Five important decisions to make before implementing Dynamics 365

Now that you understand the various applications provided by Dynamics 365, you can use Dynamics 365 not only for SFA but also for HR, accounting, marketing and project management. Dynamics 365 can be used not only for SFA but also for HR, accounting, marketing and project management.

However, in this article, I would like to share something that you must be aware of before implementing Dynamics 365. It is that implementing Dynamics 365 is not the goal. The reason why I am telling you this now is that there are many projects where the goal is to implement the system.

For example, a person in charge of a company that is facing the issue of “customer information not being utilized” may want to consider the following

• I want to manage customer information in a system2
• I am already using Office in my company, so I am interested in Dynamics 365, which is also a Microsoft product.
• I compared license costs and found them to be affordable.　
• A decision was made at the manager level to purchase licenses for a few administrators and implement the system immediately!

So, let’s say you’ve implemented Dynamics 365.

After the system was implemented, we asked our sales and indirect employees to enter data, and we were able to collect data. However, we did not fully consider what we wanted to do with the data and what kind of results we wanted to produce. As a result, Dynamics 365 became just a “box”. It would have been simpler and less expensive to use Excel to manage it. It’s a waste of treasure.

I want you to unlock the potential of Dynamics 365. We want you to experience the power of a CRM system that directly leads to increased sales and dramatically improves your business.

【１】 Clarify the purpose of the introduction.

The first step is to clarify the purpose of Dynamics 365.　The first step is to clarify the purpose.

• Why do I need a CRM system for my company?
• Why did you think Dynamics 365 was a good choice?
• To increase customer satisfaction? For the sales department? Or because you want to increase sales?

If you do not have a clear objective, you will not be able to expect any results after implementing CRM. It is necessary to clarify what kind of state you want your company to be in after the introduction of CRM and what it should be.

In the previous example, why is it important to “manage customer information”? There are various purposes, such as to organize customer information and conduct appropriate sales activities, to understand each customer more deeply and continue to provide appropriate services, to improve sales capabilities by sharing information within the company, and to reduce the cost of personnel and system management required for information management.

In general, most companies that are considering implementing IT do not fully understand it. However, even if you take the easy way out and say, “I’ll just implement it and see what happens,” you will not be successful. Also, it may be questionable whether the person in charge who understands IT also understands management and sales. Let’s clarify the purpose of the project together with the people involved.

【２】 Do your employees understand the implications of their implementation?

Employees need to understand how implementing Dynamics 365 will benefit their customers, their employees, and the company as a whole.

In addition to that, it is ideal to ask the employees what kind of interface they need in advance so that they can adapt to the implementation smoothly, and involve them in the decision making process from the point of selecting multiple Dynamics 365 applications. In this way, the employees will be aware that the system was introduced for their own needs and business improvement, rather than being a system that was introduced by a few people on their own.

If you have already implemented the system without sufficient hearing, you should listen to the voices of the employees who are actually using the system and improve it little by little. Unfortunately, many Dynamics 365 implementations fail due to a lack of understanding among employees.

【３】 Summarize the internal awareness of the implementation.

As mentioned in the previous section, “Employees do not understand”, business operations are basically carried out in cooperation with other departments. Therefore, it is essential that the necessary information is passed on smoothly between departments. However, companies that fail often have a disjointed sense of cooperation between departments.

For example, if extra effort is required to transfer information, such as “the sales department is in charge of the project, so we will hold a meeting later to explain it,” it will be difficult to operate the system smoothly after its introduction.

Also, Dynamics 365 is a system. Since Dynamics 365 is a system for customer management, it is important that the people in each department who will use Dynamics 365 are deeply involved in the project from the beginning.

【４】 Maximize devices that can maintain data integrity.

After implementing Dynamics 365, when employees in the field import or directly input data, if the current data is incomplete or unused fields are left unused, a very complicated system will be created.

In the accumulation of data, it is always necessary to maintain consistency and sort out unnecessary information, so before implementing a system, try to properly organize that customer information that you are currently planning to import once again.

There is no such thing as unused data as “I don’t know, so I’ll just put it in there.” If you don’t know what you are going to use the information for, throw it away or save it in Excel somewhere else.

If the data managed in Dynamics 365 is not trustworthy in the first place, then the information in reports and dashboards extracted from that data is not trustworthy. For this reason, you should carefully consider what kind of measures you can take in Dynamics 365 to process the data before entering it and to enter the data correctly.

It would be good if we could clarify the appearance, input forms, permission settings, what kind of workflow we currently have, and what will change when we implement Dynamics 365.

【５】 Prepare for post-implementation support system for Dynamics 365

After the implementation of Dynamics 365, it is necessary to properly understand who will handle the usage and system errors; if Dynamics 365 is to be used in the field, who in the field will give lectures and incorporate them into the business level; and who will be the pilot users before the system is implemented.

If there is a department that is not cooperating with the system implementation, please strongly ask them to cooperate. No matter how many interviews the system administrator has, it is still difficult for him/her to fully understand each department’s business. Therefore, the employees who will be using the system in the field need to deepen their understanding of Dynamics 365.

To achieve this, it would be very ideal if the Dynamics 365 implementation project includes a period of time to deepen the knowledge of the company’s helpdesk and system users in the field, so that there are specialists in each department.

At the end.

Now, I have introduced five points that are especially important to consider before implementing Dynamics 365. First of all, let’s keep these five points in mind and make a clear path to implement Dynamics 365. If you do so, Dynamics 365 will become a very powerful tool for your company.

However, it may sound contradictory, but it does not mean that the implementation of Dynamics 365 will not be successful unless all five points are perfectly controlled. For example, even if the purpose of the implementation is clear, it may not be accepted by each department and it may not take root immediately after the implementation. In business, there are few cases where everything is perfectly prepared and ready to go.

In this case, even if you don’t have the cooperation of each department or the support system is not yet complete, I think you should introduce Dynamics 365, try to use it, and let it mature. The CRM system, including Dynamics 365, involves all the people in the company, so it will definitely take a long time for the system to take root. It will take a long time for the CRM system to take root in the company. Each department in the company needs to work together in a step-by-step manner for the process to take root.

In the next article, I would like to introduce a concrete example of [1] Clarify the purpose of the introduction.

That’s all for now.