Making the case for D365 freelancers on projects

We all know it, a typical ERP implementation is resourced by looking at the resources available internally in the delivery partners organisation, and then for the parts where there’s a resource gap contract workers are brought in to fill those.

Now what does this mean to the types of resources used on a project?

Typically that means that senior permanent resources from a partner is put in as a lead, then junior resources are backfilled and the senior resources will be upskilling and overseeing these so they can deliver rather than delivering themselves. And when the delivery time is at risk then freelancers are pulled into the project.

This is the perfect recipe for a poor performing project, and that’s why Digital Architect Group has decided to create a delivery model that uses freelancers from the outset of a project, in order to address this and remain agile to the client’s needs.

What are the benefits of using freelancers:

• Highly skilled, as most would have had a significant amount of years working as a permanent employee.
• Highly motivated, freelancers get to choose the project that’s the best fit for them in regards to location and content.
• Broad background, typically they have worked for many different consultancies and therefore has a broader toolkit to deploy throughout the lifecycle of the project.
• More vocal, as there’s no internal political ties, freelancers are typically really good at voicing concerns around methodology, governance, design etc.
• Less likely to leave a project, freelancers are highly paid specialists but what they are paid will not increase significantly if they change contract. They rely on good referrals from the projects they work on in order to secure the next contract.
• More focused and less over utilised, freelancers only work on 1 project at a time and they don’t have to deal with internal company policies and initiatives.
• Flexibility, If they are needed for longer than planned then extending the contract of a freelancer is straight forward as long as it’s done in due course, as they typically won’t be committed to any future projects.

What are the cons of using freelancers:

• More expensive, yes they cost more to the delivery partner and eat margins but experience and knowhow costs.
• Training, a fair amount of freelancers don’t invest in training to keep their skills up to date, they use the projects they work on to keep their skills current.
• Old technology, a lot of freelancers are not willing to work on older systems as this could hurt their “market value”.
• Underqualified, this is rare but in some cases you get freelancers that are overselling themselves and their ability to deliver.
• Support, Freelancers are typically not great hires for a support division as this is the part of the company where you want to retain the knowledge of the clients solutions.

The points above mostly relate to the use of freelancers in a project, there’s obviously plenty of other cases within a typical organisation where the use of permanent employees is preferred and not just from cost perspective.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you want to talk about your current or planned MS Dynamics project.