Good morning, Pam. I recognize your puppy, so I've either responded to your posts before or I've at least seen your posts. Cute.
I work for a GP VAR in Minnesota. The question of how long it would take to upgrade is really dependent on the following factors:
-
Which modules do you use?
-
What modified reports?
-
Do you have any integrations?
-
Do you have any customizations?
All of these factors can make an upgrade easier or harder.
But based on your description, you are not a very complex business. Our largest implementions (50 to 75 users in GP) take that long.
You ask valid question also as to whether switching VARs might disrupt your business. I don't think so usually. We regularly experience a "Free Agent" new client, who came to us from another VAR. There's usually a few hours of learning in the beginning, but after that things are pretty stable.
Perhaps the VAR has quoted a large number of hours since they are not familiar with Excel Reports. We are, and they are not hard to implement. Absolutely not more than a day. However, might their quote also include implementing SharePoint Server?
I would suggest getting a second opinion on your upgrade estimate. Our firm can provide one, but depending on where you are located it may not make as much sense. However, a plane trip is only as costly as a few hours of consulting, and much of our work and support these days is done remotely anyways. We do have clients all over the US, including MN, WI, IA, CO, NH, CA, and also Canada.
If you would like to find another GP VAR closer to you, try Microsoft's Partner finder:
https://solutionfinder.microsoft.com/Partners/PartnersDirectory.aspx?competency=f8c0f674a4524652a32b664476fdd4e2&location=e0766ffbae1c4668a2e1826e6008cf94
Good luck. Feel free to contact me if you have questions.
Ron Draganowski
Senior Solution Developer
Olsen Thielen Technologies, Inc.
rdrag@ottechnologies.com
www.ottechnologies.comFind me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rondraganowski