How to Successfully Manage Your Dynamics 365 Implementation Project with a Partner?
Implementing Dynamics 365 across your organization is a major undertaking. With numerous moving parts and stakeholders to align, having an experienced implementation partner is critical.
However, managing the partnership and project requires diligence and proactive planning from your internal team as well.
Follow these steps to set your Dynamics 365 implementation partners up for success when working with a partner.
Establish Clear Goals, Scope, and Timelines Upfront
Defining the goals, scope, timeline, and success metrics for your Dynamics 365 implementation at the start is crucial. Be sure to:
Document detailed requirements for the changes and capabilities you want Dynamics 365 to enable. Avoid vague descriptions that can be interpreted differently by your partner.
Prioritize must-have features versus nice-to-haves. Focus first on the 20% of functions that will drive 80% of the value.
Allow reasonable time frames for each phase, from design to testing to training. Transformations take time.
Assign an executive sponsor and project manager from your company to oversee the implementation.
Choose key user and stakeholder representatives for each impacted department. They'll provide feedback throughout.
Aligning on the boundaries, staging, and leadership early prevents mismatched expectations that can delay projects and cause budget overruns. Revisit and adjust timelines as needed, but stick to the agreed upon scope.
Maintain Open, Constant Communication
Once the vision is defined, consistent communication ensures its realization. Set cadences for check-ins and create channels for transparency such as:
Weekly status calls between the partner PM and your internal PM. Cover accomplishments, blockers, upcoming priorities, and risks.
Daily standups between developers, QA testers, and other technical resources on both sides.
Access to a project management platform where all team members can view tasks, calendars, and progress.
Regular steering committee meetings with executives and stakeholders to demo functionality and gather feedback.
Leave room for impromptu conversations as well. Quick video chats can clarify details and build relationships. Don't let the partner operate in a silo.
Provide Sufficient Internal Resources
The partner can't do everything themselves. Have your own project manager, developers, and subject matter experts carved out of their day-to-day work to participate. Key activities where you should have dedicated personnel include:
Attending design sessions to share current workflows and pain points. This inputs to the solution architecture.
Building integrations to your other systems, if needed. The partner can advise but your staff knows your tech stack best.
User acceptance testing. Your team must validate that the system works as intended for your unique needs.
End user training. Let the partner conduct train-the-trainer, then your team trains at scale.
Data migration. You know your data intricacies and validations required.
Trying to fit this work on top of regular jobs, or having too few resources assigned, will hamper the timeline and quality.
Manage Organizational Change
A Dynamics 365 implementation changes how people work. Make sure to:
Identify change champions within each department to promote adoption. Enable them to demo features and gather feedback.
Determine if process redesigns are required to optimize Dynamics 365, and design for the future state.
Develop customized training programs for each role's new system interactions.
Start communicating early about upcoming changes so they aren't a surprise.
Consider incentives for early adopters and participation during the transition.
Create opportunities for people to ask questions and provide input.
Dynamics 365 will fail if employees resist or try to maintain status quo ways of working. Keep them informed and involved.
Maintain Realistic Expectations
Understand that there will likely be hurdles throughout an enterprise software implementation. No project goes 100% according to plan. When issues arise:
Don't panic or overreact. There are always solutions.
Rely on agreed upon escalation protocols and change control processes.
Have your internal PM communicate transparently with stakeholders about the situation.
Work collaboratively with your partner's project manager and technical resources to diagnose and address the problem.
Refocus on driving value by reinforcing must-have priorities if some nice-to-haves need to be deferred.
With a complex partner engagement, challenges will happen. How you manage them defines success.
Prioritize Adoption Post Go-Live
Once Dynamics 365 goes live, support adoption by:
Having floor support personnel help workers use the system those first few weeks.
Monitoring usage data to quickly respond to hurdles people encounter.
Conducting refresher training and tip sharing amongst colleagues.
Celebrating wins and milestones publicly.
Soliciting and incorporating user feedback into future enhancements.
This ensures you capture the intended return on investment. A successful technical implementation is only step one. Driving adoption in the months after go-live determines the true impact.
All of the above best practices depend on having an implementation partner with the right expertise. When selecting outside help, look for:
Specialization in your version of Dynamics 365 and industry.
A project manager with experience managing implementations your size.
Technical certifications and capabilities in integrations, customizations, data migration, and testing.
A methodology with built-in change management and communication cadences.
Vertical expertise beyond Dynamics like cloud infrastructure, analytics, and more.
Realistic time and cost estimates based on the agreed upon scope.
References from clients with deployments similar to yours.
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