Let’s work (it) out

One might say I’ve become a bit fanatical when it comes to working out. I love going to the gym and lifting weights and I love to run – in fact, I logged 1,007 miles in 2013. When I travel, though, I have to reinvent my workout regimen and improvise at the hotel gym. For those of us who travel frequently and have seen the fitness centers at the various hotels, you know what I’m talking about—you’re lucky if there’s a decent treadmill and a bench. If they have some sort of multi-function cable/pulley weight machine, you’ve hit the jackpot. However, even then, you need to get creative with your routine.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.My latest trip to Atlanta had me excited. I stayed at a major hotel chain with a fitness center that made me feel like I won the lottery. I was happy—but what did I see across the street? The mother of all gyms—it was a Lifetime Fitness, and it looked to be the size of an entire shopping center. It was massive. I went over after work and was able to get a guest pass to use for the duration of my stay. I almost wish I hadn’t done this because it puts the gym I pay for to shame. I’m officially ruined.  From locker rooms with a towel service and mint-infused steam saunas, to treadmills as far as the eye could see and a health food bar that seemed to have the heavens shining down upon the goodies—even a rock climbing wall?!—this place had it all. As I was flying back home, a wave of sadness was coming over me, but unbelievably, this experience made me think of the various types of engagements we do here at ArcherPoint.

The hotel’s fitness center in Atlanta? It was a good, but the gym that I work out in at home is better, but I also pay per month to use that facility. The Lifetime Fitness gym (across the street from the hotel in Atlanta) was the best, and you would be hard pressed to run out of things to do in that gym. However, it’s likely more expensive than my current gym membership. So, the old adage holds true with gyms as in other areas of life: You get what you pay for.

At ArcherPoint, our business analysis engagements with Microsoft Dynamics NAV are similar in nature. We want our clients to have the ‘Lifetime Fitness Gym’ experience. We always want them to walk away with that ‘wow’ factor. And why shouldn’t they? We have some of the best people in the industry working for ArcherPoint. Our ‘best’ experience and perfect scenario would be to have a project manager, business analyst, consultant, and solution architect arrive onsite to gather the requirements, craft the solutions, and create a project roadmap and plan that will lift the client’s project off the ground and take all the proverbial weight off their shoulders. Using this configuration of personnel, we would also be able to offer a degree of resource consistency from project conception through completion. Sometimes, however, this perfect scenario doesn’t fit in the budget; we get that. But just as I can get creative with a bench and a few kettlebells when that’s what I have to work with, ArcherPoint can get creative with our approach and still deliver business value while meeting the client’s budget requirements. There are several ways to do this.  

Sometimes, this means the client has to do some of the heavy lifting. Other times, we simply look to adjusting the scope of the project by breaking the engagement down into affordable phases. We might even look into modifying the amount of time we spend onsite or perhaps adjusting the resources for the analysis phase. However, we would never add more weight if the client couldn’t handle the load.

Ultimately, we will always present the “perfect” scenario and talk through what it means to scale the project to meet budget requirements. Sometimes a project needs to run lean; sometimes it’s time to bulk up and start hitting it hard. Whatever your game plan is, let us be a part of creating the rules.

So, what is the difference between ArcherPoint and the three degrees of gym greatness? Our resources are still the best no matter what package or approach we come up with together as a client-project team. Do you have a Microsoft Dynamics NAV or LS Retail upgrade, implementation, or reimplementation on the horizon? Take advantage of our resource knowledge base and start with a business analysis engagement to scope the work effort! We’ll go with you and hit the local Lifetime Gym…or the hotel fitness center… whatever the case may be. Our goal is simply to deliver the project’s objectives successfully. We’re happy to get creative with our approach and find a solution that fits the bill for all involved.