Change of Partner Mistakes to avoid ?

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Hi guys,

Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this question. We a currently using NAV 2015 /LS Retail in our business and our current developer/partner is not great , we are considering letting them go and looking for a new developer. What are the mistakes to avoid when changing to a new partner of record and developer? What opportunities will a new developer try and take advantage of for an inexperienced user. Recommendations or advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your time guys

Tony.

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Tharanga Chandrasekara 23,118 on at

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Answer to the question will depend on the partner you are choosing.

If you go with an good partner who has good team of developers + experience in the add-on modules then you will be in safe hands since they can support on you. If you go with a partner who has less experience team and specially no previous knowledge on add-on modules then it will make a mess for you as they also need to learn the modules and update you. Therefore check on their previous implementations and ask them to provide few reference for you. Change the partner once you have full confidence on your new partner.

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Alexander Ermakov 28,096 on at

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There may be many challenges on this road. E.g., there has been recently this thread: community.dynamics.com/.../521380

Generally, the biggest issue in changing the partner are customizations that the old partner had made. You should normally switch to a partner which is capable of handling your standard modules, and this you can affect by selecting the proper partner, having interviews, reading other client's opinions. But, when it comes to take over the customized functionality, it is usually a challenge for any partner. A lot depends on how the customizations are documented (usually they are not at all), are there any user instructions, technical descriptions, etc. So please pay attention to that and try to get as much as possible from your current partner. Usually, they have to provide you the documentation by agreement (check your legal terms).

Also, the quality of additional customizations might be an issue. In some cases, it is even easier for new partner to completely re-develop some poorly implemented functionality.

Some partners might protect the code of their developments, thus a new partner would not be able to support/modify your customizations. However there are ways of unprotecting of code (we did such a trick couple of times), it is anyway quite a challenge and time-consuming for new partner. Try to learn in advance if this is the case.

From the other side, there might be very good resources/employees of old partner as persons which you might not wish to loose (regardless the fact that the partner himself is not good). Your users might value some particular consultants of the old partner, and thus you can consider that those might migrate either inhouse to your company or to new partner, otherwise you might lack performance in daily support or knowledge of some non-finalized projects.

All in all, quite a lot depends on a new partner. Choose wisely.

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Community Member on at

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Thanks Tharanga, appreciate you taking the time to respond.

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Community Member on at

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Thanks Alexander, appreciate you taking the time to respond.

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