Building a Digital Future

A Transformational Blueprint for Innovating with Microsoft Dynamics 365

Lipi Sarkar, Vinnie Bansal

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781119747154
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

The dramatic events of 2020 have clarified the urgent need for digital transformation in countless organizations.

The rise of remote work and the rapidly increasing use of cloud technologies are just two drivers of the relentless pace of digital disruption. Despite this, many companies remain underequipped or hesitant to embrace digital transformation. Understanding the key drivers of change and leveraging the powerful capabilities from technologies with a collaborative platform can aid an organization to prepare for digital transformation. Building a Digital Future provides a clearly defined roadmap for executing this change with Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Firms of all types and sizes will learn how Microsoft Dynamics 365 can help them:

• achieve competitive advantages for their business
• reduce the time needed to effect change by automating time-consuming tasks
• drive innovation and improvements through an evergreen system post implementation

Each chapter of this book is curated with best practices, compelling customer examples, pitfalls to avoid, and salient points to remember. Building a Digital Future enables organizations to truly embrace the benefits of digital transformation by anchoring Microsoft Dynamics 365 at the core of their business. Perfect for any business leader looking for a one-stop and comprehensive playbook for transforming their business into a digital powerhouse with Dynamics 365.

PART I
Digital Transformation with Dynamics 365

Part I explores the organization's need for a digital transformation business case and identifies key drivers of change and why Dynamics 365 is the right solution to transform the business. Real-life customer stories from organizations on their business challenges, solution, and the benefits they have achieved are also provided.

Chapter 1: This chapter defines digital transformations and sets the scene by identifying the key drivers of change for an organization, talks about all phases of digital transformation—the ways to assess the readiness of an organization and create a digital business strategy including emerging business priorities.

Chapter 2: To drive business efficiencies of an organization, a platform like Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform can accelerate digital transformation and manage change effectively with the right measures. The key is to simplify, standardize, and automate the business process that aims to deliver an outcome and realize early benefits.

Chapter 3: This chapter discusses the capabilities of the Microsoft Power Platform that empowers employees to resolve many complex business scenarios with low-code/no-code solutions, creating a data-driven culture with Power BI, which improves customer experience with chatbots, and all of these factors add up for business to make informed decisions.

CHAPTER 1
Digital Transformation andthe Case for Change

The advance on technology is based on making it fit in so that you don't really even notice it, so it's part of everyday life.

—Bill Gates, Cofounder at Microsoft

It was a gorgeous sunny day in March 2020. Jack sounded a bit worried in the morning call I had with him. He had a planned series of client workshops to run through requirements for a transformation program that is aiming to automate and centralize sales engagement globally across 15 countries. The overarching outcome of these workshop sessions was to define and design a program that will result in increasing sales, eliminating dependencies on individually maintained Excel and manual notes.

The mode of delivery for these workshops engaging all key client stakeholders from different countries had to be changed suddenly from face-to-face to virtual session. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, 2020 has driven transformation rapidly up the Board and Executive priority list. Many organizations had started this digital journey but global and national lockdowns and corporate offices moving to a work-from-home mandate have forced businesses to rethink enterprise and customer processes, optimization, and efficiency.

Even a few weeks back, such an important workshop day would normally involve morning travel by taxi and train, arriving at the venue ensuring the logistics were in place before the workshop starts.

Anyway, the meeting started with Jack sharing the objective of the workshop and he addressed the current challenge of a virtual workshop session and the key rules of communications during the session (including timing of breaks, waiting for turns using the icon hands-up, and managing expectation of possible background noise of pets or children). Interestingly, the session went very well with everyone accepting the current challenging situation, focussed on the bigger picture and how to best utilize the time remotely.

After 6 months of working from home during COVID-19, we have accepted the new normal and understand that our calls might have background noise of pets or kids. Life moves on with continuous change and innovation.

In every decade, we witness a big transformation and a shift in our lifestyle and in our businesses, which are enabled by technology that was unthinkable earlier. What is “unthinkable” today is a new normal tomorrow.

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“We must dare to think ‘unthinkable’ thoughts.”

—J.W. Fulbright

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Change, Change, Change

Our book takes the reader step-by-step through digital transformation, key drivers for change, digital maturity of the organization, and how Dynamics 365 can enable digital transformation in the organization.

The Covid-19 global pandemic has highlighted gaps in the so-called digitally transformed businesses and their operating models. Now it is the obligation of businesses to reflect on their enterprise-wide approach to digital transformation. There will be several new definitions coming through for digital transformation after 2020, and these will have different approaches. The goal of this book is to create a deeper understanding of the concept of digital transformation, and the critical elements for consideration, applying them to Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Let us look at what digital transformation means from different businesses.

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Kajsa Hofvendahl, Transformation Leader, IKEA Group

“A digital transformation is not a project or initiative with a clear start or an end, and it is not about implementing the latest technology. It is about people, bold leadership and how you leverage the data, competence, and the key technology enablers that are unique for the specific company. That is the first thing someone needs to understand when embarking on the transformation journey, or a continuous evolution as I would rather call it, since that's what it really is. Each company has its own journey and what was made a success in one company may not be true for another. Therefore, to secure your success, set a vision and clear objectives but do not plan for the whole journey. Instead, plan for the iteration that is close to you; by doing so you will be less surprised when you are derailing from initial plans and experience road bumps that you most likely didn't predict. Do not strive for perfection; mistakes are part of the evolution and that is how we learn. Therefore, good enough will take you as far as you need to go for now. The most important part, persistence, is a virtue. Transformation takes time and effort so make sure to create a culture where trust, empowerment, and innovation are key so that the business can continue to evolve.”

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Graeme Hackland, Group CIO, Williams Grand Prix Engineering

“Digital Transformation is a term often followed by ‘whatever that means for your organisation’ – there are some common objectives in almost all Digital Transformations: modernization, right-sized flexible IT services, and an easily understandable cost model. At my Organisation, enabling Collaboration and Mobility were the other pillars of our Digital Transformation, which has now morphed into our Digital Journey – constantly ensuring we remain at the forefront of digital technology that will give us a competitive advantage.”

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A path to digital transformation requires a step-by-step approach with a transparent roadmap involving a wide variety of stakeholders, beyond silos and internal/external constraints. This roadmap considers that the ultimate targets will continue to move forward as the digital transition is de facto a continuous process, as well as digital change and creativity.

Digital transformation has already disrupted many industries and is threatening to disrupt others. The stakes are high, but the risks and opportunities are unevenly distributed. Some sectors are more affected than others. However, there are measures that organizations can take to increase their rewards and reduce their risks. This book defines the transformation of digital activities. It describes the path that organizations must take to avoid disruptions, take advantage of the transformation, and take full advantage of digital technologies and business models.

Continuous advancement in technology at a rapid pace and adoption of technology in businesses are often misinterpreted as Digital Transformation. This view overlooks the value of people buy-in...