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Implement a solution based on your business processes

  • Article

To deliver products and services in fast-changing markets and technologies, you need efficient and scalable business processes. Business applications can help you improve your processes by automating, optimizing, and standardizing them. This way, you can create a more adaptable and effective solution.

Guidance

In this section, you'll learn:

  • Why a process-focused approach is essential for implementing Dynamics 365 business applications
  • How to use business process mapping and management to achieve your goals and meet your requirements
  • How to benefit from using business processes as the main framework for your project implementation cycle
  • How to ensure consistency, communication, and performance in your project phases and processes

Start with your business processes

Your business processes are the core drivers of your solution. They reflect your needs and goals, and they guide your improvements. To learn more, see Solution architecture design pillars.

Use the business language

Every organization has its own language to describe its daily operations. This language is based on your business processes and the terminology of your industry. During a Dynamics 365 implementation project, this language is the best and most familiar way for you to communicate your needs, tools, and technologies. This language is not just words; it includes the processes you use to conduct your transactions and activities. Using and refining these processes in your language is important to keep your business requirements clear and accurate. It also helps you avoid confusion and misunderstanding with the technical tasks and terms involved in the implementation.

This language is often called a taxonomy. A process taxonomy organizes your processes in a hierarchy, from the broad top-level ones to the detailed lower-level ones.

When your project starts, putting your business process view at the center pays off.

When you discuss your project and business processes with third parties, this approach helps them learn your language and understand your organization.

Start with a vision for your future business processes

To focus on the activities you need to reach your goal, you need to have a vision of how your business will be transformed by technology. You also need to understand how your business works today and how you want it to work in the future.

Successful implementations start with a clear understanding of your business model. This is also called a target operating model (TOM). It includes how you create value through your products and services, and how you relate to your customers and suppliers. Multiple business processes support and align with your business model. To learn more about how to define your business model and connect it to your business processes, see Drive app value. Your business processes provide the foundation for your solution roadmap and digital transformation.

Your processes also define the functional scope of your solution. You need to define your business processes before you can work on your requirements and other aspects of your solution.

When you define your business model, evaluate the state of your processes. You may want to use new technology to optimize your existing processes through automation. Or you may need new processes to move to e-commerce or outsource some operations. Or you may want to adopt lean manufacturing.

A common mistake is to think that the new system you implement will define your processes. It's the other way around. Technology is an enabler. It may change the user experience and drive certain behaviors. But the system should serve and fit your operations, and your stakeholders define your business model.

You may also want to consolidate and standardize your processes across different parts of your business. Knowing the state of your processes helps you plan how to achieve your goals. The effort to implement an existing process with new technology is different from the effort to define or agree on new processes.

Your business processes may not be the same across your business. For example, one division may ship inventory directly to customers, while others use a warehouse. Or you may have a shared product catalog and ordering process for employee purchasing. In any case, your business model analysis, process re-engineering, and standardization strategies should be part of your project definition. This links your processes to your business strategy and helps you set process-based project goals.

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