4 Things Golf Can Teach You About Your Business Central Implementation

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, relax and imagine this: The sky is a beautiful ocean blue with white marshmallow like clouds spread throughout. There’s a subtle breeze that brings a hint of freshly cut grass blowing past you to move the leaves on the branches that the birds are perched on singing a ballad that sounds almost Andrea Bocelli like. As you approach the first hole’s teeing area you understand that you are about to embark on an 18-hole challenge that will test you more mentally than physically, and if played right bring you the same amount of joy as conquering Mount Everest. At this exact moment, the game of golf begins to teach you life lessons that are applicable to most things including a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP implementation.

Here are 4 things that golf can teach you about a Business Central implementation

1. Patience

If you think you are going to out on the golf course, swing through it and dictate the ball without taking into consideration what the greens are giving you that day you will fail miserably. You have to have patience and play each green as its own.

Patience is also important when embarking on a Business Central implementation. There are going to be some things that go right and there are going to be some things that go wrong, but if you have patience you can work through the things that go wrong and end up with a successful outcome.

2. Be Honest

Golf was coined a Gentleman’s game because of the honesty expected from the players to call penalties on themselves. This make’s it virtually different than almost any other sport with the exception of Tennis which has a sort of “code” to let your opponent know if you double hit the ball or hit the ball after a double bounce.

When working on a Business Central implementation be honest with your expectations and convey them to your Microsoft Partner. There may be certain milestones you want to achieve during Phase 1 and/or maybe you have a certain date in mind for your go live. Whatever they may be your partner needs to know about them so that they can plan properly to hopefully exceed your expectations. And if they can’t exceed your expectations give us a call 😉.

3. You Can’t Control Everything

Sometimes in golf you hit what feels to be a perfect shot but that one gust of wind comes out of nowhere and guides that ball either into the rough or right in a sand trap. Just shake your head in disbelief, realize you can’t control everything and keep moving forward the best you can toward the goal.

The same can be said during a Business Central implementation. Life throws unforeseen circumstances that are sometimes out of our control. For instance, the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Just as with golf you sometimes have to shake your head in disbelief and do the best you can.

4. Communication

If you play golf this has almost certainly happened to you before. You’ve got a group of 4 and reserved a tee time but on the day of your outing one of your paisans can’t make it so the country club adds a fourth person to your group. You now have to communicate with your group and this person that you may not know for a good 3-5 hours. After having to do this more and more golf teaches you communication skills to convey your thoughts.

A successful Business Central implementation requires top notch communication between the customer and their Microsoft partner. Without an open communication policy your implementation is almost guaranteed to fail. Use this open communication policy to convey your ideas and worries because it helps to achieve the end goal, a successful implementation.