By: Pramila Khilnani, Head - Cloud Apps for Microsoft Business Solutions, IBM Maximo & IFS

Every organization or institution is undergoing three levels of change – developmental, transitional and transformational. Today, our clients are more demanding and better informed. At individual level too, we are experiencing similar changes in our environment around us. There is a different level of pressure, which one is expected to endure.

The changes at all levels, need nimble and robust applications.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 (MS Dynamics 365) is best suited for the same.

Developmental Change – This is easiest of all changes that can be initiated in the organization – it involves improving existing processes, methods and ways of doing things. MS Dynamics 365 offers ease of configuration; thus, improvements can be incorporated quickly and easily. The learning cure for most of the business users on this application is less than a week.

Transitional Change – This is a change where the organization implements something totally new. It replaces the ‘As-Is’ with ‘New’. But one can define the result or destination – It is not shooting in dark. For such projects too, MS Dynamics 365 is a ‘Right Fit’ due to its ease of its usage. These projects could be for mergers & acquisitions, implementing new service lines, or replace old product with a new product. The members of the organization can upgrade their skills easily and move forward.

Transformational Change – What are transformation projects? – These projects are those, where many a times the ‘result is not known’. Everyone is looking for more in a lesser timeframe. The organizations are looking for avenues to implement transformation projects to be future-ready. In most cases, the ‘Future is Now’. Thus, many “transformation projects” are being initiated.

MS Dynamics 365 has a dexterous framework – whereby implementation becomes easier than many other applications. The business can define its process and map them to MS Dynamics 365. The second important aspect of MS Dynamics 365 is its robust nature and it does not need break fixes if changes occur.

The success of a transformation project is directly proportionating to ‘engaging the stakeholder early in the program, so that the change does not come as a surprise! MS Dynamics 365 provides the flexibility to do ‘trail and error’ – configure and re-configure, create quick and ordinary templates to check the overall working of the processes. This can give a lot of comfort to the stakeholders, and resistance to change can be minimized.

If an organization must work in the unknown hemisphere, then the atmosphere may become little uncomfortable and unpredictable. MS Dynamics 365 makes it possible for the transformation team to have pre-determined and time-bound run programs, which otherwise becomes difficult to implement.