Microsoft Business Solutions VAR/Partner Selection ? Overview for IT Director/Manager/Controller

Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM become more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind them. Now Great Plains is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology ? Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations. Microsoft CRM is extremely scalable and fits to all the market niches.

It is always good idea to install everything on your own - however Great Plains requires combination of computer networking, some programming, good accounting/distribution/logistics/reporting background - so it is not a surprise that Microsoft Business Solutions requires their customers to have specially assigner Microsoft Great Plains Partner/VAR/Reseller to serve the account.

If you are IT Director/Controller who has the dilemma of proper partner selection ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

1. Local partners - if you are in the remote area - there is often seen the opinion that local partner is the best choice. Consider this however as a contra argument - local partners maybe tiny with one/few consultants and they may not serve you adequately when you have somewhat complex - such as Manufacturing, complex Project Accounting needs, integration with UNIX-based legacy system, etc.

2. Mid-Size partners in Major Business Metros ? these companies were classical Great Plains VARS/Resellers with balanced application consulting and technical expertise. Please, consider these points, however: in recent recession most of such partners were bought or merged with big auditing companies and lost their flexibility, plus their consulting fee went up due to the fact of belonging to big conglomerates.

3. Nation-wide partners with local representative offices. This maybe a very good option, if you need kind of reliability and complete expertise - missing parts could be taken from different location with this specialization. However the hourly rates are probably the highest among the first three.

4. One-Project-Manager partner with Offshore consultants ? Well - this is very new type of partners - and you potentially can save a lot of money if you are risk taker - hourly rate is usually lower, price of the failure maybe higher.

5. Nation-wide partner with tiny local representation, serving via remote support. We are in this category, so let me tell you couple of good points here. Companies like ours - have to specialize in order to do excellent job in what we claim is our specialization (technology challenging projects with heavy customization needs). Serving via remote support lets us keep reasonably low rates and often go for fixed bids.

Also couple of hints about how do you switch the partner. It is actually more easy than you may think - you just send the new proposed partner the letter in free format saying that you would like to switch to you as my Microsoft Business Solutions partner - and this is it.

Happy shopping! if you want us to help you - give us a call!

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ? USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Texas, New York, Colorado, Washington, Florida, Canada, UK and having locations in multiple states and internationally www.albaspectrum.com, he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

akarasev@albaspectrum.com

1-866-528-0577

In The News:

pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


Implementing ERP for Large Publicly Traded Corporation ? Microsoft Great Plains

We would like first emphasize the change in the paradigm.... Read More

Groupware as a Document Manager: Collaboration Series #3

This article is the third of a series of articles... Read More

Basic Tips and tricks for Windows XP

Running Applications in Compatibility Mode With Windows XP, you can... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains IV: Inventory Management

Great Plains Inventory Management (IV) module gives your business a... Read More

A Simple Guide To Wikis

A wiki is an editable text-based website. But you don't... Read More

How to Choose the BEST Charting Software

I suggest that you do not spend a lot of... Read More

Linux vs Windows Operating Systems

With so many Microsoft Windows related viruses, errors, and other... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Axapta ? Selection Considerations

During the years of our consulting practice, which comes back... Read More

Great Plains Dexterity History and Programming Overview

As of now - Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise is transformed/renamed into... Read More

Intro to UNIX Shells

A UNIX Shell is in simplest terms, a command line... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains ? Licensing & Product Versions

Current Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has more that 10... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains: Annual Enhancement Program ? How To Be Re-Enrolled

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is mid and even corporate... Read More

Things You Can Do With Windows XP!

Did you ever give a thought to the number of... Read More

Microsoft CRM Customization

Microsoft CRM customization techniques are very diversified and based on... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Implementation for Midsize & Large Corporation: Lockbox Processing

Microsoft Great Plains is now targeting large and midsize businesses... Read More

Preventive Maintenance Software Companies

Several software companies design programs for preventive maintenance. Most of... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Integration Manager: Using Continuum ? Overview for Developer

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has I'd say end user... Read More

Microsoft CRM Integration with Lotus Notes Domino: Messaging Connector ? Future Directions

IBM Lotus Notes Domino and Microsoft CRM (Client Relation Management)... Read More

Microsoft CRM Data Conversion FAQ

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM data conversion deserves FAQ type of... Read More

Groove Network. Are you in it?

If you are in a business that passes documents around... Read More

Adware and Spyware Blockers

The most important things you can do for your computer... Read More

Begun, The Browser Wars Have

As Mozilla Firefox nears 10% market share, with well over... Read More

Microsoft Blues

With the advent of 'Service Pack 2' for Windows XP... Read More

Software Piracy

SOFTWARE PIRACY We regularly hear reports... Read More

10 Ways to Learn a Software

Following tips help you to learn a software in lesser... Read More

How to Build a Basic CSS Layout

Designing without tables by using CSS layouts is fast becoming... Read More

Enterprise Resource Planning Overview

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Overview covers What is ERP, Brief... Read More

Software Piracy - Global Increase

Pirated software is on the increase and now accounts for... Read More

Review on QuarkXpress 6.0

After almost two decades of existence, Quark has become the... Read More

Microsoft Update - 5 Reasons to Update Service Pack 2

Microsoft released Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the Windows XP... Read More

Destination: Desktop for Google

First we had the original Google search that evolved into... Read More

Bill of Lading ? Custom Reporting for Microsoft Great Plains ? Overview for Consultant

Bill of Lading is required report for Logistics and Freight... Read More

Microsoft and Webmasters

Does Microsoft care for WebmastersIt's always been a problem with... Read More