Microsoft Dynamics 365 is ideally suited to financial services organisations, due to its in-depth customer insights, reporting capabilities and integrated compliance.
In order to receive these core benefits and ensure successful implementation, it’s essential to choose the right partner. In this blog, we’ll discuss the top five mistakes organisations make when implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365, and how our iterative delivery approach helps reduce the risk of these occurring during your CRM system implementation.
1) Over-customisation
As a market-leading CRM system, Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers the ability to personalise the solution to your needs. It is essential, however, that this impressive capability is used correctly, otherwise you risk the CRM system becoming so complex that it is too far removed from standard product to function to its full potential.
An over-customised setup makes it much more difficult to maintain and upgrade the CRM system, and you won’t be able to benefit from new functionality when it is released by Microsoft.
How to avoid this:
While Microsoft Dynamics 365 allows businesses to adapt their processes to the software, a successful CRM solution should align to the organisation’s specific needs. At Inciper, we begin our implementation process by first making sure we understand what your business needs are, through a solution road-map and programme strategy that addresses your specific business goals.
We work with you to focus on leveraging standard capability and achieving goals using a configuration led-approach, and only make recommendations for customisation (always using Microsoft approved and up-gradable techniques) where the risk and effort are outweighed by the business benefit that will be delivered.
Want to learn how to achieve rapid results with Microsoft Dynamics 365? Download our free 101 guide to learn how to get the most from your Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation
2) Forgetting the user
Microsoft Dynamics 365 has a wide range of great capabilities, but they won’t be applicable for all users. Many companies and implementation partners forget users when delivering the solution, which often leads to a CRM system that can only be used by certain individuals and not throughout the whole business, or is perceived as being too complex by users who only need a sub-set of functionality.
Find out more about the reasons salespeople don't use their CRM systems.
How to avoid this:
At Inciper, we opt for a role-based approach to Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation, ensuring that users in each department have the specific requirements they need to use the system successfully.
A Sales Director’s needs differ to those within their team, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 has the capability to reflect these requirements, ensuring each user has the relevant information they need to support their role whenever they log in.
3) Implementing too much at once
When it comes to implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365, understandably, many organisations are eager to address all of their business challenges immediately, resulting in high initial costs and substantial time investments.
This type of ‘big bang’ implementation can be complex to adapt to quickly, which can lead to fatigue across the business, with stakeholders not seeing any immediate benefits and becoming disenfranchised with the project.
How to avoid this:
Implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 should not be a monolithic process, where an entire CRM solution is created from the ground up and published all at once. Instead, you should focus on implementing elements of the system where the biggest positive impact can be made in the shortest amount of time.
With our RAPID approach, we prioritise your business requirements against Microsoft Dynamics 365 and create a delivery road-map to gain results quickly.
This incremental approach means that short cycles are continually repeated to create ongoing, value-driven improvement - without trying to deliver the entire CRM system at once.
Want to learn how to achieve rapid results with Microsoft Dynamics 365? Download our free guide: The 101 Guide to Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation
4) Attempting to automate every business process
While automation is great, it's important to only use it where it can deliver maximum benefits - attempting automation before your business processes are defined could lead to you automating the wrong processes.
In order to deliver positive business benefit, the CRM solution needs flexibility to be enhanced after go-live while it is settling into your business. Building rigidity into your CRM means you will be in a computing cul-de-sac without the ability to adapt as your business changes.
How to avoid this:
Instead of following a rigid implementation model, our approach is flexible, priority led, and adaptable. We don’t just see our RAPID approach as a method for software implementation, and we don’t force our customers to use elements of Microsoft Dynamics 365 that they don’t need.
Instead, we work with and engage your business and come up with a solution built to support organisational change. Through our ongoing assessment of your business needs, we work to deliver continuous improvement even after the CRM system is implemented.
5) Forgetting the bigger picture
A CRM implementation needs to be delivered in small, well-defined stages in order to be successful. However, often businesses become too fixated on each individual step, and forget about the end goal. When companies don’t have an overall vision and road-map of how to get there, you risk making decisions that lead you to a dead end, with costly rework and back tracking when the CRM system goes live.
Many businesses also make the error of assuming that the project is finished once the system is live, and don’t put the necessary resources and time into post-live training or development.
Microsoft invest heavily in research and development to ensure Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a leading edge solution with the latest technology advancements to help you stay ahead of your competition.
Find out more about the reasons for lost sales opportunities in financial services organisations.
How to avoid this:
At Inciper, our expertise is understanding your company’s vision and the needs of the business. We work collaboratively with you to identify your current business processes, capabilities and challenges – from where you excel, to aspects that need improvement – to understand where the problems lie in your processes and how to solve them.
From this initial analysis, we can then prioritise your business requirements against Microsoft Dynamics 365, creating a delivery road-map to provide your business with clarity on the solution we will deliver, how soon we can implement it, and the overall cost.
This carefully curated road-map allows us to drive the best implementation possible, without ever losing sight of your end goals.
Why Inciper?
Our unique approach to Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation ensures that these common mistakes do not happen.
Our holistic, iterative RAPID methodology focuses on delivering value through implementation and ongoing support. Our continuous outcome-based improvement method ensures that the CRM system is able to adapt to your individual business needs throughout the entire process.
On top of this, we have decades of experience working with businesses in the financial services sector, and creating Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions that work effectively in a complex industry.
Our team of experts are equipped with the appropriate knowledge and expertise to implement CRM systems that adhere to regulatory requirements, can handle huge amounts of data, are low-risk and have user friendliness at their core.
