Careful when a Company or a Consultant says “Yes” to everything

For all of our lives, we have associated the word “No” with bad things. This has been cemented in our psyche since we were children, when we would go to store and get repeated “no’s” whenever we crave additional candy or unhealthy foods.

The pattern continued, when we got into school, and our teacher would say no when we wanted to maybe to the restroom, or don’t participate in PE. Our parents would say no when we wanted to take the car for a joyride, or stay up late on a school night. We wanted to borrow money, and we would get a no. We wanted to sleep over at a friend’s house, and we would get a no.

As adults, we continue getting into those same circumstances. And in business, it is prevalent.

How many times have you thought of a requirement that made sense to you, but was not best practice, or affordable? That’s where a good consultant comes in, where we would be the ones to say “NO”. This time, however, No would be a good thing.

How does this apply to our work as consultants

We have had instances when the client just wants to go into multiple directions. They don’t have a clear sense on what is best. An example would be to have a business process managed by a very expensive in-house built legacy application.  They want the best bells and whistles, focusing mostly on the look and feel, instead on functionality. At the same time, they want the application to be mobile, address the need from multiple teams, and take the least amount of time. The issue with this approach is that it tends to be more expensive in the long run. Maintenance becomes a nightmare, changes require tons of planning, and keeping up with technology changes becomes a hassle. Not having a clear view with a focus on the functional requirements can be devastating for a project.

In the Dynamics 365 Consulting world, we get situations like these. Dynamics is a platform, and it is built and designed to deploy apps that are confined within its rules and technology. Once you try to deviate from that, implementations tend to fail. We, as consultants need to have the understanding of both the requirements and the capability of the platform to effectively suggest to the client what is the best way to meet their needs, even if it means to say NO to what they ask. In the end, we just want what it best for them, because if the project succeeds, they succeed, and we succeed.

So, sometimes, saying NO is a Good Thing!