Should We Switch to Dynamics 365? Five Questions to Answer Before Deciding
Your controller spends three days combining financial data and spreadsheets before leadership can review profitability. Sales has one version of the customer record, operations has another, and someone enters the same order twice. A new CRM or ERP begins to sound like the answer.
Should you switch to Dynamics 365?
Possibly. But before looking at software demonstrations, I would want to know whether the problems come from the applications themselves, the way they are connected, or the processes and data behind them. I've seen companies benefit from implementing Dynamics 365. I've also seen companies get more value from correcting systems they already own.
Here are the five questions I would ask before recommending a change.
1. What business problems are making us consider a switch?
Most companies don't begin this conversation because they suddenly need new software. The problems have usually been building for years. Growth, unreliable reporting, or a missed customer commitment finally makes them visible to leadership.
In manufacturing, for example, sales, inventory, and finance may each have an application that serves its department. But if an accepted order must be reentered, inventory availability is checked in a spreadsheet, and finance discovers discrepancies when invoicing, the business has a problem that crosses departments.
I ask leaders to describe two or three actual situations rather than hand me a feature wish list:
What takes longer than it should?
What information can't we obtain or trust when we need it?
What can the business no longer do with its current applications?
"We need better reporting" tells me very little. "Our controller spends three days every month reconciling sales and accounting information before we can review margins" tells me which process to investigate, which people to involve, and what improvement we could measure.
I also want to know what happens if nothing changes. Sometimes the cost is staff time. Sometimes it is delayed decisions, incorrect orders, or an inability to understand which projects are profitable. Those consequences help determine whether the problem deserves an application change or a more focused correction.
2. Can our current applications solve these problems?
Before recommending Dynamics 365, I review what the company already owns, what is working well, and where people have built manual procedures around it.
Is the reporting problem caused by a missing capability, or is the necessary information stored in different places? Does the CRM lack an essential function, or have employees stopped using it because the configuration doesn't match their responsibilities? Would fixing an integration remove the duplicate entry?
If the current applications can meet the requirements through configuration, integration, training, or better data management, I will recommend examining those options before replacing them.
When an existing Dynamics 365 implementation needs recovery
Alliason encountered this with Highlight Health, a healthcare services company whose Dynamics 365 Customer Service implementation had stalled.
The application had been built around disconnected screens and spreadsheet-driven steps instead of the company's actual claims process. The company had already spent money on the implementation, but the result did not support the way its employees needed to handle claims.
We conducted a 40-hour assessment to identify what could be retained, document the missing requirements, and establish what needed to change. The team then corrected the implementation around the claims process and built a partner portal. That portal replaced a customer report employees had previously spent eight to ten hours preparing and distributing.
The company did not need to discard its Dynamics 365 investment and begin again. It needed a diagnosis and a different implementation approach.
If your Microsoft application is already in place but is underperforming, a Dynamics 365 Assessment can help determine whether the issue is the software, its setup, its integrations, or the process it was designed to support.
3. Is Dynamics 365 the right fit for what our business needs to do?
Dynamics 365 is a family of business applications. A company can select individual applications and connect them to other systems; it does not have to replace every application at once.
For example, Dynamics 365 Sales may be appropriate when a sales team needs dependable opportunity management, customer history, and forecasting. Dynamics 365 Business Central may be appropriate when finance and operations need connected accounting, purchasing, inventory, or project information. A company with a capable financial system might introduce Sales and retain its existing accounting application, provided the integration can support the required handoffs.
I look for the fit between actual requirements and the application, including what can be configured, what must integrate with another system, and what would require custom development. I also consider whether a different product would be a better fit.
A furniture supplier whose needs extended beyond CRM
Earlier in my career, I was involved in a Dynamics 365 implementation for a furniture supplier managing large installations and replacement orders. Customer details and sales activity were spread across email, spreadsheets, and separate applications. Sales forecasting depended too much on individual employees, and other departments could struggle to see what had been promised to customers.
The business initially focused on CRM. As the requirements became clearer, we had to account for what happened after a quote was accepted: order processing, financial information, and repeat customer requests.
The resulting solution included Dynamics 365 Sales, Business Central, and a customer-facing ordering portal. Sales could manage opportunities and quotes, accepted orders could move into the financial and operational process, and customers could request replacement items through the portal. The company reported faster quoting and less repetitive data entry.
That experience reinforced why I examine the full process before recommending an application. A sales problem may reveal dependencies in finance and operations. But this example does not mean every business needs both Sales and Business Central. The applications should be chosen according to the requirements, not because they belong to the same product family.
4. Is our organization prepared for what will change?
An implementation partner can configure applications, migrate data, develop integrations, and guide technical decisions. The company still has to decide how its business should operate.
Consider a manufacturer introducing a new quoting and order process. Sales wants flexibility in discounts, finance requires margin controls, and operations needs accurate delivery commitments. If those teams disagree about approvals or who can change an order, software configuration alone cannot settle the issue.
I want to know who will make those decisions, who owns the data, who will test the important scenarios, and which managers will give employees time to participate. When those responsibilities are unclear, requirements remain unresolved and problems often appear during testing.
Data deserves particular attention. The same customer may exist under different names in a CRM, accounting system, and spreadsheet. Moving those records into Dynamics 365 will not automatically resolve conflicting identifiers or decide which application owns the correct customer information.
I also question requests to reproduce every old procedure. If employees export quotes to Excel, email them for approval, and reenter accepted orders, we should retain the necessary pricing and approval controls without assuming the manual steps must continue.
Microsoft's Dynamics 365 go-live checklist calls for validation of data migration, integration testing, user acceptance, dependencies, training, and support readiness. I would bring those responsibilities into the conversation well before the company commits to a delivery plan.
5. Do we understand the proposed scope, costs, and risks well enough to decide?
A company's decision may be to switch, keep its existing applications, repair an implementation, reduce the proposed scope, or wait. Before choosing, I want leadership to understand what each practical option would require.
For a proposed Dynamics 365 implementation, that means knowing which processes are included, what remains in other applications, what data needs to move, how systems will exchange information, and who will own the result. It also means identifying the assumptions that could change the cost or schedule.
Licenses and consulting fees are only part of the expected investment. Data preparation, integrations, testing, training, employee time, and ongoing support can be material. If leadership wants an early planning figure, Alliason's Dynamics 365 Implementation Planner provides an estimated range based on scope and complexity. It is a planning estimate, not a quote.
A lower initial proposal is not automatically the better choice if important requirements, integrations, or responsibilities have been left out.
Questions I would ask a prospective Dynamics 365 partner
Which application would you recommend for our actual business scenarios, and why?
What would make you recommend improving our existing systems instead?
Which applications and data should stay where they are?
What requirements, integrations, and responsibilities are included or excluded?
What are the largest risks or assumptions behind your estimate?
Who from our company will need to make decisions, prepare data, and test the solution?
How will additional requirements be evaluated and approved if they emerge?
I would also ask for a demonstration based on a real problem. If the controller currently spends three days preparing a profitability report, show how the proposed applications would produce the necessary information, what data would still need to be collected, and which manual steps would remain.
When application fit, system boundaries, and delivery scope still need to be established, a Dynamics 365 Confidence Roadmap can examine those questions before leadership authorizes an implementation. The recommendation may be to proceed, change the scope, improve what is in place, or take another approach.
How do we know whether switching to Dynamics 365 is the right decision?
I would want a CEO or CFO to be able to explain the decision in ordinary business terms: what problem the company is solving, why the chosen applications fit, what will stay in place, what employees must contribute, what improvement is expected, and what could prevent it from happening.
If those answers are still unclear, I would not recommend signing an implementation agreement yet. Sometimes the right decision is to move to Dynamics 365. Sometimes it is to improve the applications the company already owns. The goal is to make that choice with evidence instead of relying on a demonstration or a feature list.
If your company is considering a change and needs help evaluating the options,
We can review the business problems, the applications already in place, and what decision needs to be made next.
