Rethinking Microsoft D365 Finance and Operations version updates
Lead Implementation Manager | Digital Transformation & Automation at Metam | Canada & USA
So your business has successfully transitioned from your legacy system to Dynamics 365 Finance and Operation and you are now working in your state-of-the-art, new ERP software. While dealing with all of your post go-live bug fixes, new project phases, functionality improvement, and new company acquisitions that need to be integrated, your IT department taps you on the shoulder with another thing to add to the pile.
Microsoft is pushing a new version update next month.
Microsoft releases four new updates each year that need to be applied, tested, validated, and deployed to production. These consist of two minor upgrades which include small changes and improvements, and two major upgrades which involve larger more significant modifications. To save on time and minimize disruptions, most clients opt for two yearly upgrades which each contain two version increases.
Fearing this update might alter your operations and business processes, or even worse, damage the fancy high-tech customizations you worked so hard to put in place, panic sets in. A new version update requires a project plan, a defined scope, a project team, test cases, an environment strategy, a budget, and more. Can your teams handle operating at reduced capacity until this gets done? Can you get this done before Microsoft’s mandatory auto-update? Is this the only way to move forward?
While upgrades can certainly be stressful, especially when your solution is still in its stabilization phase, they do not need to feel like a burden on your business. Rather, upgrades are an opportunity to reframe and refocus on your goals, while reevaluating how your ERP is helping you to achieve them.
Reinforcing direction
With each new version update, Microsoft releases dozens of new features and enhancements that improve and bolster the ERP. While these may seem like strictly technical improvements, recall that an ERP is a tool for business above all else, and that new features mean new ways of doing business. Upgrades are an opportunity to reflect on and review the state of the ERP and evaluate which business processes it serves, and which it does not. They allow the business to analyse new features, test what has been made available, and quantify the impact on operations.
New features can both help the ERP better fit the current business model or steer it in a different direction, one based on adherence to best industry practices. Improving the fit between an ERP and the business model makes everything run more smoothly within a company. On the other hand, leveraging the ERP to help guide the company towards new and better ways of operating ensures a steady cadence of meaningful improvements. Either way, upgrades help the business sharpen its focus and strengthen its direction. Taking a more reflective approach to upgrades can highlight the evolutive nature of the ERP and underscore collaboration, which often reveals opportunities that would otherwise remain hidden.
Cataloguing and documentation
Whether your upgrade is being managed internally, by an integrator, or by a technology partner, it is crucial to consider the quality of your existing solution documentation. Solution documentation is sometimes seen as tedious, a task that often gets parked until teams have a little more time to breathe. Proper documentation and effective cataloguing are, however, the design plans of your ERP. Just like CAD drawings and technical specs are essential for effective product design and manufacturing, ERP documentation lays out the functionalities and process flow of your system. It allows the business to see which processes are being enhanced by and centralized within the ERP, and more importantly, the processes that have not yet been improved by it.
A version update is an excellent opportunity to assess the existing quality of your ERP process library and build upon it where there may be blind spots. Enhancing your documentation alongside testing the update means comprehensive cataloguing and precise test plans. These plans and libraries, if prepared with quality and care, can serve as the basis of automated regression testing. Automated regression testing frees up your teams even more to focus on robust testing of complex developments instead of repeating basic tasks that they perform in their daily life. More than that, a robust solution catalogue makes training easier, onboarding faster, and enhancements more effective, which are all things that improve the business without even changing the ERP itself.
Strategic data governance
ERP upgrades also provide an opportunity to clean, standardize, and better leverage data. Over time, many organizations accumulate inconsistent, duplicate, or outdated data that undermines reporting and ultimately decision-making. During an upgrade, businesses can establish stronger data governance practices, improve data quality and consistency, and potentially enable more advanced analytics and reporting. With better data comes the possibility to use data more reliably for ever-emerging new technology. To be able to fully leverage products like LLMs or AI agents, a company’s data needs to be strong and reliable. It needs to be structured and available in real time and doing so requires an effective data governance plan that should be continuously adjusted and improved. Revising data governance at each upgrade means being able to use new AI tools as soon as they become available. Maintaining and refreshing data is another task that might sometimes wait on the sidelines for a more opportune moment, but an update is a rare occasion when this becomes a priority.
ERP upgrades can sometimes feel like they are out of our control, but how organizations approach them is their choice to make. When treated as a burden, they consume time and resources with minimal return. When treated as an opportunity, they become a powerful lever for innovation, efficiency, and growth. Upgrades provide an opportunity for businesses to sharpen their goals and direction, reinforce how the ERP helps to serve them, clean and improve solution documentation, and grow their potential with data governance and quality. The companies that gain the most from ERP upgrades are those that look beyond the technology itself and arrive with specific objectives for modernization and improvement. They use the moment to rethink how they operate, empower their people, and build a stronger foundation for the future.
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