full-time resource and when I walked in the first day we had 10 licensed users (56 now!)

I'm fortunate enough not to have to worry about initial financing and I have a great add-on to work with, although localization by itself is taking up quite a bit of time.

Some of my biggest concerns are administrative... I'd like to get everything set up correctly from the beginning, but because it's the beginning it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of time on administrative things ](*,)

For example, I have one customer (and a limited number of prospects), so what to do about CRM? Clearly I don't NEED CRM at this stage, but an Excel spreadsheet or Outlook contacts seems primeval.

Also, billing/timesheets. Clearly this doesn't need to be complex since I have a single customer and don't need to justify my non-billable time (a lifelong dream of mine) but I feel like I should be putting together a comprehensive template for later.

I will say this about the experience though: Never a dull moment!