Are those SLAs a Fool’s Bargain?
Alright, a question for you guys. Have you ever heard of a SLA (service level agreement)? It’s the thing you agree on with your implementing partner after they have successfully implemented your new system. If you’ve come so far, congratulations. You’ve probably managed to overcome a lot of hiccups along the way but you made it, you now have a system that meets all your needs.
But your journey is not over yet. There has to be maintenance in order to keep the system fresh. Because of this you come to a maintenance agreement with your partner. Of course not just for AX but also for BizTalk, SQL, BI and all the other stuff. Now you can feel confident that along the way your system will always be up to date and it gives you the ultimate guarantee nothing can go wrong anymore, but does it? What does it guarantee? And what is the cost of this guarantee?
What you agreed on in SLA
Most service level agreements -SLA- probably contain nothing more than the following things:
- The right to have your system updated.
- A promise that they will help you with it and a discount on the hours spent helping you.
- Technical support
- They may even include a number of free minutes, you can use to call someone at a helpdesk. What you don’t know is that while you’re on hold and listen to the beautiful tune, your minutes run out.
What you actually wanted
You just wanted a system that runs smoothly and makes you a satisfied user. But your partner will push you to do all the updates because otherwise everything will inevitably go wrong. This is kind of comparable to the millennium madness. Remember? So many people were convinced that all the electronic devices were going to crash, some even made a lot of money because of others` ignorance, and eventually, when the clock ticked 12, nothing happened. Everything was working as it was supposed to be. With SLA’s it’s kind of the same. They just want you to be scared enough to spent a lot of money on something that is not always necessary, the same goes for updates.
But what are your options? Can you just do nothing? Or is there a way to avoid all these costs and headaches? I will let you know in the next blog 😉 but meanwhile subscribe to our newsletter so you can receive our latest blogs straight to your inbox.
What do you think about SLA`s and updates? Share your thoughts and if you liked this post, please share it.
The road to finding Ikigai and what Kaya Consulting can offer you!
Ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning “a reason for being”. Everyone, according to the Japanese, has an ikigai. Finding it requires a deep and often lengthy search of self.
Grasshopper
Over 4 years I worked for a company in The Netherlands. I was an AX consultant. Actually I was an XAL consultant and when AX got introduced I was to continue to implement XAL projects, since I was good at it. New recruited consultants got introduced to AX, and I envied them for it. With the introduction of AX we also noticed projects were getting bigger and there was a need for actual project managers. Again the people around me got promoted. Or at least, it was so in my eyes.
The Road
I quit my job determined to become a project manager. I did a good job but I hated it. I could find no joy in being a project manager; I experienced constant nagging, ever changing demands, political games and sometimes on the expense of others. And although I delivered my projects always to the customer’s satisfaction, I couldn’t see myself doing this as a profession. I’m sure I have found some kind of joy; maybe if I educated myself better or got more experience, but the effort seemed to much at that point in time.
So back to implementing Dynamics AX. An important part of almost every implementation was the data migration. Before AX2012, there was no such thing as a Data Import Export Framework. So I developed an Excel import tool in VBA. That was something I loved doing. And although many developers would argue that developing in VBA has nothing to do with development, I still am proud of my creation. I loved doing it, I got paid for it (in the end), and since it was a re-usable proven tool customers wanted it. I’m extremely happy I got to experience this part of my life, since I understand developers better now. And I experienced a glimpse of their Ikigai; to create something from scratch and have users use it and be happy about it gave me great satisfaction.
Yet I did not continue on this road. I continued as a consultant, and I became better at it. I was part of many projects, sometimes small, sometimes large international projects. Sometimes I was leading the project, sometimes I was just part of a bigger team, sometimes my role was pivotal and sometimes not at all. I really excelled as an Dynamics AX implementation consultant, in my years when I was running my own company. Not because it was my own company, but simply because I introduced a doctrine saying “everyone is equal”’; the sales director is not better than the project manager, who is not better than the consultants, who is not better than the developer etc. Everyone is playing an equally important role to the success of projects and to the success of the company as a whole. This doctrine gave me and my colleagues a piece of mind. We could focus on the projects and because of that we excelled at what we did.
Find your Ikigai at Kaya Consulting
We still practice this doctrine at Kaya Consulting. We understand your search of your Ikigai. Mine could have been in developing, yet I found my Ikigai in letting my colleagues excel in what they do. And once in a while my colleagues reward me back when they proudly inform me of the great solution they developed, the projects they saved, or the project they delivered to the customer’s satisfaction.
Find your ikigai at Kaya Consulting, we are looking for new colleagues! Do give us a call, and we can determine your way to Ikigai. Also don`t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to be the first who receives our latest blogs.
Kaya Consulting is building Turkish localisation for Dynamics AX7
Founded in 2000 by Peter van den Brink, Kaya Consulting is a Microsoft Partner which extends Microsoft’s vision of helping businesses ‘Do More’. Our headquarters are in the Netherlands and we have offices in Turkey, Malta, Belgium and Estonia. (meer…)
Kaya Consulting opens a new office in Estonia
We are proud to announce that Kaya Consulting Baltic States recently opened its doors. We have a new office in Estonia! “It`s a new dawn, it`s a new day, it`s a new life” for us… and we`re feeling good.
Merry Christmas and 2016
We wish you all a happy holiday season. Our sincere thanks for your goodwill, loyalty and trust in Kaya services and Kaya team throughout the past year. We look forward to meeting you again next year in another year filled with prosperity and success. Here are our 5 tips for a perfect start to 2016 and to guarantee a perfect year.
1 : as a Dynamics AX Finance consultant 2 : as a Dynamics CRM solution achitect 3 : as a Dynamics AX SCM consultant 4 : as a Dynamics CRM developer 5 : as a Dynamics AX developer
The Microsoft EMEA Convergence – Harness the power of Ideas
Microsoft’s Convergence is not a showcase of software products – it is an immersive experience which exposes you to rich insights on solving your business problems today, and how you can open up to future opportunities.
Dynamics AX 2012 R2 – Cumulative Update 8 (CU8) released
As announced earlier, Microsoft released the CU8 cumulative update for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 (KB3042171). The version number of this release is 6.2.2000.14. So there is a cumulative update 8 for both AX 2012 R2 and AX 2012 R3 available. Due to the differences between R2 and R3 also the cumulative update 8 has differences between these versions.