Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step 2010

Book description

The smart guide to the successful delivery of Microsoft Dynamics Business Solutions

  • Learn how to effectively use Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step to implement the right Dynamics business solution with quality, on-time and on-budget results.
  • Leverage the Decision Accelerator offerings in Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step to create consistent selling motions while helping your customer ascertain the best solution to fit their requirements.
  • Understand the review and optimization offerings available from Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step to further enhance your business solution delivery during and after go-live.
  • Gain knowledge of the project and change management content provided in Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step.
  • Familiarize yourself with the approach to adopting the Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step methodology as your own.
  • Includes a Foreword by Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step Practitioners.

In Detail

Delivering business solutions is more than just product play. Software is often viewed as the enabler; however, the key to success is how the solution is implemented and how the implementations are managed. With this as the background, Microsoft has developed Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step as the full lifecycle methodology for the Dynamics business solutions portfolio. Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step enables you to maximize your Dynamics investments and increase your efficiency to select, sell, deliver, operate and support your business solution.

This book details the use of the Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step methodology to enable the full lifecycle of Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step business solutions engagements. Guidance is provided on the due diligence process for the customer that overlaps the solution selling cycle for the service provider, through to the solution implementation phases, encompassing on-going maintenance and upgrades.

This book provides detailed coverage of how to use Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step to successfully deliver Dynamics solutions for your business.

The book begins by focusing on the aspects of due diligence and solution selling– whether you are the customer or the service provider, you can learn how you work together to select the right solution to meet the organization’s needs.In the ensuing chapters, you will learn how Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step can help improve the overall quality of your Dynamics business solution, including coverage of proactive and post go-live optimization offerings and a thorough explanation of how to upgrade your Dynamics solutions to the latest release of the products.

Finally, the book discusses the essence of Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step projects and how to successfully deliver these business solutions, including project and change management disciplines and processes.

Additional key topics such as a guide to adopting Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step are also provided if you are looking to develop a consistent process in your organization.

Maximize your Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step investments, from solution selection or solution selling, to solution delivery and support

Table of contents

  1. Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step 2010
    1. Table of Contents
    2. Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step 2010
    3. Credits
    4. Foreword
    5. About the Authors
    6. Acknowledgement
    7. Acknowledgement
    8. About the Reviewers
    9. www.PacktPub.com
      1. Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more
        1. Why Subscribe?
        2. Free Access for Packt account holders
        3. Instant Updates on New Packt Books
    10. Preface
      1. What this book covers
      2. What you need for this book
      3. Who this book is for
      4. Conventions
      5. Reader feedback
      6. Customer support
        1. Errata
        2. Piracy
        3. Questions
    11. 1. Background and Concepts
      1. The business solutions market
      2. The importance of a methodology
      3. Why it is critical to have a solid approach for selecting and deploying ERP/CRM solutions
      4. What is Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step?
      5. Microsoft Dynamics overview
      6. What is a project?
      7. Implementing the solution
      8. ERP and CRM implementations—facts and figures
      9. Summary
      10. References
    12. 2. Solution Selling and Driving Due Diligence
      1. Driving value for the customer and the solution provider
        1. Value realization and measurement
      2. What it means to be solution centric
      3. Solution selling concepts
        1. Solution selling—buyer's perspective
        2. Building the trust
        3. Building the vision
        4. When to discuss feature/functionality or demo the solution
        5. Staying aligned with the buyer
        6. Vision processing—creation and reengineering
      4. The Microsoft Solution Selling Process
      5. Summary
      6. References
    13. 3. Managing Projects
      1. About projects and project management
        1. Myths and resistance
          1. Is project management overhead?
          2. Is project management an obstacle to flexibility?
          3. Is project management unsalable?
        2. Why project management?
        3. The alternative
        4. Using our own methodology
        5. Why quality-driven companies prefer project management
      2. The four pillars of project success
        1. Communication matters
          1. Rule number 1: Communication requires interaction
          2. Rule number 2: E-mail does not equal project communication
          3. Rule number 3: Be brief
          4. Rule number 4: Set clear expectations
        2. Proactive attitude makes the difference
          1. Rule number 1: Look ahead and prevent
          2. Rule number 2: Proactive power requires interaction
          3. Rule number 3: Measure for early warning signals
        3. Creating a guiding project culture
        4. The importance of closure
      3. Project management essentials
        1. The project lifecycle and phases
          1. What is a phase?
          2. Respect the phase-based approach
        2. Project management processes
        3. Break it up!
        4. From estimate to follow up
          1. The WBS as estimation instrument
          2. Follow up based on WBS
          3. The WBS as central concept
      4. Project management adoption
        1. The tireless quest for the perfect espresso
        2. Embracing change
      5. The indispensable organizational benefits
        1. A core competency for your company
        2. Profitable projects
        3. Satisfied customers and happy employees
      6. Summary
      7. References
    14. 4. Selling with Sure Step
      1. The Sure Step Diagnostic phase
        1. The concept of Decision Accelerator (DA) Offerings
      2. A repeatable process for the sales teams
        1. Starting the discovery process with solution positioning
        2. The first step to envisioning the future state
        3. Identifying the right solution
        4. Determining the infrastructure implications
        5. Estimating the delivery costs, approach, plans, and roles
        6. Reducing the risk perception
        7. Estimating the Return on Investment (ROI)
        8. Developing the project charter
        9. Closing the sales cycle
        10. Initiating the delivery cycle
        11. Other usage scenarios for the decision accelerators
      3. Solution selling to a current customer
      4. Assessing the upgrade requirements
      5. Applying the other Decision Accelerators on upgrade engagements
      6. Supporting the customer's buying cycle
        1. Defining the organizational needs
        2. Determining the right solution
        3. Understanding and mitigating risks
        4. Approach for upgrading existing solutions
      7. Positioning the solutions for specific industries
        1. Manufacturing industry
        2. The Public Sector industry
        3. Extended CRM or xRM solutions
        4. Future industry and cross-industry solutions
      8. Summary
      9. References
    15. 5. Implementing with Sure Step
      1. Implementation approaches in Sure Step
        1. The notion of phases and cross phases
      2. Waterfall-based implementation project types
        1. The Rapid project type
        2. The Standard project type
        3. The Enterprise project type
      3. Setting up a program for solution rollout
        1. Phased solution rollouts
        2. Multisite engagements
      4. The Sure Step waterfall implementation phases
      5. The Analysis phase
        1. The start of the project
          1. Start your engines
          2. Expect some delays
        2. A chance to establish the project culture
          1. A look back
          2. A good project charter is priceless
          3. Project planning sessions
          4. Kick-off your communication culture
        3. Wrapping up
        4. To train or not to train?
        5. The uncontrolled Analysis phase
        6. Real-life analysis scenarios
          1. Back to square one
          2. Scope creep sneaking in
          3. No issues, no risks
        7. Analyze what?
        8. Go for interim analysis deliverables
        9. Managing scope creep during the Analysis phase by means of Fit/Gap Analysis
        10. Do not forget about data migration
        11. Interact with the infrastructure department
      6. The Design phase
        1. Do we really need a Design phase?
        2. The risk of a passive Design phase
        3. All activity in the Sure Step Design phase
          1. We are implementing a standard package solution
          2. From requirements to design
          3. Document and implement
          4. Initiate testing
          5. Interact with the infrastructure department
          6. Don't give up on data migration
          7. Start planning the deployment
      7. The Development phase
        1. Developers only?
        2. Develop and freeze custom code
        3. Complete the testing
        4. Last call for changes
          1. Can process models still change?
        5. Start finalizing
          1. Finalize system configuration and ISV solution setup
          2. Finalize design updates
          3. Hand over non-production environments
      8. The Deployment phase
        1. What is critical for a successful deployment?
        2. Trainers, evangelists for change
          1. Conduct end-user training
          2. Compose the trainer team
        3. What about the data?
        4. The go-live as the user acceptance test
          1. Your continued key user interaction will now pay off
          2. Early planning and commitment making the difference
          3. The focus of the user acceptance test
          4. Document and analyze the results
        5. Execute performance tests
        6. Infrastructure readiness
        7. Check and cross check
        8. Ready to take off
      9. The Operation phase
        1. Provide post-go-live support
        2. Some things to do
          1. Clear pending items
          2. Finalize knowledge transfer
          3. Conduct performance tuning and optimization
          4. Transition the solution to support
        3. To close or not to close?
          1. Closing—a nice little job?
          2. Building it up
          3. The core challenge
          4. Sign please!
      10. The Agile Implementation project type
      11. Summary
      12. References
    16. 6. Quality Management and Optimization
      1. Quality management manifestation in Sure Step
      2. Quality control within the project types
        1. Quality activities embedded in program management
        2. Key quality and testing cross-phase activities
      3. The Sure Step Optimization Offerings Roadmap
        1. Technical review offerings
          1. Architecture Review
          2. Design Review
          3. Customization Review
          4. Performance Review
          5. Upgrade Review
          6. Health Check
        2. Project oversight with the Project Governance and Delivery Review offering
          1. Project Governance and Delivery Review
        3. How customers and service providers can benefit from the optimization offerings
      4. Summary
      5. References
    17. 7. Upgrading with Sure Step
      1. Upgrade assessment and the diagnostic phase
        1. The Upgrade Assessment Decision Accelerator offering
        2. When to use the other Decision Accelerator offerings
        3. Determining the upgrade approach and release schedule
      2. Delivering the upgrade
        1. The Analysis and Design phases
        2. The Development, Deployment, and Operation phases
      3. Summary
      4. References
    18. 8. Project and Organizational Change Management
      1. The Sure Step Project Management Library
        1. The Project Management disciplines
          1. Risk Management
          2. Scope Management
          3. Issue Management
          4. Time and Cost Management
          5. Resource Management
          6. Communication Management
          7. Quality Management
          8. Procurement Management
          9. Sales Management
      2. Organizational Change Management
        1. Organizational Change Management in Sure Step
          1. Define OCM Strategy
          2. Align and mobilize leadership
          3. Engage stakeholders
          4. Align organization
          5. Enable organization
      3. The Sure Step "Projects" feature
        1. Creating projects using the Project Creation Wizard
          1. Creating projects on a local drive
          2. Creating projects on a SharePoint server
        2. Customizing Sure Step templates using the Projects Feature
      4. Summary
      5. References
    19. 9. A Practical Guide to Sure Step Adoption
      1. Don't park your brain outside
        1. Strategy execution
        2. Change management
          1. Why change initiatives fail
            1. Underestimating the need for a clear vision of the desired change
            2. Failing to clearly communicate the vision
            3. Failing to build a substantial coalition
            4. Permitting roadblocks against the vision
            5. Not generating a sense of urgency tied to improved performance
            6. Not building a plan for short-term wins
            7. Failing to lead and coach changes in business behavior
            8. Failure of managers to operate in and above day-to-day execution
            9. Not practicing what you preach
            10. Fail to anchor changes in business culture
      2. The Sure Step adoption program
        1. The adoption roadmap
          1. Diagnose
            1. The Sure Step champion
            2. The V-team
          2. Analyze
          3. Design
          4. Develop
          5. Deploy
          6. Operate
        2. The adoption workshop
          1. Executing the adoption workshop
          2. The online adoption assessment
          3. The cone of adoption
          4. Map your position
          5. Headlights on
        3. The value of the adoption program
        4. GROW into new behaviors
      3. Sure Step for Independent Software Vendors
        1. ISV classification
        2. How ISVs can benefit from the Sure Step program
        3. ISV artifacts for Sure Step
        4. Sure Step and the Certified for Microsoft Dynamics program
      4. Summary
      5. References
    20. 10. Summary and Takeaways
      1. What we now know about Sure Step
        1. The Sure Step value proposition
        2. A look back at the previous chapters
      2. The future of Sure Step
        1. Sure Step 2010 Content Pack 1
          1. Service industries
          2. Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010
          3. Additional content and feature enhancements
        2. Sure Step 2010 Content Pack 2
          1. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2011
          2. Retail industry
          3. Microsoft Dynamics NAV Role-Tailored Client guidance
          4. Integrated customer care cross-industry guidance
        3. Sure Step 2011 and beyond
          1. Beyond Sure Step 2011
      3. Key takeaways
        1. Takeaways for customer due diligence and solution selling
        2. Implementation takeaways
        3. Sure Step adoption takeaways
        4. General takeaways
      4. Summary
      5. References
    21. Index

Product information

  • Title: Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step 2010
  • Author(s): Chandru Shankar, Vincent Bellefroid
  • Release date: January 2011
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781849681100