Customizations vs Out-of-the-Box Features: Rethinking Dynamics 365 Implementations
Introduction
If you are in the middle of a Dynamics 365 implementation or want to get onboarded into the Dynamics 365 ecosystem of business applications, consider your overarching approach for this implementation.
And the approach I’ll be discussing below is around having customized systems vs. using out-of-the-box systems. I’ll try to list some pointers on the two approaches that speak about the pros and cons of each of the approaches:
Customization
Choose to customize the system, keeping in check the following:
- If you are a relatively large organization and growing with changing business needs, it’s recommended to customize the systems as Microsoft applications are platforms and not products.
- Microsoft applications being flexible to be customized and having standard industry best-practices integration capabilities enabled that leads you to integrate with third-party applications and customize internally to leverage full potential of these systems.
- Also, growing organizations have implementation partners or IT teams to handle these applications and change management within the organization.
- Customizations help your system to follow your set processes and empower your Dynamics 365 applications to become the intended source of truth for data and help you build robust reporting.
Out of the Box
Choose to adapt to the out-of-the-box system keeping in check:
- It’s recommended to modify some internal processes to match the suggested out-of-the-box processes. This reduces IT overheads.
- It’s also beneficial to use OOB since the niche skills need to be found for any internal IT team or an implementation partner is needed.
- If any customization is broken and you don’t have an IT team or implementation partner with active service, the break-fixes will cause issues in operating as expected, causing loss to the organization if any processes hold up critical data and don’t allow you to move forward normally.
- Recommended for smaller organizations with limited team members using the systems with relatively simpler processes.
- Bringing change management/adoption is easier.
Conclusion
The choice between customization and out-of-the-box features when thinking about a Dynamics 365 deployment depends on the size, complexity, and growth trajectory of your company. Customizations are perfect for larger organizations with dynamic needs and strong IT support because they provide a customized approach that fits the system with your specific processes. On the other hand, out-of-the-box solutions simplify implementation and are especially useful for smaller businesses with simple workflows. By carefully assessing the unique needs and capabilities of your company, you can select the strategy that will optimize productivity and advance your long-term corporate objectives.
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