Hello
I feel hopeless, helpless, and desperate.
I write this because our senior accountant wanted to vent today. He is very troubled, and extremely concerned. That fellow made it very clear that this was his project and his responsibility. He never imaged that a Gold Partner was to us to the brink of disaster. Let me be general as I have no intent to fault and blame our Gold Partner. I am certain they have given it there best; however, that they are unable to fix those many difficulties are work flow is simply crippled. The workers are condemning the senior accountant and daily the pressures mounts. I am concerned for his health, for the company, and our Navision 2013 implementation.
I don't know what to do. Forgive this post is if it inappropriate. I write this message out of desperation. We were comfortable with Nav 2.01B since 1999. However with end of life on server and OSystems we elected to replace everything. New workstations, new servers, everything in preparation for implementing Navision 2013.
We are a small company and had to take out loans in order to implement Navision. We had a budget constraint and were willing to move forward. A fresh start, a new start. We were excited and optimistic. We interviewed several Gold and Silver Partners. And their quotes are came within the expected range. We made a decision with a particular Gold Partner - and started process that would eventually take us to Go Live - and a complete makeover, a transformation. This transformation started in January 2013. Go Live took place end of Oct 2013. And within days after Go Live the situation became evident we were experiences extreme difficulties.
The Commission Report that had to be brought over from Nav 2 had bugs. We keep getting emails saying try this, it should work. And that proves false. Another serious concern is that the forms do not print out correctly. The budget now has almost tripled -way beyond what was delivered a high estimate. It's as though to use a metaphor we landed at the local airport - and gave an address across town - the tax driver got lost - we ended up a few states away - and the destination is far away. We are being charged for this mistake -and for the food along way.
The Gold Partner upper management fired a few of their senior programming engineers over this debacle. And we are far from having a good fix. I must state here as I write out quickly that the Gold Partner works remotely coming through RDS into Nav-Server to do the work. Our accountant said today in his confessional that at this stage in the angst the Gold Partner should be someone in our shop - and work directly on the problem. Anyway it's all remote sessions that the work is done. Lot's of emails...
At this moment months after Go Live the Gold Partner isn't able to fix all these lingering issues. As the Accountant said "Just unbelievable, just mind numbing...."
Without a doubt the Gold Partner never expected these unfortunate developments. However for us the pressure in our shop is overwhelming. All the workers are complaining. The invoices, the reports are printing with formatting issues. And again and again the Gold Partner struggles to make corrections - and those modification always come out just ever so slightly off. And yes, unbelievable! that almost every document they print is with formatting issues. And that is just one issue! The Gold Partner simply cannot fix those formatting issues.
I write out this skimpy note because we simply do not know what to do. We cannot fire that Gold Partner. We cannot bring in third party to assist (though that would be ideal as we would have an independent expert in house making a sincere evaluation) -again that would be an additional cost. Because we are so deep into this failing project - we can only say long ago we passed the point of no return. And that is why I write feeling hopeless, helpless. Alas, alas, if only there was a solution. If only there was a way through this messy, tangled bungled mess. And all this anxiousness by trusting and depending on our Gold Partner. We are completely dependent on our Gold Partner. They should have had the experience, the expertise.
Where can one go for Help? isn't Microsoft responsible for their product? We were promised following Go Live we would be fully functional.
That is not so. We are almost crippled. And thus the urgency. I feel utterly and completely helpless. Myself and my friend, the Accountant feel completely stuck. I do know what to do.
Thanks for your attentions. I would hope to hear from you.
Sincerely
Chuck