Inside, you’ll find a suite of tools to help you manage, monitor, and upgrade F&O, identify known issues, and provide access to external partners and collaborators. In this article, we’ll break down the basics of Microsoft Lifecycle Services and how it guides new F&O users through the implementation process.

What, Exactly, Is Microsoft Lifecycle Services?

Lifecycle Services is a collaboration portal that provides a cloud-based environment, along with a comprehensive set of tools and services for managing the entire lifecycle of all D365 F&O apps & implementations.

“On the surface, LCS allows you to model & maintain key business processes, manage support requests & environments, and automate testing—in one central location. But the effect of all this is, you’re then able to refine & enrich the way your ERP system is used—and as a result, get more value from it.” – Lawrence Edwards, Sr. Client Sales Manager

To understand the value it brings to the table, it helps to consider that LCS was designed to support four key roles:

• Project managers. Project managers can use LCS to manage implementation projects, track progress, and invite collaborators from both inside and outside of the organization.
• Business analysts. LCS allows analysts to integrate their company’s goals, differentiators, and processes into all stages of the implementation from gathering requirements and modeling processes to leveraging new functionality toward improved outcomes.
• Developers. Development teams can use LCS automations and tools to customize applications & processes, streamline upgrades, and maximize uptime.
• IT admins. Admins can proactively manage the organization’s systems, solve problems faster, and improve uptime.

Lifecycle Services Tools

In these next few sections, we’ve outlined the main tools you’ll find inside your LCS toolkit, as well as their role in the implementation process.

Projects and Methodologies

Projects and Methodologies go hand-in-hand, so it probably makes more sense to explain them as a pair.

So, Projects are the main organizational tool in the LCS suite. They’re based on a series of predefined implementation methodologies and used to provide control and direction throughout the entire project cycle.

Methodologies are step-by-step requirements that guide each phase of a Dynamics 365 implementation from beginning to end. Each LCS Project follows a specific Methodology, which determines the default phases and tasks included in a specific type of project. You’ll need to follow the steps outlined in the methodology, but you can edit/update phases and tasks.

Implementations typically break into four phases:

• Business analysis
• Design & development
• Testing
• Deployment & operations

Within each of those phases, there are specific tasks you’ll need to complete before moving to the next level. As you work through the tasks outlined in each phase, you can mark them as complete.

You can mark “locked” tasks as complete after completing the associated prerequisites. Simply click the lock icon and you’ll receive a list of prerequisites. This ensures that the project moves forward without skipping any essential steps.

As you progress, you’ll unlock different cloud-based environments you can configure to support the next phase. Think–development or testing environments. While it might sound restrictive, Microsoft says these parameters speed up the implementation process and allow non-technical users to complete tasks without messing anything up.

Using Methodologies, you’ll start with a documented list of tasks for each stage.

As the project progresses, you can go back in and make changes. Maybe you’ve encountered an issue in one of your processes. Or, maybe new information prompts you to update business requirements.

Whatever changes you make, this tool helps you document the latest best practices and use them in future projects.

The platform comes with several pre-made methodologies you can use as templates. You’ll also have the option to upload your own. Either way, Methodologies makes it easy to track progress toward critical milestones, define project phases & tasks, make changes, and invite collaborators.

It enables teams to follow replicable processes and ensures that projects deliver predictable outcomes. And–it reduces the chances of making a mistake that could undermine your entire system. For example, configuration errors might prevent users from accessing critical data.

Or, create an opening for hackers to enter your system and cause serious damage.

Cloud-Hosted Environments

Cloud-hosted environments allow you to deploy Dynamics 365 environments to Azure.

To get started, you’ll choose from a few different environments: development/testing, production, or demo, depending on where you are in your implementation journey.

LCS then serves up the right amount of virtual machines (VMs)–which come pre-loaded with the components and configurations needed to support the environment you selected.

Business Process Modeler

The Business Process Modeler (BPM) is a tool that allows you to design, preview, and edit business process libraries and flowcharts. It’s critical for standardizing and aligning processes to match your strategy and user requirements. It also allows you to identify performance gaps and enforce regulatory requirements and industry best practices.

Task Recorder

The Task Recorder goes hand-in-hand with the BPM. It’s used to record processes and upload them to the BPM library. Recordings can be used across a number of use cases:

• Analyzing user behavior
• Running security diagnostics
• Creating training programs

Essentially, they help you understand how users interact with proposed changes — and find ways to improve. You can create task guides, save them to LCS, and replay them.

Customization Analysis

Customization analysis is an automated tool that analyzes any planned and existing customizations by validating your model files against known best practices for tables, forms, classes, and enums. Once the analysis is complete, it generates an Excel report that contains a list of issues that need to be addressed before migrating customizations into the new system.

Issue Search

The Issue search tool is exactly what it sounds like–it helps users search for known issues with Dynamics 365 products. It’ll tell you which issues have been resolved, remain open, or can’t be fixed. The benefit is, issue search allows you to avoid preventable issues and identify workarounds before you run into trouble.

This tool also allows you to search for regulatory features that are currently available or slated for a future release. Additionally, you can look for things like certifications, registrations, and white papers.

System Diagnostics

System diagnostics helps IT admins manage AX environments and take action when needed.

This tool can be used to perform the following tasks:

• Discovering on-prem AX environments
• Collecting data from those environments
• Running rules on the data you’ve collected
• Reporting rule violations
• Generating reports

Updates

Updates is a list of available updates for a specific D365 environment. The benefit here is, it makes it easier to keep track of updates, learn about new capabilities, and understand the impact new features/functionality will have on an environment and its associated processes, customizations, and workflows.

This tool also helps users plan tests and simulations–which is critical when you’re preparing for significant changes.

Upgrade Analysis

The upgrade analysis tool helps you plan your upgrade to the most recent version of Dynamics F&O. If you’re starting from an older on-prem system like AX 4.0, 2009, or 2012 — the tool analyzes code artifacts from your current system. From there, it automatically serves up a report detailing what migrating from AX to F&O entails and what you’ll need to do to prepare for the big move.

It’s also useful for determining whether migration even makes sense or if you’re better off with a full reimplementation.

Usage Profiler

The Usage profiler helps stakeholders understand the plans for the upcoming implementation.

You can import business process data from BPM,

License Sizing Estimator

License sizing estimator is designed to give you an idea of how many seats you’ll need to support your entire workforce. LCS offers a shared workspace for modeling default and custom user roles and automatically calculates the amount of client access licenses, or CALs you’ll need to get started.

Infrastructure Estimator

Infrastructure estimator is a tool that gives users a general idea of what hardware you’ll need to support the new system.

This tool allows you to create estimates for environments hosted on-prem and in the cloud–though according to Microsoft, it’s not meant to replace the in-depth manual estimates you’d perform ahead of an implementation. Rather, it’s designed to give you a baseline for understanding what to include in your budget/project plan.

To generate an infrastructure estimate, you’ll first need to create a usage profile. Infrastructure estimates use that data to match usage and role requirements with a set of servers of predefined size.

Environments

• Development
• Production
• Testing
• Training

Server roles

• AOSviirt
• SQL Server
• Enterprise Portal
• Terminal Services
• AOS for Enterprise Portal
• SQL Server Reporting Services
• SQL Server Analysis Services
• Help Server

Final Thoughts

LCS provides a powerful set of tools that, when used correctly, support a smooth transition to Dynamics Finance & Operations–and help new users lay the groundwork for achieving critical business objectives.

But, you’re not limited to the “out-of-the-box” functionality. Many implementation partners have developed solutions that extend the value of LCS to better serve individual business needs.

Velosio offers AXIO, a framework that builds on the automation capabilities offered through F&O. It eliminates manual processes that drive up costs and complexity of implementations and updates–so you can reap the returns of your investment ASAP.

As Sam Miller puts it, “LCS becomes even more useful when we use what we deliver in AXIO.”

To learn more about what that means for your business, book a consultation today.

The post An Overview of Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services appeared first on Velosio.

Investments are on the rise, in part, because of the shift toward remote and hybrid work.

But, also, in response to other challenges of our time. Think—big data, expanding threat surfaces, and increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals.

As the threat landscape becomes more complex, managing security in-house is becoming riskier–and less feasible.

In this article, we’ll discuss Dynamics 365 cloud security concerns, challenges, and best practices. We’ll also explain how Microsoft works to keep businesses safe, even in the face of massive data sets and tight regulations.

Dynamics 365 Cloud Security Concerns & Risk Factors

Pre-sales engineer Jeffrey Smith says, “it’s common for people to worry about cloud solutions being hacked. But, Microsoft’s Azure environment is incredibly secure, and there are countless statistics that back this up.”

Account Executive Sam Miller says, “On the F&O side, I haven’t encountered any users who were overly concerned about cloud security. But–we’re talking about a group of people already comfortable with Microsoft. If anything, it’s the cloud solutions that aren’t Microsoft that people should be worried about.”

“in my experience, it’s usually the CFO or private owners that raise concerns about the cloud. The concern revolves around the security of protecting their data. In those circumstances, we explain how MS maintains their data center and what level of physical as well as virtual security is provided.” – Sreepathy Nagarajan, Practice Director, F&O

While concerns about moving to the cloud are normal, it’s important to understand the threats you’re up against. Here’s a look at some of the big ones:

• Cybercrime. Cybercrime is on the rise–and evolving. Just look at the recent high-profile attacks of the COVID era. Think–fileless attacks, stalkerware, video-conferencing attacks, and the SolarWinds supply chain attack. Cybercrime also applies to internal threats–manipulating financial reports, IP theft, insider fraud.
• Compliance. Compliance represents another risk. Non-compliance with HIPAA, SOX, CCPA, GDPR, etc. can have devastating consequences. We’re talking reputational damage, fines that can cost thousands of dollars per compromised record. Additionally, auditors are adapting their approach to the new, cloud-based environment. That means so you’re less likely to fly under the radar if you’re not meeting requirements.
• Big data. Big data is a big security risk. Hackers see it as a chance to cash in by selling customer data and IP or demanding a ransom. Expansive data ecosystems make it hard to understand what’s happening inside your organization. Which then makes it impossible to catch every vulnerability, hack, or instance of non-compliance.
• Remote work. Remote workers are harder to secure. Attacks are on the rise, according to Splunk’s 2021 State of Security report. Another report found that 92% of orgs invested in new security solutions to support remote work. Over 30% said they’re attacked at least once a day. It’s worth noting that hackers are adapting. Video-conferencing, DDoS, and phishing attacks are on the rise.
• Skills shortage. The Splunk report acknowledges that” hard jobs are getting harder.” 49% of respondents say it’s gotten harder to keep up with security requirements within the last two years. Teams face difficulties moving workloads to the cloud and hiring skilled workers. And, they’re having trouble keeping up with the complex threat landscape.
• Shadow IT. Shadow IT refers to IT solutions that bypass the official approval process. Think–personal accounts, workflows, and SaaS tools employees adopt to make their jobs easier. Unauthorized tools threaten the environment because, often, IT doesn’t know they exist and thereby can’t secure them. According to CrowdStrike, you need a unified DevOps and CI/CD strategy to detect & respond to shadow threats as they emerge.

What Differences Will New Users Notice When it Comes to Security?

Right away, users will notice that Dynamics 365 offers way more security solutions than their on-prem system.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest changes you can expect when you move to the cloud-based D365:

Security Tools That Span the Entire Microsoft Ecosystem

Microsoft 365 offers a long list of security tools built for today’s complex digital landscape. That includes data loss prevention (DLP) for Office 365, cloud apps, and all endpoints in your D365 system. An AI/ML-powered Records Management tool, even information barriers that protect sensitive information.

There’s also Compliance Manager, which includes 150+ assessments for measuring & improving regulatory compliance.

The list goes on. The point is, there’s a security solution for just about everything. The challenge lies in identifying which ones you’ll need to meet your unique security requirements.

Centralized Security Management

Microsoft 365 Defender is a suite of security tools that allows you to manage and respond to security threats in one central location. It unifies threat signals across identities, endpoints, apps, and emails and uses AI & ML to proactively respond to threats.

New Authentication Functionality

BC Consulting Manager, Carrie Gabris, says “users will notice that Dynamics 365 has different authentication functions than on-prem solutions like NAV or AX.”

Authentication is managed through Azure AD, a cloud-based identity and access management service that manages how users sign in and access resources. Admins can use it to control access permissions and set up multi-factor authentication. It can also automate provisioning between apps, modules, and connected ISV solutions. It’s a critical tool for establishing strong governance across the entire system.

“IT groups can leverage Azure AD in their ERP system to create a unified experience. And often, they’re relieved to find that D365 fits into their Azure AD strategy.” – Lawrence Edwards, Senior Client Sales Manager

Automatic Updates & Maintenance

Dynamics 365 users outsource security, updates, and server maintenance to Microsoft. Unlike on-premise systems, which rely on IT teams to schedule updates, Dynamics 365 offers real-time updates in the cloud.

Cost Savings

Senior Consultant Nick DiAngelo says, “some people worry about the per-user subscription cost. But the total cost of ownership usually ends up lower since you don’t have to maintain your own servers for the ERP system.” Migrating to D365 will not only save you money in the long run but also unlocks opportunities to make more money.

Dynamics 365 Security Best Practices

Below, we’ve outlined some critical steps for staying safe in the cloud.

Embrace Zero Trust

Zero trust is a security framework that operates under the principle “never trust, always verify.”

The idea is that organizations should automatically assume that every data flow, app, device, and user is a threat.

This model continuously validates users–so they’ll periodically have to re-enter credentials to log back in.

Microsoft’s 365 Security suite offers several tools that enable Zero Trust across the following areas:

• Identities. Azure AD, which allows admins to follow strict ID verification measures without adding additional friction to end-users’ day-to-day work.
• Endpoints. Microsoft’s Endpoint Manager solutions allow you to manage and monitor mobile devices, computers, VMs, and servers using a series of tools that protect data, provide secure access, and manage risk–critical in a remote or hybrid work environment.
• Apps. With apps, there are several things you can do for protection. For starters, you can use the Endpoint Manager to configure & enforce policies across devices and locations, and Azure AD allows you to set up authenticated sign-ins.

Define Permissions by User Role & Activity

Kim Bateson, “we tend to assign existing permission sets and try to restrict rights as much as possible and then we try to open things up if the user cannot do their job.”

Instead, you should set access permissions based on which apps and data sets employees use on the job.

Nick DiAngelo advises users to “leverage the permission recordings tool in BC to define permission sets. This ensures that users are unable to do more than what they need to do their job. This is helpful for SOX compliant environments.”

A bit of background: permission sets are assigned to users based on the tasks they perform on the job. They’re stored in your database, but don’t always reflect what your employees actually do day-to-day.

You can create new permission sets manually by adding new tables to the database. But recording actual user activity is faster and more accurate.

“The main thing is that we need to define what they want each user to do. Then with security, we can define the type of transactions and reports users can get to. Using roles can streamline the user experience.” – Jeff Smith, Solutions Architect

Make Risk Assessment a Priority

Sreepathy Nagarajan, Practice Director, F&O advises companies to spend time “getting to know the Cyber Defense Matrix context with their workspace configurations and strategy.”

The Cyber Defense Matrix is a 5×5 grid that breaks into the following two dimensions:

Operational functions:

• Identify
• Protect
• Detect
• Respond
• Recover

Asset classes:

• Devices
• Applications
• Networks
• Data
• Users

At the bottom of the grid, there’s a continuum for indicating the degree of dependency on technology and people. You’re more dependent on technology during the “identify” and “protect” stages. Later, you’ll rely more on people to make decisions about how to respond and recover from an incident.

Processes should remain consistent across the board, providing step-by-step guidance for both humans and machines.

Note: This video series explains how to use the matrix to map the threat landscape, ID risks, and cover all blindspots before migration begins.

Microsoft users can also use its built-in threat modeling tool to get ahead of cyber threats.
It provides guidance for building and analyzing threat models, allowing users (technical or not) to better prepare for future threats.

Inside, you’ll find a standard notation for visualizing boundaries, data flows, and system components.

You’ll also find a set of tools for classifying and analyzing threats based on infrastructure design–making it easier to ID and rank issues.

Threat modeling can also be used to incorporate security into the entire design and development process–and in planning and implementing a cloud ERP. That way, security objectives align with strategic objectives and reduce risk.

Develop a Data Loss Prevention Policy

A DLP policy keeps sensitive data from leaving your organization. Data loss prevention tools monitor confidential information and use business rules to block users from sharing data with recipients outside of the organization.

For example, DLP solutions might be used to block an employee from forwarding a file to an external email address or uploading it to a service like Google Drive or Dropbox.

You can use one of Microsoft’s templates (for meeting requirements for policies like HIPAA or GDPR) or customize your own.

That way, security objectives align with strategic objectives and reduce risk.

Prepare Users Early in the Game

A recent Microsoft survey points out that most cybersecurity are preventable and come from a failure to implement basic best practices like strong passwords and multi-factor authentication.

Microsoft data revealed that only 20% of users have strong authentication measures in place and found over 20M instances of hacked IoT devices using the password, “admin.”

Those findings point toward problems with culture and strategy–both of which need to be in place before adding any algorithms to the mix.

Cybersecurity is not just about investing in better technology, it’s about people and processes.

t’s about developing a culture of awareness and making sure security is baked into daily operations at all levels.

Keep in mind, your biggest cyberthreat comes from human error. Failing to install a patch or secure an endpoint opens the door to hackers. But so does a lack of knowledge surrounding phishing attacks, password protections, and other cyber-schemes targeting end-users.

“You’ll want to start setting up users really early in the process. Make security tight at first and see what walls they hit. Don’t start by giving a user security to everything and then try to back it off.” – Sam Miller, Western Region Sales Director

Sam also points out that it takes some time to get to know the new security features. For example, “the roles in F&O are really hard to figure out, and we need to do a better job of preparing user profiles before go-live.”

Final Thoughts

Cloud-based technology has become a standard for doing business in the digital age. Microsoft offers a wealth of tools that make it easier to lock down your system–but you’ll need to take some time to assess your security needs and evaluate the available solutions before you start the implementation process.

Velosio can help you identify and implement the right security solutions to keep you safe in the cloud long-term. To learn more about our services and where security fits into the big-picture, contact an expert today.

The post A Guide to Security in Dynamics 365 ERP appeared first on Velosio.

And yeah, ERPs do deal with all those things—but they can also do a whole lot more.

At its core, an ERP is a shared database for managing resources—which covers an expansive list of business activities including project management, commerce, even customer service and HR.

Modern systems like Dynamics 365 act as the digital foundation for your entire business.

The ERP is responsible for managing & securing data, serving up actionable insights, and providing a space for building custom apps, bots, and automated flows.

Altogether, Dynamics helps teams meet customer expectations, eliminate waste, and break down growth barriers.

This article provides a comprehensive Microsoft Dynamics ERP overview. We’ll look at some of the core capabilities the D365 ERP has to offer, and then, we’ll explore the underlying tech behind these game-changing, modular apps.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP Capabilities

While Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERPs come in a few different flavors, all have the following capabilities in common:

• Modular, pre-built apps. Dynamics 365 unites your entire business–bringing all insights/core activities into one central location. Orgs can mix, match, and add apps as they grow/evolve. You don’t need to pay for features you don’t need–just the exact tools that support employees on the job–right now.
• Flexible customization. D365’s browser-based apps can be tailored to any business or department. The platform’s built-in admin tools offer complete control over how apps and services are configured based on existing workflows, org. charts, and security & compliance requirements.
• Accessible insights. Microsoft Dynamics offers baked-in intelligence that enables organizations to capture real-time insights and take the right set of actions–without missing a beat. Add-ons like Power BI extend the value of the core platform–as do external integrations like your business intelligence platform, marketing analytics, etc.
• Built-in AI. Embedded analytics enabled by the Power Platform and Dataverse enhance your decision-making abilities and surface prescriptive insights for improving operational efficiency and business agility. Power Automate enables you to orchestrate workflows based on triggers or clicks. And Power Virtual Agents allows you to deploy AI chatbots anywhere they’re needed.

Common Data Model

Mobile and social are here to stay. AI, machine learning, advanced analytics, and the IoT continue to grow. And, soon, we should feel the impact of 5G. The point is, the “big data ecosystem” is getting bigger every day.

Companies are sitting on a gold mine of granular insights with the potential to unlock major profits, boost productivity, and give customers exactly what they want.

The problem is, you can’t scale your business or achieve business agility if you can’t access or act on those insights.

Microsoft’s Common Data Model is an open-sourced system, critical to D365’s connected modularity.

It uses modular, extensible entities and semantic metadata to enable easy integration, app development, and data sharing across all connected apps and processes.

You’ll also find a collection of standardized, extensible schemas created by Microsoft and its partner networks.

The platform includes predefined attributes, entities, semantic metadata, and relationships related to common tasks/concepts. These can be used to streamline the process of capturing, aggregating, organizing, and analyzing data.

Note: If you’d like a visual, here’s a downloadable poster that breaks down the Common Data Model schema.

Power Platform

Designed with “citizen developers” in mind, the Power Platform is a set of apps that allow users to analyze data, automate processes, build custom solutions, and create virtual agents.

The Power Platform helps orgs operationalize their data and improve core business functions by adding AI to the mix. It also connects to the Dataverse via 275+ data connectors that capture insights you can access and apply through any connected app.

Here’s a look at the key elements found inside the Power Platform:

Power BI

Power BI is a business intelligence platform that includes a suite of tools that democratize data analytics. Inside, you’ll find customizable reports, data visualization tools, and BI apps almost anyone can use.

The platform uses the same Common Data Model used across the D365 ecosystem to connect disparate data sets. It then transforms and cleans data into a data model that makes it easy to leverage business insights across a wide range of use cases.

For example, you might create data “stories” with intuitive visualizations that engage and educate customers. Or, access real-time insights from connected IoT devices to optimize production as it happens.

Additionally, Power BI data can be embedded into external websites or applications, as well as your ERP, CRM, or other integrated tools.

Power Apps

Power Apps is Microsoft’s low-code development platform. It’s designed to help users build custom apps that leverage critical data and improve workflows.

It aims to simplify the development process, offering a standard set of forms, dashboards, and built-in processes. The platform allows non-technical users to create apps without code.

And–it allows development/IT teams to save time and focus on more complex projects.

1. Canvas Apps

Canvas Apps allow users to build apps from a “canvas” in the Power Apps builder without any code. Instead, the design process takes place inside Microsoft’s drag-and-drop editor.

Users can automatically generate an app from any of the following sources:

• Template
• Dataverse
• Excel
• Sharepoint
• Sample app

You can also connect data from Microsoft tools and external data sources, define logic, and decide what data displays in each app based on user role/workflow/behavior.

2. Model-Driven Apps

Like Canvas Apps, Model-Driven Apps simplify the development process, allowing users to build custom apps without writing any code. Unlike Canvas apps, much of the layout is already defined by sample apps, which act like templates you can customize and add to your UI.

While you’ll give up some control over the final design, model-driven apps make it easy to create complex, responsive apps with a consistent UI. The development process is relatively straightforward and consists of the following components:

• Model business data, using a metadata-driven architecture that enables code-free customization
• Define process flows
• Apply business logic
• Compose the app

3. Dataverse

Dataverse is an API that allows users to securely store and manage data from all connected business apps.

Data is stored in tables (represented by a set of rows & columns)–each column is responsible for storing a specific type of data (name, date, account type, etc.).

You’ll get a set of standard tables with your subscription that you can use out-of-the-box for common functions (invoicing, basic reports, etc.) or you’ll have the option to create custom apps that better align with your business processes.

According to Microsoft documentation, tables allow you to define how all your organization’s data will be stored, categorized, and used within various apps and reports.

It’s easier to manage and secure metadata/data in the cloud. Users can set role-based security permissions to which users can access each table based on job requirements.

Dataverse also makes it easy to access data from your D365 apps, which enables you to build new apps and workflows as well as extend/customize existing apps within the Power Apps platform.

Dataverse also includes “connectors” which are used when building Canvas Apps, Power Automate flows, or any other app that doesn’t integrate directly with Dataverse.

You’ll also find built-in logic & validation tools that allow you to define rules, workflows, calculate columns, set process flows, etc.

Power Automate

Power Automate is a cloud-based service that lets users build workflows that automate and streamline repetitive manual workflows without any prior coding experience.

It connects to 300+ data sources, as well as any publicly available API. You can use it to automate processes, set reminders, and transfer data between systems and data sources on a preset schedule.

Users can set three different flow types:

• Cloud flows. Tasks triggered by a specific event. Think automatically following up after a sales call or sharing a resource based on which pages someone visited.
• Instant flows. Tasks that run an automation with the click of a button. For example, you can send reminders to everyone on your team by tapping a button on your phone.
• Scheduled flows. Tasks that run automation on a regular schedule. Think daily data uploads or sending a weekly report to specific stakeholders.

Altogether, these automations stand to save organizations a ton of time. Focus on tackling the tiny tasks that waste employee time, error-prone processes that keep teams from doing the work that matters most.

Power Virtual Agents

Power Virtual Agents is Microsoft’s chatbot-building tool. Users can create bots that answer questions for employees, customers, or anyone who visits your site. It allows you to provide the self-service support users crave, without having to build a bot from scratch.

Instead, Microsoft provides content blocks, pre-made conversational templates, and trigger phrases. All can be customized inside the Bot Framework Composer and published to the Power Virtual Agents platform.

You can also embed chatbots into various apps, automations, and external platforms. Depending on your goals, you might use bots for lead gen, after-hours support, or helping employees find specific files.

Final Thoughts

Microsoft Dynamics 365’s modularity, powerful data management capabilities, built-in intelligence, and low-code customizations support the goals of any business.

Microsoft Dynamics’ capabilities come from the tight integration across the entire D365 ecosystem and tools like the Common Data Model, Dataverse, and Power Platform that make it easy to access, share, and leverage data from any connected app.

That said, it’s hard to realize the full promise of Dynamics 365 without some extra support. Whether you need help with an upcoming D365 migration, extracting insights from Power BI, or optimizing the business processes in your ERP, Velosio experts can help.
Contact us today to find out more about our services.

The post A Comprehensive Overview of Microsoft Dynamics ERP appeared first on Velosio.

McKinsey estimates around 70% fail, while Gartner gives a range–between 55% and 75%. If you’re looking for more tangible flops, you can check out CIO’s list of 16 famous ERP failures.

We’re not trying to scare you. It’s just that it’s important to understand how hard it is to pull off any ERP implementation.

Developing a project plan is a complicated process involving multiple stages, moving parts, and large, cross-functional teams that might not be ready for change. You’re also dealing with tons of data, deciding which integrations/processes are worth keeping—or need to be replaced. It’s a lot.

While every implementation is different, we’ve compiled a checklist outlining key activities at each stage. You might use this as your Dynamics 365 implementation project plan template—and adapt around your organization’s unique needs and pain points.

Read on to learn more about what the ERP implementation process should entail.

Define Goals & Success Criteria

The first step in your Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation project plan is defining your goals and how you’ll measure success.

“Define what success looks like: Make sure the goal can be measured and think about this goal when doing requirements. Think about the future and not just what you are currently doing. Identify bottlenecks in your processes.” – Nick DiAngelo, Senior Consultant

Questions to answer:

• What do you hope to gain from this project?
• What are your most immediate short-term goals?
• What are your long-term goals?
• What’s your timeline for achieving them?
• What will it take to make it happen?
• Who needs to be involved?
• How much will implementation cost?
• How long will it take?

Gather Business Requirements

Sreenath Reddy Girigari, Directory of Delivery, “requirements gathering is crucial to any Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation project plan. It adds value every step of the way. And, when you’re working on tight timelines and a limited budget, exact documentation of all requirements becomes even more critical.”

Carrie Gabris, Consulting Mgr BC Enterprise, emphasizes that it’s important to understand the difference between business and configuration requirements.

“Discuss business requirements. Do not discuss configuration questions for Business Central setup. Business Requirements are the NEED, BC is the tool. Bottom line: configuration questions are needed to set up the tool, they’re not to be confused with “requirements.” – Carrie Gabris, Consulting Manager, BC Enterprise

You might host workshops with each department to learn about pain points and challenges, as well as how people actually use existing tools.

Questions to answer:

• What systems are you currently using for Sales, Marketing, HR, Finance, Supply Chain, Operations, Business Intelligence?
• How old are those systems?
• What challenges does each team face? Bad data? Lack of access? Missed revenue opportunities?
• What kind of infrastructure are you working with?
• Are there proprietary systems in place that are hard to upgrade/support/integrate with new solutions?
• What legal & regulatory requirements are you responsible for?
• Do you need to support inventory management? A complex quote-to-cash cycle?
• Are you operating in multiple locations? Warehouses? Countries?
• Are you dealing in multiple currencies?
• Do you need your system to handle different billing/pricing models?

Account Executive Sam Miller, “make sure you have a group of people working together internally to review functional design documents. Make sure you all log into the system together and walk through some processes. Watch online demos available that show the UI in action. Ask your implementation partner about integrating with Office 365 and the Power Platform and see if you can get demos for your use case.”

Review Current System & Evaluate New Capabilities

Carrie Gabris warns against trying to replicate old processes in a new environment.

She says, “be sure it doesn’t become a lift, move, and drop situation. You’re not attempting to implement your current solution into Dynamics 365. It must be deconstructed to be reconstructed in an improved solution.”

You’ll want to ask the right questions when defining the customization.

Your goal here is uncovering as much information as you can about current processes–in context with real users.

Try to answer the following questions:

• Which departments are impacted?
• Which fields are impacted?
• What are all the requirements of the field and field type?
• Is the customization specific to a certain group of users?
• What barriers prevent employees from achieving goals?
• Where are they wasting the most time?
• What information are they missing?
• Identify new capabilities offered by D365—divide them into two groups: must-haves and nice-to-haves.
• Also ID features you can remove. That way you’re starting with a new system that only contains the features/functions relevant to your business. You can add/modify them later.
• Do the results/outcomes of the customized transactions need to be reversible?
• Does custom functionality need the ability to be enabled or disabled? Without asking these questions and accounting for all of this then that scenario, the custom code will have bugs.

Anthony Dossier, Client Success – BC Support Engineer adds, “one of the biggest mistakes clients make is not adding hover-text to the custom fields.” This defines the purpose and function of new fields and explains their impact on other fields and data.

Change Management

Modernizing your ERP is as much a cultural transformation as it is a technological one.

Companies need to dedicate the appropriate amount of time and resources to preparing their entire organization ahead of time.

Carrie Gabris emphasizes that key users must be involved throughout the entire process–starting at the very beginning. For reference, key users are your internal subject matter experts (SMEs), champions, and power users driving adoption across the organization.

She says, “throughout the execution, they should be showing glimpses to their team members, and discussing functionality hits and misses. The biggest issue for end-users is fear of not knowing what’s being constructed and wondering if they are going to be able to manage the change.”

A Few Things to Keep in Mind at This Stage:

• Functionality and usage should not be “new” to end-users during training
• Key users should do end-to-end testing
• They should document & screenshot processes
• They should capture relevant data
• Business rules must be created & communicated
• Train-the-trainer… most cost effective and forces full ownership of the solution.

Carrie adds that, “key users can serve as ongoing support before support issues are escalated to a partner… saving time and money in the long-term.”

You need at least one “power user” that understands processes across the entire business–beyond their own functional area. This is essential for making sure you get the big picture view.

Functional users play an important role, too. This group knows the ins and outs of specific processes because they use them every day. They’re in the best position to identify bottlenecks and barriers–and provide valuable feedback for how to improve.

Finally, you’ll need a project champion to lead the charge.

This person has strong project management skills and is prepared to guide the implementation process and keep everyone on track and aligned around the same goals.

Design & Development

As you’re planning the design and development stages of Dynamics 365 implementation, you’ll want to make sure you focus on must-haves first (essentials you’ll need on go-live day).

Your “nice-to-haves” might change post-launch after you’ve spent more time in the system.

Make sure to use data from your test case results, gap analysis, and sessions with each department to design the new system and map processes. While the focus shifts toward identifying customizations, data, and integrations, it’s important to keep end-user feedback top of mind.

This will inform what data you’ll migrate, which processes to keep, and which ones you’ll replace using the new functionality.

Here, You’ll Want to Answer the Following Questions:

• Are you starting from an on-prem or cloud solution? What version?
• Do you have any existing customizations or ISV solutions?
• Are integrations to other systems required? If so, how will you interface with the external systems?
• What data needs to be integrated? What directions? How often?
• Does any data need to be migrated from a legacy system to D365 BC for this development to work properly?
• What automation is needed? (data in, data out, posting)
• Is data transformation needed? (what is provided to D365 BC need to be evaluated and then changed to a valid D365 BC date element)
• How many reports (Sales invoices, Purchase Order Documents, Check requirements, WIP reports, project status or management report) are required for the organizations that may be complex?
• Will simply adding a logo to a simple format work?
• Do you have required notifications/workflows that you heavily rely upon?
• Are new fields/tables required? Describe what you understand the prospect will need.
• Who needs to see the fields?
• Are the new fields/tables editable?
• Where do they need to see the fields? i.e. setup screen, customer ledger, General Ledger
• What reports are required?
• What tool will be used to create and generate the reports?
• What are the current business applications in your environment and is there integration between those systems?
• What technology is used for those integrations?
• How many integrations need to be built?
• Does the integration need to update extension tables and fields?
• How fields might need to be updated/imported?
• What is the source of the data? (Concur, ADP, External operating system)
• Where does the data need to be imported? (GL, AP, Inventory)
• Does the integration need to return data to the source system?
• Does the integration need to create or update master records? Which ones?
• Does the integration need to transform any data? (Source Item number to BC item number?)
• What level of automation is required? Immediate and automatic? (API’s?) Scheduled and Automatic (Containers)? Manual and as needed?

Testing & User Training

Anthony Dossier advises clients to use “real data-based training that accounts for most common scenarios across all systems, departments, and processes.”

You’ll need to develop well-documented step-by-step, click-by-click standard operating procedures, complete with screenshots and details of all fields and steps involved.

“In general, get engaged, watch videos, read training manuals, understand the table/field structures and the system architecture, learn the terminology of the new system, learn where data flows from and where it flows to.” – Anthony Dossier, BC Support Engineer

• Develop a training plan—should include hands-on live sessions, self-guided lessons/tutorials, and a plan for developing skills long-term
• User acceptance testing (UAT)
• Cutover phase—typically lasts a few days & allows orgs to start working with the new system before retiring the old one—in case they hit any unexpected snags.
• Gives clients time to run through day-to-day tasks and address issues, while also maintaining business continuity.
• Activities might include running sales reports, processing orders, bank reconciliation, etc.

Nick DiAngelo says, “issues often come from clients not testing all of their scenarios. Take the time to develop test scripts and ensure they are complete before cutover.”

Anthony weighs in again stating, “when scenarios and critical processes go untested, users don’t know how to use the system at go-live. To avoid this issue, make learning the system and completing UAT the top priorities, instead of focusing too much on go-live deadlines.”

Make Sure You:

• Track testing scenarios
• Provide detailed steps if an error occurs. Include what the expected result was and the actual result.
• Hold people to a timeline–UAT usually runs over if there’s no project sponsor or manager keeping the team on track.

Deployment

Don’t force the go live if you’re not fully ready to hit some target deadline. That’s focusing on the wrong objective.

“Ensure all artifacts and necessary configurations are in place during deployment. Additionally, maintaining a proper deployment checklist that covers every detail that must be in place before the go-live.” – Sreenath Reddy Girigari, Directory of Delivery

Before Moving Forward, Make Sure That:

• Adequate unit testing was performed by enough users
• Documents were fully tested/reviewed during testing. Some might be missing necessary information.
• Reporting was fully addressed. In other words, you’ve proven that reports address specific questions and make it easy for users to understand the situation and take the appropriate actions.

Post-Go Live

After you’ve launched the new system and completed the cutover, you’ll need a strategy for managing and improving the system long-term.

A few things to work into your ongoing plan:

• Create a system for ongoing testing, regular reliability & network performance checks
• Establish & document communication protocols for unexpected downtime
• Make sure you have strong (and redundant) data backup processes
• Make room in the budget for overtime/temp staff to support teams as they learn to work in a new system

Final Thoughts

Carrie Gabris has one final piece of advice. She tells clients to “be open to change. The requirements you currently have in place may be a result of your current system’s limitations. You’ll need to be open to process changes in order to utilize D365 best practices to improve business outcomes.”

Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation project plan is a massive undertaking. It involves a lot of time, teamwork, and a ton of in-depth cross-functional planning.

What’s more, many orgs don’t have experience with Dynamics 365 implementations. And some have little to no experience with the cloud, in general. Even those companies that consider themselves experienced cloud users might struggle with the more technical aspects of implementation. Think–mapping business processes, preparing data, converting custom code.

Working with a solution provider increases chances of success. You’ll work with experts who’ve been through it before, understand the risks, benefits, and how to get the most from your D365 investment.

To learn more about Velosio and how our experts can help you win in the cloud, contact us today.

The post Dynamics 365 Implementation Project Plan Template appeared first on Velosio.

They provide the flexibility and baked-in intelligence needed to bring transformations to life.

See, legacy systems have become a barrier to digital transformation.

They lack the integration capabilities you’ll find in the cloud. This creates silos between teams—making it hard to align around a unified strategy and deliver a consistent experience.

On-prem ERPs inhibit data literacy–and by extension, growth and agility. They make it hard to automate manual tasks and crumble under the weight of massive, ever-expanding data sets.

By contrast, cloud ERPs represent the first step in the digital transformation journey. Out of the box, you’ll gain access to AI reporting tools, automations, and a data ecosystem that spans the entire business.

But, we should note: digital transformation and ERP modernization are not the same.

It’s better to look at the ERP as the foundation that supports the large-scale, complex initiatives you need to gain a competitive advantage.

Here, we’ll discuss the relationship between digital transformation and ERP systems like Dynamics 365.

What Role Does ERP Modernization Play in Driving Digital Transition?

When you think of “digital transformation” you probably think of technologies like AI, machine learning, the IoT, and so on.

Upgrading the tech stack is, of course, a key part of transformation. But, so is modernizing your organization’s processes, culture, business models, and workflows. All things that happen the ERP.

But, we should mention that “digital transformation” isn’t a specific strategy. It’s an ongoing process that uses technology to improve business offerings, operations, and outcomes.

So, if you’re implementing a solution like D365, you’ll want to set it up so that you can add new capabilities and adapt business processes to take advantage of many future transformations.

In these next few sections, we’ll go over some of the more specific ways that ERPs support digital transformation.

ERP Unifies Data & Processes

Advanced analytics, business intelligence (BI), and visual reporting tools are all essential to any transformation effort. These capabilities allow you to leverage data to drive specific outcomes.

According to Sreepathy Nagarajan, Practice Director, F&O, “Data is the new gold. Today, data literacy is a prerequisite for achieving growth. Data mining and real-time analytics are crucial for competing in today’s economy.”

Senior executives track high-level KPIs—across all business areas. Then, they use those insights to define the business strategy and make decisions that can have a significant impact on the bottom line.

Beyond the C-suite, cloud ERPs set the stage for transformation at every level by bringing actionable insights to the whole organization.

Sr. Client Sales Manager, Lawrence Edwards says, “accessibility is a key element of digital transformation. Making processes and data accessible to everyone unlocks the flexibility you need to change with your customers and enter new markets.”

“D365’s transformative power comes from its all-around accessibility. That–and the fact that cloud solutions lend themselves to more robust integrations with other cloud systems.” – Anthony Dossier, BC Support Engineer

Automation and AI analytics make it easy to analyze more data points, model different scenarios, and take the right action at the right time.

For example, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates deployed D365 Commerce across all brands and channels to boost sales, loyalty, and create a cohesive experience that spans physical and digital touchpoints. One of our clients, NWS, leveraged the benefits of Azure and D365 CRM to enhance billing, inventory management, and order processing strategies. That said, our experts worked with the NWS team to migrate on-prem GP data, establish a standard sales process, and organize data.

Good data is also a prerequisite for automation–which is also becoming a critical competency for enterprises and SMBs alike.

Xerox research found that 80% of SMBs believe that automation is critical to their survival and 82% said they felt the same way—regarding digitizing paperwork. Since the onset of the pandemic, roughly 66% made plans to upgrade automation tools. Additionally, 75% noticed an increased reliance on workflow solutions—with 65% reporting that they’ve already invested in upgrades.

But none of this is possible without the ERP–your company’s “single source of truth.”

ERP Makes Room for Rapid Growth

Melissa Herbst, Industry Account Executive says, “most of the clients I work with are ready to change. And often, they seek changes because they’re running into growth barriers. As they grow, they recognize the limitations of their current systems and the constraints caused by operational silos.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a client actually say they want to modernize. Rather, they come looking for ways to improve operations. In a lot of cases, growth comes from expanding product and service offerings to better meet customer needs. Modernization and access to information are what helps them better achieve their goals.” – Melissa Herbst, Industry Account Executive

Deloitte 2021 Tech Trends report, points out that, today, everyone has access to similar technologies. So, your strategy becomes about how to leverage specific technologies to achieve a specific goal.

The ERP enables organizations to pursue projects that can help them grow.

For example, this case study explains how Albemarle, a chemical company, implemented a new ERP for core modernization. They first focused on building a strong foundation—starting with an out-of-the-box installation. Later, they used APIs and extensions to customize the platform to fit their internal processes.

The ERP was an initial stepping stone that then enabled them to focus on more complex initiatives. In this case, using robotic process automation (RPA) and IT/OT convergence to improve manufacturing.

Cloud ERP Supports Remote Collaboration

Consolidated, connected ERPs like Dynamics 365 make it easy to access essential data and business tools from anywhere.

According to Forrester’s 2022 Predictions report, just 10% of companies will go all-in on remote work. But–an estimated 60% will embrace some type of hybrid model.

Analysts predict that a third of organizations will fail on their first attempt at supporting “anywhere work.” They anticipate companies will try to use the virus–or remote work, in general–as a scapegoat.

In reality, remote/hybrid work fails when organizations don’t invest in the tools, training, or cultural changes that make it work.

When you’re working with a fragmented tech stack, there’s a risk that different teams are working with different data. This creates confusion for customers, undermines brand compliance, and hinders decision-making abilities.

Gaps in your stack can also create friction in day-to-day workflows. Employees might have trouble finding critical information about a customer or account.

It’s also a security risk. It’s harder for IT to account for all connected data sources.

This means they can’t lock down every endpoint or vulnerability–no matter how thorough they are.

“Cloud ERPs improve the organization’s ability to collaborate by securely sharing company data and knocking down silos.” With D365, organizations gain a unified experience across all departments—finance, sales, marketing, HR, etc. – Jeff Smith, Pre-Sales Engineer

What’s more, Microsoft recently added more tools to Teams that support remote or hybrid work–including secure access to Dynamics 365.

ERP and Digital Transformation Challenges

Cloud ERP or not, digital transformation isn’t easy. Below, we’ll run through some of the key challenges organizations face when implementing a digital transformation-ready ERP:

Problems with Your Data

Account Executive, Sam Miller says the role of the ERP “is up to the customer.” He says, “our clients are aware that we recommend addressing reporting analytics early on. They also know that Dynamics offers a world-class workflow capability. We recommend transforming processes but then everyone gets down into the details and we never come up for air.”

But it matter if you’re revamping reports or automating the production line, transformation can’t happen without good data.

The Deloitte report mentioned above warns against making tech investments on assumptions or what you “think” you should be doing. Projects should instead be informed by real business cases–and backed up with real data.

According to HBR, digital transformation involves capturing and understanding massive amounts of unstructured data. You’ll need to integrate proprietary insights with external data and use that information to achieve specific outcomes.

Analysts noted that while most companies understand the importance of data, they often blame IT when the data strategy falls apart.

Cultural Problems

Many organizations struggle with ERP transformations due to lack of clarity around strategic objectives and business practices.

• Data literacy is more about culture than technology. IDG’s 9 Trends Shaping the Future of Data Analytics found that just 31% of organizations consider themselves “adept” at extracting valuable insights. But, IT leaders who say they’re closer to data-driven culture objectives are using cloud-based data analytics tools more heavily–which indicates investments are paying off.
• Digital transformation demands an agile-like mindset. Again, digital transformation has no end point. Technology, customers, and markets are always changing–which means you’ll need to evolve your strategy to stay in the game.
• Alignment is everything. The cloud journey must align with the big-picture transformation strategy. If both parts aren’t aligned, cloud investments won’t reap the rewards you anticipated. It’s a big change — especially if you’re coming from a fragmented system or an on-prem solution where silos and workarounds were the norm.

Digital transformation is more than optimizing workflows and adding AI to your dashboards. It’s about building a data-driven culture and an agile, resilient brand–all of which demand more effort from humans than bots.

Skills Gaps

Skills shortages were already a huge challenge before the pandemic.

In a recent report, Gartner points out that while the velocity and scale of digitalization were already driving major skills shifts, the pandemic accelerated those trends. 60% of respondents reported undergoing some type of skills transformation post-COVID.

Still, companies struggle with data literacy, skills training, and culture. They also have trouble attracting talent with experience in critical areas like AI, data science, and RPA.

Per a 2020 IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) survey, 40% of CEOs said they had the resources, talent, and skills needed to execute “transformational strategies.” Those strategies include things like leveraging AI/ML, automating processes, and operationalizing data.

Another challenge is future-proofing your current workforce. It’s not sustainable to hire new people every time there’s a need for a new set of skills. Organizations will instead need to build talent pipelines to sustain gains and avoid future skills gaps.

Cloud Challenges

A 2021 Cloud Infrastructure Report found that 57% of IT leaders say at least half of their infrastructure is already in the cloud. Over 60% plan on being fully cloud-based within the next five years.

It’s clear that businesses are making progress on this front. But—they’re also running into roadblocks preventing true digital transformation from happening.

Top barriers include cybersecurity challenges, regulatory requirements, and governance issues—areas that represent massive (and expensive) risks. Business leaders also cited departmental silos, a lack of app support, and missing/messy/fragmented data sets.

While it’s fine to approach the migration process in phases, transformation requires end-to-end connectivity.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is, the relationship between ERP and digital transformation is an important one.

But, ERP modernization always comes first–across the board–regardless of size, sector, or strategy.

Without unified data, optimized processes, and remote collaboration tools, transformation can’t happen. Instead, your initial focus should center on building a strong foundation. Then, you can start looking at the data to find opportunities to apply more sophisticated solutions.

Whether you’re migrating an on-prem legacy system to the cloud or need help taking business processes to the next level—Velosio experts can help.

We’ll help you jump start your ERP modernization efforts so you can start focusing on transforming your business. Get in touch today to learn more.

The post Digital Transformation with Dynamics 365 appeared first on Velosio.

After two decades and countless upgrades, NAV is a flexible system that can adapt to a variety of industries and use cases. It’s popular among SMBs, as well as distributors and manufacturers for its robust suite of production control tools.

It still serves up valuable insights, offers plenty of customizations, and acts as a single source of truth for the whole organization. But, users are bumping up against the limitations of its on-prem infrastructure.

Business Central replaces NAV, offering the same core functionality in the cloud and with some major upgrades. Below, we’ll take a closer look at what’s changed, what hasn’t, and what a successful migration entails.

Difference Between Microsoft Dynamics NAV 365

NAV and Dynamics 365 Business Central both allow SMBs to manage all core business operations in one place. Both platforms improve decision-making and optimize processes & workflows across the entire business. We’re talking finance, manufacturing, sales, HR, marketing, and so on.

But the real difference between Microsoft Dynamics NAV and 365 isn’t what they do, it’s how they do it. Comparing the two platforms demonstrates the impact that infrastructure has on business performance.

Challenges: Migrating From Dynamics NAV to Business Central

Account Executive Sam Miller says, “BC is the same solution as NAV but with different infrastructure.”

Sam’s right, it is the same solution. But the difference in infrastructure has a significant impact on everything. Sure, you’re still using D365 for things like forecasting, purchasing, warehousing.

But implementing old systems, processes, and data flows in the cloud is more complex than it sounds.

Below, Velosio experts share common challenges they’ve encountered on the job.

Clients Aren’t Ready for the Cloud

Some organizations may still have trouble wrapping their head around the shift from on-prem to cloud. It’s not as common today, as cloud-based everything is now ubiquitous, but it still happens.

What’s more common is a poor understanding of how infrastructure impacts everything — customizations, reporting, basic accounting tasks.

“Many clients already understand the concept of on-prem ERPs. The cloud is something they’re just not comfortable with. They no longer have their own data on their own servers–and that can be scary.” – Kim Bateson, Senior Product Owner

Orgs also run into trouble if they haven’t created an environment that can support the new system.

BC Support Engineer, Anthony Dossier says, “speed and response time is slower in BC than NAV due to latency with internet connections.”

Network capacity plays a crucial role in supporting remote work and maintaining the continuous uptime needed for data streaming and IoT solutions.

These are things you’ll need to address before you deploy to mitigate risk. Risks include downtime, outages, delayed responses, cyberattacks, and an inability to tap into the power of the cloud.

Data Migration

The choice between a “lift & shift” or a full reimplementation is a strategic one–requiring organizations to look at several factors.

“Identifying if there should be a technical upgrade, or an actual reimplementation alone is a big challenge for organizations.” – Carrie Gabris, BC Enterprise Consulting Manager

Part of that process involves looking at what migration will actually entail.

As mentioned in another recent post, there are several factors that will determine the best path to the cloud. Think–age, complexity, data volume, and whether your current solution was implemented properly.

The longer you’ve been using your legacy system, the more time you’ll spend sorting and cleaning your data before deciding what you’ll bring with you when you move. That means, mapping the data across NAV and its integrations, cleaning it, and weeding out old, inaccurate, or irrelevant data.

You’ll also need to ensure that the data you plan on keeping doesn’t get corrupted.

In a recent CIODive article, Hava Babay-Adi, software engineer & Google tech lead explained that migrating data from NAV to BC means you’re converting data from one schema to another.

In some instances, existing data may include records or variables that are no longer valid and you’ll need to convert it to a different format.

Beyond that, there are a few different methods and tools you might use to bring your existing data into the new system.

• Replication/Intelligent Cloud. If you’re migrating from NAV 2018 R2 or later, you can replicate data in the new environment via the Intelligent Cloud tool. This process syncs NAV data to BC via manual updates or pre-scheduled replications. And while you can access that data by logging into BC, it’s read-only. Still, you can start taking advantage of new functionalities like Power BI and Flow, as continue with implementation.
• RapidStart. RapidStart is a Microsoft service that allows users to create Configuration Packages that link Excel files to BC tables. The goal is to standardize & streamline implementations–during the initial migration and later, as your company grows.
• Excel. You can transfer vendor, customer, inventory, and transaction data from NAV to Business Central using Edit in Excel. That said, whether your files are compatible with BC depends on what extensions are available. Make sure you’ve filled in all mandatory fields before the import.

Complex Customizations

Kim Bateson says she often sees clients with NAV customizations they need to convert BC. This adds an extra layer of complexity to the migration process.

“Clients often struggle with customizations they’ve built themselves. You don’t want to recreate too many processes/apps/workflows in the new system, as it can get complicated fast.” – Jeff Smith, Pre-Sales Solution Engineer

Anthony Dossier adds, “migrating customizations to BC requires a lot of extra steps. And–a lot of involvement from developers. Tools for debugging code and related errors are not as robust in BC as they are in NAV.”

D365 is easier to use, so the idea is, many of NAV’s developer tools are no longer necessary. That’s great if you’re starting from scratch–otherwise, you’ll have to perform a code conversion.

Senior Consultant, Nick DiAngelo says, “if you’re using an older version, modifications in C/AL must be converted into AL Extensions. Sometimes, ISV solutions are not available for BC SaaS. This can have an impact on if they stay on-prem, find another solution, or make changes to the functionality of the ISV.”

How to Prepare for the Big Move

We’ve already looked at some of the key challenges businesses face when moving from NAV to Business Central.

Below, we’ve shared some best practices for getting ahead of those challenges before they cause bigger problems.

Understand How Dynamics 365 Adds Business Value and Aligns with Goals

It starts with understanding what value Dynamics 365 brings to the table.

Jeff Smith recommends learning about the big-picture benefits of the cloud before digging deeper. He says, “I like showing clients what they’ll save on hardware, upgrades, and IT spending by moving to the cloud, while also maintaining the core functionality of NAV.”

“The integration with the Microsoft ecosystem is so much more available with Business Central than NAV. On top of that, mobile apps make the system even more available, no matter how and where users work.” – Jeff Smith, Pre Sales Solution Engineer

Those benefits apply across the board but immediately show the potential of a cloud-based ERP. But, you’ll want to dig deeper to learn more about how the improved functionality can help you achieve specific business goals.

That means learning how users engage with the software, then using those insights to determine where you can add new value.

Keep in mind, the needs your end-users have right now may be very different from the needs they had during your initial NAV rollout.

To identify opportunities to improve existing processes, Carrie Gabris recommends answering the following questions:

• Is there old development that no longer serves current or future business needs?
• Can you summarize the areas of previous development? The goal is to understand if Business Central has new functionality to meet that past development.
• Is there a need to review and/or redefine processes to fit current BC functionality and maximize ROI?

Plan with Business Continuity in Mind

Be sure to plan a rollout process that allows you to scale back new features—or even revert back to the legacy platform—if necessary.

You may want to consider a Phase Zero approach. So, rather than moving everything into the cloud at the same time, you take a more gradual approach.

This can help you identify friction points early on and communicate the benefits of the migration to resistant employees.

Next Pathway Chief Strategy Officer, Vinay Mathur, told CIO Dive that his team does an initial pilot or Phase Zero program as part of the migration. The process involves taking a small piece of an application (plus its data and codebase) and moving it to the cloud.

This helps engage end-users in the process and weigh in with feedback and feature requests.

It also helps them master the system they’ll use each day.

Because the ERP is the center of all business activities, planning for continuity is crucial. Downtime could have devastating, long-term consequences on your business. You’re vulnerable to cyber attacks. You lose productive hours and opportunities to sell.

Remember, end-users will be using D365 to perform daily work. That means you’ll need to ensure that the migration won’t prevent them from completing critical tasks.

Test Early & Often

You’ll also want to design a testing strategy that gets end-users involved in defining business processes, workflows, and use cases.

“Success requires engagement at every level and all phases. That includes project planning, but also testing, testing, and more testing.” – Carrie Gabris, Business Central Consulting Manager

Testing is essential for aligning expectations with the business strategy from the start. Plus–it doubles as an interactive training process that prepares users to get results from new features before they go live.

What Separates Clients That Achieve the Desired Business Outcome From Those That Don’t?

Melissa Herbst says, “if you look at successful ERP implementations, you’ll notice they have characteristics in common.” Here’s a quick rundown of the ones with the biggest impact on project success:

• Executive sponsorship. Leadership teams have a clear vision of what needs to change and why. Nick DiAngelo says, “customers that are involved in the migration and testing processes are more successful. Across the board. But that level of involvement can’t happen without a project sponsor who prioritizes the initiative.

  ”Carrie Gabris says that you’ll also want to stay focused on key objectives and must-have features first. Avoid spending too much time on “nice to have” features early on. Instead, nail the essentials and use data from all that testing to inform what comes next.

• Clear communication of project goals/criticalities. Regular communication with executive sponsors, partners, and project team ensures on-time delivery and avoid obstacles that cost money & cause delays.

  Anthony Dossier advises clients to gain an understanding of all elements that impact the migration. “That includes business needs, raw data/inputs, required outputs, internal & external customers & their needs. They also should be able to articulate this information–regardless of the system they are using.”

• Project Management keeps teams on track and accountable. Strong project management needs to happen on both the client-side and the partner side. You want both teams aligned, working toward the same goal. Process owners and leadership with the ability to make decisions.

  Make sure you give your teams the authority to push projects through the pipeline. Kim Bateson says organizations need to give teams the tools to “adapt to changes in real-time and be willing to pay for the upgrade. Even if requirements or expenses evolve from what was in the initial plan.” If you’re waiting hours/days/weeks for decision-maker approval you’ll face delays. But also uncertainty and lost momentum–which can prevent teams from completing the project. That’s a lot more waste than going over budget.

• Create an environment that supports collaboration. NAV to D365 migration is a collaboration between the client team, the project delivery team, and any external partners supporting the effort. Carrie says, “Ensure this is a “business project,” not an “IT project.”

  All end-users must be involved in the process to accept the change.” The working environment should be designed in a way that keeps teams on track and working toward the same set of goals. That means knowledge management and data sharing processes should be a part of the ERP strategy from the get-go. This is critical for preventing teams from veering off-course and developing incompatible strategies.

Final Thoughts

The key takeaway here is, the difference between Dynamics NAV and 365 is about infrastructure. The cloud unlocks all these benefits not possible in NAV–with the same features.

Jeffrey Smith sums it up with an important point. “The businesses that succeed believe in the value of the cloud and have executive support for the initiative.”

Working with the right partner makes it easy to gather requirements, select a migration path, and develop a strategy for success.

Velosio offers on-prem ERP services that help NAV users ease into the cloud at their own pace. We can also help you navigate a full implementation, migrate existing processes, and get the most from your new investment.

Request a consultation to learn more about your options and how to get started.

The post Difference Between Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 appeared first on Velosio.

While Microsoft has yet to confirm an official end-of-life plan for Great Plains, its eventual retirement is an inevitability. And, as it stands, GP users don’t have access to the latest features & enhancements already available in Dynamics 365 Business Central.

While we don’t know for sure when Microsoft will finally pull the plug, it’s a good idea to start making moves toward migration.

Now, unlike Dynamics NAV or AX, Dynamics GP is an ERP solution that focuses primarily on accounting. Which means, moving to Dynamics 365 will also involve replacing or integrating the other ERP solutions in your stack to create a more cohesive system.

Below, we’ll explain the key differences between GP and Dynamics 365, before digging into benefits, migration hurdles, and best practices for success.

Microsoft Dynamics vs. Great Plains

Dynamics GP, formerly Great Plains, is a suite of accounting and ERP software for small and medium-sized businesses purchased by Microsoft in 2000.

The platform provides SMBs with access to more robust financial tools than you’d find in other “entry-level” accounting systems. Inside, you’ll find tools that support manufacturing processes, allow users to manage several companies and business units, and an integrated payroll functionality.

GP isn’t as adaptable as other Dynamics solutions—but this is by design. GP comes with some baked-in guardrails that enable faster implementation. It also integrates with ISV solutions and 3rd-party data sources, making it easy to sync the accounting stack with the rest of the business.

GP users can perform all the same accounting functions in D365, with some major upgrades. But, they’ll also unlock new features and functionalities that extend beyond accounting. D365 offers way more business processes right out of the box. That means you’ll get a more cohesive ERP system than GP, which relies heavily on 3rd-party integrations.

Dynamics BC comes with a whole library of out-of-the-box reports and integrates with Power BI. Instead of manually creating and emailing spreadsheets, D365 users can instantly generate reports.

What’s more, D365’s automatic updates mean you’re always up to date with changing standards and new innovations. No need to worry about workarounds and security patches.

What are the Biggest Hurdles Clients Must Overcome to Successfully Migrate from GP to Dynamics 365?

It’s important to emphasize that the real difference between Dynamics 365 and Dynamics GP is that they’re two distinct products.

While Microsoft does offer tools that can help you bring existing data and business processes into the new system, “migrating” from GP to D365 isn’t a true upgrade.

GP represents one of many ERP tools in your stack. So, what you’re really looking at is a two part process. First you’re consolidating all relevant data and processes. Then from there, you’re migrating what you want to keep to the new system.

Here’s a look at some of the challenges you’ll want to prepare for:

Rethinking Everything About How You Work

Moving to the cloud has a significant impact on how employees work.

Sam Miller says, “customers must understand the tremendous differences between these two systems. It’s a new system that requires you to rethink the way you do things. You can’t just say ‘give me all these reports.’ It’s a journey that shouldn’t be underestimated.”

Nick DiAngelo: “Sometimes customers have a hard time with the differences in account structures. GP has strings with the main account and sub accounts in one column whereas BC has a main account and dimensions that are separate columns.”

Nick says he’s also seen clients struggle with Business Central because it’s designed for a larger user base. “You get clients moving from GP, which has a small user base to BC, which serves a wide range of business types–and often, they don’t like all the different screens they need to go to to perform tasks.”

This problem can be addressed by removing the features you don’t need and optimizing the ones with the greatest impact on the business. But, it takes a lot of planning and documentation to get this right.

“Clients must have a solid grasp of their needs and a deep understanding of business processes. That’s a huge undertaking. You’ll need to map out all raw data (inputs), their required outputs, what features/applications are involved, and which internal and external customers they serve.” – Anthony Dossier, Senior Functional Consultant

Customizations & 3rd-Party Apps

One of the main benefits of migrating to BC is you’re relying less on ISV solutions and 3rd-party vendors to run simple tasks like cutting a check. At the same time, consolidating all these data sources represents one of the biggest challenges organizations face during the migration process.

Solutions Architect, Jeff Smith says, “ with GP, reliance on 3rd-party applications can make migration difficult. In part, because you’ll need to learn the language that different vendors and apps use to describe processes and organize data.”

That means, you’re adding this extra layer of difficulty to the process. First, you’re decoding the various nuances and terminology from each system to ID gaps and overlapping functionality. Then, you’re making that decision about which processes to migrate, replace, or improve.

Beyond the logistical challenges of tracking down processes from disparate systems, clients also struggle to evaluate potential solutions.

Senior Client Sales Manager, Lawrence Edwards says, “some of the biggest challenges clients face comes from evaluating existing customizations to determine whether they’re the best solution for the long-term.”

He also says businesses struggle to make plans for 3rd-party integrations and migrate data from GP.

Migrating Data

With GP, you’re pulling in data from many platforms. This could make mapping and migrating data much harder than starting from an all-in-one solution like NAV or AX.

A few tools you can use to migrate data:

Data Migration Wizard

Again, replacing GP with Dynamics BC is not a true upgrade. But–Microsoft does provide a data migration wizard to help users (coming from GP versions 2015 or later) get some of their data into the new system.

The wizard only migrates the financial data you need to start using the new system–specifically master records and open transactions.

That way, you can start using BC for critical processes while you complete the rest of the implementation.

That data includes:

• Chart of Accounts
• Vendor accounts & open receivables
• Customers & open payables
• Inventory

The migration tool includes a diagnostics run for verifying data before deploying to the new system. It also allows you to “uncheck” items you don’t want to migrate but it’s better for handling one-off records that slipped through the cracks.

You’ll want to dig into each of these categories and clean up old or inaccurate data before you start the migration process. For example, you might delete raw materials you no longer use from your inventory records. You might
You might also clean up customer records and make sure your General Ledger is set up correctly.

For historical data (SOs, POs, bank transactions, etc.), you could connect your Dynamics GP system to a reporting tool using a connector, to bring insights into BC–though you’ll eventually want to migrate that data into the new system directly.

Replication

Replication is an intelligent cloud sync tool that allows you to sync master data from your on-prem solution to the new, cloud-based Business Central tenant.

This process does enable you to store data from the on-prem platform in the cloud, but that data is read-only in BC. That means that while you can access GP insights from the new system, all data is entered via GP.

You’ll need to manually replicate GP data or schedule syncs in advance to receive updated information–adding an extra step to the reporting process and potentially slow down your ability to take action on time-sensitive data points.

Ultimately, it’s best to look at replication as an interim solution as you work through the rest of the migration process.

RapidStart

There’s also a tool called RapidStart, which allows users to extract, import, and update historical data–think completed POs, SOs,bank records–from GP to D365.

RapidStart also allows users to create journal entries in batches and configuration templates to speed up (and eventually automate) the implementation process. This tool allows you to load customer data, chart of accounts, journal entries, and companies–so you can get up and running quickly–and incorporate large data sets as you grow.

What Separates Successful GP Migrations From Those That Fail?

We asked our internal experts what factors separate successful GP to Dynamics 365 migrations from those that fail. As you can see, responses were primarily about culture and collaboration–characteristics that become critical in complex migrations with a ton of moving pieces.

An Adaptable Internal Culture

Dynamics 365 is designed to help businesses quickly adapt business processes and tactics to reach key business objectives.

You can add modules, ISV solutions, change up the metrics in your financial reports, automate back-office processes, etc–putting the rest of the system at risk.

Adaptability is about being prepared to take advantage of new tools and technologies as things change. But it’s more about culture than technology, and you’ll need to put in the work of shifting your organization’s collective mindset to ensure your implementation leads to sustained, long-term gains.

It comes from a strong culture of data literacy, knowing how to operationalize data and move fast. It’s also about establishing strong governance policies and controls for keeping data organized, compliant, and easy to find.

Adaptability is also about preparation. She recommends that clients “create testing scenarios and plans for how they’ll take action in specific situations. Focus on 80/20 rules–scenarios that reflect what happens most of the time–not one-off exceptions.” – Carrie Gabris, Consulting Manager, BC Enterprise

Long-term, you’ll want to monitor system performance–is it continuing to deliver the desired outcome? Are there opportunities to improve? New capabilities you can use? Ultimately, you’ll need to get away from rigid solutions and processes to make the most out of this flexible new system.

Commitment from Leadership and Internal Experts

Top-down commitment, along with support throughout the organization is essential for staying aligned when multiple groups with competing goals are working together.

“Clients tend to be most successful when they have a dedicated set of subject matter experts (SMEs) embedded in each internal department. You’ll want to make sure they also have supportive staff members to assist with daily activities, while SMEs focus on the big-picture implementation.” – Anthony Dossier, Senior Functional Consultant

Ideally, clients also have a dedicated project manager or champion who can act as the main point of contact–essentially, leading and ‘quarterbacking’ efforts internally. This person should have a solid grasp of finance and operations–and understand how these areas impact the rest of the business.

Lawrence Edwards: “Get alignment across your teams for the migration. There are many opportunities for improvement in this migration and organizations who embrace the change will be positioned to take best advantage of the technology.”

Collaboration with Your Implementation Partner

Enlisting some help from an experienced implementation partner goes a long way in making sure your D365 migration delivers the desired outcome, as efficiently as possible.

When you bring in outside experts to support these high-level projects, it’s important to understand what that entails.

Sam Miller says, “success really boils down to the leadership inside your company and the project teams on both sides. The better you’re able to work with your implementation partner as a true partner, rather than a vendor, the better the outcome.”

What that means is, your partner can’t do all of the work for you.

Internally, you’ll want to:

• Evaluate your strategy, goals, and business processes before reaching out to potential partners.
• Get real clear on what you want out of this project.
• Figure out what’s working–or not, using employee feedback as your guide.

You don’t have to have all of the answers, but you should be able to communicate your goals and what kinds of changes you’d like to see come from this implementation.

All apps, processes, and workflows must connect to a specific goal and support users in their work. The more details you can provide to your partner, the more likely they are to find solutions that address those goals.

“Clients who co-own the project with their partner are the highest performers. Taking responsibility for the solution as your own and working with a great partner to accelerate the process is essential.” – Lawrence Edwards, Senior Client Sales Manager

Final Thoughts

In the end, the key thing to keep in mind is that replacing Dynamics GP with Dynamics 365 only covers a fraction of your business processes. As such, it’s important to look beyond the new functionality D365 brings to your financial tools.

Migrating from GP to Dynamics 365 is a complex process–one that involves weaving together many disparate systems. Velosio can help you navigate this process and take advantage of all BC has to offer–beyond the enhanced financials.

Contact us today to learn more about the migration process and how we can make it a success.

The post Difference Between Dynamics GP and Dynamics 365 appeared first on Velosio.

But, it doesn’t represent the whole picture.

See, the real value of Microsoft Dynamics lies in its modularity. Instead of forcing companies to choose a one-size-fits-all plan, users can choose from a selection of apps, or modules, based on the features most important to their business.

Dynamics makes it easy to add modules, customize features, and swap old apps for new ones when requirements change.

All Dynamics 365 modules are compatible with one another and integrate with third-party solutions. What’s more, apps can be customized to fit your unique requirements and processes via the platform’s low-code app-building tools.

In these next few sections, we’ll look at each D365 module, who it’s for, and provide a quick overview of what it does.

Dynamics 365 Modules: ERPs vs CRMs

Before we get into the individual modules and what they’re used for, it’s important to explain the relationship between Dynamics 365 ERPs and CRMs.

Both Dynamics ERP and CRM modules are cloud-based, relational databases. But, each supports a different set of business processes.

ERPs handle internal operations like inventory, finance, and accounting. You might look at the Dynamics ERP as the foundation that supports all business activities.

By contrast, CRMs deal with relationships. They’re used primarily for customer-facing tasks like sales, service, and marketing.

Both types of software traditionally act as hubs for a wide range of business activities. However, it’s important to note that within the D365 universe, ERPs and CRM modules break down along a certain hierarchy.

Organizations first choose an ERP solution, based on general business requirements.

That ERP then serves as the foundation for the rest of the system. Organizations can customize out-of-the-box features, integrate third-party apps, or add CRM modules to the base plan.

The idea is, companies can scale up–one module at a time–as they grow and change. And, those changes won’t impact or disrupt the central hub (ERP) responsible for core processes and critical data.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP Modules

Microsoft offers three different ERP modules. Each covers essential business functions for three different groups: SMBs, enterprise organizations, and distributors/manufacturers.

Note: ERP choice is less about sector or size than it is about intangibles like transaction and data volumes, capacity, and complexity.

Customization comes later.

For now, let’s check out each ERP option to give you a better sense of what that actually means:

Business Central

Business Central is designed for single-location SMBs. The platform allows teams to improve decision-making by connecting data across the entire business. Users receive a comprehensive view of their entire organization–including supply chain activity, financials, and customer service data.

Out-of-the-box, Business Central includes the following modules:

• Sales & marketing
• Projects
• Purchasing
• Finance
• Warehousing
• HR
• Service
• Manufacturing

Key capabilities include:

• End-to-end visibility
• Streamlined processes.
• Improved communications.
• Optimize inventory & supply chain management
• Actionable insights.
• Built-in charts & AI reporting tools with the option to add on MS Excel, Customer
• Insights, or Power BI — plus whatever external tools you already use.

Organizations can use predictive insights to inform purchasing decisions, sales/marketing plans, growth/expansion strategies, and so on. If you’d like to learn more, we go over some of the specific ways BC supports better decision-making in a recent e-book.

Finance & Operations

Dynamics F&O covers the same business functions you’ll find inside BC but takes things a step further. The platform provides a suite of advanced financial features designed for organizations with more complex business models.

Unlike BC, F&O includes features for managing high transaction volumes, many locations & currencies, and massive amounts of big data.

Advanced financial features allow orgs to take a proactive approach to managing their entire business to increase profitability and boost productivity.

Key capabilities:

• Enhanced decision-making
• Ability to manage complex projects & business models
• Augment & automate processes

Supply Chain Management

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is essentially an extension of the D365 Finance. This version helps distributors and manufacturers navigate today’s complex supply chain dynamics, meet customer demand, maximize profits, and boost business agility.

Key capabilities:

• Real-time visibility into the entire business
• Drive production line efficiency
• Predict & respond to disruptions
• Maximize asset uptime
• Optimize logistics
• Manage inventory
• Address product & production issues
• Simplify & automate workflows and business processes
• Handle demand planning & order management activities
• Manage revenue, sales, & operations
• Gain total visibility with AI-powered advanced analytics & BI

Dynamics 365 CRM Modules

Customer relationship management tools (CRMs) serve as a central repository for customer data. They’re best known as a sales tool, but also play a central role in helping companies understand & improve the customer experience.

They’re used to support marketing efforts like content creation, demand gen, and paid social campaigns.

Again, it’s important to remember that in the world of Dynamics 365, CRMs represent a collection of spokes rather than a dedicated sales hub.

Microsoft’s CRM modules are designed to extend the out-of-the-box capabilities you’ll find inside BC or F&O–one business function at a time.

Say you’re a tiny SaaS startup using Business Central. You might add customer service, sales, and marketing modules to learn more about your customers and convince them to convert. Or, maybe you’re a large consultancy firm with an IT division. In that case, you might add a field service module to your F&O plan to support techs during on-site visits.

Customer Service

The customer service module supports the customer experience after “the close.” Built-in AI enables faster, more personalized service experiences and better decision-making.

IoT integration allows you to proactively ID and act on problems — even before customers notice something’s wrong.

You can also build virtual agents, knowledge bases, and community portals to help customers solve issues on their own.

Key capabilities:

• Create personalized customer interactions.
• Embedded IoT signaling
• Provide automated self-serve support
• Manage omnichannel service & communications
• Embedded IoT signals & alerts
• Unified order/support ticket routing

Sales

Dynamics 365 Sales covers your “classic” CRM functions. It’s designed to help reps, managers, and sales ops teams collaborate and manage sales activities. It allows teams to leverage contextual insights to drive predictable wins/maximize profits.

And, it enables reps to use real-time AI insights to ensure they take the right action at the right time.

Key capabilities:

• Ability to manage & automate sales processes
• Automated lead & deal scoring & routing
• Sales diagnostics & prescriptive insights
• Email automation/tracking
• Seamless integration with Customer Voice, Virtual Agent, & Teams
• Enables data-driven coaching–at scale
• Improves forecasting/planning accuracy
• Tailor processes for specific roles or territories
• Configure sales processes
• Ability to set up custom AI automations

Marketing

Dynamics 365 Marketing helps companies orchestrate personalized customer journeys in real-time–with some help from the platform’s built-in AI.

Marketers gain total visibility into all customer interactions–sales data, service requests, etc.

This allows them to create content, campaigns, and brand communications in context with what customers are hearing from sales and service teams.

Altogether, the Marketing suite allows teams to serve a more consistent experience across touchpoints.

Key capabilities:

• Engage customers/prospects/audiences in real time
• Experimentation/testing/optimization
• Ability to design customer-led journeys/experiences
• AI content/channel recommendations
• Straightforward “journey triggers”
• Ability to deliver seamless, personalized omnichannel experiences at scale

Project Operations

This module is built for project management teams –particularly those operating in the professional services sector.

Inside, you’ll find a suite of features that can help you maximize profits, productivity, and growth.

It’s a good option for Business Central users who need some of the advanced features you’ll get with F&O but run smaller operations. For instance, they might only have one location or a handful of consultants and clients.

Project Operations allows you to ensure the right people are working on the right projects, while built-in Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and AI-powered analytics & automations make it easy to manage complex projects with minimal effort.

Key capabilities:

• Accurate forecasting, scheduling, & project tracking
• Cross-team/location collaboration via MS Teams
• Robust financials
• Ability to match employee skills to project requirements
• Intelligent scheduling tools
• Contract management
• Simplified time & expense tracking
• You’ll get a consolidated view of financials, sales data, productivity metrics across your entire business.

Field Service

Dynamics 365 Field Service supports service techs on the job, delivering in-house support and client data to any mobile device. This helps them provide a consistent experience and increase first-time fix rates. Which, in turn, boosts satisfaction and retention rates.

The platform helps dispatchers schedule service calls to meet SLA terms and empowers technicians to provide proactive service.

Tools like remote assist and built-in AR tools, make it easier for techs to resolve issues on their first visit. And–route optimization features ensure predictable on-time arrivals.

Key capabilities:

• Smart route planning
• Asset management
• Track performance over time
• Access customer data from anywhere
• Improve customer engagement via post-service surveys
• Mixed reality expert collaboration
• Capture photos/voice notes/maps/text on the job
• Access customer data (i.e. service history, on-site equipment)
• Provide self-service scheduling to customers
• Collect customer feedback via post-service surveys/notes
• Predictive, real-time ETAs, based on data from all connected sources (i.e. traffic, weather, distance between stops)

Final Thoughts

Dynamics 365 modules are central to the platform’s flexibility. You’ll select an ERP based on things like capacity, business complexity, and the products & services you provide.

Users launch with a working system and can immediately start customizing individual features that help them create value, save time, and cut operating costs.

But, the D365 modules allow you to add more granularity where it counts.

The benefit is, organizations can add advanced feature suites, one-by-one to support their current needs (and budget). Then later, can add or adapt apps as customers and conditions inevitably change.

It’s important to emphasize that while Dynamics 365 streamlines ERP implementation, customization, and updates, its “simplicity” is relative. Without an experienced partner, companies face several challenges–even at the earliest stages.

Velosio experts can guide the process. We’ll help business leaders gather requirements and collect insights from individual units. Then, we’ll work together to identify and implement the best ERP, CRM modules, and customizations for your big-picture goals.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.

The post Dynamics 365 Modules Buyers Guide appeared first on Velosio.

Cloud ERPs represent an opportunity to break away from the limitations of traditional on-prem solutions. Think–fragmented systems, poor visibility, security issues, and growth constraints.

Like any digital transformation project, your Microsoft Dynamics ERP cloud strategy demands a lot from your organization.

Yes, it requires a significant amount of money. But—also serious planning, collaboration, and a culture capable of sustaining & building on initial gains.

Below, Velosio experts discuss what it takes to make sure your efforts pay off in all the ways you hoped.

Best Advice for Ensuring a Successful On-Prem to Cloud Migration

We asked our experts to share their top tips for making sure their cloud migration goes off without a hitch. Based on their responses, we came up with five best practices that can help any organization succeed in the cloud.

1. Set Goals, Establish a Framework for Reaching Those Goals

First things first, you need to get a clear idea of what you hope to gain by implementing D365.

“Define what success looks like. Then from there, develop a roadmap for achieving success.” – Nick DiAngelo, Senior Consultant

What are your big-picture strategic goals?

Tighter control over your finances? Improved forecasting accuracy? Expanding into new markets?

For a lot of business leaders, defining these high-level objectives, the steps that will get them to the desired future state, and how a cloud ERP factors into the mix is the hardest step.

For starters, success hinges on organization-wide alignment and tons of internal feedback.

You’ll want to learn as much as you can about where your company is today and understand all the ways your legacy system is holding you back. What’s keeping your team from achieving strategic goals?

Carrie Gabris, Consulting Manager, BC Enterprise emphasizes the importance of having “deep-dive discussions about business requirements–from very early on. These conversations should involve the whole organization.”

“Make sure that, as a team, you identify what’s critical vs. nice to have. Keep in mind, the cloud will only improve over time. You’ll want to avoid venturing into projects or expensive add-ons for non-essential capabilities.” – Carrie Gabris, Consulting Manager, BC Enterprise

Note that before these discussions begin, you’ll need to have a clear idea of how each business unit contributes to the bigger picture. and the relationship between individual units and their processes. For example, how do sales and marketing teams work together to generate and nurture leads? How do project manager estimates influence the sales team? What impact does field service have on the customer experience?

Meet with each team to understand the unique needs of each department and role. Find out how improving X or Y helps the organization get closer to meeting its objectives.

Then, use that information to create a framework for diving deeper.

2. Use Real-World Business Requirements to Inform Strategic Decisions

Once you’ve defined your needs, you’ll need to do some research. Here, you’re looking for solutions that address the gaps and pain points your team shared.

“Be flexible…don’t shop for your old system. Open your eyes to new products or processes.” Ben Bolter, Director – PreSales

Jeff Smith advises clients to prepare for this transition by researching available solutions, using insights from your team to guide the search. Here, your goal is to learn more about the possibilities that modern cloud ERPs can offer.

You’ll want to engage trusted advisors–IT, accountants, industry partners–and ask lots of questions. This will help you understand and plan for role changes that may result from the migration. Think–IT maintenance or accessing reporting tools.

Additionally, check out different independent software vendor (ISV) offerings. Find out how they extend the value of D365 and help you achieve your goals.

For example, we offer AXIO, an enhanced framework that adds intelligent automation and embedded best practices to D365 Finance features. We also have a solution that helps small professional services firms manage advanced projects from Business Central.

If you look at this directory from MS Dynamics World, you’ll notice that there’s an ISV solution for just about everything. Think–solutions for iPad-based sales, e-learning content, marketing automation, managing subscriptions, and so on. The point is, between ISVs, customizations, and D365 modules, you can build a complete system that speaks to every business unit’s needs and processes.

3. Map Old Processes and New, Improved Ones

Once you’ve defined your goals and identified the solutions that will get you there, you’ll want to spend some time mapping how your new system’s functionality will (realistically) bring your vision to life.

That means looking beyond spec sheets, industry reports, even partner sites like ours–and figuring out how your new ERP will help you achieve every objective in your big-picture plan.

Jeff Smith, PreSales Solutions Engineer, “like any migration, it’s essential that you detail all system requirements and ensure that they will be met by the new cloud-based application.

It’s also important to look at how new capabilities can enhance existing processes. For example, if you’re migrating from AX to Dynamics 365 Finance, consider how features like embedded BI reports, performance monitoring, and the new workspaces might enhance current workflows.

Beyond that, you’ll want to identify tasks you can automate altogether. Try to pinpoint specific tasks that eat up a ton of time or are especially prone to human error.

Sales Rep Sam Miller says, “document the most time-sucking tasks you do every day and find out how it can be automated in the new environment. For example, learn about integration points that connect Microsoft Office to your new software and get to know the workflow features that can optimize/improve existing processes.”

Again, this is an area where it’s important to get feedback from the people that actually do these jobs. Find out what employees feel is working really well, what processes could be improved, and which tasks prevent them from doing high-value work.

“You’ll want to do the same for reporting tool options, as they may differ from the ones found in your existing on-prem system. Additionally, you’ll want to map out any customizations and integrations used today and determine how they’ll be replicated in the cloud.” – Jeff Smith, PreSales Solutions Engineer

Practice Director, Lorna Link adds, “learn about the new tools. What can you use to report on data, measure progress toward goals, and answer specific questions about the health of your business?”

Here’s Sam again, “you’ll also want to determine how you’ll handle reporting in the new environment and learn the ins and outs of those tools ASAP.”

4. Give Your Team the Support They Need to Succeed

Employees need to understand how moving to a cloud-based ERP may fundamentally change the way they work.

Nick DiAngelo says “make sure you have a project sponsor and internal champions driving the team to complete the project.”

That means, you’ll need someone at the top leading the organization-wide effort–think CIO/CTO. You’ll also need internal “change agents” within individual departments/teams. Internal champions include leadership roles like sales managers, marketing directors, etc.

It also includes “power users” within the ranks that can help with training and secure buy-in among more hesitant peers.

“Leaders should work to understand business roles and dedicate x hours per week for “playing” in the new system. Understand critical reporting needs and call those out early in the project and be flexible for change in the formatting and look.” – Todd Morse, Senior Consultant

5. Testing and Maintenance Must be a Top Priority

Sreenath Reddy Girigari, Directory of Delivery says, “migrating from on-premises data centers to cloud storage platforms comes with a unique set of challenges. Those challenges include data privacy & security, compliance, along with issues related to performance and availability.”

While modern cloud ERPs like Dynamics are designed for faster, easier implementation than their predecessors, you’re still dealing with a complex system with many moving pieces.

Organizations must realize they’ll be taking on more UAT due to the automatic updates that come standard with D365.

You’ll want to test the new system to find out how it holds up in different situations and use case scenarios.

Ben Bolte, PreSales urges clients to “TEST. Test the day-to-day stuff prior to go-live and ID exceptions to the rules outlined in your documentation. Document all specific circumstances that yield unexpected results.”

Ben also emphasizes that it’s important to include multiple team members/multiple teams. “ We’re not just talking about one or two people, but making sure team members are embedded into every area.”

It’s also important to look toward long-term testing solutions.

Nick DiAngelo recommends that organizations start “developing test scripts for regression testing upgrades early on.”

Carrie Gabris adds that “end-to-end transactional testing is also critical. Make sure you understand “neighbor noise” and the hosting situation required for peak performance.”

Biggest Challenges of Migrating to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Cloud

In addition to the best practices we just discussed, it’s important to learn about the mistakes that can sabotage your cloud strategy and limit the return on your D365 investment.

Here’s a look at some common Dynamics 365 migration issues we’ve encountered on the job and what you can do to avoid them in the first place.

Expectations Don’t Match Reality

We see it all the time: clients believe Dynamics 365 cloud is the same as the Dynamics AX or NAV solution they’re currently using. Because D365 is used in many of the same processes/functions, it’s easy to assume the difference boils down to a matter of hosting.

While it may not sound like a huge issue, those assumptions can be a major barrier to success.

You might use D365 to handle the same tasks as your on-prem ERP, but new systems always come with new processes designed to help you work smarter and faster.

Carrie Gabris, “overcoming the expectation that functionality is 100% the same. It’s not. Currently, there’s about a 10% lag in functionality with cloud-based solutions.”

She adds, “orgs also tend to struggle with navigating Microsoft Office integrations and understanding updates like new document storage options.”

The problem is, when you don’t understand what D365 can do that your old system can’t, well, you’re missing out on the capabilities with the greatest impact on your business.

Ben Bolte says, “ If you documented a process in your old system, you’ll have an easier time documenting the new one. Mapping old workflows/processes helps you determine where things have changed, so you can avoid running into gaps after the go-live.”

It’s also important to understand that Dynamics 365 operates on a different infrastructure than the on-prem solutions that came before.

Jeff Smith says, “the biggest challenge clients face is understanding the different database access and reporting tool options available for cloud-based applications.”

Lorna Link, BC Practice Director, “Understand you’re moving to a new solution and the products are not the same. That means, you’ll lose some control over the software and systems you’re used to using–access to SQL, for example.”

These differences mean that your team will need to get used to new processes and new ways of working.

2. Not Understanding Partners’ Roles & Internal Responsibilities

Working with a Microsoft partner is one of the best investments you can make in your future success.

The right partner can help with everything from cloud readiness to data migrations and customizations.

But, it’s critical that you understand where your partner fits into the bigger picture.

Sam Miller warns that a lack of clarity around your partner’s role–and the roles of internal stakeholders–is a serious problem that can undermine a project’s success.

“Don’t assume your partner will do everything. Often, clients don’t understand all the moving parts of the implementation, nor do they understand their current solution until they’re looking at it on screen. It’s important to understand your responsibilities and ensure that you have dedicated staff that can take care of the tasks that need to be done before the migration process begins.” – Sam Miller, Western Region Sales Director

Your partner brings expertise, guidance, and practical solutions to the table. They know Dynamics 365 and have probably helped similar companies with similar implementations.

Here’s Sam again, “you don’t want to put yourself in a position where you’re blaming outside consultants for problems caused by your failure to learn on your own. At the end of the day, it’s your solution/your business. Your consultants are experts–they’re available to guide the process and offer support along the way, but they don’t know your business the way your team does.”

It’s up to you to help your partner understand your business in context. The more information you share with your partner, the easier it’ll be for them to provide solutions for success.

3. Failing to be Proactive About Learning & Training

Another problem we encounter all the time is a sort of “learned helplessness” when it comes to getting to know the new system.

Sam Miller raises an important point. “There are training docs and videos of literally any solution you’re implementing available all over the internet. Look them up and watch them. Listen to videos while you work through different processes. So often, during the definition phase of implementation – when functional design documents for reporting, mods, and processes are being written, the client isn’t paying attention to what’s actually inside those documents.”

Sam adds that, “it’s important to put yourself in a position where you choose to recognize that your partner WANTS you to be successful. They’re not some enemy creating work for no reason. Don’t make consultants pull information out of you, dive in, ask questions, and take advantage of this learning opportunity. This is great software you’re implementing.”

Ultimately, this builds on our previous point, if you don’t take responsibility for learning about the software you’ll be using every day, it’s going to be hard to tap into the benefits it’s supposed to provide.

4. Trying to Tackle Too Much at Once

If you’re migrating from a fully on-prem platform to the cloud, migrating everything at the same time may completely overwhelm your team and prevent you from accessing the cloud ERP benefits promised in the Microsoft copy.

Sreenath Reddy Girigari builds on the idea of separating your must-haves from your nice-to-haves that we mentioned earlier.

“Like most businesses, you probably have existing apps and workflows already running in the cloud. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to migrate every application or process. Yes, cloud migration makes your systems more scalable, reliable, and available. But–those aren’t the only factors you should use to make this decision.” – Sreenath Reddy Girigari, Director of Delivery

Ben Bolte also advises clients not to “bite off more than you can handle. Document the minimal functionality needed for the first phase and divide your requirements into two categories: must-haves and nice to haves.”

Even if you’re ready to go all in on the cloud, it’s important to understand that priorities and processes will change, based on your initial implementation.

Instead, try breaking your migration into “digestible” chunks. A phased implementation can ease the transition and lock in the smaller “wins” needed to secure buy-in from hesitant employees, manage your budget, and collect critical insights you can use to inform the next steps.

Final Thoughts

“Awesome success” is only possible with proper planning, organization-wide collaboration, and buy-in from the very beginning.

While we can’t fix a poor culture, Velosio experts can guide you through the migration process, helping you avoid the pitfalls that pop up along the way.

Read more about our expertise and Dynamics 365 solutions here. Or–contact us today to learn how Velosio can support your Dynamics implementation journey.

The post A Microsoft Dynamics 365 Cloud Strategy for Awesome Success appeared first on Velosio.

And that’s assuming everything goes as planned.

Several factors — size, sector, customizations, and condition of your data–determine the cost, complexity, and duration of the implementation process. All this makes it difficult to gauge what a realistic implementation will look like.

While you’ll want to leave some room to make changes as new needs emerge, developing a comprehensive implementation plan is critical when it comes to getting the most value out of your investment.

In this article, we’ll break the implementation process into a series of steps/best practices that will help you set the stage for success.

1. Business Process Review

Ben Bolte, PreSales says, “document your business processes ahead of time and identify any necessary integration points or add-ons. Make sure you understand why they’re needed and take inventory of any customizations that exist in your current system.”

“Put together a complete set of business requirements. What do you need to run your business? What problems are you trying to solve? What needs to change in order to get to the next level? From there, you can apply D365 as a tool for meeting those requirements.” – Carrie Gabris, Consulting Manager BC Enterprise

You’ll want to also take a look at your current reporting tools and processes.

Anthony Dossier, Client Success – BC Support Engineer says, “document and define reporting requirements ahead of time and in detail. That includes marked-up examples that explain what each field represents.”

Are there questions you aren’t able to answer with existing reports? Is it difficult to access/generate reports or interpret the data?

This is also a good time to start mapping those processes and workflows and establishing a clear understanding of how they fit together on a holistic level.

Keep in mind, you’ll need to look at business processes from a zoomed-out view first. Then, work within each business unit to understand needs in the context of each department and role.

2. Assess Current Systems and Tools

Next, you’ll want to look at your tech stack, documenting every application and tool used inside each business unit.

Your goal is to ensure that the system you have in place can integrate with Dynamics. Or–that it can be replaced with something better equipped to support business functions right now.

Make sure you can answer the following questions before moving forward:

• Is everything up-to-date?
• Are there systems that need to be integrated or consolidated to eliminate data silos
• Are there instances of shadow IT or apps you’re not aware of?
• Do the existing systems present any security threats?
• Do they make it hard to access critical files or data sets?

At this point, you’ll want to get familiar with the Dynamics 365 platform and the capabilities it brings to the table.

Identify which processes and tools will migrate to the new system, which ones you’ll automate, which ones you’ll replace. Interviews with key stakeholders can help you uncover valuable insights into how processes work on the day-to-day, and where they’re losing time/making mistakes.

It’s also important for your team to look ahead and familiarize themselves with the new solution.

3. Get Your Data in Order

Document your data sources. Figure out what data is coming with you (or staying behind) and identify and eliminate outdated or irrelevant information.

“Make sure you have clean master data and are able to build cross-references easily, if needed.” – Todd Morse, Senior Consultant

In other words, it’s not just about cleaning up your data ahead of the migration.

You’ll want to make sure that all data can be accessed and referenced using a common language, and that it can be tracked as it moves between different apps, users, and development tools. This is important for maintaining compliance and privacy requirements in the event of an audit, as well as protecting your organization from internal threats–like IP theft.

Consider also:

• Do your teams have the data they need to do their jobs efficiently and effectively?
• Do reports provide accurate/relevant information they can act on?
• Or, are employees interpreting findings on their own–relying on gut feelings & best practices?

Ultimately, it’s about making sure you’re in control of all data and can ensure that it’s secure, accurate, and organized.

4. Assemble a Cross-Functional Team

Next, you’ll want to put together a team that can help you carry out your implementation strategy across the entire business.

Implementations should involve the entire team–not just IT and the C-suite.

While IT does provide insight and expertise you won’t find among sales, accounting, operations, whatever, they don’t necessarily have first-hand knowledge of the challenges and goals these groups experience on the job.

The goal here is to dig deeper into business requirements/develop solutions that improve daily operations. As such, it’s critical that decisions are made based on real insights and pain points from the people who will be using the new solution.

This will make change management much easier and prevent the sense of mistrust or fear that can arise when business leaders keep teams in the dark.

“80% of the implementation process is change management. You must involve key users at minimum to reduce fear, and increase ownership of the implementation.” – Carrie Gabris, Consulting Manager, BC Enterprise

Team size, structure, and individual duties will vary between companies, but here’s a quick look at some of the key players you’ll want to be involved in the process:

• Executive sponsor
• Project manager(s)
• Business analysts
• IT
• Subject matter experts (SMEs)
• Test leads

Look for the “super users” within each business function and recruit them to act as champions or change agents. These “super users” are early adopters, willing to invest the time and effort into learning the ins and outs of Dynamics 365. Then, from there, they’ll spread that new knowledge to colleagues and offer support & hands-on guidance.

It’s critical to create the time and space for different stakeholder groups to discuss business requirements, pain points, processes that still work really well–and, start familiarizing themselves with the new system.

“Free up the appropriate staff’s time to do the tasks that must be done including blocking schedules time for the future, locating and cleaning data, having internal meetings about each other’s roles in the implementation, and logging into the new system to start figuring out how it works. Learn about the ISVs you will likely need and begin to reach out on your own online for education” – Sam Miller, Sales

5. Conduct a Performance Gap Analysis

Once you’ve assembled your team, developed an understanding of where processes, software solutions, and business requirements are today, you’ll want to look for performance and skills keeping your company from reaching its full potential.

Tap internal talent like business analysts, process engineers, relevant SMEs to help identify gaps across each department and function.

Here, goals might be:

• Determining whether you’ll need to bring in additional resources. If so, what are those resources and how will you source them?
• Identifying risks. Think–cyber threats, poor project management, a lack of control over data/visibility, failure to meet compliance requirements, etc.
• Measuring the impact of those risks. How might poor project management or vulnerabilities in your system impact the bottom line or the customer experience? You’ll want to make sure that
• Developing a plan. For filling gaps/gaining control over the system connecting data sets, building a talent pipeline, enabling collaboration between departments, etc.

6. Testing & Training

Make sure you have a clear understanding of your current testing capabilities and address any gaps before you start the implementation process.

“Develop detailed test scripts to ensure user acceptance testing (UAT) completes your processes and requirements.” – Nick DiAngelo, Senior Consultant

UAT testing plays a critical role here. The idea is, you’ll want to develop a plan for small groups of users to help with testing. What this does is, it helps ensure that each department, unit, and role is prepared to perform their job in the new environment prior to go-live day.

It’s also important to think about how existing teams, new hires, and even external partners like outsourced development teams, wholesalers, or brokers will be trained moving forward. That means, you’ll need to develop solutions like remote learning portals, role-based learning paths, and in-person, collaborative training sessions.

Consider how you might tailor training programs to specific roles, individual learning styles, and personal preferences to maximize adoption and ensure lasting success. Again, this is one area where getting your “super users” involved goes a long way in driving long-term adoption.

7. Rollout & Evaluation

At this point, you’re (hopefully) ready to deploy.

Testing and training should prevent any surprise problems from showing up during the deployment phase, but you’ll still want to make sure you’re prepared for anything that manages to slip through the cracks until go-live day.

Long-term, it’s a good idea to run routine audits and assessments to ensure that the system continues to meet business objectives. And if it’s not meeting those objectives, routine evals and testing allows you to course-correct before small errors turn into big problems.

Final Thoughts

Your implementation starts with understanding where you are today, where you’d like to be in the future, and what barriers stand in the way of goals.

It’s super important to get the entire organization involved early on. You want the people who will actually be using new solutions to have a say in defining requirements & identifying gaps. Beyond that–you’ll also want to make sure they’re trained and ready way before the go-live.

Velosio experts can help you navigate the implementation process, every step of the way. We’ll help you gather requirements, map processes, run tests, and more.

Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help.

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