Having been through most of the Forums here, i feel that we have less functional/implementation issues discussed here than Technical/Development/other? Why is it so? Are the functional consultants not reached properly thru’ the site or there’s a feeling that this site is primarily for developers? Regards
My own guess that the developers/technicians trend to be more in the office than the implementation consultants. Best regards, Erik P. Ernst, webmaster
I’m sure Erik is correct as far as that goes, but I think the main reason is that there have been very few questions posted about implementation issues. There are a number of regulars on Navision.Net, myself included, who have spent considerable time in implementation activities and, if asked, probably have strong opinions in that area as well as in the development areas. Dave Studebaker das@libertyforever.com Liberty Grove Software A Navision Services Partner
Hi Erik, I agree with Erik that it may be the most likely case, if so then this site isn’t helping the implementation consultants as much as its so to the developer community. If we select list of Active Topics, the functional issues/topics have been pushed down the page? (Given the lenght of the page, many of us would stop browsing down after a stage…, That’s why many sites do opt for Frames solution). Do check it out? I may be wrong. Hi David, I would prefer to get better understanding of functional issues as they determine the technical requirements and not vice-versa. Is it that the implementation consultants don’t prefer to post their questions on the site(for some reason or other) and generally tend to find solution from traditional sources(Books/Material/Other Non-public forums)? Regards
I suspect at least one factor is that Navision.Net is well known to the technicians and much less well known to the implementation folks. (Note that Erik is looking for ways to expand the universe of Navision.Net users.) Plus Navision.Net is known for technical information and, in my experience, many of the issues that face implementation people are business processes, accounting, data conversion, training, project management, and general people problems. Topics that technicians have a reputation for being ignorant of (whether the reputation is deserved or not is another discussion). So the ultimate question is how can Navision.Net attract implementation people and keep them involved here? Dave Studebaker das@libertyforever.com Liberty Grove Software A Navision Services Partner
Hi David, I agree with you. Though the word ‘Technicians’ seems to be… Hi Erik, Focus on how to retain visitors who are: 1. Implementation Consultants & 2. End-Users I don’t see any information/section directed at End-Users and to be frank, they can understand little of the technical stuff discussed here in the early stages. So I think the site needs to provide stuff for everybody in a proper format here, else whatever way we may be able to reach/contact them, retaining the users or making them come back will really be a difficult task. (I can say from the No. of persons registered in the site that the message has been spread but there’s little to retain them here.) I here are a lot of suggestions out there. Regards
Mohammad, I know “technician” was not the best word, but I was trying to be generic referring to programmers, developers, designers, coders, etc. I find your suggestion that we have received quite a number of visits from the “others” but not retained their attention very interesting. What else can we do to make them feel more interested and welcome? Dave Studebaker das@libertyforever.com Liberty Grove Software A Navision Services Partner
This really is a technical forum. To get to it you must actively go to the site, and search for a question to answer. The mind set of a developer is one of seeking knowledge, whereas a consultant wants to solve an immediate problem. The quest for knowledge is unending, so a Develper could go back to posts 5 years old, and still learn (and teach) something. Consultants are generally solving a problem now, so they need a response now. In the old days of the Email based NOLUG, you sent a question, and it hit 1000 emails a few seconds later. Most questions were answered in a matter of minutes. Thus the consulting aspect of NOLUG was very active. Also the offline ability of email made life easier for consultants. I used to travel on Planes and Trains a lot, and would spend the time replying to NOLUG. With email there was the option of instant on line, or the ability to sit back and work off line. The thing is activity is generated by questions, if the questions are there, then the answers will come. The best thing you can do is tell all your clients about NOLUG, and ask them to use it. Erik has done a wonderfull job in what he has created, the more we can support the NOLUG, the more we show how much we appreciate his work. PS Erik any chance of an offline version of NOLUG? _________________________ David Singleton Navision Consultant since 1991 dmks22@comcast.net___________ Edited by - David Singleton on 2002 Aug 03 21:38:08