Our resources have seen it all — and then we fixed it. We can help.
If you’re looking for a true partner to help you get the most from the investment you’ve already made in your Microsoft Dynamics solution, you’re in the right place. Stoneridge consists of many former Microsoft employees and industry experts who have tackled the most difficult and complex projects. In fact, the client base at Stoneridge was built on Dynamics Project Recovery efforts. Along with everyday troubleshooting situations, our team has successfully unraveled intricate, highly customized customer scenarios.
What qualifies as ‘Project Recovery’?
If you’re in the middle of a project, but not live….
How long have you been spinning your wheels and still aren’t live on Microsoft Dynamics? You might find yourself in the following scenarios:
- You keep customizing and can’t understand why you just can’t use your Dynamics product out of the box
- You have the feeling that you haven’t been following best practices
- You’ve delayed your go-live date
- You’re having difficulty keeping your project on time and on budget
- You’ve ended, or are about to end, the relationship with your implementing partner
If you’re already live….
Maybe your Microsoft Dynamics project is officially “live”, but your team is overwhelmed or the system is just not working the way it should. Do any of the following statements ring true?
- You only have one person on the team who knows how to support the system
- You have so many third-party add-ons you think no one could possibly navigate them
- You have no idea why the system is configured the way it is or why it was customized
- You have performance problems
- You don’t think you’re following best practices (functional, technical or development)
- You’re constantly putting out fires and not following a plan
- You have a business process (or processes) that are painful in your Dynamics system
- Your partner has told you there is no way you can upgrade (p.s. we can prove that’s not true)
- You’ve ended the relationship with your implementing partner
If you can relate to any of the above painful situations, Stoneridge Software is poised to assist you with Project Recovery.
“You are not on an island. We can help you upgrade, implement or remove an ISV, reshape your business processes, or any other thing you want to do or get out of your system. With the right team behind you, it can all be realized.”
Becky Newell, Vice President of Development & Technical Delivery
What does Project Recovery from Stoneridge Software include?
Our Dynamics Project Recovery process begins with an assessment, also known as “discovery.” The discovery process results in deliverables outlining how to get your project back on track and live, with a focus on actionable recommendations for your team. including a concise list of the most critical items that should be changed, based on our experience and best practices. The deliverables contain a long-term, high-level plan with an actionable list of the most critical items to act on immediately, and recommended next steps. The assessment and its deliverables ultimately put you in a better position to mitigate business risk and optimize your current or future processes. Each deliverable will include an estimated cost and timeline, so you can prioritize and move ahead with a package or start with the elements of the highest importance.
Functional Process Assessment
The foundation of Project Recovery is getting to know your business and its current operations by conducting a functional process assessment. This includes a comprehensive review of business processes examined throughout your implementation and a practical assessment of what makes sense for your business compared to best practices.
For example:
- If you’re a manufacturer, are you using Master Planning?
- Are you still managing accounts receivable on a spreadsheet?
- Are you using Dropship? Should you be?
- Can you send emails out of your
- Dynamics solution?
Your deliverable:
Besides a better overall understanding of your processes, the deliverable from the Functional Process Assessment is a high-level action plan, outlining the observations and recommended steps for improvement.
Configuration Review
After the functional assessment, the Configuration Review is the next natural step. Once we understand your business processes we have a better perspective to evaluate its setup. We dig into your Dynamics AX implementation and look at how its configured. There are thousands of ways to configure the software and even a minor change can have a cascading effect, good or bad. Armed with industry knowledge and our Functional Process Assessment results, our functional experts will review your configurations. Aside from recommending adjustments to configurations that are incorrect, this process helps the team gain an understanding why the system is set up the way it is.
Your deliverable:
With an awareness of your business and how it is currently set up, your deliverable will include a list of configuration change recommendations.
Transactional Process Review
Configurations tell an important story, but not the whole story alone. During Transactional Process Review, we walk through your major transaction streams to evaluate the dozens of variations that Dynamics AX transactions can take. This gives us a complete view of where to make functional recommendations.
Common transactional process reviews might include:
- Procure to Pay
- Quote to Cash
- Project to Profit
- Record to Report
- Schedule to Produce
- Acquire to Retire
- Market to Opportunity
- Hire to Retire
- Idea to Product
- Service to Profit
- Plan to Inventory
Your deliverable:
After evaluation, you will receive a summary of the items reviewed and a list of process change recommendations
Customization Review
The Customization Review evaluates the number of models, layers, customized objects and ISVs in your environment. Based on this evaluation, we recommend actions that simplify version control and decrease the cost of upgrades and hot fixes. The customization review is included in the executive summary, high-level plan.
Your deliverable:
A full list of customizations within your environment and any recommended changes.
Integration Discovery Workshop
A fully integrated IT system is critical to the operations and success of any business. During the Integration Discovery Workshop, you’ll work with our industry experts and solution architects on an Enterprise Process Overview to gain visibility into critical business operations that can be enhanced by modern integration techniques.
Your deliverable:
A summary of your critical business operations and documented architectural integration recommendations.
Infrastructure Assessment
Infrastructure assessment includes an evaluation of the current state of your Dynamics solution configuration, setup, and environment usage, and determining if it adequately sized for the current and future state of your operations. The Infrastructure assessment also covers performance tuning to ensure your Dynamics system and infrastructure are running optimally to meet the demands of your business. This can involve monitoring your Dynamics environment for system errors, troubleshooting dropped connections and client crashes, and providing recommendations to fine-tuning settings for increased speed and reliability.
Your deliverable:
A summary of documented environment usage, and recommendations for configuration, hardware sizing, and performance tuning.
Project Management Assessment
The Project Management Assessment reviews the methodology, tools, and team resources involved in the setup, management, and tracking of the project and its progress.
This includes:
- What approach is taken to track the progress on the various work streams towards the set goals and timelines
- The approach to identifying, managing and mitigating risk and issues
- How the project status is reported
- How the team communication flows, including how effectively and efficiently decisions are made and communicated.
Projects are not done when they run out of time or money, so the right-sized approach to the topics listed above will help keep a project on course or bring it back on track to hit (revised) goals.
Your deliverable:
Project Management Assessment summary and a list of recommendations on how to proceed.
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