How to talk to your AX customers about Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management business value

Discussions about migrating to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management (formerly known as F&O) can make your Dynamics AX customers feel fearful and resistant to change. Identifying those fears and ways to overcome them can help in shaping the priorities of a prospective upgrade or migration project and should lead to better outcomes.

We are confident that once you and your customer discuss the opportunities, the benefits to their business, the potential risks, and how to ensure those risks are managed, you will be able to go ahead with the migration project with everyone’s support.

AX customers express a few common fears about moving to Dynamics 365 F&SCM. They have usually experienced project failures in the past and they are not ready to go through this process again. Also, the migration process might be unclear to them. Everyone knows that something will happen, but exactly how it's going to be implemented is quite a big beast to encounter along the way.

In this article we will share the methods we have developed in the process of supporting our Dynamics partners around the world who help their customers move to D365 Finance and Supply Chain Management to get the most out of their software investment. By preparing to listen to and address your customers’ questions and concerns, especially about their perceived risk, you’ll be able to go ahead with the migration project with everyone’s support.

“The current Dynamics AX version works perfectly – why should I change it?”

What do we do when we are addressing customers with this question? We always do our best to explain the purpose behind changing the current system to Dynamics 365 F&SCM. Therefore, explaining exactly why they should migrate is one of the most important steps. Of course, there will be different reasons for different customers, but this question must be answered most comprehensively.

We recommend emphasizing the benefits of Dynamics 365 F&SCM by:

• Highlighting the specific benefits of their migration and focusing on the new features that have recently been released.
• Explaining how these benefits are going to be relevant to the customer's processes.
• Presenting new functionalities that will automate work for the users, and how that will save them time in the future.

People will often resist a new option because they struggle to imagine an alternative solution. Thus, it’s highly important to demonstrate the value and benefits of the migration to overcome this resistance.

“We’ve upgraded before, and it was a failure”

How can you as a partner ensure that this project is going to be a success? There are three possible ways to address this fear:

• Outline what plans are in place to prepare for the migration, how the risks will be managed, and what processes and project management improvements have been made.
• What lessons has your team learned from previous projects? Be very open and honest to the customers by giving them clarity into the details. Explain how the project is going to be executed, identify common points of failure and how they will be managed this time, and include an explanation of how you will ensure a smooth go-live.
• Ensure stakeholders feel secure by discussing the full training plan to help them get acquainted with the new system. Training is important, but what’s even more important is communicating to people when trainings are going to be held. Planning a few training sessions for before, during, and after the migration from the outset allows people to start feeling more comfortable that they will stay up to speed with the new system. Of course, this communication should be done before planning the overall migration project.

“The Cloud version is more expensive than on-premises”