Microsoft has adopted an aggressive policy for updating its Dynamics line of business applications – to the tune of at least two major releases per year with service updates going out every month. We show you how one client migrated from older Dynamics CRM Online to Dynamics 365, and did it smoothly. 

Staying with the Current Version is Important

Microsoft has adopted an aggressive policy for updating its Dynamics line of business applications – to the tune of at least two major releases per year with service updates going out every month to improve functionality, security, and reliability. By keeping up with Microsoft’s cadence, your organization gets all the latest and greatest features without worrying about system outages or broken applications. Should you ever need it, Microsoft Support is much easier to work with if you stay current.

Money. Everyone likes to save it where ever possible, and in the case below, our client was able to save $150 a month, even with only 19 users. Obviously larger organizations could save even more.

How They Did It

A client of ours had 19 Dynamics CRM Online Professional licenses and only leveraged the Sales component of Dynamics CRM. They all resided in one org which had 5gb of storage – and that storage was maximized. Between the storage situation, better licensing options with Dynamics 365, newer features, it was time to make a change.

After taking inventory of their situation, we worked out the following plan to manage that process:

Grant Microsoft permission to update their instance of Dynamics CRM Online to Dynamics 365 during the normal Customer Driven Update process. This is an important step that sometimes gets overlooked, as Microsoft grants customers some degree of control over whether or not they stay current with releases. After all, it is much easier to manage deployments on your own schedule rather than that of your vendor.

Purchase and assign one Dynamics 365 for Sales License. This enabled the client to test out their new instance and not only review new functionality – but ensure their existing sales processes didn’t break during the transition.  By being on Dynamics 365 and having at least one Dynamic 365 user license, the client automatically received an additional 5 GB of storage.

Verify the new storage limit of 10gb. That is after all, a primary driver for the whole project!

Purchase and assign 19 additional Dynamics 365 licenses. Wait, I thought you said they only needed 19 users? Well they still do only have 19 – but by purchasing a 20^th license they gain an additional 5 GB of storage for a total of 15 GB in their org.

Verify the presence of a new non-production org. One great thing about Dynamics 365 is that it comes with a full sandbox org for testing at no additional cost. If you’re planning on making extensive customizations to your instance – this is absolutely critical to have!

Cancel the 19 Dynamics CRM Online Professional Licenses. This should go without saying, but make sure you aren’t paying for licenses that you no longer need.

Key Takeaways

Understand your business drivers. Every organization is different and your reasons to migrate are likely different as well. Make sure you know what your business needs before taking this on!

Learn what the licensing looks like. In this case, the client’s needs were covered by Dynamics 365 for Sales. You may need additional modules like Marketing, Customer Service, Field service, etc. We can help you with that.

What other apps are impacted? Oftentimes, our clients have integrated CRM with other applications like ERP, finance, etc. Make sure you know what apps and departments need to be considered before this kind of a project moves forward.

If you are considering a move from Dynamics CRM Online or on-prem to Dynamics 365, make sure you have a well-defined plan. While our timeline above only provides a high-level overview of what the process looks like, the details of the process can be complex.

Looking for a hand with all of this? Contact us below.  We are happy to help!