My new career path – independent consultant

It’s official now, and it’s time I announce it here: after two years at Microsoft I’ve decided to take the helm of my career and venture into the realm of independent consulting. Two days into it, and all I can say about it is: what have I been waiting for this long?

While at Microsoft, I had a chance to work on some very exciting projects, I was sitting at the source of information, and the thrill of being able to know about all the news and developments before anyone else is priceless.

But the thrill of being able to work on my own, to pick my own projects, to take on completely new challenges, was even more priceless.

Microsoft is a great place to work, and I really enjoyed it there, but there was something odd about it. Microsoft’s logo on my business card surely opened many doors and brought some weight to all I did, but I was never sure: what part of my e-mail address did my customers really trust: the vjekoslav.babic part or the @microsoft.com part? In other words, did my customers trust me because I was Microsoft, or did they trust me for what I said and did.

I’ve decided it was just about time to find out.

So, in scope of my independent consulting career, what am I going to do?

Primarily, I am going to work with NAV customers, companies that are implementing the solution, but have no internal expertise in NAV or in ERP in general, nor they fully understand the implementation process. My value proposition to those companies is simple: I help you define clear project scope that brings you value and returns your investment, I help you stay focused on value, and I keep your project on track, on budget, and on time by ensuring project, methodology, implementation and NAV best practices.

With 33% of the ERP customers stating that their biggest challenge was lack of ERP experience, 68% of implementations taking much longer than planned, 65% of ERP implementations going over budget, and 42% of customers not being satisfied with the implementation results, I see a lot of market for my services.

Secondarily, I am going to target NAV partners, and I will offer project methodology, ERP best practices and NAV product coaching services, as well as project management, quality assurance and NAV solution design and architecture services on their projects. For partners, I am also going to deliver pre-sales services and help them sell value of NAV.

So, there is a lot of challenge awaiting me on my independent consulting path. Who knows, maybe we meet somewhere along it and I’m looking forward to that opportunity.