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 maximise these core benefits and ensure successful implementation, it is essential to take the right implementation approach. In this blog, we’ll discuss the top six mistakes financial services organisations make when implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365, and how an iterative, priority-led 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 overly complex and 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:
Businesses should seek to adapt their processes to the best practices built into the software, customising the solution only where required to support their specific needs. At Inciper, we begin our implementation process by first making sure we understand what your business needs are, by defining a solution road-map and programme strategy with you 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 to all users. Many companies and implementation partners forget users when delivering the solution. This often leads to a CRM system that is perceived as being too complex by many users who only need a subset of functionality.
Find out more about the reasons salespeople don't use their CRM systems.
How to avoid this:
At Inciper, we think that it is important to 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 incrementally where the biggest positive impact can be made in the shortest amount of time.
With our RAPID approach, we work with you to prioritise your business requirements and create a delivery roadmap to gain results quickly. This incremental approach means that short cycles 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 and optimised could lead to you automating the wrong processes.
In order to deliver business benefit, your 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 design-build – release – move on implementation model, your approach should be flexible, priority-led, and iterative. At Inciper, we have built this flexibility into our RAPID approach as a method for solution design and 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 facilitate and 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 backtracking.
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 ongoing improvement.
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. It is important to remain alert to these regular enhancements and seek to take full advantage of them.
Find out more about the reasons for lost sales opportunities in financial services organisations.
How to avoid this:
Make sure your CRM roadmap and rollout plan is aligned to your business vision and check back regularly to ensure you’re still on track. At Inciper, we believe that understanding your company’s vision and the needs of the business is an essential first step. We work collaboratively with you to understand your current business processes, capabilities and challenges – from where you excel, to aspects that need improvement – ensuring we understand where the problems lie in your processes and how to solve them.
Only then can we prioritise your business requirements against Microsoft Dynamics 365 functionality, 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 optimise your implementation, without losing sight of your end goals.
6) Not choosing the right implementation partner
Not all implementation providers are equal and making the wrong choice can be a very expensive mistake. It is worth taking the time and effort to make sure that your choice of partner is the right one for you.
Why Inciper?
Our unique approach to Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation ensures that these common mistakes are avoided.
Our holistic, iterative RAPID methodology focuses on delivering value through iterative 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 useability at their core.
