Choosing the Right Methodology

Quite clearly, a different approach to planning is required if your project is to succeed the first time. You need to choose the right functionality from the start. But you will only choose the right functionality if your consultant first knows the needs of your business. The product demonstration should come later, its aim being to show you what your consultant recommends, not what you can choose from. Although this approach means a few extra days' work at the start of the project, it could be the difference between success and failure at the end.

Although the business approach and the functionality approach come from opposite ends of the spectrum, many consultants fall somewhere in the middle. But the more a consultant focuses on your business needs, the more likely he can satisfy them. For you – and AkiliAfrica – only complete focus is enough. That is why we train our consultants in the best practices of the business approach to planning.

These best practices, known as the Sure Step methodology, ensure that the solution AkiliAfrica recommends is the solution that meets your needs. And here is the proof.

Of the Microsoft partners who have measured the effects of using the Sure Step methodology:

• 90% said it had raised customer satisfaction
• 92% are better able to understand the customer’s needs
• 92% have better project control
• 90% keep closer to the original project scope
• 84% have reduced the need for re-work

Focusing on the Needs of Your Business
This success is due to our methodology’s focus on the needs of each individual business. The “Diagnostic” phase (see Figure 1) is key here because it eliminates the guesswork that plagues the functionality approach to sales. Lasting around five days, the Diagnostic phase ensures that our analyst gathers all the information needed to confidently recommend the right solution for your business and deliver an accurate budget and timeframe.

The necessary research is carried out through a number of workshops, firstly with senior management and subsequently with other key employees. The dialogue dispels the tension of a normal buyer/seller relationship and helps establish both sides as equal partners. Your immediate involvement in a best practice process will give you confidence in AkiliAfrica's capabilities for the next phases.

A Hidden Benefit
During the Diagnostic phase, your key functional managers will work with AkiliAfrica's analyst to map your core business processes. The purpose is to define the business-driven requirements of the project. But experience shows that this task usually brings a further benefit. With their processes mapped out before them, managers immediately spot unnecessary complexity and can make fast and simple process improvements that save time and money. Even if you eventually choose an alternative solution, you still retain the process maps, which will be a critical aid to any implementation. But in more than 90% of cases, prospective clients have had the confidence to go ahead and implement with AkiliAfrica.

The Solution You Need Is the Solution You Get
Naturally, the Sure Step methodology also includes best practices for implementing, customizing and training on Navision solutions. These best practices are based on the experience of over 130,000 projects. So you can be sure that the solution you agree to is the solution you get, and that all users can perform their tasks (see Figure 2).

Unlike the theoretical approach many consultants choose to take (which is based on an “ideal” business model), the Sure Step methodology tackles implementation in a more practical way. It builds on the observational findings from the Diagnostic phase, thereby keeping the focus on your business.

The result is that the solution you need is the solution you get. And because all risks and costs are identified up front, your project will keep to the agreed deadline and budget.

Choose Security
As you can see, it is highly important that you choose a consultant whose focus is on meeting your business needs, rather than on delivering product functionality. But you must also make sure to choose a consultant with the best practice skills and tools needed to make the most of this approach. The Sure Step methodology provides just that. It secures that your software solution will be an exact fit for your business needs. And that it will be delivered on time and on budget.

The following sections provide more information:

	The Right Consultant
	The Right Solution

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