To-Increase Solutions
for Microsoft Dynamics
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Product: collaborative Development Project agreement company: to-increase B.V.
To-Increase Solutions
for Microsoft Dynamics
Overview
this document describes the collaborative development agreement and outlines how it works within an implementation project. the intended audience for this document is customers, project managers, sales executives, and pre-sales consultants.
Purpose of Collaborative Development
collaborative development is a project agreement between a microsoft Dynamics customer, their microsoft implementation partner, and to-increase as the isV. the purpose of the agreement is to further develop specific new functionality or features that are relevant to a to-increase solution or add-on. the relationship between partners and customers/prospects is illustrated below:
Prospects and Customers
a customer or a prospect is a current or soon-to-be licensee of the microsoft Dynamics aX or microsoft Dynamics naV busi-ness management solution.
Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) and IB (Industry Builder)
microsoft Business solutions (mBs) is the name of the core organization that develops, extends, and supports microsoft Dynamics solutions. an industry builder is an mBs microsoft Dynamics development partner that is responsible for creating a vertical solution for a specific industry, as well as customizing, maintaining, and supporting the solution. to-increase is an industry builder for microsoft Dynamics solutions.
Partners
Partners are the organizations that implement microsoft Dynamics solutions for customers.
Prospects,
Customers
Development Marketing Distribution &
Professional Services
( P R E ) S A L E S R E S E A R C H
MBS & IB
Marketing Strategy
Solutions
Board
Architecture
Board
Partners
Solution Board
the solution Board is a virtual department that is operated by selected employees and a product manager for a specific indus-try. the Board can work with a customer or prospect and their partner to determine the direction of the to-increase solution as well as features that could be added or enhanced.
as soon as the specifications are well-defined, the architecture Board reviews and rejects or approves the project. when ap-proval is granted, the collaborative development project begins.
Architecture Board
the architecture Board is a virtual department that is operated mainly by the cto and the product managers of to-increase. the architecture Board grants final approval of the proposed collaborative development agreement based on the details comprising the solution.
The Collaborative Development Experience
the collaborative development project results in a new set of features to be developed for to-increase solutions or add-ons. to-increase brings the following solutions and add-ons to the market:
Due to the unique requirements of an individual company, industry-vertical solutions can usually meet between 85-to-95 percent of the company’s needs. in most cases, the remaining 5-to-15 percent of the company’s requirements are met by
Connectivity Studio Web Services Studio
Notification Mgmt Document Enchange
Replication Mgmt Data Collection
Connectivity Studio Web Services Studio
EDI Studio DMS
Business Analytics Studio Data Collection Studio
Job Managemen
t
Time Registration Order Managemen
t Manufac turing Se rvice Managemen t Discrete Mf g Retail
WMS and Distribution Civil C
onstruc tion NAV AX
Studio
Smart Client
Office
CRM
Mobile
P R O D U C T S T R A T E G Y
when it’s discovered that the solution does not meet a specific customer requirement, an answer is determined by one of two options:
• Customization
• Collaborative development
either option leads to the same resolution—determining the features the customer or prospect requires. Further analysis often indicates a few fundamental differences between customizations and the original collaborative development agreement.
Customization versus Collaborative Development
the following table illustrates how the two processes relate to each other from the view of a customer or prospect.
Criteria Customizations Collaboration
Costs and investments
number of partners involved for a customer or prospect 1 2
support impact and costs during the system’s life cycle HiGH Low
maintenance impact and costs during the system’s life cycle HiGH Low
Upgrade impact and costs during the system’s life cycle HiGH Low
total cost during the systems’ life cycle HiGH Low
responsibility and ownership customer to-increase
total development investment HiGH Low
Risk factors
Knowledge sustained by partner and isV during system’s life cycle Low HiGH
Project delivery cycle time Low meDiUm
Surrounding information
compatibility with new features in future versions of microsoft Dynamics business solutions no Yes
online documentation no Yes
training materials no Yes
User guides no Yes
extensions on a roadmap no Yes
Part of microsoft certification no Yes
the goal of collaborative development is to create a better long-term scenario for the customers, prospects, and partners involved. choosing collaborative development significantly reduces the total cost of ownership (tco).
For example, if a customer needs a specific function to substitute parts in engineering change management, and the feature is not part of the current industry or vertical solution, it must be developed by customization or collaborative agreement. the following chart illustrates the days each option requires to resolve the problem.
Costs and Investment Estimates Customizations Collaboration
Development investment 20 days 20 days
support impact and costs during system life cycle—annually 5 days 1 day
maintenance impact and costs during system life cycle—annually 5 days 1 day
Upgrade impact and costs during system life cycle—annually 10 days 3 day
total annual development investment 20 days 5 days
the annual time savings by using funded development is 15 days per year. the time savings using customizations is zero. Because to-increase will incorporate the developed features into a standard solution, a customization ultimately becomes a feature of that solution. customers that pay maintenance and subscription fees will benefit significantly from the updated solution, because they don’t need to worry about paying for expensive upgrades every time microsoft releases a new version or service pack, which currently occurs approximately every two years.
Collaborative Development Process
the process of collaborative development follows the same steps as microsoft surestep in that it can become part of a part-ner’s implementation methodology.
the methodology is based on the concept shown below:
Partners can download information about surestep at:
https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/partneressentials/serviceplans/surestep/consulting_surestep_methodology. htm?printpage=false
Collaborative Development Agreement
when functionality for a to-increase solution needs to be developed for a customer or prospect, a project agreement needs to be created between to-increase and the partner. Usually an end-customer is not involved in this process.
Project Definition
the project definition is determined by to-increase, the implementation partner, and the customer or prospect. it contains a scope of work, which is then translated into a cost proposal. the partner usually organizes project definition meetings.
Intellectual Property (IP) Ownership
to-increase will retain ownership of the developed solution so it can be absorbed and supported into future releases.
Investments
Because to-increase is retaining the iP, a price model around the development investment can be discussed. to-increase offers a reduced price model for collaborative development. this means that the customer will benefit from an investment that’s less than what’s required for customizations.
