What to consider when planning a new ERP implementation

So you’ve decided to implement a new ERP/Finance solution. Although it is highly likely that you will require the engagement of an expert implementation partner to support you on your transformation journey, there are many key planning and mobilisation considerations to finalise before the project should start.

Establishing a strong project team

Often one of the most difficult decisions companies are faced with due to the reluctant to release their strongest team members. However, it is critical that you enable your key users to engage, inform and define the ‘to-be’ ways of working and setup on any new finance system. Whether this requires temporary back-fill positions or a part time allocation, recruitment should have a focus on the BAU activities to ensure to have your strongest team working on the project. In addition to key business representatives you should be establishing a  project team that includes an executive sponsor, a project manager, and representatives of all key business groups involved in the project. The team should be able to define the project goals, requirements, and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Define clear and realistic requirements

Any new finance solution must meet the key requirements of your organisation. However, it can be easy for there to become a disconnect between the project objectives and the project requirements when end user ‘wants’ become ‘needs’. Requirements should be aligned with the business goals and processes. They should reflect the current and future needs your organization, and how the ERP system can support and improve them. Requirements should also consider non-functional aspects such as data quality, security, and compliance. Its important to note that business requirements should be technology agnostic. Defining and agreeing your requirements early on will not only support in any onward ERP and implementation vendor selection process, but will also protect against scope creep later down the line.

Solution Selection

It is important to choose an ERP system that fits the needs, and budget, of your organization. There are many ERP systems available in the market, each with different features, functionalities and costs. Consider not only the capital investment costs of the implementation, but the onward operation costs of licensing and support. You’re chosen system should also be scalable and flexible to reflect your business strategy and be compatible with the existing IT infrastructure and landscape.

Adopt, don’t adapt

As covered in a recent blog post by Mike (Embracing the “Adopt not Adapt” approach in ERP implementation) this is an opportunity to optimize the business processes and workflows with the new system. ERP solutions are often used globally and have been developed over many years based on user feedback and business needs. An ERP implementation is an opportunity to introduce better and more efficient processes to your business, not just to automate the existing ones.

Change Management

An ERP implementation can create significant change in the way in which your organisation will operate. This may naturally create resistance and challenges amongst employees and stakeholders. Therefore, it is essential to communicate the benefits and expectations of the ERP system throughout the project and provide adequate training and support to the users. It is also recommended to engage with your users to encourage feedback and input so that you can address any concerns and issues promptly.

Implementing a new ERP system can be a challenge, but as the saying goes ‘start as you mean to go on’, establishing a strong foundation to your project and maintaining broad business engagement and alignment will not only increase your chances of success, but will also allow you to realise the return of your investment and better support your overall business strategy.

Navigating the D365 F&O interface (Part 3)

This is a continuation of our “back to basics” series, following on from Part 1 about the Default dashboard, and Part 2 about User options.

Today we’ll take a look at the Grid view. This is the standard presentation of record lists in the system, whether we’re talking Customers, Opportunities, Quotes, Suppliers, Journals, Transactions, Invoices, Workers… or in the case of the sample screenshot we’ll be using, Purchase orders.

As before, I’m confident there will be a gems in here that even the most seasoned D365 F&O professionals might have forgotten (or not yet know), so look out for points made in bold. And a special mention to the fact that version 10.0.39 has been released since my first two posts, meaning we now have Copilot available on the navigation bar, denoted in the screenshot below by the letter “C”.

Here we go!

An annotated screenshot of the standard grid view for Purchase orders in D365 F&O
  1. Shortcut to Home page, which can be changed to one of six other workspaces under User options > Preferences.
  2. Navigation path – shows you the module > menu section(s) > and current page for the current form – for information only.
  3. Back button. Replacing the much-less-logical Close button in previous versions of the platform, clicking back takes you back to the previous form you were viewing, if applicable. It’s better to use this than the browser back button, since clicking the browser back button does not always preserve your data inputs.
  4. Edit/New/Delete buttons. Depending on the permissions that your user security role has assigned, you will see some combination of these buttons. Be sure to select the correct record(s) if you intend to use the Delete button in the grid view (see point 18 below)!
  5. Action pane. Similar in functionality to the ribbon in Microsoft Office applications, the Action pane contains tabs (in this example, Purchase order, Purchase, Manage, etc), which each contain different options for a selected record. The currently selected Action pane tab will be highlighted with your chosen theme colour in User options.
  6. Action pane tab. Contains all the actions enabled for the current user, for the selected record(s).
  7. Action pane search. Allows you to search all tabs in the Action pane for an action. Particularly useful if you’ve forgotten which tab houses a certain action.
  8. Power Apps button. Allows you to add an app or access a previously-linked Power App pertaining to this form. Not really a subject for a back-to-basics post, so we’ll cover this in future!
  9. Open in Microsoft Office button. Depending on the form you are viewing, this button provides options to ‘Open in Excel’ or ‘Export to Excel’. The latter outputs a dumb Excel file, containing the records applicable to your current filter, which is fine. The ‘Open in Excel’ function opens Excel with the Microsoft Dynamics Office Add-in, which is an incredible tool that we’ll give more airtime in due course.
  10. Attachments button. Allows you to attach notes, files, images, and URLs to the current record. The icon updates to show the number of attachments.
  11. Refresh button. Allows you to refresh the data in your current view, without refreshing the entire page using the browser refresh button. Save yourself a couple of seconds!
  12. Open in new window button. Perhaps you need to compare some data, side-by-side? This button opens your current view in a new window, so you look at multiple views simultaneously.
  13. Filter pane button and Related information button. The Filter pane button opens the filter pane (surprise!), and the Related information gives quick access to information about the selected record.
  14. View selector. Allows you to select different views, or save your current filter settings as a view.
  15. QuickFilter box. Provides the ability to quickly filter on a single column. More information in Paul’s post about filtering.
  16. Column header, which requires a deeper dive:
    • when left-clicked provides basic options for filtering and sorting.
    • can be resized, by hovering between them, looking for the double-ended arrow cursor, then clicking and dragging,
    • can be repositioned, by hovering over the column name, moving to the four dots icon, whereupon a four-pointed arrow cursor will appear, then clicking and dragging,
    • when right-clicked, provides some powerful options such as:
      • inserting other fields as columns, or hiding a column,
      • grouping by this column, which gathers all records which share a value in that column into groups (see screenshot at the end of this post) – up to five levels of grouping can be applied, and
      • freezing a column, which behaves like freezing a column in Excel, meaning the selected column remains visible when scrolling horizontally.
  17. Rows. A list of records based on your current view or filter settings. Any coloured text can be clicked as a hyperlink, to enter the Details view for the corresponding item.
  18. Selected records. A record can be considered selected if the whole row is highlighted. Multiple records can be selected by clicking the blank circle at the start of the row, which will fill with a tick.
  19. Grid options menu. This tiny “kebab menu” conceals the off-by-default options to ‘Show footer’ (see point 20). Other options you may see in this menu include:
    • Edit selected rows, if you have the new ‘Bulk editing in grids’ feature enabled, and
    • if you have applied any grouping:
      • Hide column names in groups,
      • Expand all groups,
      • Collapse all groups, and
      • Ungroup all.
  20. Grid footer. Disabled by default, but when enabled, shows the number of rows in the current view and the number of selected records.
A screenshot of D365 F&O that shows an example of a “grouped by” view, in this case, using the approval status of purchase orders

When do Accelerators make you faster? the conclusion. (Part 3)

In this final post following How to identify the different types of Accelerator (Part 2). I look to highlight areas of consideration, questions and closing thoughts when making this key decision.

What should I be aware of when considering accelerators?

Accelerators can be exceptional value for an organization when fully understood. Where their full benefits, risks and opportunities can be managed properly. Knowing what the accelerator will do for the project and it’s ongoing impact, means you can make an informed decision across the total cost of ownership (TCO) and not miss costs or risks that might be unknown or assumed.

The more you know about the accelerator on offer, the better. Comparing two different accelerators on the market, such as configuration vs software, may not even be like comparing apples to oranges, it might be like comparing an apple to a helicopter (feel free to substitute your own non-fruit based comparison, but you get my point).

Here are some areas you should consider and explore, accelerators of all flavour’s are a good thing, but only when you know what you are procuring;

  • Does the accelerator persist any IP or software packages after deployment? Understand if this is just configuration or software. If you are left with IP as part of the Implementation, or black box / managed solutions you are not fully in control of.
  • What charges are due (one off or ongoing) for the use of the accelerator? Understand what the commercial charge is for the use, or the ongoing maintenance / licensing cost of the solution. Has the partner made a commitment to keep this up to date and what assurances do you have around its continued maintenance.
  • Is the accelerator portable to another implementation partner should we change during an implementation or move to another support partner once we are live? Understand what the implication is for changing partners, either as an exit plan (if needed) once live, or if the unfortunate event arises of wanting to change a partner mid implementation.
  • Where has the accelerator been successfully adopted? Understand the historic use and scope of the accelerator to see if those organizations are a fit for your use case. Does a solution implemented for a facilities management company represent the needs of a housing association in your context, providing at least some insight and basis to form additional questions around the offered functional capability.
  • Does the accelerator require ongoing maintenance once live? and if so, what is the roadmap for future capabilities and how do we realise these ongoing? Understand what the application lifecycle requirements are for the accelerator and if there is either software deployments required for new versions as per the Software based variety, or any obligation for managed services for configuration based.
  • Is the Accelerator documented and what information can be provided on its depth and scope of functional capability to understand what has deviated from standard software? Understand if the accelerator is going to provide a right fit to your organizations needs, this goes much deeper than one simple question, and requirements gap fit analysis needs a whole article on its own, but it is important to understand how pervasive the accelerator is and make a decision on the value it beings distinct from the standard Dynamics F&O.

Closing Thoughts

The most important thing for your organization is that you get the best solution to support the goals, objectives and mission for the foreseeable future. This might mean adopting an accelerator, which could be the catalyst for your project providing the biggest return on investment and quickest time to value. But you need to question the underlying reasons you are seeking an accelerator, what you are expecting from the adoption and if provides the value that you need for the additional cost / risk when compared to standard. Understanding this will highlight the real value and speed you can expect from the delivery.

So many options exist in highly flexible solutions like F&O (and CE), especially when viewed with the wider Power Platform when designed right. Choosing an accelerator on which to base your implementation is a major project decision, and you have to ensure that the accelerator solution matches your desired outcomes without resulting in restrictions that could cost more to adapt, than the benefits the accelerator proposes to deliver.

Having seen implementation projects needing to be completely started afresh, being quicker to do so than build on top of previously deployed accelerators, and also having seen projects delivered for industries in a matter of weeks that just would not have been possible any other way, accelerators are as big a benefit as they are a risk when not fully understood. Be sure to understand the combination of configuration, software and methodology at play.

I hope this post helps shine a light on the topic, promoting a healthy conversation in your selection process to accelerate the right outcomes (see what I did there?). Onward and Upward!

Filtering in D365 F&O

When considering the capabilities that D365 F&O has to offer, it can be overwhelming. However, with most users likely interacting only with specific feature and process areas with the application stack, how can you enable users to quickly and easily access the information they need during their BAU activities. Step into the spotlight; Filtering and sorting.

Filtering options

Filter Pane

A screenshot of the Suppliers form in D365 F&O with the filter pane action

This is accessed by selecting the filter icon, the filter pane is an inline sliding section that allows users to add multiple filter criteria which will be applied to the table content being viewed.

QuickFilter

A screenshot of the Suppliers form in D365 F&O with the Quickfilter option selected

A dynamic filtering framework that provides the ability to quickly filter on a single column. Dynamic in its nature as the columns available to filter on in this view are reflective of the columns visible in the form and therefore reflects columns added, hidden, etc as part of user personalisations (which we’ll cover in detail in future content).

Grid Column Filtering

A screenshot of the Suppliers form in D365 F&O with the Grid Column filter selected

This provides users with the ability to apply filter and sorting criteria to column headers within the grid presented. Unlike the Quickfilter feature, users can apply search and filtering criteria to multiple column headers in an incremental manner.

Advanced filter or sort

A screenshot of the Suppliers form in D365 F&O with the advanced filter or sort option highlighted

Not many users realise, but this feature has been carried forward from AX2012 days. It allows for more complex filter queries to be specified, included the creation of table joins with related data tables to provide for niche data outputs. We’ll cover off the advanced filter and sorting in its own post soon.

Common Filter expressions

Before we go into how to use each of the filter options above it is worth covering off the common filter expressions that can be used when filtering. As a default, data entered into the filters will be treated with the MATCHES expression unless one of the following expressions is applied:

QuerySyntax
Records that are exactly AX7“AX7”
Records that do not contain SAP“!SAP”
Records that are either AX7, D365 or ERP.“AX7,D365,ERP”
Contains AX7“*AX7*”
Does not contain “SAP”“!*SAP*”
Begins with “AX7”“AX7*”
After “AX7” / Greater than “AX7”“>AX&”
Greater than or equal “AX7”“AX7..”
Before “AX7” / Less than “AX7”“<AX7”
Less than or equal “AX7”“..AX7”
Between “AX7” and “D365”“AX7..D365”

Filtering in action

Filter Pane

Arguably the most user friendly filtering option available, the filter pane provides intuitive interface that allows for the target filter source to be specified and a descriptive condition to be selected for each filter criteria.

A screenshot of the D365 Released Products form with the filter pane active

In the above example multiple filters have been applied to return only released products with an Item number that begins with ‘C’ and a search name that begins with ‘M’. Additional filters can be applied to further refine filtering, when dealing with large sets of data.

The filter pane options include not only the data items in the target data set (released products in the above example), but also expands to allow for the inclusion of data from direct table joins e.g. data from the item and category tables can be incorporated into the filter pane for released products.

Quickfilter

The Quickfilter capability is available on grids throughout D365 F&O. Its capabilities are enabled upon the entry of data. In the following example, a quick entry of the characters ‘Micr’ in the Released products form enables the following options:

A screenshot of the D365 Released products form with the Quickfilter partly populated

In all filtering instances the MATCHES operator applies as default so in the above instance, the filter will return records starting with “Micro” only for the column selected.

Note – the columns listed are filterable columns only. If you find that one or more columns are not listed in the Quickfilter then it is most likley due to the fact that filtering on that data is not possible. This is most common for columns calculated via code. A check of this can be performed on the column itself by checking whether it can be selected for filtering.

Grid Column Filtering

To provide a more seamless user experience, many features within D365 F&O mimic that of the broader M365 stack. When it comes to grid column filtering, users are presented with a similar experience to that which they would encounter in Excel:

A screenshot of the Released products form in D365 F&O with the grid column filter selected

For those eagle-eyed readers, you’ll notice that the filtering options provided in this case mimic those that are available in the filter pane and this is 100% correct. The only variation here is that you also have the option to sort the column data.

As referred to previously, more complex and advanced filtering options will be explored in a future post. The perception of simplicity when it comes to the filtering options above by mean in no terms that they are basic. Providing a simple, intuitive structure allows users to more readily self serve their data query needs and, coupled together with personalisations (coming soon 😊), can enable the creation of proactive prompts to increase productivity and efficiency.

What makes D365 HR stand out from other solutions?

D365 HR has had a tough time these past few years; going from being part of F&O, becoming a standalone app, a rebranding, and then re-integrating to the core F&O platform.

This has detracted somewhat from a product with tremendous potential, particularly when employed alongside its sister D365 products and the wider Microsoft ecosystem.

An abstract image representing the HR lifecycle of a business
An abstract image representing the HR lifecycle of a business

What’s in the box?

The core functionality is substantial and certainly covers the basics of most HR business functions. This includes:

  • Organisation administration and hierarchies
  • Talent requisition management
  • Onboarding checklists
  • Learning and development management
  • Performance management
  • Compensation and benefits
  • Employee record management (including movers and leavers)
  • Leave and absence
  • Employee relationship management (aka Case management)
  • Time and attendance
  • Position forecasting (arguably a Finance feature, but mentioned for good measure)
  • Employee and manager self-service dashboards
  • HR reports & analytics

But what’s missing?

Allow me to digress, just for a moment, but for good reason. It’s now quite evident, to even the most casual observer, that Microsoft is moving D365 F&O more in the direction of model-driven apps, built around a core database (Dataverse), rather than extending the primary platform every which way. This is starkly apparent on the Default dashboard, which as of version 10.0.38, includes two apps, namely (i) Business performance analytics and (ii) Invoice capture:

A screenshot of the default dashboard in D365 F&O, showing the two new apps that extend specific areas of functionality

And so back to the gaps in the core D365 HR platform – permit me to me address each one inline below:

  • Applicant sourcing, tracking, and screening
    • The first great news here is that a new applicant tracking system (ATS) model-driven app (see why I had to digress?!), first teased publicly in Microsoft’s Business Applications Summit back in October 2023, is now in the official Release Planner, meaning we can talk about it freely!
    • Features will include the ability to publish job postings, create interview templates, and read LinkedIn profile information (do I sense a new, native integration with LinkedIn Recruiter?!).
  • Employee experience
    • Microsoft have been pretty clear that Teams is where we’re expected to live and breathe whilst we’re at work. Outlook still has its place, for now at least, but the official unveiling of Microsoft Viva in 2021 heralded new features such as Viva Topics (an AI-driven, employee knowledge base) and Viva Insights (an organisational wellbeing tool1), embedded in the heart of Teams.
A desktop screenshot and an overlaid mobile screenshot of Viva Topics in Microsoft Teams, showing the inline glossary functionality that helps users to access unique sector or organisational terms at the point of need
  • Learning content delivery
    • There are some great ISVs in this space – we’ll no doubt dedicate future posts to this subject – dedicated to area of learning content delivery, i.e. being a purpose-built learning management system (LMS) that serves (and tracks) SCORM and xAPI content to individual learners.
    • This onlooker would speculate that Microsoft aren’t (currently) interested in entering the LMS market, but they have proudly launched Viva Learning, which operates as a learning aggregation tool, bringing together content from Microsoft Learn, LinkedIn Learning, and dedicated LMS tools, into a single view in Teams – again, part of the concept of employee experience, with the ability to share and recommend courses with team members and colleagues.
  • Shift management
    • There’s two out of the box solutions here, depending on the complexity of an organisation’s requirements. First up is Shifts, a basic, but functional tool that resides happily inside Teams for whoever needs it to schedule their frontline workers, provision for shift swapping, and see everything graphically in one place.
    • The more advanced answer to this is D365 Field Service, with its powerful Resource Scheduling Optimisation feature, that automates team schedules, optimising resources and travel time. D365 Field Service also offers additional timesheet functionality.
  • Payroll
    • The only remaining high-level gap that stands out is payroll. Whilst functionality is present, it is essentially only of use to entities in the USA. There is, however, a native Payroll Integration API, which enables end-to-end integration between D365 HR and external payroll systems.
    • At the risk of upsetting any payroll managers reading this, the truth is that whilst payroll is business critical, it is application used by a limited number of people in an organisation. As long as it does the job accurately and reliably, it doesn’t require too much sweating. And this assumes you aren’t joining the growing trend of payroll outsourcing.

Anything else?

So, we’ve covered core functionality, new model-driven apps, Dataverse, Microsoft Viva providing the employee experience in Teams, learning content, and shift management. What else is there in the Microsoft HR toolkit?

First up, a quick point to settle the seasoned consultants that laughed at me when I cited Case management as core functionality. To be clear, we both know it is, but we also both know it’s not the best. Enter, stage right, D365 Customer Service. Integrating, via Dataverse, with the gold standard in case management, is the ideal solution for an organisation with exacting requirements in this regard.

Next up is Entra ID (still struggling not to write Azure Active Directory!). Until now, we’ve had to build some custom Power Automate flows to remove the manual steps of user provisioning from D365 HR. Now, on the roadmap, we know that a native Entra ID integration is coming, which will massively reduce the risk of errors and duplication of effort.

In the spirit of employee experience in Teams, there’s new D365 HR app functionality coming very soon, specifically in the realm of leave and absence. Again, the aim being to bring day-to-day tasks to the Teams interface as your workplace hub.

Copilot. You can’t mention Microsoft at the moment without talking about Copilot, whether you’re talking Bing, Office, Azure, or Dynamics, your “everyday AI companion” is increasingly there to help make your job easier – and it’s coming to D365 HR this year, starting with a focus on aiding the recruitment process.

And I can’t finish without quickly reeling off a few more modules from the Microsoft Viva toolset:

  • Viva Connections – bringing SharePoint landing pages into Teams,
  • Viva Goals – for goal setting and tracking,
  • Viva Engage – for employee networking (used to be Yammer),
  • Viva Amplify – for corporate communications,
  • Viva Pulse – for employee satisfaction and sentiment analysis, and
  • Viva Glint – for employee surveys, feedback, and action planning.

Conclusion

D365 HR sometimes gets a bad rap, but it needs to be viewed in the context of the wider Microsoft offering. And now that all D365 HR users are safely back in the F&O fold, following their December 2023 migration deadline, we can all look forward to the exciting new developments coming down the pipe.

Onward to better tools, streamlined processes, and fewer paper cuts!

A screenshot of the first tab of the employee self-service workspace in D365 F&O, showing sample data
  1. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that Viva Insights itself wasn’t new, per se. Rather, it was a Teams integration of Workplace Analytics, which had been GA since July 2017. ↩︎

One Version Service Update Changes

These days, subscription and licence fees are just a fact of life that we have all come to accept. However, when it comes to D365 F&O licence fees, you are not just, for example, paying to be able to watch the final of “Strictly Come Dancing” without the risk of a hefty fine through your letter box – you are actually buying into a continuously evolving and improving product feature set.

What are One Version Service Updates?

One Version Service updates are D365 F&O’s equivalent to Evergreen updates to D365 CE and Power Platform. They reflect Microsoft’s commitment to delivering regular product enhancements (new features, security improvements, patches, etc) in a manageable way with minimal business disruption. It’s just one of the many benefits customers experience as part of the SaaS ERP offering, included in the licence fees they already pay. For example, the (not so) new subscription billing features and related modules were a whole new feature added to the D365 F&O which may have originally required the use of 3rd party tools/ISVs, i.e. additional licence fees!

So what’s changed?

Microsoft’s commitment certainly hasn’t. However, the way in which these updates are now released has. It wasn’t long ago that 8 updates a year used to be the norm. This was dropped to 7, albeit with the twice yearly ‘major’ releases maintained, but now it’s changed again.

From the 19th February 2024, Microsoft will revise the update cadence from 7 times per calendar year down to 4. These will take place quarterly in February, April, July and October. A new, more intuitive naming convention will also be applied to updates to make them more prescriptive to users; going forward release versions will be prefixed with the year and quarter to which they relate e.g. 10.0.38 is now CY24Q1: 10.0.38. In addition to this Microsoft have substantially extended the service window of each service update, to between 186 and 214 days.

What does this mean to me?

“Hooray less regression testing”. Well, this depends… Before users begin celebrating too much, there is a another key change that has been applied when it comes to pausing the automatic platform updates. As part of the new cadence, the number of times an update can be paused before it is enforced is down from 3 to 1. This means that those customers who maximised the update pauses previously will not see any change as the minimum number of annual updates required will remain at 2. A reduction in the frequency of regression testing may be seen where the updates were regularly taken. Less updates implies that, in theory, there will be less business, or project, interruption/disruption. However, it should be noted that although the frequency has reduced, the content has not. A review/revision of any existing regression testing packs and processes may be required to ensure they still provide the assurance required under the new cadence.

More details on the release changes and the planned update schedule can be found here.

Navigating the D365 F&O interface (Part 2)

This is the next post in a series of back-to-basics, covering the navigation of the system, which began with Part 1, about the Default dashboard, navigation bar and navigation pane.

As before, I’d venture there’s more than a reasonable chance that even more seasoned users will pick up a thing or two here, particularly points highlighted in bold.

Picking up near where we left off, we’ll look at User options within the Settings menu, represented by the gear icon. Every enabled user of the system, regardless of assigned security role, should be able to see this:

Screenshot of D365 F&O showing User options within the Settings menu in the navigation bar

Visual tab

You’ll note there are up to four tabs within User options, depending on a user’s security role. These are (i) Visual, (ii) Preferences, (iii) Account, and (iv) Workflow. All of these tabs are visible when viewing User options as an administrator1.

Screenshot from D365 F&O showing the Visual tab on the User options form

Starting with the Visual tab, there are essentially two options – the ability for a user to (i) chose their own colour scheme for the system, and (ii) change the size of the interface.

Setting different colour schemes can be a useful visual prompt if you work across multiple environments (e.g. production, UAT, SIT, development), or can just be a nice, albeit limited, way of making the system feel like your own.

Interestingly, even when individual personalisation is disabled, users are still able to rebel against their corporate overlords and pick their own colour scheme!

Preferences tab

A screenshot of the Preferences tab in User options in D365 F&O

Moving to the Preferences tab, users (or administrators) can:

  • choose their default company when logging in, if they have access to more than one legal entity,
  • choose their default page when logging in – options will depend on the security role, but can be:
    • Default dashboard
    • System administration
    • Feature management
    • Essential dashboard
    • Employee self-service
    • Prospective supplier information
  • set whether they want to (i) view or (ii) edit form data by default,
  • choose language, number formats (ISO 639-1 and ISO 3166-1 alpha-2), time zone (by GMT offset), and country (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3),
  • disable Document handling, which is the ability for a user to add attachments to records or not,
  • enable automatic URL updates, which means when you filter a view, e.g. Customer groups in the Customer grid view, the URL in the browser will automatically update, for you to quickly bookmark or copy/share with colleagues2 (see screenshot below), which in my opinion is incredibly useful,
  • enable Enhanced tab sequence, which includes all fields when using Tab to navigate,
  • enable tooltips on focus, which brings up tooltips whenever a field is selected, and lastly,
  • to include HR tasks on the Default dashboard.
Two overlaid screenshots from D365 F&O, showing (i) a non-manipulated URL (top), and (ii) an updated URL (below), against the same filtered view

Account tab

A screenshot of the Account tab in User options in D365 F&O

The Account tab includes some read-only fields, that reflect user configuration (i.e. how a user can login).

The Email provider section covers configuration for sending emails, which should be left for system administrators to manage.

The Electronic signature section covers user-specific configuration for electronic signatures, which we’ll cover in some future posts.

Workflow tab

A screenshot of the Workflow tab in User options in D365 F&O

The Workflow tab allows users to choose if they want:

  • notifications to be sent via email, and if so, gives the option of an alternate email address to the one registered to their user ID,
  • notifications to be sent to the Action Centre – that’s the bell icon in the top right of the navigation bar,
  • multiple notifications relating to an individual workflow to be grouped or sent individually, and
  • options to manage delegation (see next section).

Workflow tab: Delegation

This is worth a quick section on its own! Delegation allows you to automatically delegate the authority to approve/complete your work items to other users, such as if you’re anticipating any extended time off work, or if a colleague has interim DOA or responsibilities, which doesn’t warrant editing workflows or user groups3.

You can define set periods for delegation, disable/re-enable delegation rules, and review historic delegations. The basic steps are as follows:

  1. Click Add and then in the Scope field, select an option:
    • All – Delegate all work items that are assigned to you.
    • Module – Only delegate work items related to all workflows within a specific module. If you select this option, you must select the desired module in the Name field, e.g. Purchase ledger.
    • Workflow – Only delegate work items related to a specific workflow. If you select this option, you must select the workflow in the Name field, e.g. Supplier invoice journal.
  2. In the Delegate field, select your colleague’s user account to delegate the work items to.
  3. Use the Start and End date/time fields to specify when you want the rule to apply.
    • The keyboard shortcut “T” is useful here, to set the start date to “Today”.
    • Similarly, the keyboard shortcut “N” is useful to set the end date to “Never”.

N.B. You can also manually delegate work items on a one-off basis, by selecting the Delegate option in the Workflow menu and then entering the user to be delegated to, as shown below:

A screenshot showing how to perform a one-time delegation of a workflow item in D365 F&O

Usage data and Personalisation

Lastly, a quick word on the two main options you might notice at the top of the User options page, on the Action Pane, namely (i) Usage data, and (ii) Personalisation:

  • Usage data is where individual application selections and interactions are saved between sessions. This isn’t configuration (e.g. system setup), or personalisation (e.g. custom views), rather it is information such as column widths or selected ranges or values on a specific report dialogues, batch jobs, or forms. You can browse these records, or in the event something is failing for a specific user, individual records can be deleted, or entire usage data can be reset. It’s a key early port of call when resolving user issues.
  • Personalisation is where you can see a list of all personalised views, listed by form name (i.e. Page). Depending on your security role, personalisations can be exported, or copied to all users, groups of users, or individual users. We’ll definitely do more posts about personalisations in due course, as they help to tailor a system without the cost of customisation or (major) concerns when it comes to updates.
  1. Administrators can view and change User options for all users via the Users form in the System administration module. ↩︎
  2. It is possible to go to Options on the Action Pane, and select ‘Get a link’ on any filtered view to achieve the same effect, without enabling URL manipulation. ↩︎
  3. We’ll do more posts about workflows in future, including why it’s best to assign work items to user groups, and not individual user accounts. ↩︎

How to identify the different types of Accelerator (Part 2)

In this post, following on from Part 1 we continue by exploring the types of accelerators on the market, configuration, software based and methodology.

It is important to note that as the word accelerator is not a standardised term, there isn’t an expected or default accelerator type, these are the most common accelerators I have seen on the market and an explanation of what they are. It is also important to know that organisations promoting accelerators might well be presenting an “accelerated” approach based on a combination of these accelerators, with methodology, standards and software working together. More reason to be more informed of what the accelerator means.

Configuration based accelerator (rapid configuration)

These one-time accelerators provide a pre-configured environment or base configuration (template) of standard software that you use to start the deployment with a form of pre-configuration. They are intended to expedite the delivery of a solution by replacing, let’s say 100 days of services, with a configuration that can be delivered in a much shorter timeframe, let’s say 5 days (or potentially fully autonomous and instant). Configuration based accelerators therefore save you 95 days of effort as per the previous figures, along with the time saving.

Configuration based accelerators should utilize standard software only, and not introduce third party IP such as solution packages (black box) and therefore simply apply a particular configuration rapidly, that you could attain yourself should you want to expend the 100 days effort mentioned above (and possess the relevant expertise). In the context of F&O this should therefore be a series of DMF packages containing configuration data alongside potential run books and other configuration documents for manual changes outside the scope of the DMF module, and not contain any customized entities, classes or other X++ which starts to move into being a software based accelerator.

An example of a configuration based accelerator would be the application of a predefined P2P set of standards, where procurement categories, supplier categories, approval processes, payment terms and other associated attributes are already setup and ready to be adopted as deployed, right out of the gate (or very rapidly). This accelerator when deployed could then be enhanced or changed at will, to refine small parts to the organizations needs, such as adding a few more procurement categories, or changing the approval workflow for a certain division.

Configuration based accelerators do not contain any persistent IP that requires either licensing or ongoing maintenance delivered the IP owner, as by their very definition should leave you with an environment that is a configuration of the vanilla software, making them very portable should you wish to move onward support to another service provider. Additionally, as only vanilla software is implemented, they leave you in a position where you are best placed to adopt new standard features being released as part of the release waves, as you are less likely to encounter conflicting functional capabilities.

Due to the fact that the configuration based accelerators are not software, and only configuration, it means that there is no software to maintain or upgrade beyond the standard Microsoft releases, this means the base configuration itself is usually a “one off” deployment, and you are unlikely to benefit from the vendors ongoing changes or enhancements to this base configuration (not impossible but just less likely).

Software based accelerator (the undercover ISV)

a floppy disk with the word ISV on it

These accelerators can be the wolf in sheep’s clothing, if they are not fully understood, or the true value added component that makes your F&O (or CE for that matter) solution sing for your industry or use case. Most organizations when looking for accelerators are often not looking for third party software (ISV’s / addon), they are under the perception that the accelerator does not require any ongoing maintenance, licensing or create a vendor lock in situation.

Software based accelerators deploy vendor IP and solution packages (black box), that likely need to be licensed and will need to be maintained in conjunction with the Microsoft standard releases. They have the greatest possible amount of flexibility in the solution that they deliver, as they can deviate as much as the software vendor / accelerator provider can justify from standard capability.

The hallmark of a good software based accelerator (as opposed to an ISV) is the adoption of as much vanilla software capability as possible, and introduction of as few customised components as necessary to meet the industry or use case. Biasing standard functionality over the option to introduce overlapping capability and providing control back to standard software at the first opportunity.

An example of a good software based accelerator (in my opinion) could be a P2P addition for Retail, specifically for apparel and fashion, where at point of raising a purchase order for next seasons trainers (or sneakers for our friends over the pond), the purchase order entry form presents a new line based interface for creating the many lines required for the purchase order, providing a grid of colours, sizes and styles, beyond that of the standard solution, and automating the apportionment of quantities based on industry specific deviations (for example if you are buying 1000 pairs, how many should be of each size, style and colour for each country?).

This sort of solution would be used to create the multi line purchase order, based on specific industry practices, but then hands back the lines to the standard solution for onward (and standard) purchase order processes. Saving the user several minutes (or hours potentially) to complete the procurement activity. This is just an example for the sake of discussion, I appreciate there would be several ways to achieve this outcome in F&O, and different configurations of standard that might accommodate a similar time saving, but the principle remains.

Software based accelerators present a few advantages, firstly they can provide solutions and capabilities that might not even exist in the standard product. Secondly they should be upgradeable as a solution, meaning that when the software vendor / accelerator provider is investing in the solution, you could take advantage of that ongoing enhancement and roadmap to provide greater benefit to your organization, after all, this is what you should expect from an ongoing licence fee.

These accelerators, but their very nature create a high likelihood of vendor lock in, obligating you to license their IP and support packages, or at a minimum create a commercial tie to that organization that can only be broken when the solution package is removed. Some accelerators may be portable between implementation partners, if for example the solution is marketed as an accelerator and an ISV solution, but the risk (and benefits) remain high on both sides. The more pervasive the accelerator in this case, the higher the benefit and risk.

It’s important to take software based accelerators for what they are, traditional ISV solutions extending the core software to add value above and beyond for a given industry, they are being marketed as accelerators in some instances, because they do accelerate your implementation, if you need them, your implementation will definitely be longer if you do not buy them and decide to build it. These should not be considered as accelerators, as the risks and benefits should be known, and out in the open.

There are many areas when the standard solution just won’t be able to achieve the desired level of efficiency and capability, even with the infinite possibilities presented by the Power Platform, there are still many good reasons why ISV’s exist, and will continue to do so, you just need to know its an ISV solution so you can factor in the ongoing costs, vendor lock in and maintenance requirements into your overall decision.

Methodology based accelerator (aka Implementation Methodology)

checklist of items on a notepad

Accelerators also contain implementation partners with no specific configuration or software to expedite the project, instead they possess a unique or industry tailored implementation methodology, or proven solution blueprint that reduces the overall implementation time and associated risk. This could be thought of as a process based (documentational or otherwise) implementation methodology where focus is applied greater to the known variable areas for your organization.

Implementation partners in these categories will either have a unique process to follow, perhaps a variety of an Agile project, with various templates or project activities that seek quicker time to value. This could also be complimented by a specialism or large resource capability in a given industry.

Partners operating in this category often end up creating configuration or software based accelerators as a natural evolution to their focus on a given industry or technology, and may have well established “industry templates” which are more of a high level architectural blueprint identifying recommended Partner ISV’s to provide an end to end solution.

In the next post (Part 3) we will look at drawing some conclusions around what to consider, and some questions to ask ensuring you are fully informed.

Would you consider F&O on its own for CRM?

D365 F&O integrates nicely with D365 CE (via Dual Write/Dataverse) and the process of doing so is getting even easier with the latest updates. With Microsoft long holding a spot in the top three global CRM providers, it’s easy to see why D365 CE would be the go-to solution for a Microsoft-first organisation in need of such functionality, alongside D365 F&O as the ERP.

That said, your CRM requirements might not be that extensive; perhaps you only have/need a small commercial team, or perhaps yours is a high-touch business model with a small (albeit high-value) client base. In one of these scenarios, maybe there is no need to use license, implement, manage, and maintain another dedicated system.

CRM functionality in F&O

Outside of our traditional ERP core workstreams of Finance1, SCM and HR, it’s easy to forget that there’s a substantial amount of CRM functionality within F&O.

A screenshot of D365 F&O showing some of the breadth of functionality available within the Sales and marketing module

Besides the widely-used customer, contact, and sales order functionality nestled within the Sales and marketing module, there are standard forms for:

  • Prospects, i.e. a potential customer (usually organisations) identified for business.
  • Leads, i.e. a potential piece of business, with either a prospect or existing customer, that requires qualifying.
  • Opportunities, i.e. a qualified lead, with estimated value and win probability.
  • Quotations, i.e. a formal offer for provision products or services.
  • Campaigns, i.e. coordinated marketing actions using data.
  • Telemarketing, i.e. direct marketing via phone calls.
  • Mailings, i.e. emails and mass mailings to customers.
  • Commissions, i.e. payments made to SDRs or BDMs for winning an opportunity.

Out-of-the-box reports include:

Deleted ordersWorker activity analysisSales targets
Prospect turnoverCampaign response frequenciesTelemarketing summary
Top 100 customersCustomer turnover reportCustomer/item statistics

Within setup – again, besides more commonly used functionality – we have the ability to configure features such as:

  • Source types
  • Sales units/teams
  • Responsibilities
  • Activities
  • Lead types
  • Qualification process
  • Email groups
  • Email templates
  • Probabilities
  • Business classifications (for prospects)
  • Sales districts
  • Cross-sell variables
A screenshot from D365 F&O showing the default form view for a new opportunity record

Conclusions

There are no prizes for the transaction-focused D365 F&O interface versus that of the friendlier, model-driven D365 CE interface.

That said, you could utilise PowerApps to create straight-forward, user-friendly functionality for your team to capture key information, whilst your data and reports are kept back in D365 F&O.

Another easy option would be using the Microsoft Dynamics Office Add-in, to allow users to batch add or modify prospects, leads, or opportunities, keeping on top of their records within the familiar interface of Microsoft Excel, whilst still bound by the security roles and data rules implemented in D365 F&O.

As with everything, it all depends on specific client requirements, but I’d argue there’s definitely a use case for using D365 F&O on its own.

What do you think? Would you use D365 F&O in lieu of a dedicated CRM system?

  1. Of course, Finance typically includes a Quote to Cash (Q2C), Order to Cash (O2C), or similarly named process area, but there can be a great deal more that happens before issuing a quote or an order! ↩︎

Do Accelerators really make your project faster? (Part 1)

Accelerators are an unregulated term for implementation projects, and when it comes to D365, an accelerator might be the very thing you are trying to avoid (especially when it comes to F&O but this is also relevant to CE), using customized and proprietary IP that ties you to a single vendor.

This series of posts will explore the different ways the term accelerator is used, and provide you with the knowledge to ask the right questions, being fully informed of your decision when comparing what an accelerator really means for your overall solution.

Why are you looking for an accelerator?

Operating at the selection and evaluation side of a project, I often get introduced to prospective clients with this initial statement.

“We are looking for a partner with an accelerator in [insert industry here] for our [insert CRM/ERP Scope here] project”.

Whilst initially this seems a perfectly sensible (if not preferable request), it is often driven by an outcome and a desire, which may not be delivered by an accelerator.

Clients looking back are often wanting to avoid issues experienced from previous implementations, such as heavy customisation, vendor lock in, high upgrade costs and long time to value.

Clients looking forward at future state needs are often wanting to adopt more vanilla software avoiding customization, adopt industry standard practices and provide quicker time to value (more about Embracing the “Adopt not Adapt” approach in ERP implementation by Mike).

Unfortunately, the accelerator you’re looking for might put you right back where you don’t want to be, if you are not in a position to ask the right questions and deduce exactly what type of accelerator a partner is suggesting to you.

It’s therefore worth taking some time to define (even at a high level) what you are anticipating as the outcome of using an accelerator, and what is mort important to you. This might fit into the following categories:

  • Driving best practice adoption: Are you relying on an accelerator driving the adoption of best practice and standards?
  • Delivering faster time to value: Are you needing to deliver rapidly, or implement an MVP approach and then build on the initial delivery in ongoing phases?
  • Reducing overall implementation costs: Are you looking to reduce the overall cost of the project, and over what timeline / area (CapEx, OpEx, timeframe etc).
  • Partnering with industry expertise: Are you looking for partners with dedicated focus or consultative expertise in your industry?
  • Benefiting from ongoing industry developments: Are you looking for an evolving product that will not only offer you the benefits of SaaS, but also bring tailored industry capabilities on top of the Dynamics platform?

Depending on how you are prioritising the objectives (or combinations) above, an Accelerator may not provide the value you initially anticipate. For example there may be a trade off between achieving shorter time to value with an initial MVP deployment, and total overall implementation costs of the resulting solution when all phases are concluded.

It is therefore better to explicitly state your prioritised objectives, and intention to achieve these with an Accelerator to ensure costly assumptions are avoided during partner engagement.

There are several types of accelerators on the market and because this is not a standardised term, it’s become more of a marketing buzzword rather than a consistent type of solution offering. The buyer therefore needs to be aware of the different types of accelerators that might be on the market, and if that particular variety is going to provide you the benefits you are looking to receive.

Overall there are 3 different types of accelerator on the market; configuration based, software based and methodology based. In my next post (Part 2), I’ll be explore these different types of accelerators in more detail.