Want to Improve Success with Microsoft Dynamics GP? Here are Five Insider Tips to Help You Win

Fact:  A recent IBM study found that only 40% of projects meet budget, schedule, and quality goals.  With all of the business tools that are available today, that seems like a pretty low success rate.  The business tools, however, are only as good as the people implementing and managing them. Microsoft Dynamics GP is one of the most flexible and robust ERP systems available today in the mid-market.  Like any ERP package, it takes planning, configuration and competent users in order for it to be effective in tracking your projects, or any of your financial information, for that matter.  A sloppy implementation that does not incorporate significant historical data and data in process from legacy systems can spell disaster for the effective use of Dynamics GP right from the start.  It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom, however.  With the right planning and follow-through, you can have a system that helps you grow your business and provides the right data at the right time in order to improve your success rate in projects or just overall operation. These five steps will greatly enhance your success when using Microsoft Dynamics GP:

• Implementation – Get your historical data loaded into the system by a competent Microsoft-approved partner or VAR.
• Education – Provide thorough training to your employees so that they will use the software in the most productive way possible, and also provide “buy-in” to the new system. The more employees understand how to use a new system that is presented to them, the more accepting they will be to adopting the new processes.
• Universality – You must make it easy to enter data into Dynamics GP as well as to get the data out of it.  In some instances – time tracking functionality, for example – the native GP solution is not as intuitive or robust as a 3^rd party option.  Dynamics GP is designed to allow 3^rd party plug-ins to work within the software just as if it were the native solution included with the Dynamics GP basics.
• Visibility – Provide the right data to the right individuals within the organization.  Don’t overwhelm them with information that does not pertain to the individual’s job function.
• Accountability – Key performance indicators should be set forth and assigned to individuals.  Don’t overdo it by creating so many that there is too much to follow.  Pick the most important ones and let the individuals responsible for them react and report as the situation warrants.

Want a deeper dive on these five tips? Download the white paper, “Five Steps To Guarantee Success in Microsoft Dynamics GP” for more information and tips. About the Author: Curt Finch is the CEO of Journyx, a Certified Microsoft Partner. Journyx maximizes the value of Microsoft Dynamics by adding enterprise time tracking. Journyx Accountlink for Microsoft Dynamics allows companies to quickly implement a complete time tracking solution using existing business data in Dynamics. Connect with Curt on Google+.