The first and foremost value proposition of Sure Step remains the consistent framework for solution delivery that it provides. The processes in Sure Step are repeatable and extendable, giving organizations the ability to build on past learning, and leading to high quality engagements that maximize the resources and speed up the time to value for the customers. Sure Step provides solid approaches for project scope control and management, early risk identification and mediation, and quality assurance and control throughout the lifecycle of the engagement. These approaches are of course valuable for the delivery organizations, but they are also very valuable to the customer teams involved in the solution delivery.

For a consulting organization, Sure Step provides that common thread across the groups. Consultants often have varied backgrounds when it comes to ERP/CRM solution deployments. The experienced consultants may have deployed other competitive systems, and they may each have their own preferred approach to the engagement. While having different perspectives is certainly a good thing, having a team work cohesively is of paramount importance to the customer when it comes to easing the organizational change that is intrinsic to business solution engagements. That is why having the consulting team use the same taxonomy and terminology of Sure Step helps them mature together as an organization and work closely with each other.

The second key value proposition for Sure Step is a thorough and viable process for customers and sellers to follow in product selection and sales. With the expansion of the Diagnostic phase in version 2 of Sure Step and beyond to focus on Decision Accelerator offerings, Sure Step provides a legitimate process for due diligence for the customer, and solution selling for the sales teams. Given the criticality of business solutions, which we have belabored many a time in the previous chapters, this value proposition cannot be over-stressed. The tie-in to Microsoft Solution Selling Process (MSSP) and its inherent focus on customer due diligence alleviates the risks for the customer and sellers if executed per the guidance provided.

The connection and flow of the Diagnostic phase to the implementation phases also facilitates the information flow between the sales and delivery teams. Knowledge gained during the pre-sales cycles by pre-sales resources can be captured and transitioned to the implementation teams, to avoid misalignment between expectations set in the sales cycle and the solution delivered during implementation. This helps the sales and consulting teams, and to an extent, the post-implementation support groups, to work together in the customer's best interests, rather than in silos.

Sure Step has also evolved into a full customer lifecycle methodology. From the post go-live Operation phase to the addition of post go-live optimization offerings and Upgrade guidance, a customer and partner can begin their relationship in the sales cycle, continue through the implementation of the solution, maintain the relationship with offerings such as Health Check, and resume the partnership by working together on the solution upgrade.

Another very important value proposition of Sure Step is knowledge management facilitation. You may remember from previous discussions that the activities in the Sure Step project type workflows are numbered, and these numbers also persist through to the project plans and deliverables produced. Thus any documentation, such as a Functional Requirement Document or a User Acceptance Test Script follows a number sequence that allows easy tracking, storage, retrieval, and potentially harvesting on future engagements. This can form the basis of any good Knowledge Management (KM) system. A good KM system helps the service provider be more effective in their execution of engagements, but it can also help them show to their customers that they are experienced in a given area, thereby building the customer confidence in their services rendered. It is also important to remember that KM systems do not have to be the domain of only the service provider—customers can also maintain KM systems, as they can stand them in good stead on future engagements.

Last but not the least is training as a value proposition for Sure Step, for both the service provider and the customer. We have heard many partner organizations talk about how Sure Step gives them a good structure for creating a training/ramp-up program for their new consulting resources. We have all started on new jobs at some point in our careers, and we can remember the butterflies in our stomachs as we began the employment, in spite of the level of confidence that we may have had that we were the right person for the role. Knowing that there is a structured process to follow can only ease that initial uneasiness, and helping develop confidence in the roles. This extends to the customer organization as well. The customer will have any number of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and Key Users participate in the engagement. Some of these resources may have had past experience with deploying ERP/CRM solutions, while others may be new to this. Sure Step provides these resources the visibility to the approach as well as their own roles and expectations in the process.

Another benefit from a customer training perspective is the organizational change aspect. The introduction of a new business solution can bring renewed tensions and apprehension of the employee's role in the to-be organizational workflows. Being able to train and provide visibility into the new processes can help allay the fears in these customer resources.

Of course, training is not just for new consulting or customer resources. We talked earlier about experienced consultants each having their own bag of tricks. Training them on the Sure Step approach ensures that they each follow a consistent process, and that the entire team works off the same page for the benefit of the customer and consulting organizations.

All in all, Sure Step creates a better overall ecosystem for the consulting and customer organizations.

As we look back at the previous chapters of this book, you can find the building blocks for success in business solutions using Sure Step 2010 as the basis. These building blocks are portrayed in the following screenshot:

We began with an introduction to the concept of methodology and its importance in the selection and implementation of ERP/CRM solutions in Chapter 1. We discussed the importance of a thorough selection process as the foundation for solution deployment, as well as implementations going awry due to poor scope, risk, and change management.

Chapters 2 and 4 focused on Solution Selling for the seller and how it also drives Due diligence for the buyer. In Chapter 2, we covered the theory and concepts, and talked about how solution selling is different from transaction sales, where the seller needs to build a relationship with their customer and establish trust. We built on these concepts in Chapter 4 and covered specifics on how Sure Step helps with selling Microsoft Dynamics solutions. We covered the Decision Accelerator offerings in the Diagnostic phase of Sure Step in detail, focusing on how they help accelerate the sales cycles and bring them to close, while also helping the customer with their due diligence process. We also talked about how the Diagnostic phase sets the stage for a quality implementation by outlining the risks involved, as well as how it drives the selection of the right approach for the deployment, and the determination of the roles that will be involved both from the consulting and customer teams.

Chapters 3 and 5 discussed the essence of projects and successful delivery of the envisioned solution. In Chapter 3, we introduced the concepts of project management, talking about managing projects from a result-driven and real-life perspective. We discussed the resistance to project management, covered the four pillars of project success, and explained the project management essentials. In Chapter 5, we focused on the implementation lifecycle, covering the Waterfall and Agile Solution Delivery approaches in Sure Step. We covered the implementation phases and cross phases that make up the Sure Step project types. We also talked about the real-life challenges that implementers and customers face when implementing ERP and CRM software solutions and demonstrated the true value of the Sure Step methodology in terms of supporting tools and templates.

In Chapter 6, we discussed the Review and Optimization offerings as options for the service providers and customers to ensure a quality implementation. We introduced the Sure Step Optimization Roadmap, and discussed the technical proactive and post go-live offerings, as well as the project governance and upgrade review offerings.

In Chapter 7, we focused on using Sure Step to help existing Microsoft Dynamics customers with their Solution Upgrade to the latest product release. The approach begins with the Upgrade Assessment Decision Accelerator offering to ascertain the right approach, followed with the Sure Step Upgrade project type for technical upgrades. We also suggested approaches for adding new functionality during the upgrade process.

In Chapter 8, we covered Project and Organization Change Management (OCM) disciplines in Sure Step. We discussed the sub-disciplines of Project Management, such as Risk, Scope, Issue, and Communication management. We also explained why Organizational Change Management is a key area for customers and partners to consider when it comes to ERP/CRM engagements. In this chapter, we also covered the SharePoint feature built into Sure Step, to assist the solution delivery teams to effectively collaborate with each other.

In Chapter 9, we switched gears to provide a practical guide to Sure Step Methodology Adoption for Microsoft Dynamics partner organizations. We talked about how organizations can make their implementation methodology as one of their core competencies. We also covered the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) perspective, and discussed how the ISV solution provider can leverage Sure Step.