I am a seasoned IT professional who is project managing an implementation of Microsoft Dynamics Nav 2009 with RTC in my company as of October last year, aided by a consultancy firm. We are now in the final stages of implementing an add on timekeeping and expenses module linked to jobs.
We are all still learning a lot about Nav and how to tailor it to our business. I would also like to learn how to modify the code myself, when the all of the implementation phases are complete, to make us more independant.
Basically it all depends on why you want to do it your self, and your budget. In house development in Navision can be very expensive. I am sure you have seen a developer sit down and in 15 minutes make a change that in other products might take 2 days of development. Much of this is because of the design of Navision and its ability to be customized, but a lot is becasue of years of training and learning the Navision application.
If you want to do in house because you think it will be cheaper, then take a close look at the numbers, because it takes a LONG time to pay back on the training investment. On the other hand if you have internal reasons for needing better internal control, then in house development is definitely an option. But still the biggest issue, is that for a good Navision developer to become a GREAT Navision developer, they need exposure to may different solutions, to see the different ways of dong things and thus gain experience. That just can not be gotten by doing one implementation no matter how big.
Most times its not a case of one developer writing code in 15 minutes that another takes 2 days to write, its a case of one developer writing 2 days of code, and a more experienced one coming a long and saying “Hey we can just reuse this other function in Navision”, and having it working in 15 minutes.
Anyway the tools are available to purchase, training is out there, but do the math carefully before taking the dive.