Dynamics 365 Support: A System Review Checklist
This checklist will guide you through a comprehensive review of your Dynamics 365 environment, helping you identify potential risks, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement—allowing you to make informed decisions about support, optimisation, and future-proofing. By the end of this article, you’ll have a clear understanding of the key areas to assess within your system and actionable steps to address any issues uncovered.
What a Dynamics 365 System Review Can Reveal
A regular system review is essential for maintaining a healthy and efficient Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation, whether you’re using Business Central, Finance, Supply Chain Management, Sales or Field Service. Many organisations operate on the assumption that once their initial implementation is complete, everything will run smoothly; however, this is rarely the case.
Over time, customisations accumulate, integrations become brittle, and user needs evolve—all contributing to a system that may no longer be performing optimally. A thorough review can uncover issues such as performance bottlenecks, security vulnerabilities, compliance gaps, and hidden technical debt.
The scope of a Dynamics 365 system review extends beyond simply checking if things are “working”. It’s about assessing the overall health and sustainability of your investment—ensuring it continues to deliver value for years to come. This includes evaluating architectural decisions, customisations, integrations, security posture, reporting capabilities, user adoption rates, and alignment with business strategy.
Architecture and Customisation: Assessing Complexity
The complexity of a Dynamics 365 environment often increases over time as new features are added and customisations are implemented to meet evolving business needs. While customisations can be valuable for addressing specific requirements, excessive or poorly designed customisations can introduce instability, hinder upgrades, and increase support costs.
- Customisation Audit: Document all customisations, including code extensions, modifications to standard functionality, and bespoke reports. Assess the business value of each customisation against its complexity and maintenance overhead.
- Extension Strategy: Evaluate whether customisations are implemented using best practices, such as extensions instead of direct modification of base application objects. Extensions provide a more robust and upgrade-friendly approach.
- Technical Debt Assessment: Identify areas where technical shortcuts were taken during the initial implementation or subsequent modifications. Prioritise remediation efforts to reduce long-term maintenance costs and risks.
Integrations: Identifying Bottlenecks and Risks
Dynamics 365 rarely operates in isolation; it typically integrates with a range of other systems, including legacy applications, third-party services, and external data sources. These integrations can be critical for business processes, but they also introduce potential points of failure.
- Integration Mapping: Create a comprehensive map of all integrations, documenting the purpose, technology, and frequency of each connection.
- Performance Monitoring: Monitor integration performance to identify bottlenecks and latency issues. Slow or unreliable integrations can significantly impact overall system efficiency.
- Error Handling & Logging: Review error handling mechanisms for integrations. Ensure errors are properly logged and alerts are triggered when critical failures occur.
- API Management: Assess the security and governance of APIs used for integration. Implement appropriate authentication, authorization, and rate limiting to protect sensitive data.
Security, Permissions & Compliance: A Critical Audit
Maintaining robust security and compliance is paramount in today’s regulatory landscape. A Dynamics 365 system review should include a thorough assessment of user permissions, access controls, and data privacy practices.
- Role-Based Security Review: Verify that users have only the necessary permissions to perform their job functions. Overly permissive roles can increase the risk of accidental or malicious data breaches.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Evaluate DLP policies and configurations to prevent sensitive data from leaving the organisation’s control.
- Audit Trail Analysis: Regularly review audit trails to detect suspicious activity and identify potential security incidents.
- Compliance Assessment: Ensure your Dynamics 365 environment complies with relevant industry regulations, such as GDPR or CCPA.
Reporting Performance: Beyond Standard Dashboards
While standard Dynamics 365 dashboards provide valuable insights, a system review should also assess the performance and reliability of custom reports and data exports.
- Report Execution Time: Monitor report execution times to identify slow-running queries. Optimise query design and indexing to improve performance.
- Data Refresh Schedules: Review data refresh schedules for integrated systems. Ensure data is refreshed frequently enough to meet business needs without overwhelming system resources.
- Custom Report Analysis: Assess the complexity and efficiency of custom reports. Consider alternative reporting solutions, such as Power BI, for more advanced analytics capabilities.
User Adoption and Training Gaps
Even a technically sound Dynamics 365 implementation can fail if users don’t adopt it effectively. A system review should include an assessment of user adoption rates and identify any training gaps that may be hindering productivity.
- Usage Metrics: Track key usage metrics, such as login frequency, feature utilisation, and data entry accuracy.
- User Feedback: Gather feedback from users through surveys, interviews, or focus groups to understand their pain points and identify areas for improvement.
- Training Effectiveness: Evaluate the effectiveness of existing training programs. Provide targeted training sessions to address specific skill gaps.
Upgrade Readiness: Planning for the Future
Microsoft regularly releases updates and new versions of Dynamics 365. A system review should assess your environment’s readiness for these upgrades, ensuring minimal disruption and maximising the benefits of new features.
- Customisation Compatibility: Evaluate the compatibility of customisations with upcoming Dynamics 365 releases. Address any potential conflicts or dependencies.
- Data Migration Planning: Develop a data migration plan for transitioning to newer versions of Dynamics 365.
- Testing & Validation: Conduct thorough testing and validation of upgrades in a non-production environment before deploying them to production.
Next Steps: Requesting a Dynamics 365 Second Opinion
A comprehensive system review can be complex and time-consuming, requiring specialised expertise. If you lack the internal resources or experience to conduct a thorough assessment, consider requesting a second opinion from Sysco Software.
Our team of experienced Microsoft Dynamics 365 specialists can provide an objective evaluation of your environment, identify potential risks and inefficiencies, and recommend actionable steps for improvement.Request a Dynamics 365 Second Opinion todayto ensure your investment continues to deliver maximum value.
