Why Embedded Migration Beats Custom Code Rebuilds for Dynamics 365

As you embark on your ERP implementation journey and your team engages in business process mapping, you may discover discrepancies between the system’s functionalities and your team’s current business processes. At this juncture, you face a critical decision: will you adjust your processes to align with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management’s (D365 F&SCM) design, implement customizations, or leverage an Independent Solution Vendor (ISV) solution to better fit your specific business needs?  

On the brighter side, opting for customizations allows you to maintain your current workflows without significant disruptions. For many organizations, it's often simpler to modify the software than to overhaul existing business processes. Successful ERP implementation hinges on user adoption, and as a result, most organizations lean toward system customizations to make it easier for business users to use the ERP system. Adapting business processes to align with the new ERP system typically demands extensive change management efforts — a challenge that many organizations prefer to avoid. 

Why do organizations prefer using customizations for Microsoft Dynamics 365? 

There are a lot of reasons why organizations prefer using customizations in comparison to enterprise-ready solutions.  

• When you develop a solution in-house, you can write code for the exact issues and use cases and develop a solution that fits like a glove. Whereas an enterprise-ready solution might match just 80% of your needs or offer frills and benefits you do not need.  

• There are no license costs involved when you are building the solution in-house, and you have full control over the project.  

• There is no time spent searching for and evaluating ISV solutions. You can instead start designing the solution immediately based on your use cases.  

Although there are many upsides to using customizations in the short term, these might turn into pitfalls in the long run.  

Pitfalls of using customizations in Microsoft Dynamics 365 

Below, we share the many hurdles organizations face when they decide to use customizations in D365 F&SCM.  

More complex ERP implementations 

Have you thought about how customizations impact the ERP implementation? A case of extensive customizations makes the implementation longer and more complex. You may decide to start with a few customizations that increase or change during the implementation. Custom coding can present risks to the project, particularly in terms of potential delays and the need for extensive testing, making the approach less cost-efficient over time.  

In customizations, you need to go into the nitty-gritty details of the process. You have to design documents, work on development cycles, documentation, testing, and validating the code before go-live. Custom code often requires significant time for implementation.  

Project alignment issues 

The business users must invest considerable time in designing and discussing requirements to facilitate the development of custom features in the system and conveying that to the IT team and developers involved. Oftentimes, we see no proper alignment between project goals and requirements which becomes a risk and can lead to delays and budget overruns. In some scenarios, the business use case changes in the middle of the project, and you have to start from scratch.  

Maintenance can be difficult 

When you build a customization to resolve a challenge, it's not a quick fix. It is a long-term project that requires you to assign resources, budget, and time to maintain the customization and ensure documentation. For every Microsoft update, you need to run tests, checks, and validations to see if your customizations are still working. And it is possible that Microsoft can change something in their core code which can impact your customization. Without prior notice, your customizations can stop working after a Microsoft upgrade, so that is a big risk. 

People dependencies 

You need the right expertise to build Microsoft Dynamics 365 customizations – an ideal team would comprise members who understand your business processes, have technical knowledge of both the ERP systems, and expertise in the customization you are building.  

However, we have come across cases where our customers have built customizations and the team member who has built the custom-code solution has left their organization without a proper handover. There was no one to maintain the solution, when there were errors that could not be resolved. After investing time, effort, money, and resources, they had to also invest in an ISV solution for their business case.  

Lack of documentation 

We have also come across cases where due to lack of documentation and employee exits, there was no one familiar with the functionality of the customizations built in Microsoft Dynamics 365. Therefore, we recommend looking at planning for documentation and recorded handovers to avoid such scenarios if you decide to opt to build custom-code solutions for your use cases in D365 F&SCM.  

Scalability and performance 

Dynamics has a lot of variables, for example, currency, or languages. If you build something in Chicago, it might not work in the Netherlands. Therefore, you need to build for each legal entity based on your requirements. This becomes a problem when you acquire a new company or decide you want to grow your business. Therefore, scalability and performance are pitfalls for several legal entities and complex scenarios.  

Security 

Safety is an important aspect to keep in mind as there are development guidelines issued by Microsoft that you/your partner needs to follow when you customize in Dynamics 365.  

Another risk to keep in mind is that you could be introducing data security vulnerabilities if your customizations are not properly designed. For example, insecure integrations could be compromised to cyberattacks and poorly customized workflows might unintentionally expose data to unauthorized users. Ensuring the right security and auditing measures are taken while implementing Dynamics 365 can help you maintain the integrity of your customizations in the ERP system.  

Difficult to translate the requirement into action   

Each customization stems from a valid business need, yet it’s common for functional and technical teams to face challenges in executing these requirements and go back and forth. The business team may explain this requirement to the developer, but without sufficient functional knowledge, the developer might create a solution not exactly the way the team visualized. This often results in a disconnect in understanding between teams, leading to a "loss in translation." What is built is completely different from what was visualized, which does not sync with the business process or cannot resolve the challenge you were trying to address. 

Advice to readers 

Our advice to every future and present Microsoft Dynamics 365 user is to try to stay as close to the standard as possible. If you can use existing Microsoft tools to address your use case, with Power Apps, an agent, or any other tool, that is a better long-term decision. 

If you still have a blind spot, then you always have to ask your team “is this process unique to my company, and is it giving us a competitive advantage?”  

If you need to add one step to tailor the ERP to your process and work on a small customization, then that makes better business sense. But if you try to reinvent a process from scratch, there is a good chance that your project will have high risk.  

If the gap is too big or the process too complex, then the recommended approach is to scout for an enterprise-ready solution provided by an ISV.  

A no-code/low-code ISV solution is: 

• As predictable as possible with low-risk 

• Reduces complexity   

• Alleviates the burden of building, testing, documenting, deploying, maintaining, and troubleshooting  

• Allows you to be in control of the project with less dependency on developers 

• Is a better long-term investment 

But if you do decide to build a solution in-house, below are some things to keep in mind: 
 
Code ownership: Consider who is responsible for the code whether it’s developed by a partner or in-house as this will impact project management and control. Assign responsibilities and tasks for the entire project to ensure nothing slips between the chaos of an ERP implementation. 

Partner reliability: If a project involves a partner and there are issues with their performance, it’s important to evaluate whether a new partner will be willing to adopt existing custom code. Ensure you have proper documentation and processes recorded during the entire project. 

Allocate adequate time: Custom coding can present risks to the project, as you need to manage development cycles, testing, deployment, and rework. This could cause potential delays. So set realistic timelines. 

Ensure proper alignment: Technical and functional team members must invest considerable time in designing and discussing requirements to facilitate the development of custom features in the system. Regular alignment discussions, checkpoints, and milestones will help keep you on track.  

Assign team members: Since a customization is an ongoing project that needs to be maintained over time for years, you need to have responsible team members to test, maintain, document, and troubleshoot bug fixes or issues that come up along the way. 

Continue the conversation with us

STAEDEAN experts Eric van Hofwegen, Solutions Consultant, and Kenneth Dolbey, Product Manager, break down the pros and cons of customizations versus using ISV solutions in our on-demand webinar, ‘Strengthening Dynamics 365: Custom Development or ISV Solutions?

If you are interested in simplifying your move to Dynamics 365, reach out to us. To watch a guided demo of our no-code Data Migration Solution for D365 F&SCM, click on the link below.