Customer Success with Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step

Chapter 3. Solution Envisioning with Sure Step

In the previous chapters, we reviewed general methodology concepts, including the notion of full-life cycle methodologies for business solutions. In a nutshell, a customer life cycle methodology begins with the solution discovery phase, continues with the solution delivery phases, and goes on through to the operation phase and any future upgrades of the solution. Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step methodology is an excellent example of a customer life cycle methodology and includes guidance in all of these areas.

In Chapter 2, Solution Selling and Driving Due Diligence, we went deeper into the solution discovery phase. We talked about the solution provider embracing solution selling in this phase and the benefits they would gain from this systematic approach. For the customers, we saw how this phase helps them with their due diligence process, and why this phase is not only critical for the selection of a solution that matches the requirements and vision of their organization but also sets the stage for quality delivery of the envisioned solution.

This chapter builds on those concepts and gets into the specifics of the solution discovery phase of the Sure Step methodology, known as the Diagnostic phase. We will cover the following topics in this chapter:

· An overview of the Sure Step Diagnostic phase

· How solution selling guidance in the Diagnostic phase leads to a repeatable process for the sellers, including a detailed look at the Sure Step Decision Accelerator Offerings

· Applying the solution selling process to an existing customer

· How the Diagnostic phase supports the customer's due diligence process

· Accelerated Proof of Concept for CRM Online solutions

· Guidance in the Sure Step Diagnostic phase for industry and cross-industry solutions

The Sure Step Diagnostic phase

The Sure Step Diagnostic phase is the first phase of the Sure Step methodology and constitutes the preimplementation phase of the methodology. The Diagnostic phase has been architected to achieve the following dual objectives:

· To provide a consistent and repeatable process for the seller to accelerate and close their sales cycles

· To afford a thorough process for the customer to help them validate and select the right solution to meet their needs

Besides the previously discussed ones, thorough execution of the prescribed steps in the Diagnostic phase provides an additional benefit. Following the key steps and guidance in this phase ensures that both parties arrive at a common understanding of the business needs and the solution vision to meet the requirements, thereby setting the stage for quality delivery of the envisioned solution.

The Sure Step Diagnostic phase flow comprises Activities, Decision Accelerator Offerings, and Services within the Decision Accelerator Offerings. In Sure Step, an Activity is a specific action or step in the flow. An Activity may result in a deliverable as the output of the step, or it could be a prescribed step in the process that leads to an outcome further down the line. In contrast, a Decision Accelerator (DA) Offering is a mini project in itself, and each DA Offering may comprise of multiple Services, each requiring multiple actions to achieve the stated objective of the offering. Sure Step has the following three Decision Accelerator Offerings:

· Diagnostic for a new Dynamics customer, which includes the Requirements and Process Review service

· Diagnostic for a new Dynamics CRM customer by leveraging the Accelerated Proof of Concept for CRM Online service

· Diagnostic for an existing Dynamics customer, beginning with the Upgrade Assessment

We will go into more details on these DA Offerings in the following sections.

It is important to remember that the intent of Sure Step is to help both the seller and the customer to select the right solution, so keeping with that ideology, Sure Step is not intended to be a lead generation tool for the seller. Sure Step begins at the Prospect stage of the Microsoft Solution Selling Process, meaning that it does not get into marketing, campaigns, and other activities to generate awareness for a solution or to profile a particular market segment for prospective customers. Sure Step functions in the opportunity management stages, so it begins after a lead has been identified and provides guidance for assisting and validating the customer's solution selection and to provide the seller with a repeatable process for executing the sale of that solution.

The concept of Decision Accelerator (DA) Offerings

The Decision Accelerator Offerings is a focused set of actions designed to engage the customer and provide the desired information to them within a short engagement so that the customer can move forward to the next stage of their decision making process. For the seller, the Decision Accelerator Offerings are designed to help them accelerate or shorten the sales cycle to bring it to a successful closure. For the customer, these offerings are rapid engagements, designed to help them search for the answers they need to get to the next step of their decision making process.

A DA Offering itself may include multiple services, each including multiple actions that constitute a flow or a series of steps of its own. The DA Offering may start with a kickoff or initiation of the mini engagement and progresses through prescribed actions to produce the stated deliverable or deliverables to achieve the desired outcome. The DA Offering typically ends with the presentation of the results to the customer and a close-out of the mini project.

Each DA has a specific purpose and contains multiple services designed to provide flexibility to the customer and solution provider. Depending on the needs of the customer, the sales team from the solution provider can select the appropriate combination of Diagnostic DA services.

Diagnostic for a new Dynamics customer

With its alignment to Microsoft Solution Selling Process (MSSP), the Diagnostic phase innately supports the solution provider's sales cycle, providing guidance and activities that lead the seller through a prescriptive selling cycle. You may recall that MSSP, which you were introduced to in Chapter 2, Solution Selling and Driving Due Diligence, was created to enable Microsoft's internal and partner sales mechanisms. As we discussed, MSSP is based on the solution selling concept, a philosophy that helps the solution provider and their buyer to forge a trusting relationship between them, while facilitating a working relationship between the two parties to craft a common solution vision for the mutual benefit of each other.

The following diagram shows the Sure Step Diagnostic phase flow and alignment of the seller with the MSSP. The flow shown in the diagram specifically depicts how the sales cycle for a prospect, or new customer, is supported. The Sure Step Diagnostic phase also has a similar flow for existing customers, which we will discuss in a later section. The Decision Accelerator for the prospect includes six services, which we will cover in this section. We will discuss the DA flow for CRM Online prospects and existing customers in the following sections.

Just as with MSSP, the Sure Step Diagnostic phase is broken down into seven stages of the sales cycle. For the seller, these stages correspond to the probability that the sale will be completed. The Activities and Decision Accelerator Offerings are then aligned to these stages in such a manner so as to accelerate the sales cycle to bring it to a close. The final stage in this process is a lead in to the solution delivery, or the Implementation phase and the corresponding activities of Sure Step.

· Prospect 0% through Qualify 10%:

· The Solution Overview activity

· Develop 20%:

· The Requirements and Process Review Decision Accelerator service

· Solution 40%:

· The Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint Decision Accelerator service

· The Architecture Assessment Decision Accelerator service

· The Scoping Assessment Decision Accelerator service

· Proof 60%:

· The Proof of Concept Decision Accelerator service

· The Business Case Decision Accelerator service

· The Proposal Generation activity

· Close 80%:

· The Final Licensing & Services Agreements activity

· Deploy 100%:

· The Project Mobilization activity

Starting the discovery process

The Sure Step Diagnostic phase begins with the Solution Overview activity to serve in the discovery or Diagnostic preparation. In this section, Sure Step provides information on the solution capabilities of the Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions and guidance on the solutions for select industries and their corresponding subindustries.

The Solution Overview activity at the Prospect 0% stage is designed to provide the sales teams with information for their customers. The content could be used as preparation by the seller for face-to-face meetings with their prospective customers, as part of a script for a telephone conversation with the customer, or for a prospectus or introductory letter to the customer that may set the stage for a future meeting. Sure Step also includes pointers to relevant websites that will provide the latest solution materials, including the Microsoft Dynamics site.

Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services tools and alignment with Sure Step

Microsoft Dynamics R&D Lifecycle Services tools is developing and releasing a new genre of tools to help customers and solution providers. An overview of the tools provided over the life cycle of a solution is shown in the following diagram. You can also find a mapping of the tools to the Sure Step phases/project types to get an understanding of how the Lifecycle Services tools will be leveraged in future Sure Step releases. As these tools get built, Sure Step will continue to provide key links to the tools, as well as callouts in specific activities and/or offerings where they can be invoked. In the ensuing sections, we will discuss where these tools can be leveraged in the Sure Step Diagnostic phase.

As shown in the preceding diagram, solution sales teams can leverage the Microsoft Dynamics InformationSource tool in the Solution Overview activity. InformationSource is a valuable tool for sales teams to respond to questions about a customer's Request for Information (RFI) or Request for Proposal (RFP). The tool provides questions and answers that have been culled from several hundred RFP's and is designed to improve the efficiency and response rates of the sales teams.

Positioning guidance and solutions for the industry is another important area covered in this activity. In the Sure Step 2010 release, the methodology was expanded to cover Microsoft Dynamics solutions for a subset of industries and cross-industries. The topic of industry and cross-industry solutions will be covered in more detail in an ensuing section.

As the sales team moves towards the Qualify 10% stage, they will need to gauge whether the customer organization has already defined a selection process and appointed resources to evaluate solutions and alternatives as well as ascertain whether the customer has a high-level budget allocation to acquire the solution in the near term. They will also want to ensure that the customer's evaluation is a fair one, meaning that it is not already weighted towards a particular competitor and they are just going through the motions to appease corporate standards or rules. When the qualification has been accomplished, the sales teams can begin making use of the Decision Accelerator services to help the customer envision their future solution.

In the following sections, we discuss the usage of Decision Accelerator services from the perspective of the selling organization. In an ensuing section, we will provide the customer's perspectives for their usage.

The first step to envisioning the future state

The first Decision Accelerator service in Sure Step is Requirements and Process Review. This service is designed to help the customer determine the business requirements for their future state, as well as visualize their to-be process flows for the associated organizational functions.

The first part of this DA Offering enables the seller to ascertain the customer's requirements with detailed, role-tailored questionnaire templates specific to the ERP or CRM solution that the customer is exploring. The role-tailored aspect of these questions in these templates allows the seller to address the functional requirements of the specific groups in the organization, such as accounting managers, marketing personnel, inventory managers, product planners, or production managers. This is a key enabler of solution selling in that the seller is able to engage the prospective customer in a manner that resonates with them. Instead of approaching the customer and leading with product features and functionality and potentially turning them off, the seller has the ability to engage the customer in a meaningful discussion on their day-to-day functions and job responsibilities, allowing them to unearth the customer's pain points and other valuable information, such as current system limitations and inhibitors of their performance.

A good solution seller and/or a services and sales executive should be able to parlay these questions to develop a relationship with the customer. Depending on the size and scope of the prospective engagement, the sales team may also involve a solution architect, senior consultant, or project manager in these discussions to provide real-life credibility and experiences to the customer. Going through the questions in a methodical fashion, the sellers document the findings from these customer sessions. These findings become the basis for the business requirements of the solution.

The following is a screenshot from Sure Step of the contents of the Role-Tailored Questionnaire for Microsoft Dynamics AX. The AX questionnaire includes questions to initiate a dialog with the executives of the organization, such as the President or CEO, through to individual roles such as Accounting Manager, Accounts Payable Coordinator, and Materials Manager, among others.

While the questionnaires assist with the requirements part of this offering, this DA service also provides access to specific business process maps to enable the process objective of the offering. The business process maps constitute the standard processes when using the solution features, and they can be used as a starting point to envision the future state workflows of the customer organization. It is worth noting that the Business Process Mapping exercise is invoked in the implementation stages as well, beginning with the Analysis phase.

Sure Step includes several process maps for each of the Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions. This has been one of the most widely used set of templates by the Sure Step user base. In the upcoming releases, users can expect this area to be revamped, beginning with the AX process maps. Among the new Lifecycle Services tools being launched is the Business Process Modeler (BPM) tool. The BPM tool is an excellent evolution of process mapping—it is aligned with industry best practices, including American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), giving the users a common framework and taxonomy to relate their own organizational functional flows to. As described by APQC, their "Process Classification Framework (PCF) is a taxonomy of business processes that allows organizations to objectively track and compare their performance internally and externally with organizations from any industry. It also forms the basis for a variety of projects related to business processes". APQC also explains why PCF was developed and its organizational benefits. "Originally envisioned as a tool to aid in performance improvement projects, the framework has evolved into the broad taxonomy that it is today. Organizations can use the PCF's common terminology to name, organize, and map their processes."

The BPM tool currently encompasses several cross-functional process flows, with more coming in the near future. When the BPM tool is built out to include all functional AX areas, it will encompass the existing AX process maps in Sure Step. At that stage, the Sure Step Process maps will be removed and replaced with a pointer to the BPM tool. Screenshots from the BPM tool are shown here:

Using the BPM tool, the solution providers can work with the customer to understand their to-be solution requirements and processes. Additionally, they can also determine the Fit Gap of the requirements to the standard Dynamics AX solution. The BPM tool is also expected to be aligned with another R&D tool called RapidStart in the near future. With that synchronization, customers and solution delivery teams will have the added benefit of using the requirements that are deemed the standard solution fit in the Fit Gap exercise to generate a starting setup for the implementation.

Another benefit that the BPM tool provides is the linkage of industry Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with the corresponding industry business processes. We will discuss the usage and importance of KPIs in the section on estimating return on investment from the solution.

From the service provider's perspective, they are helping the customer through their needs analysis in this exercise. While the templates included in Sure Step for this offering—including the questionnaires and process maps—are distinctively fashioned along the lines of the corresponding Microsoft Dynamics product, it is not a stretch for the customer organization to take this output and use it as the basis for other solution evaluations. In doing so, there is also the potential that the customer decides to go down the path of an alternative solution to Microsoft Dynamics. Bearing that in mind, it is understandable that a service provider may expect fair compensation for their services—the service provider is putting forward experienced resources from their organization to enable the customer to envision the future state of their organization and document the requirements for a solution to meet this vision. In the strict sense of the engagement, the services rendered are akin to business consulting, even if there is a bias towards a given solution.

As such, the service provider can legitimately position their services for customer compensation. Of course, the service provider may also choose to view the engagement as a business investment and provide all or part of the services pro bono; however, it is in their best interests to do so only when they see it as fair competition and that they have been afforded an equal shot at winning the customer's business as their competitors have.

It also bears mention that Requirements and Process Review does not always have to be executed, and there are circumstances such as when the customer has already independently executed a thorough analysis of their needs and documented them into a RFP. However, in case a customer already has an RFP in place, it is possible that another competitor or vendor assisted the customer in developing the requirements, in which case you may have to execute the Requirements and Process Review DA to some extent at least. This discussion is elaborated in the Other usage scenarios for the Decision Accelerators section.

Identifying the right solution

After the requirements for the new solution have been identified and documented, the next step in the process is to ascertain how well the proposed solution fits these requirements and how it aligns with the vision of the customer organization. The Sure Step Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint Decision Accelerator service has been "architected" to serve that purpose. This also aligns well with a major tenet of MSSP: to make yourself equal before you make yourself different.

Fit Gap analysis is an important exercise that the customer and sales teams should perform in the solution evaluation phase. The premise of the analysis is to go through each of the requirements defined for the new solution and determine whether they can be met by the proposed solution. To do so, the first step entails that the sales team translate the business requirements gathered in the previous exercise into solution requirements. As noted in the previous section, it is also possible that the sales team gets involved after an RFP or Request for Quote (RFQ) has been generated, in which case it becomes even more important to be able to translate the general business needs into specific solution requirements.

Functional solution architects and/or experienced functional consultants are typically involved in breaking down a larger business need into smaller solution requirements. An example of this may be when the customer indicates that an overhaul of their Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process is one of their business needs. S&OP involves many areas, including sales planning and forecasting and supply and inventory planning, among others. While this is an extreme example, it just goes to show that a business need may be a bigger objective, but a solution requirement will need to be more compartmentalized to ensure that the solution delivery team can truly map the degree of the requirement to the solution.

If a requirement can be achieved either by out-of-the-box solution features or by configuring the standard solution, the requirement is considered a fit to the proposed solution. It is also possible that a minor change in the current process or workflow of the customer organization may lead to a fit with the solution. However, if the base solution needs to be customized, or in other words, some code needs to be written to achieve the requirement, that requirement is considered a gap to the proposed solution.

It is also important to understand what constitutes the solution. Typically, the Fit Gap analysis is conducted with the base Microsoft Dynamics solution. If, however, add-on Independent Software Vendor (ISV) solutions for the Microsoft Dynamics solution are expected to be part of the overall solution, the term solution should encompass the base Microsoft Dynamics solution as well as the corresponding ISV solutions. Accordingly, a requirement will be considered a fit if it can be met by the combined solution without the need for any additional custom code components.

The percentage of the requirements that fit with the overall solution to the total number of requirements deemed necessary for the new solution is expressed as the Degree of Fit of the proposed solution.

Note

Degree of Fit of the proposed solution (expressed as a percentage) = number of requirements that fit the proposed solution / total number of requirements for the new solution.

Where, Number of requirements that fit the proposed solution = requirements met by the standard features of the solution + requirements met by a configuration of the solution + requirements met by a workflow/process change in the customer organization.

The point about a simple change in the customer's business process or workflow to meet a given requirement cannot be overemphasized. In practice, this option is often not given consideration; instead, you can see the service provider coming up with expensive customization designs or add-on solutions as alternatives. But the first step should always be to examine the current workflow of the customer organization. We need to find answers to questions such as "are they presently going through the steps because of limitations in their current systems or perhaps because of a creative workaround that was set up sometime in the past and is no longer necessary" and "is there any other minor reason that a simple shift in a procedure could result in the company using the standard feature of the solution to achieve their goals?" If the answer to these questions is yes, it is preferable for both parties to consider a workflow change as the alternative, not only from the perspective of lower delivery costs for the solution but also from a long-term perspective—the more the customer can use standard features of a solution, the easier it will be for them to upgrade to future releases of the solution whenever they decide to do so. In the long run, this results in a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) number, and hence a higher value for the proposed solution for the customer. If the seller is truly practicing the solution selling ideology, they will also work towards lowering the TCO for the customer and not towards increasing the scope of the solution via customizations. Additionally, the service provider should always strive to architect the simplest solution to meet a customer's needs, thereby lowering the overall risk profile of the proposed solution. This should also be a point of consideration for the seller in moving away from complex customizations wherever feasible.

Coming back to the Fit Gap analysis, the output of the exercise is to determine the Degree of Fit of the proposed solution to the customer's requirements. However, what value of Degree of Fit the solution should have for it to be acceptable is a contextual question. Some organizations may require a minimum of a 75 percent Degree of Fit for lower TCO objectives. Others may be fine with a lower value for the Degree of Fit due to the specific nature of their business that precludes them from using out-of-the-box functionality to meet their needs and could be evaluating if they should be developing their own application or if it would be more feasible to start with an existing code base and expand it to meet their needs.

The following screenshot shows a sample output from Sure Step of a Fit Gap analysis for a Microsoft Dynamics CRM engagement. This is just a simple screenshot with five requirements being mapped to the categories, but it shows the pictorial depiction of the Degree of Fit for the customer to the CRM solution.

As noted in the previous section, the new genre of Lifecycle Services will help enhance this area in the future. For the Fit Gap exercise, the BPM tool can be leveraged in the future by the solution providers to work with the customer to understand their to-be solution requirements and processes and then determine the Fit Gap of the requirements to the standard Dynamics AX solution.

Upon completion of the Fit Gap analysis, the second part of the Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint Decision Accelerator service is to develop the solution blueprint. The solution blueprint is a document that communicates the service provider's conceptual design of their proposed solution to meet the customer's requirements. The document should include the seller's understanding of the customer's business needs along with the overall solution, including any add-on solutions, customizations required, and integration componentsthat are deemed necessary to meet the customer's future state vision.

Determining infrastructure implications

A customer acquiring a packaged application as their business solution is interested in three cost perspectives—software costs (and any associated maintenance costs), services or implementation costs for the delivery of the solution, and hardware or infrastructure costs.

The Sure Step Architecture Assessment Decision Accelerator service deals primarily with the third component of the business solution acquisition costs. It bears mention that infrastructure costs are incurred regardless of whether the solution will be on-premises, that is, physically located on one of the customer's sites or will be hosted by a third-party provider or if it will be an online solution. The requirements will obviously vary for on-premises, hosted, or online solutions; for example, the former will require more hardware or server components, while the latter two may have higher bandwidth and latency needs.

This service will also be enhanced in future releases of Sure Step with reference to the new Lifecycle Services tools, specifically the Infrastructure Sizing Estimator tool.

Given the understanding of the customer's requirements and the proposed solution blueprint to meet the customer's needs, the sales team is able to develop the conceptual architecture of the solution in this exercise. This exercise, which is typically carried out by technical solution architects or technical application consultants, includes developing the high-level hardware and infrastructure plan. Besides the business requirements from the previous activity and the solution blueprint, other inputs considered for this activity include projected transaction volume, key user scenarios, and any other benchmarking activities.

The infrastructure and hardware recommendations that result from this exercise are then used by the customer to obtain the estimate for the infrastructure to support their business solution.

The Architecture Assessment DA service also provides deeper offerings to help the customer in other areas, such as performance projections and benchmarking and high-availability and disaster recovery planning. A customer could have a concern in a specific area of their business that generates high usage or traffic patterns of the solution. Or due to the mission-critical aspect of the solution, they may require that the infrastructure plan encompass failover mechanisms to minimize or eliminate downtime. The customers may also want the plan to include disaster recovery in order to ensure that their data is protected appropriately and can be recovered in the event of failure. For such situations, technical deep-dive offerings, such as Proof of Concept Benchmark, can be performed by very senior and experienced technical resources and can be used to provide the customer with the desired answers and allay any concerns about the operation of the system. These are typically expensive and time-intensive services that can require specific lab setups, among other things. These services are also typically paid for by the customer.

Estimating delivery costs, approaches, plans, and roles

The Sure Step Scoping Assessment Decision Accelerator service deals with the second component of the business solution acquisition costs noted in the previous section—the services or implementation costs for the delivery of the solution. But this serviceprovides far more than just the costs; it also provides the decision point for the overall approach to delivering the solution, resulting in the development of a high-level schedule and the delivery team structure.

The first step in executing the Scoping Assessment DA service is to determine the overall solution rollout approach. In this exercise, the solution delivery team and the customer work together to determine whether the solution can be rolled out in smaller, manageable releases or whether the entire functionality is desired at the time of solution go live. Rolling out the solution in multiple releases is known as a phased approach to solution delivery; here, select solution functionality is enabled in individual releases, with each release building upon the prior one. The alternative to a phased approach is delivering the full solution in a single release, which is often referred to as the big-bang approach to solution delivery. A key point to bear in mind for the reader is this: do not confuse the phased approach with the phases of a waterfall solution delivery method. The waterfall phases break down an overall project or release it into smaller segments, while the phased approach is a technique to break down the overall engagement into multiple projects or releases.

The larger the scope of the project and/or the greater the reach of the solution within the customer organization, the more desirable is a phased approach over a big-bang approach. The following are the supporting reasons:

· A phased approach enables the customer organization to start using the solution much sooner, facilitating a smoother adoption of the system. As the scope for each release is limited, the delivery team can promote that part of the solution quicker to production, thus enabling users to start working with the system earlier than they would have with the big-bang approach.

· Solution testing can also be more manageable as the limited scope may mean more focused application testing of the solution with fewer workflows impacted.

· Customers can also start to benefit from the solution sooner by selecting those requirements that are important to them but could be easier or quicker to solve with the new solution.

· For complex solutions, customers can also earn valuable support for the project from early adoption of the system, resulting in a quick win for the delivery team, which in sales/consulting jargon, is often referred to as "going after the low-hanging fruit".

· From an overall risk management perspective, the phased approach is often seen as the less risky strategy for all the reasons noted here.

Of course, a phased approach is not always the best one. Sometimes, the customer organization will need all the features enabled before they can begin using the system. In that case, the big-bang approach may be the only alternative. The big-bang approach also has other advantages:

· If the same user base is going to be using the addition functionality, they will not need to be retrained at every release.

· Solution testing will encompass all likely scenarios, so the customer organization can find out—once and for all—whether or not the overall solution will meet their needs. This could also potentially reduce overall testing costs. In a phased approach, you test the scenarios for the first release and then potentially retest those scenarios in concert with the others when testing for the second release.

· A throw-away interface or integration code does not have to be created in instances where part of the system being used may necessitate external sources to be temporarily connected to the new system.

Phased approaches and staging options for multiple site deployments

The phased delivery approach has another aspect—its importance and usage in the delivery of solutions to multiple sites. Large organizations with multiple branches or sites can be characterized in two ways:

· Organizations with branches across multiple countries/regions, each with a high percentage of similar business models and processes

· Organizations with sites across multiple countries/regions, each with separate functions, such as Corporate, Sales, R&D, and Manufacturing

When organizations with similar processes think about the rollout of their business solutions, they look for a core solution across their sites. This approach is described in the Sure Step's Enterprise project type, which uses Core Build to develop a common solution across all sites and add a Site Build that will accommodate site-specific requirements. The two Build types are then merged to roll out to the corresponding sites. On the other hand, the rollout for the solution to sites with unique requirements will each require their own delivery approach. The following screenshot shows the two options:

Regardless of whether the overall solution can be rolled out using a phased or a big-bang approach, the customer and solution delivery teams also need to select the delivery approach for the individual releases.

Solution delivery has two distinct approaches—waterfall and agile, which are described as follows:

· Waterfall: This is a sequential process that depicts a linear flow of activities from one phase to another, culminating with the solution being promoted to production and then into operation

· Agile: This is an iterative solution development method that promotes a collaborative process between the resources that own and specify the requirements for the solution with the resources responsible for the development and rollout of the solution

Just as with the overall phased or big-bang approaches, there is no right or wrong with either of the solution delivery approaches; it is just a matter of organizational preference. Some organizations prefer the structure of the waterfall approach as it clearly breaks down the activities in each phase, leading to the deployment of the solution. Others prefer to let the requirements of the solution evolve during the development activities, which is a characteristic of the agile approach. The Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step methodology supports both approaches by offering Standard, Enterprise, Rapid, and Agile workflows (plus an Upgrade workflow for existing customer deployments). We will cover this aspect in more detail in an ensuing chapter that is focused on solution delivery.

The next step for the sales and solution delivery team in the execution of the Scoping Assessment Decision Accelerator service is to work with the customer and understand their solution priorities using the solution blueprint as the input. To do so, the delivery team will need to identify the inherent constraints as well as any imposed constraints for the project. Inherent constraints are often imposed by the system; for example, a system will need a certain logical configuration order, such as starting with the chart of accounts, and then moving to the general ledger of an ERP system. Imposed constraints, on the other hand, are typically external constraints; for example, the customer may have specific licensed software that is up for renewal, and that the customer does not desire to renew, and would prefer that the corresponding module of the new solution be enabled before their license for the third-party software expires. Understanding these constraints allows the solution delivery team to come up with a schedule that meets the customer's objectives for the new solution.

The next step in the execution of the Scoping Assessment Decision Accelerator service is to determine the effort required for the solution deployment activities. This includes the solution setup, configuration and development, the environment setup, and the user training needs, among other aspects. Many service providers develop costing spreadsheets and databases to support them in these tasks and typically populate the spreadsheets based on their experiences on similar past projects. Other organizations use Estimator tools that include base values for enabling specific functionality. These base values may have been garnered from past history but typically constitute the average value from the experiences of several consultants over multiple projects. As such, these Estimator tools provide a consistent, repeatable framework for estimating solution delivery efforts. Of course, Estimator tools may also provide a means to override a given estimate, say to add an uplift that may be needed in riskier engagements.

Armed with the information on the overall solution rollout approach, the individual release delivery approach, the inherent and imposed constraints, and the effort needed for the solution deployment activities, the sales and delivery teams can determine the solution rollout schedule in the next step.

Reducing risk perception

While the Sure Step Requirements and Process Review, Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint, Architecture Assessment, and Scoping Assessment Decision Accelerator services are designed to help the customer envision their future solution and the costs associated with delivering that solution, the Proof of Concept DA service is provided to allay any potential concerns of the customer in specific areas of the solution while continuing the theme of solution envisioning as well.

The Proof of Concept Decision Accelerator service requires the utilization of solution delivery resources to set up, configure, and customize the solution to a specific subset of the customer's requirements. As the customer has not yet acquired software licenses, the delivery team will typically build their own demo environment to execute this solution setup, such as in a Virtual PC (VPC) program that virtualizes a standard PC and its hardware. After the solution setup has been completed, the delivery team will set up a solution demonstration in a conference room setting, where the customer's business and technical decision makers will be able to preview and criticize the solution features.

The Proof of Concept DA is an appropriate service in instances such as when the customer—after going through the Requirements and Process Review, Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint, Architecture Assessment, and Scoping Assessment DA Offerings—is fairly comfortable with the Microsoft Dynamics solution but still has concerns in specific areas. There are two key points here. The first is that the customer is fairly certain that the proposed Microsoft Dynamics solution will meet their needs, and the second is that the sales team identifies those specific areas where the customer is looking for additional proof points. These are important points to bear in mind because the Proof of Concept exercise should be a time-bound and limited scope engagement exercise that helps the customer with the final decision point before moving forward with system acquisition. From the service provider's perspective, these points become crucially important if the Proof of Concept DA service is positioned as an unpaid engagement as resources who may otherwise be working on billable customer engagements are being called upon to work on this prospective customer's requirements.

The output of the Proof of Concept DA exercise can also become the starting point should the customer decide to move forward with the proposed solution. If the due diligence by the delivery and customer teams includes configuration of the system and/or custom code is written to meet a specific requirement, these should be carried through to the implementation of the system. This is another aspect where having a customer life cycle methodology such as Sure Step allows teams to build upon the work from previous phases, even if a previous phase happens to occur during the sales cycle.

Another point about the Proof of Concept engagement is the potential that the project scope or solution vision may be altered after the output of this exercise. It is quite possible that the customer team may think of additional applications or request a different set of solution functionalities to meet their requirement. In these cases, the sales team will need to go back and update the solution blueprint and corresponding delivery estimates and perhaps even redesign the proposed system architecture.

Estimating the Return on Investment

The Sure Step Business Case Decision Accelerator service is designed to provide Return on Investment (ROI) analysis for the solution that can help the customer executives understand the value proposition for the solution and justify their investment. The Business Case DA service determines the quantifiable business value for the given investment as well as the TCO for their new system.

Going back to the discussion in Chapter 2, Solution Selling and Driving Due Dilligence, determining the impact of the solution on the customer organization and articulating the value is a very important activity for the customer and sales teams. When there is a value associated with the solution, it becomes a lot easier to drive executive support, which is critical for the project. Also, having clearly defined value projections will help motivate the teams through inevitable struggles during the course of implementation of the solution. In some situations, companies are hesitant to share certain financial information, but given the investment they are about to make in terms of money, resources, and time, it behooves them to go through this exercise so that they can clearly understand the potential for organizational gains with the new system.

For the Business Case DA exercise, the customer and service provider teams work together to determine the direct and indirect benefits associated with the proposed solution. Direct benefits have a measurable impact on the budget or costs. Examples of directbenefits resulting from the new system include:

· Increased inventory turns and results in lower inventory costs

· Reduction in personnel needed to accomplish a task

· Increased orders processed through the system during a given period

· Reduced returns due to wrong shipments

Indirect benefits, on the other hand, are not easily quantifiable. They may need observation and projection of estimated impact. Still, these are important factors to account for. Examples of indirect benefits from the new system include:

· Productivity increases gained from better visibility

· Reduced administrative overhead costs

· Reduced communication costs

· Increased customer retention

The Business Case DA service analyzes the previously discussed benefits in relation to the total costs associated with the acquisition of the solution, with which the customer gains an understanding of the TCO for their new system. TCO cost elements include solution acquisition costs, operating costs, and any additional long-term costs.

As mentioned earlier, solution acquisition includes three components—software costs (and any associated maintenance costs), services or implementation costs for the delivery of the solution, and hardware or infrastructure costs. Software costs come directly from licensing agreements. The Scoping Assessment DA service produces cost estimates for services delivery, while the Architecture Assessment DA service produces inputs to determine the hardware or infrastructure costs.

Operating costs may include costs involved in training and retraining the the employees of the customer organization; the costs of customer resources involved in the testing of the solution; and other costs, such as insurance, electricity, and other physical infrastructure needs. Long-term costs, on the other hand, may include costs for periodic solution reviews and costs for solution upgrades and scaling.

The benefits and costs form the basis for the determination of the Return on Investment for the solution. Sure Step provides an effective tool for ROI calculations that has been developed by an independent analyst firm, Nucleus Research. The standardized tool provides a systematic way to capture benefits and costs, which in turn allows teams to project the expected ROI, payback period, and/or Net Present Value (NPV) for the investment. Separate ROI tools are provided for the analysis of ERP and CRM solutions. Thefollowing screenshot shows the report section of the Nucleus Research ROI Tool for Microsoft Dynamics AX:

The service provider executes the preceding steps of the Business Case DA service to develop the financial results and report. The financial results include insights into risk assessment areas such as capital recovery and variance potential. These results are then provided to the customer's business executives and calibrated as needed.

Besides the financial analysis noted previously, the Business Case DA also helps the organization determine KPIs and Conditions of Satisfaction (COS) for the new solution. Establishing the KPIs and COS is an important exercise for the long-term health of the initiative as they provide a means to track the on-going progress of the engagement, and eventually, the success (or failure) of the solution. Hand-in-hand with establishing the KPIs is the need to determine the baseline metrics for these KPIs, which will help the teams understand where they were at the start of the engagement and what they have achieved with the new solution.

As we discussed in the earlier sections, the new BPM tool is based on APQC's Process Classification Framework and can also be leveraged by customers and solution providers to determine the appropriate industry KPIs for their solution. As described by APQC, the "PCF is also used as the basis for APQC's Open Standards Benchmarking, where organizations can benchmark their performance against that of other organizations. APQC tracks responses according to the processes as enumerated and defined in the PCF."

Developing the project charter and proposal

The Sure Step Proposal Generation activity is the next step following the execution of the relevant Decision Accelerator services for customer engagement. A key output of the Proposal Generation activity is the Project Charter, which is a vehicle to summarize the conclusions drawn from the Decision Accelerator services and the preceding Diagnostic preparation activities for the customer. The project charter includes the high-level project scope, solution delivery approach, workflow, timelines, activities, and dependencies. It also includes the roles that will be involved in solution delivery, both from the service provider and customer teams, and their corresponding skills requirements.

The project charter development begins with summarizing the high-level scope. For this, the sales team will review the outputs of the Requirements and Process Review Decision Accelerator service and the Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint DA service. Based on the requirements that were identified, defined, and documented in these exercises, the project charter will identify the scope, including the business needs and functional requirements for the new solution and the to-be business processes.

The project charter will also include non-functional requirements and any other technology requirements, such as integrations and interfaces with external systems. Any performance needs, such as system response, latency, system downtime, and failover requirements, will also be noted in the proposal. For this, the team will summarize the findings of the Architecture Assessment DA service.

The project charter should also discuss the solution delivery approach that was ascertained in the Scoping Assessment DA service. This includes deciding whether we will go ahead with multiple releases or a single release. It also involves deciding on the suitable implementation approach for each of the releases—waterfall or agile.

The project charter should be accompanied by a high-level project plan. While the overall implementation approach will be covered in the project charter, the high-level timeline, activities, and dependencies for the solution delivery will be noted in the project plan.

Another aspect covered in the project charter is an assessment of the proposed roles and responsibilities and the project team's skills and requirements. The starting point for this assessment can be the output of the Scoping Assessment DA exercise. The project plan should then specify the next level of detail, including denoting in which activity and when the corresponding roles will be involved in the implementation. An overall project governance model should also be defined in the project charter, especially for longer engagements that involve multiple releases. The governance model should clearly articulate the project management and key roles for each of the releases. The model should also define the structure to bubble up communications and issues at a program level, such as the formation of a steering committee that will include key business stakeholders from a cross section of the customer organization as well as key stakeholders from the delivery team.

The project charter can also include project communication plans and schedules, including the timing and information structure for project statuses from individual release resource teams through to the steering committee.

The assumptions, scope delimitations, and risks identified for the engagement are key areas that should be highlighted in the project charter. It is important to list any assumptions that went into the definition of the solution, along with the requirements that are clearly outside the scope of the engagement, in order to avoid any misconceptions or misunderstandings. The project charter should also note the identified risks and attempt to identify and outline a mitigation strategy for each of them. Any dependencies owned by the customer and outside of direct project control should also be clearly highlighted.

The Proposal Generation activity is typically performed in the Proof stage of the Microsoft Solution Selling Process. If Proof of Concept and/or Business Case exercises are executed as part of the engagement, the proposal generation is typically the next step. Thesales team looks to influence the solution decision of the customer in this activity and strives to obtain verbal approval from the customer. Upon receiving a verbal approval of their proposal, the sales team can proceed with the development of a budgetary estimate and the creation of the Statement of Work.

Closing the sales cycle

The Sure Step Final Licensing and Services Agreement activity builds on the Proposal Generation activity to formalize the agreements between the customer and the selling parties. The selling parties could be multiple entities, or in some instances, a single entity. From a software licensing and ongoing software maintenance standpoint, it could include Microsoft, Microsoft Partners, and Independent Software Vendors for add-on solutions to the core Microsoft Dynamics solutions. Similarly, it could also include multiple parties on the services delivery side, including Microsoft-certified Implementation Partners and Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS).

The new Lifecycle Services tools can be leveraged from a licensing perspective for Microsoft Dynamics AX solutions. The License Sizing Estimator tool helps solution providers and customers to determine the server and user licensing, including how many users and what types of users to allow access to the system.

From a service provider's perspective, one of the key steps in this exercise is to provide the customer with a budgetary estimate for the service delivery. The budgetary estimate essentially summarizes the results of the Scoping Assessment Decision Accelerator service and includes any rate discounts that may have been proposed between the service provider and the customer. If the customer has been actively involved throughout the Diagnostic phase activities, the budgetary estimate should not come as a surprise to them. However, the service provider can expect some level of dialog on rate discussions and timeframes; this is the reason for providing the customer with an estimate as it facilitates open communication through negotiations towards finalizing a formal agreement.

After a satisfactory round of negotiations for both parties, the service provider initiates the Statement of Work as the formal agreement to commence implementation of the solution. The SOW builds off the project charter and project plan documents initiated in the Proposal Generation activity. It is a formal legal agreement for services that will need to be signed off by the customer and the service provider, so it will include many of the components of the project charter, including the project scope, any requirements not within scope, assumptions, risk factors, approaches, timelines, and resources.

The SOW will also include legal terms and conditions both from a service delivery and payment schedule perspective.

The Statement of Work itself can take different approaches. The most common approach is the Time and Material (T&M) format, where the customer is expected to render their payments for all services and expenses generated during the course of the solution implementation at agreed upon intervals. Project managers from both parties are responsible for ensuring that the project stays within scope and budget, with change order controls and processes typically in place to manage deviations. The larger the scope and duration of the engagement, the more likely it is that the parties will agree to the T&M format, which will allow for a lower risk profile, especially for the service provider.

The following is a screenshot of the Table of Contents of the Statement of Work template for the Standard project type in Sure Step. The SOW has been provided as a template for organizations using Sure Step to customize to their specific needs, including necessary legal references.

The other approach, which is being seen more frequently in tighter economic times, is a Fixed Scope engagement. In this approach, the customer and service provider agree to a very strict definition of the requirements in scope at the outset, and the service provider is then responsible for delivering all the requirements for the agreed fee. This approach is typically more risky for the service provider, especially in the larger engagements. The scope of the engagement typically goes through some levels of modification during the course of the implementation. This typically results in the service providers building a risk quotient into their fee structure to ensure that they are covered to some extent in cases of mitigating circumstances. It bears mention that Sure Step includes guidance and templates to manage the inevitable scope modifications—this is covered in the Proposal Management sections of the Project Management discipline.

Besides the Statement of Work, the other component that is provided to the customer is the Software License and Maintenance agreements. As mentioned earlier, this could be only for Microsoft Dynamics, or it could include any associated ISV solutions.

The third component of business solution delivery is the hardware and infrastructure requirements. This is typically addressed by the customer's procurement group based on the recommendations made by the Architecture Assessment DA service.

Initiating the delivery cycle

The final activity in the Sure Step Diagnostic phase is the Project Mobilization activity, which is the precursor to the start of solution implementation. This is a critical activity for the sales and consulting teams, especially as in most instances the resources involved in the sales cycle are different from those who will deliver the solution.

The Project Mobilization activity takes place after the customer has signed off on the Statement of Work. It ensures that there is a clear knowledge transfer of the customer's requirements and the envisioned solution between the sales resources and the delivery resources. In this activity, the services delivery managers also lock in the consulting resources who will execute the implementation of the solution. If the resources need any additional training before the start of the implementation, the managers are responsible for making sure that the training is scheduled and executed without affecting the start of solution delivery.

Other aspects of the Decision Accelerator Offering services

In the previous sections, we discussed the positioning and usage of each of the Sure Step Decision Accelerator Offering services at length. Each of the services has been designed to address a specific area, and they build on each other to help the customer envision their future solution as well as how the solution will get delivered. As noted before, the DA Offering services are each independent and optional, so only those that are required for a customer engagement need to be used. That said, there are three critical DA services that should be executed in some shape or form to ensure that the solution meets the vision and requirements. The three key DA services are Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint, Architecture Assessment, and Scoping Assessment.

The first DA service, Requirements and Process Review, is also important if the customer does not have a full grasp of the requirements for the new solution or the future processes with the new solution. Customers increasingly seem to start their business solution selection process with a Request for Proposal. If the RFP encompasses a thorough composition of the organization's requirements and future processes, the seller can begin with the Fit Gap exercise to determine whether the requirements fit well with their solution. However, as noted earlier, even if a customer already has an RFP in place, it is possible that another competitor or vendor assisted the customer with developing the requirements. In that case, you may have to execute the Requirements and Process Review DA service, at least to an extent.

Determining the Degree of Fit of the solution is of critical importance, as is determining the solution blueprint, the future infrastructure, the approach, timeline, and costs to deliver the proposed solution. This is why the Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint DA, Architecture Assessment DA, and Scoping Assessment DA are deemed critical DA Offering services. If, after executing these offerings, the customer is convinced that they have the right solution to meet their needs, the sales team may be able to go straight to the Final Licensing and Services Agreements activity and skip the Proof of Concept and Business Case DA services. The Business Case DA, however, does provide important value justification as well as KPI identification. As such, Business Case is still a highly recommended exercise.

For smaller deals, questions often arise from sales teams about whether or not the Sure Step Decision Accelerator Offering services are still applicable. Irrespective of whether the DA Offerings are positioned as paid offerings, they are still applicable because they reduce the risk factor for a solution of this importance for the customer as well as for the service provider, who ensures that they have documented and accounted for all the requirements in their proposal. It is important to remember that the duration for each of the DA Offerings is dictated by the sales and customer teams. So, for smaller engagements, it still behooves the solution provider to at least utilize the templates provided in Sure Step and go through the steps in an abridged manner if needed. This will ensure that they are not making any erroneous assumptions and they are also clearly communicating to the customer their understanding of the requirements and the vision of the solution. Going through this process also reduces the risk of underestimating the deal as the sales teams may unearth points that they may not have considered during this process. Therefore, at the very least, the sales teams should use the Sure Step templates to document their assumptions and solution vision and make them known to the customer. One option to execute this process is to combine the necessary services, especially the three key ones, and execute the offering as a series of steps and produce summary documentation within the Statement of Work.

Diagnostic leveraging of the Accelerated POC with the CRM Online service

For customers considering Dynamics CRM solutions, online or on-premises, Sure Step introduced a service called Accelerated Proof of Concept with CRM Online. This service was designed to take advantage of free trial licenses that can be afforded to prospective customers, giving them the ability to "test drive" the CRM Online solution on their own before deciding to move forward with solution envisioning and solution acquisition. Microsoft Dynamics is one of the unique solution providers in the world to give customers the same foundational code base for both on-premises and online solutions. Thus, customers may validate the functionality on CRM Online and still choose to deploy the on-premises solution if they so desire. Hence this Sure Step service is titled Accelerated POC withCRM Online as opposed to for CRM Online solutions only.

The activity flow of the Accelerated POC with CRM Online service is shown in the following diagram:

The conceptual design behind this service was to provide some standard scenarios to customers. Customers would then have the ability to upload their own dataset for these scenarios, giving them the ability to quickly validate the corresponding CRM functionality and get a comfort feel for the Dynamics CRM product.

To start with, the Microsoft Services team developed five out-of-box Sales Force Automation (SFA) scenarios that encompassed basic workflows for the following:

· Lead capture

· Lead allocation/routing

· Opportunity management

· Quote/contract development

· Contract conversion

The SFA scenarios were made available to the Dynamics partner ecosystem via the CRM Marketplace in the form of a Quick Start package. Besides the solution setup for the scenarios, the package also included a delivery guide, demo scripts, and sample data that could be used as a building block for a customer Proof of Concept for the corresponding scenarios.

Using the previously discussed materials, solution providers could execute high-level requirements and Fit Gap reviews in the first step of this service. If one or more of the scenarios fits with the customer needs, the solution provider can conduct a preliminary business value assessment to get an initial gauge of the solution benefits as well as an architecture assessment to determine how the customer's users would access the system. Following that, the provider's team would set up the system with customer data and turn it over to the customer's assigned users, who could use the remainder of the free trial licenses to test the system. The idea of giving the customer's users a setup with their own data was to make it that much more intuitive to them in testing and evaluating a new system.

The Accelerated POC concept can be leveraged for scenarios besides the five noted if the solution providers develop other predefined scenarios that they commonly encounter in customer engagements and then follow the process previously noted. The Accelerated POC scenarios can also be leveraged as starting points for customer demonstrations of the CRM solution.

It also bears mention that the Accelerated POC was designed to get a quick win for the sales team with a customer by affording them hands-on experience on a limited subset of the CRM functionality. When the customer feels comfortable with that aspect of the solution, the solution provider may avail of the other Decision Accelerator Offering services previously discussed, including Requirements and Process Review, Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint, Architecture Assessment, and Scoping Assessment, to determine the scope of the full solution required for the customer.

The Diagnostic phase for a current Dynamics customer

In the previous sections, we covered the Sure Step Diagnostic phase guidance for a new or prospective Dynamics customer. The Diagnostic phase also supports the process for due diligence and solution selling process for an existing Dynamics customer, which is the topic of discussion in this section.

The following diagram shows the flow of activities and services of the Decision Accelerator Offering for an existing customer. The flow is very similar to the one for a prospect, with the only difference being the Upgrade Assessment DA service replacing the Requirements and Process Review DA service.

Much like the flow for a prospect, the flow for the existing customer begins with the Diagnostic preparation. In this case, however, the sales team uses the guidance to explain the capabilities and features of the new version of the corresponding Microsoft Dynamics solution. When the customer expresses interest in moving their existing solution to the current version of the solution, the next step is the Upgrade Assessment DA service.

Assessing the upgrade requirements

The services delivery team has two primary objectives when executing the Upgrade Assessment DA service. First, the delivery team assesses the current solution to determine the impact of the proposed upgrade. Second, they determine the optimal approach to upgrade the solution to the current version.

The Upgrade Assessment DA service begins with the solution delivery team meeting with the customer to understand the requirements for the upgrade. The solution delivery team is usually comprised of solution and/or service sales executives as well as solution architects and senior application consultants to provide real-life perspectives to the customer.

Sure Step provides product-specific questionnaires that can be leveraged for the Upgrade Assessment exercise, including upgrade questionnaires for Microsoft Dynamics AX, CRM, CRM Online, GP, NAV, and SL. In future releases, the Upgrade questionnaires for AX may be replaced by the Upgrade Analysis tool from the new Microsoft Dynamics R&D Lifecycle Services.

In the next step, the solution architect and/or application consultants review the configurations, customizations, integrations, physical infrastructure, and system architecture of the customer's existing solution. The team then proceeds to highlight those requirements that can be met by the new feature enhancements and determine whether there are any customizations that may no longer be necessary in the new product version.

The team also reviews the customizations that will need to be promoted to the upgraded solution and identifies any associated complexities and risks involved in upgrading the solution. Finally, the team will clearly delineate those requirements that are met by current functionality and those that require implementation of new functionality. For the new functionality, the delivery team can avail of the corresponding product questionnaires from the Requirements and Process Review DA service.

The last step in the Upgrade Assessment DA service is to agree upon the delivery approach for the upgrade. If no new functionality is deemed necessary as part of the upgrade, the solution can use the Technical Upgrade project type guidance, workflow, and templates. On the other hand, if a new functionality is deemed necessary, it is recommended that you use a phased approach, in which the first release is a Technical Upgrade to bring the solution to the current product version, and then the ensuing release or releases implement the new functionality using the other Sure Step project types (Rapid, Standard, Enterprise, or Agile).

Applying the other Decision Accelerator Offerings services to upgrade engagements

If the upgrade is strictly to promote the solution to a current, supported release of the product, the solution delivery team can skip the Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint exercise and go to the Architecture Assessment DA service to determine the new hardware and infrastructure requirements and the Scoping Assessment DA service to estimate the effort for the upgrade. The team may also choose to combine all these services into a single offering and just use the templates and tools from the other offerings to provide the customer with a Statement of Work and Upgrade estimate.

If the upgrade is going to introduce a new functionality, depending on the magnitude of the new requirements, the customer and sales teams may deem it necessary to execute or combine the Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint, Architecture Assessment, and Scoping Assessment DA services. This ensures that a proper blueprint, system architecture, and overall release approach is collectively discussed and agreed upon by both parties.

In both cases, the Proof of Concept DA and Business Case DA services may not be necessary, although depending on the scope of the new functionality being introduced in the upgrade, the customer and sales teams may decide to use the Business Case tools to ensure that project justification is established.

After the completion of the necessary DA services, the sales team can proceed to the Proposal Generation activity to establish the Project Charter and Project Plan. The next step is then to complete the sale in the Final Licensing and Services Agreement activity, including agreeing upon the new terms of the product licenses and the Statement of Work for the solution upgrade. Finally, the delivery team is mobilized in the Project Mobilization activity to ensure that the upgrade engagement is kicked off smoothly.

Supporting the customer's buying cycle

As we noted at the start of this chapter, the Sure Step Diagnostic phase is designed to help the seller in the solution provider organizations and the buyer in the customer organizations. In the previous section, we covered the applicability of the phase to the seller; in this section, we will talk about how the customer's due diligence efforts are enabled with a thorough process for selecting the right solution to meet their vision and requirements.

In Chapter 2, Solution Selling and Driving Due Diligence, we discussed the stages that correspond to the customer's buying cycle. The following diagram shows how the same Sure Step Diagnostic phase activities and Decision Accelerator Offerings that we applied to the solution selling process also align with the phases of the customer's buying cycle:

· Phase I: Need Determination

· The Solution Overview activity

· The Requirements and Process Review Decision Accelerator service

· Phase II: Alternatives Evaluation

· The Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint Decision Accelerator service

· The Architecture Assessment Decision Accelerator service

· The Scoping Assessment Decision Accelerator service

· Phase III: Risk Evaluation

· The Proof of Concept Decision Accelerator service

· The Business Case Decision Accelerator service

· The Proposal Generation activity

Let's first begin by addressing the application of the Decision Accelerator Offering and its services to a customer's perspective. From a seller's perspective, the term offering can be viewed as a sellable unit. But the term Decision Accelerator on the other hand, extends beyond the seller to the customer, as the intent of these units is to help them get expedient answers to their questions and move their decision making process forward in a logical and structured manner. In that context, the Decision Accelerator Offerings term is very much applicable to the customer as well.

The following sections will discuss the alignment of the activities and Decision Accelerator Offering services to the customer's buying cycle. If the reader has not already done so, they are encouraged to review the previous sections to understand the constructs of the Decision Accelerator Offering services as that is not repeated in this section.

Defining organizational needs

The buyer starts their Need Determination phase by understanding the organizational pain points and gathering information on solutions available in the marketplace. The guidance links to additional websites and other information sources in the Diagnostic preparation activity can help address the solution information gathering effort. If the customer's organization operates in an industry covered by Sure Step, they can also gain additional information on how the solution relates to their specific needs in the industry sections.

While the guidance in the Diagnostic preparation activity provides the customer with the external awareness of available solutions, the Sure Step Requirements and Process Review Decision Accelerator service facilitates the customer's understanding of their own internal needs. Using the role-tailored questionnaire templates in this offering, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from the customer team can work through "a-day-in-the-life-of" scenarios for each of the roles so that they can quantify the departmental and organizational needs from a user perspective, rather than from only a product perspective.

Customers can also use detailed process maps as a starting point, especially the new BPM tool to begin visualizing the organization's workflow with the new solution. Again, this helps the customer describe their needs from a user's perspective. Ultimately, the success or failure of a solution is determined by how applicable or pertinent it is to the user, so this point cannot be overemphasized.

The documentation of the requirements and to-be processes forms the basis for the future solution vision. Depending on how they are developed, the customer organization can leverage these documents to conduct a thorough evaluation of the solution alternatives and select the best solution to meet their needs.

Determining the right solution

After the needs are determined, the buyer begins evaluations of the solution alternatives. This is where the Sure Step Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint, Architecture Assessment, and Scoping Assessment Decision Accelerator services can help the customer determine whether the Microsoft Dynamics solution is the right one for them.

As discussed in the earlier section, the Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint DA exercise begins by determining the Degree of Fit of the solution to each of the requirements. Some customers may desire a higher value of the Degree of Fit so as to minimize customizations, while others may be operating in a specialized environment that necessitates a fairly customized solution, and as such, they may be comfortable with a lower value of the Degree of Fit. However, in both the scenarios, the customer will want to ensure that their TCO for the solution is acceptable.

Following the determination of the solution fit, the customer SMEs will work with the solution provider to develop the blueprint for the future solution. The solution blueprint is typically presented to the customer's executive or business sponsor. As such, the document should be written in business language and should clearly explain how the business needs or pains will be met or resolved by the proposed solution.

Armed with the solution blueprint, the buyer then obtains other key information to evaluate whether the solution meets their cost criteria. The Architecture Assessment DA service will provide the customer with the proposed hardware and architecture, with which the customer's procurement department can determine the physical infrastructure costs. Should the customer have any concerns regarding performance, scalability, and reliability of the solution, they can also request more technical validation from the service provider by requesting more detailed analysis in the corresponding areas.

Finally, the Scoping Assessment DA service provides the customer business sponsor with the effort estimate and the associated costs for solution delivery. This exercise also provides the customer with the understanding of the overall approach to delivering the solution, including timelines and projected resources, roles, and responsibilities.

Understanding and mitigating risks

In the last phase of their buying cycle, the customer will want assurances that the projected solution benefits far outweigh the associated risks. The Sure Step Proof of Concept Decision Accelerator service can help allay any specific concerns for the customer's SMEs or departmental leads around a certain area of the solution. The solution delivery team will set up, configure, and customize the solution and will use customer data where possible to show that the application of the solution matches the customer's requirements. Any solution efforts executed in this offering are then carried over to the implementation and become the starting point for solution delivery.

The Sure Step Business Case Decision Accelerator service also helps the customer in this phase of their buying cycle, but more from the perspective of managing the executive and organizational buy-in for the solution. Using an independent analyst-developed ROI tool, this service can help the customer team justify the acquisition of the solution to other key stakeholders in the organization such as the CEO, CFO, or the board of directors. This can be a key step to counter organizational politics, and it can also be very important during the inevitable ebbs and flows of a solution delivery cycle.

Finally, the Sure Step Proposal Generation activity provides the customer sponsor and customer project manager with the overall project charter and project plan, ensuring that they have clear documentation of what has been agreed upon between the buyer and the seller to avoid any assumptions or misunderstandings down the line. The project charter will also identify the risks associated with solution delivery and should outline a mitigation strategy for each of them. The project charter developed by the solution provider may also note any dependencies or assumptions owned by the customer; the customer should ensure that they have the necessary resources in place so that these dependencies do not become impediments to the delivery team.

Approach to upgrade existing solutions

Similar to the evaluation process for a new solution, the Sure Step Diagnostic phase also supports the due diligence process for a current customer looking to upgrade their solution. The following diagram shows a very similar flow to the new solution evaluation, with the only difference being that the Upgrade Assessment DA service now replaces the Requirements and Process Review DA service:

As discussed in the earlier section, the Sure Step Upgrade Assessment Decision Accelerator service captures the business needs for the customer to change or enhance their current solution and determines the best approach to upgrade to the latest version of the solution. If the current solution includes customizations that may no longer be deemed necessary because of new features, the delivery team will identify this. They will also evaluate the complexity for the overall upgrade as well as the release process for the upgrade.

The Upgrade Assessment DA exercise findings will also dictate the degree to which the customer should undertake the Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint, Architecture Assessment, Scoping Assessment, Proof of Concept, and Business Case Decision Accelerator services. Depending upon the magnitude of the new functionality desired, the customer sponsor and SMEs can decide to skip or combine the services as necessary. Regardless of how the DA Offering services are utilized, the project charter and project plan should be developed for the customer in the Proposal Generation activity.

Positioning solutions for specific industries

Sure Step provides guidance to solution providers and customers on industry and cross-industry solutions. Sure Step provides an overview of Microsoft Dynamics solution capabilities for the covered industries and cross industries and includes business pain points for select verticals of the industries, which solution providers can use for positioning the solutions to prospective customers.

As the preceding screenshot shows, Sure Step currently provides guidance for the following areas:

· Industry/Vertical Solutions

· Manufacturing

· Public Sector

· Retail Industries

· Service Industries

· Cross Industry/Horizontal Solutions

· Extended CRM Solutions

· Customer Care

We will discuss these solutions in the following sections.

Industry/vertical solutions

Microsoft Dynamics has been providing customers with core solution functionality and capabilities for a wide cross section of industry scenarios or workloads, beginning with the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 release and continuing on with the AX 2012 release. You may recall that we introduced the concept of workloads in Chapter 1, Background and Concepts. As a quick refresher, a workload can be an individual business process, such as expense management, or can constitute multiple business processes within a function, such as supplier relationship management, supply chain management, human capital management, sales, marketing, or customer service.

From a systems standpoint, workloads encompass both ERP and CRM systems. Correspondingly, the industry solutions from Microsoft also encompass both operational and administrative ERP workloads and CRM workloads. The following screenshot shows the Microsoft Dynamics vision and approach to industry solutions:

The Sure Step Industry/Vertical Solutions section aims to describe the capabilities of the standard Microsoft Dynamics AX and CRM solutions for the previously discussed industries. Additional viewpoints for specific verticals within a given industry are also provided.

The manufacturing industry

The manufacturing industry is broadly classified, on the basis of the means by which the goods are manufactured, into two areas—process manufacturing and discrete manufacturing. Process manufacturing represents a branch of manufacturing wherein the production of the goods is achieved through formulas and recipes, resulting in the processed items or Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). In contrast, the production process in discrete manufacturing industries is achieved through the specification of bills of materials and routings, resulting in components, subassemblies, and/or assembly SKUs.

For process manufacturing, Sure Step includes customer needs and AX solution alignment for the following industries:

· Food and beverage industry

· Chemicals

· Life sciences and pharmaceuticals

· Non-durable consumer packaged goods

· Primary metals

· Pulp and paper

· Meat, pork, and poultry

Sure Step guidance includes specific customer needs such as catch weight and recipe-based units of measure for the food and beverage vertical, or centralized quality control and compliance support for the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry, in the corresponding pages.

Additional content and guidance for the manufacturing verticals is also available in the Decision Accelerator services of the Diagnostic phase. Under the Requirements and Process Review DA service, Sure Step provides supplemental questionnaires for the process manufacturing industries that help determine how the customer's needs align to a batch manufacturing flow. For discrete manufacturing, the general Role-Tailored Questionnaire for Microsoft Dynamics AX provides specific questions related to the discrete production flow, including those addressed to the production planner and production manager. These questionnaires can also help determine if the customer's flow also includes discrete processes in a mixed-mode manufacturing environment.

Sure Step also provides process maps encompassing the process manufacturing industries previously noted as well as process maps for discrete manufacturing, such as Production Process Flow for Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Future releases of Sure Step will likely reference corresponding Manufacturing content from the Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS) tools, such as manufacturing process maps and industry configurations.

The public sector industry

The public sector industry refers to the operations and businesses controlled and operated by the state or government. The public sector industry spans a vast area that encompasses several subindustries and verticals. The industry is characterized by very specific business needs at the vertical level as well as regulatory variations at the country level.

In Sure Step 2010, guidance was included for the public sector. While the guidance in Sure Step describes organizational needs for select public sector industry verticals, only solution alignment to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution capabilities have been addressed to date. Future releases may include alignment to the Dynamics AX capabilities—at a minimum, appropriate references to the corresponding content in the Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services tools will be provided. Currently, Sure Step public sector guidance is broken down into the following areas:

· Government

· Citizen Service Platform (government service center)

· Government workplace modernization

· Justice case and records management

· Health

· Shared services

· Healthcare and records management

· Education

· Student inquiry and recruitment

· Student enrolment and admission

· Student management

· Educational case management

· Non-profit organizations

Sure Step content includes business requirement questionnaires and process maps oriented to specific public sector solution areas, Fit Gap Analysis worksheets for select solution areas, addendums for architecture assessment considerations, scoping guidance addendums for scoping assessment offerings, and sample presentation slide decks for Proof of Concept offerings. One example of this content is a questionnaire in the Requirements and Process Review Decision Accelerator service catering to the economic development needs of a government organization.

In the ensuing section, we discuss a use case of the Decision Accelerator Offering and the content previously referenced to help a public sector customer with their due diligence efforts in selecting an appropriate solution to address their needs.

Use case – Decision Accelerator for a local government council

This case study illustrates an example where a combination of Decision Accelerator Offering services was executed by the service provider to help the customer through their decision-making process. The customer, a local government council in Australia with 300 employees and a six-person IT team, provides government services for a municipality of approximately 40,000 residents. The council had been using a proprietary application to manage service requests, but the process and solution poorly addressed the needs of the constituents.

To attain the service benchmarks outlined in their strategic plan, the council determined that they needed to replace the existing customer access request system. They needed a solution to improve constituent satisfaction by reducing call-waiting periods. They needed a solution that would help their people to answer more constituent requests at the first point of contact. They also wanted to give their constituents more choices for contacting the council. Finally, the solution was also expected to provide an integrated view of each constituent with tools that were easy to use, enabling more consistent service by the council system users and helping them to resolve requests quickly.

An initial investigation into off-the-shelf systems to solve their needs resulted in a dead end for the council. Spurred by a solution demo witnessed by the council members, the council decided to get Microsoft involved in shaping up a comprehensive government service center solution.

Following an initial qualification activity, the sales executives formed a presales delivery team constituted of Microsoft services and Microsoft partner resources. The team was tasked with understanding the needs of the council to develop and present the envisioned solution.

The presales delivery team presented a plan to the customer that included the execution of three Decision Accelerator Offering services, the Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint, Proof of Concept, and Scoping Assessment, as shown in the following diagram:

The council accepted the plan and agreed to fund the exercise. The presales delivery team executed each DA service over the duration of a couple of weeks and used one or two resources for each DA. One DA service naturally flowed to the next DA in the process, which further enhanced the council members' confidence in the process.

The delivery team took the time to understand the council's requirements, developed an envisioned solution, built and demonstrated a proof-of-concept solution, and finally delivered an assessment and plan to structure solution delivery. The process exceeded the council's expectations, leading to the following remark from one of the members:

Usually in local government we get handed a product and told to work our processes around that. It can mean changing the way people work, which is time and money. So it was refreshing working with Microsoft because they did it the other way around. They asked us what our processes were and they worked to that, tweaking their product to make it fit. They really listened to the business and let us dictate. And the result is a solution that's ideal for local government.

This case illustrates the effectiveness of a thorough Diagnostic process resulting in a win-win situation for both the customer and the service provider. It also shows the flexibility of the Decision Accelerator Offering structure in Sure Step, which allows the account teams to select the appropriate services to employ and the specific order in which to execute them. Remember that the people closest to the customer are the best ones to dictate the right process to meet the customer's needs. As such, they should also be the ones to decide what process to follow to meet their objectives. Having a flexible yet consistent and repeatable process allows the field teams to do just that.

The retail industry

Sure Step introduced coverage for the retail industry in the 2010 release to align with the initial Dynamics AX for retail solution launch. The guidance was structured along the following retail value chain pillars:

· Plan (to encompass forecasting and merchandising)

· Sell (covering loyalty programs, promotions, and campaigns)

· Manage (encompassing store replenishment and warehouse management)

· Source (including procurement and vendor management)

· Maintain (encompassing returns and point of sale workflows)

The retail value chain was then extended into specific subindustries, covering the following:

· Specialty Retail

· General Merchandise

· Health and Personal Care

· Food and Beverage (grocery chains and so on)

Sure Step also provided content in the Decision Accelerator Offering sections, including Role Tailored Retail Questionnaire Addendums and business process maps aligned to the retail value chain pillars previously noted.

As with the manufacturing and public sector industries, users should expect that future releases of Sure Step will reference corresponding retail content from the Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services tools such as retail process maps and industry configurations.

Service industries

As with retail coverage, Sure Step provides guidance for the service sector along the Service industry value chain pillars. These include the following:

· Develop (encompassing relationship management)

· Sell (covering account and opportunity management)

· Deliver (covering engagement management)

· Resource (covering talent management)

· Maintain (encompassing non-project revenue)

· Manage

The Service industry value chain was then extended into specific subindustries, covering the following:

· Professional services, including government contractor and legal services

· Architecture and engineering, and construction

· Media and entertainment, including advertising

Similarly, Sure Step also provided content in the Decision Accelerator Offering sections, including Role Tailored Retail Questionnaire Addendums for the previously discussed subindustries and verticals.

As with the other industries, users can expect future releases of Sure Step to reference corresponding service industry content from the Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services tools, including process maps and industry configurations.

Cross-industry / horizontal solutions

The previous section discussed Sure Step coverage for select industries and verticals. Sure Step also provides guidance on cross-industry solutions, which can be viewed as a set of core Microsoft Dynamics solution capabilities that are applicable to customer organizations across multiple industries; these can also be adapted to a particular industry or vertical.

Cross-industry customer care solutions

With the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 release, customers were afforded a flexible platform for building customer care solutions by leveraging the Customer Care Accelerator (CCA) for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. CCA can form the basis for disparate lines of business solutions such as these:

· Integrated desktops to provide organizations with a 360 degree view of their customer information and interactions by aggregating information from diverse business applications into an integrated desktop. Customer service representatives benefit from this capability by having immediate access to business critical information to serve customers quickly and efficiently, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

· Eliminating duplicate data entry by creating desktop automation workflows that streamline business processes and eliminate the need for agents to re-enter the same data in multiple applications, thereby reducing human error and ensuring a consistent customer service experience.

· Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) to provide organizations with a consistent framework to connect CTI systems with key line of business applications.

· Activity reporting that can help contact center managers identify potential process bottlenecks via access to agent desktop transaction reporting.

Sure Step includes several content templates for customer care that were developed by the Microsoft Services teams, including the CCA Questionnaire for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and the Architecture Planning Guide, Infrastructure Sizing Sheet, and Architecture Assessment Questionnaire for CCA. Also provided are Proof of Concept Delivery Guides and Business Case Customer Report templates for CCA.

xRM or extended CRM solutions

Extended CRM, or xRM, refers to the usage of Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a platform and any other external applications integrated to it for the purpose of managing transactional relationships. Essentially, the "x" in xRM represents the corresponding business practice that is enabled by the solution. Examples of relationship management solution extensions include Healthcare Relationship Management (HRM), Media Relationship Management (MRM), Student Relationship Management (SRM), and so on. The fact that an xRM solution can be extended to multiple industries or verticals is the reason that the content in Sure Step is positioned in the cross-industry section.

The flexibility of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform components enables it to be leveraged in a wide variety of ways by many different organizations. The product enables the rapid creation and deployment of numerous relational Line of Business (LOB) applications on a single platform with shared resources and technologies, giving users a consistent experience across the LOB applications with technologies that are already familiar to them. These applications are highly scalable and can be rapidly adapted to fit the unique needs of users and the business while minimizing the total cost of ownership.

Some of the key benefits for positioning Extended CRM solutions noted in Sure Step include the following:

· The familiar Microsoft Office-type user interface, which drives user familiarity and solution adoption

· Predefined patterns for security organizational management

· Embedded capability for user-driven reporting and analysis

· Declarative data modeling, with instant web service data operations

· Known performance and availability metrics for the platform

· Ease of extensibility and integration using standard Microsoft .NET technologies

· Scalable delivery using multi-tenancy and scale-out provisioning

Sure Step also includes additional templates, such as the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Application Framework Capabilities, to illustrate key capabilities and topics for supporting an Extended CRM business solution.

Future industry and cross-industry solution content

As we discussed in prior chapters and referenced in the previous sections, Microsoft Dynamics R&D Lifecycle Services offer users a wide cross section of tools. As these tools continue to get built and released, users can expect more content and relevance for industry and cross-industry solutions in these tools. Accordingly, future Sure Step versions will include links to specific areas of the tools and when they can be leveraged in the solution selling cycle.

Quick reference

In this chapter, we introduced several key Diagnostic activities and Decision Accelerator Offering services. Here is a quick reference.

· Diagnostic for new Microsoft Dynamics customer: Start with the Microsoft Dynamics solution and industry/cross-industry positioning guidance. Leverage the Decision Accelerator Offering services, beginning with the Requirements and Process Review service. The three key DA Offering services to consider after that are the Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint, the Architecture Assessment, and the Scoping Assessment services. Consider the Business Case service, and at a minimum, determine the projected solution benefits and customer success factors for the engagement.

· Diagnostic for new Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer: Start with the Accelerated Proof of Concept with CRM Online service if the standard scenarios are applicable and trial license offer can be availed. After getting the initial customer buy-in, leverage the other DA Offering services, including the Requirements and Process Review, the Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint, the Architecture Assessment, and the Scoping Assessment services.

· Diagnostic for an Existing Dynamics customer: Leverage the Microsoft Dynamics solution and industry/cross-industry positioning guidance as needed. Start with the Upgrade Assessment DA service to ascertain the right approach to upgrade the existing solution to the current product release. If new functionality is to be introduced during the upgrade process, leverage the other DA Offering services, including the Fit Gap and Solution Blueprint, the Architecture Assessment, and the Scoping Assessment services.

Summary

In this chapter, we focused on the Diagnostic phase of Sure Step. We discussed how this phase has been designed for a dual purpose——to assist the seller to position the solutions and close the sale while helping the customer conduct their due diligence process and select the right solution to meet their needs. We covered the usage of the Decision Accelerator Offering services in the Diagnostic phase for a new Dynamics customer, the Diagnostic phase for a Dynamics CRM customer leveraging the Accelerated POC with CRM Online service, and the Diagnostic phase for an existing Dynamics customer. We also discussed industry/vertical solutions for manufacturing, public sector, retail and service sector, as well as cross-industry/horizontal solutions for customer care and extended CRM.

The Diagnostic phase is a very important one. If the due diligence activities are not executed properly, the implementation process may suffer and the customer's satisfaction will be low. If done right, it could lead to effective, on-cost, on-time, and high-quality solution delivery. It also sets the stage for a smooth solution delivery process.

In this chapter, we introduced several key Diagnostic activities and Decision Accelerator Offering services – refer to the Quick Reference section for a brief description.

In the ensuing chapters, we will get into solution delivery approaches. We will begin with a discussion about managing projects and then move to detailed coverage of the workflows, templates, and tools provided in Sure Step for implementations.