Working with your ERP partner
As ERP manager you must know what to expect from the relationship with your ERP partner, and who is responsible for what. There are more parties involved than you might think, and your responsibility is to set the direction, define the proactivity, and maintain control.
You have two vendors: Microsoft and your partner
When you use Business Central, you have in practice two vendors:
| Vendor | What they do |
|---|---|
| Microsoft | Develops, maintains, and updates Business Central |
| Delivery partner | Implements Business Central at your site and supports you in daily work |
What you can hold them accountable for, and what you have to pay for, is good to know in advance.
Microsoft’s responsibility
Microsoft is responsible for ensuring that Business Central works and is available:
- the server runs
- the solution runs on the server
- your environments are accessible
Microsoft is not responsible for:
- whether your customized version works
- whether your processes work well in the solution
- whether you get value from the solution
- whether conflicts or errors arise in your data
The partner’s responsibility
The partner is responsible for what you have specifically agreed they are responsible for. If you haven’t agreed on anything specific, they only have ordinary product liability for the work they have performed.
For example, you can’t expect your partner to react proactively to an error in your environment unless you have agreed with your partner that they have that task.
The partner is the link to Microsoft
Your ERP partner is a kind of link between you and Microsoft. Traditionally ERP partners have been quite reactive, but that is changing. More and more ERP partners offer proactive services and monitoring, because that is important when you use Business Central in the Cloud edition.
Partner access and GDAP
Today you can have multiple partners connected to your Business Central at the same time. For example you can have:
- one partner who administers your Microsoft 365 license
- another who handles Business Central
- different partners for environments in different countries
What GDAP is, and why it is important
Microsoft has introduced GDAP (Granular Delegated Admin Privileges), which replaces the old model where partners received full administrator access to your entire tenant. With GDAP you give your partner time-limited, role-based access that only covers the services the partner needs to administer. It follows the principle of least access, and you yourself approve the roles the partner requests.
You have control over the partner access
As ERP manager you have control over who has access to what. You can:
- give a partner access exclusively to Business Central without giving access to other services in your tenant
- govern partner access per environment, so one partner only has access to the production environment while another has access to a sandbox
- time-limit access, so the partner must request renewal
Consultants are no longer all-knowing
You can’t expect your daily consultant to keep up with all of Microsoft’s future plans. Consultants typically focus on what the solution can do right now.
The consultant role has changed
If you used to be accustomed to your consultant being able to answer everything, you should know that it is impossible to be an all-knowing consultant today. In the old days one consultant could have all of Business Central in their head. That time is over. Today the solution is too extensive for one person. There is no consultant who knows every corner of Business Central.
The consequence: staff with a group
As a customer you expect deep expertise when you ask a specific question. That is why today you have to staff a project with:
- a group of experts in the important functional areas
- some generalists who ensure coherence
The picture becomes even more complex when you also use apps from several different vendors and build functionality and processes with Microsoft Power Platform. As ERP administrator you must be aware of who you ask about what.
Your contact person at the partner
What should you expect from your contact person at the partner? Experience shows that the best contact person is a broad generalist with curiosity about your business.
Qualities of a good contact person
| Quality | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Broad functional knowledge | Must be able to talk about finance, purchasing, sales, and inventory at a level that makes it possible to see connections |
| Industry understanding | It makes a difference whether you sell fashion items or manufacture industrial equipment |
| Product understanding | Creates a shared language so you can identify together where the shoe pinches |
| Curiosity | A prerequisite for finding new possibilities |
It is not enough for the contact person to be able to discuss only one functional area. Industry understanding creates a shared language so you can identify together where the shoe pinches and what can be improved.
Demand for an architect role in complex projects
In more complex projects you should also demand that the partner provide an architect role that can create an overview across the entire solution and assess whether everything plays well together:
- standard functionality
- apps from Marketplace
- PTEs
- integrations
- Power Platform flows
Generalist or specialist: a choice you face regularly
Let’s take an example. You regularly have a generalist consultant who can help you in many areas. Now you want to change the configuration of the purchasing process, and your generalist consultant isn’t an expert in that.
| Choice | Advantage | Disadvantage |
|---|---|---|
| Let the generalist spend extra time | The consultant knows your business | Takes longer, costs more in hours |
| Bring in a specialist | Quick advice in half an hour | The specialist doesn’t know your business |
There is no correct answer. It depends on the nature of the task and the business need for context.
Proactive collaboration pays off
The best collaboration between customer and partner is proactive. It doesn’t have to be heavy and time-consuming. It can be a short status meeting, for example half an hour each week or month, where you discuss:
- upcoming updates
- known challenges
- something planned that requires attention
What you can get out of proactive collaboration
In that kind of dialogue, the partner can, for example, alert you to:
- new regional or sectoral regulations that affect your configuration
- standard functionality in a new version that makes one of your PTEs redundant
- a new app on Marketplace that solves a problem you handle manually
- an upcoming Microsoft change that affects a process at your company
That kind of insight can save money and reduce complexity, but it requires that someone keep an eye on it.
Why proactivity is hard
Proactivity is hard because both companies and partners have grown accustomed to being reactive. Most ERP managers don’t want the partner to spend time that costs money without it being agreed in advance.
We can only encourage you as ERP manager to agree concretely with your partner on what kind of proactivity you want.
Take control of the collaboration
You must take control of your ERP solution. You shouldn’t wait for others to take the initiative, neither your partner, management, nor the daily users. As ERP manager you are responsible for ensuring that Business Central creates value, and that means you are also the one who must set the direction and take initiative.
What you should expect from your partner
Agree with your partner that you expect proactivity. Expect them to:
- inform you about new versions and new possibilities as a regular part of the relationship
- help you modernize the solution with apps and Power Platform instead of heavy custom development
- challenge you when you are about to make decisions that make the solution harder to maintain in the long run
Control is also about your own overview
Control isn’t only about what you require of your partner. Make sure you have an overview and knowledge of:
- your company’s processes
- your solution
- the distribution of responsibility
That knowledge must be documented and available so that your company isn’t dependent on a single consultant or on you.
When you have succeeded as ERP manager
As ERP manager you have succeeded when the solution doesn’t just run, but evolves in step with the business. And when you no longer feel that you are reacting to problems, but instead are the one who sets the agenda in your company.