Deploying Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE and Azure in France: CRM on-prem legacy edges toward cloud

For Microsoft MVP Clément Olivier, the best part about working with Dynamics and Azure is learning something new on a daily basis. Speaking with MSDW, he shared his insights on working in the French CRM market.

Getting started in the field

Olivier says he first discovered Dynamics CRM seven years ago and quickly added it to his repertoire.

At this time, I didn't know what CRM meant. It was a total discovery for me. I really enjoyed it, within the first week.

Currently, he works as a Dynamics 365 consultant for Javista in the greater Paris region. He works mainly with schools, banks and small businesses, although the team arrangements at Javista mean that he also works on field service projects for clients like an electrical company sending technicians out for servicing.

I have four different projects. One is canvas apps, allowing some sellers to go from shop to shop to offer their products. Others are linked to school management. Basically we have some schools with trainings, using their CRM to follow the different paths of students interested in their training. Today our job is to improve their CRM and make their life easier based on personal preference.

The schools are still on-premises. They are managing it themselves. My job is to implement CRM logic on end processes, but not change the architecture. I do give them advice on improving connections between different systems… I'm pushing them gently to move to the cloud.

Navigating regulations and cloud systems

Although many of the organization's Olivier works with remain committed to on-prem, others are beginning to migrate to the cloud, or requesting mobile PowerApps prompting him to work with Azure and Power Platform.

All our Azure projects are linked to CRM. We started developing canvas apps recently, and for special [requirements] we needed to connect to Azure Functions in order to detect information from the clients. We trained a [machine learning] model to determine if the client was happy. For that we used Azure Functions, which was really interesting. With PowerApps we can do a lot and we can do even more since everything is connected now. 

Another big part of Azure I like to use for tracking is Application Insights. It's really useful for detecting errors.  Additionally, we are using Blob Storage to store pictures for canvas apps to load directly from app.

He explained the divide about moving to cloud.

Fifty percent of our clients are online, fifty percent are on premises. Many are afraid of the cloud and they're not sure if confidential data [will remain] in Europe. Banks want a response in milliseconds to transactions. For that they want to keep infrastructure on their side to add servers to it.

Some industries need to be specifically in France. A data center for Dynamics opened just a few months ago [which has offered a boost]. One day we'll [all] migrate.