2009 was the first year from thirteen that I experienced a couple of periods with no Dynamics NAV work, a mixture of the recession and the market being saturated with new contractors the likely causes.

 

Towards the end of the year there were a number of enquiries so things may pick up in 2010, as I have not blogged for a while I thought I would post a few reasons why companies could look at contractors for new and ongoing projects.

 

When I talk about freelancers and contractors, I am not talking about someone that has had a couple of years with a reseller or end user and has joined the contracting marketplace, but there are a number of contractors like me out there that have a wealth of experience working with Dynamics NAV from Navision 2.00 to Dynamics NAV 2009.

 

A contractor should be confident with the analysis and coding to give options that minimise the customisation of the standard package, another option for a contractor is working with and supporting in-house developers to gain better skills.

 

I sometimes hear concerns about contractors, intellectual property and copyright, but after thirteen years I do not have one object on my hard drive that was written while employed by a reseller, I find that it is better to re-write a customisation than to reuse something written for another client.

 

As a reseller what a contractor can bring to the table is the ability to hit the ground running, with no lead-in training a good contractor should be productive from day one, with the ability to look at and understand the functional requirements and how these fit in with Dynamics NAV, once the need for a contractor has passed it is easier to let a contractor go.

 

As an end user a contractor can cut down your workload and protect your interests, a contractor will know if your reseller is over selling and giving you good advice, without an in-house knowledge of Dynamics NAV it is hard for an end user to know if the proposed workflow is the best for them.

 

Other benefits to an end user of a contractor is preparing data for go-live, unit testing, in-house training, function deficit resolution and helping to determine if something is out of scope to the original proposal.

 

Employing a Dynamics NAV contractor can be done through one of the many specialist agencies who will do a lot of work in filtering out the better contractors and saving you time, the agency will raise a contract and you would pay the agency, shop around and ask the agency about their mark-up as this could affect the decision to employ a contractor and save you money.

 

There is another option and that is to employ a contractor direct, most contractors like me will use an umbrella company that will raise the necessary contracts and paperwork, and you would then pay direct to the umbrella company.

 

If you are considering a contractor and would like to discuss anything, my contacts deatails can be found on the About page.