Dynamics 365 CRM Upgrades

Many of our customers have already made the move to Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (Sales, Customer Service and Marketing) and we’ve learnt many lessons along the way. So, here’s our top 5 tips on what to consider when planning your move to Dynamics 365 (Customer Engagement) from CRM 2013, 2015 or 2016.

1. Q: Do I have to move to the cloud?
• A: No, Dynamics 365 Customer engagement will continue to be available as an on-premises deployment.

2. Q: Can I continue use, and purchase, new users for Customer Engagement (on-premises)?
• A: Yes, if you have a current enhancement plan, you can continue to purchase extra Dynamics users.

3. Q: How is Dynamics 365 Customer engagement licensed?
• A: Perpetual license plus annual enhancement plan are available for On-Premise installs. Subscription licenses are available for both Cloud and On-Premise installs. All users are now licensed on a Named User basis.

4. Q: Do I have to recreate all the work done in my current solution?
• A: We will examinate your current business processes and use of Dynamics CRM system components throughout your organization to understand the complexity of existing configurations, customizations and integrations. From here, we can assess the expected effort and identify the business dependencies involved when migrating to Dynamics 365.

5. Q: What extra functionality is included with Dynamics 365 (Sales, Customer Service and Marketing) ?
• A: With each release of Dynamics 365 (Sales, Customer Service and Marketing), Microsoft publish a full list of new/updated features and capabilities: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Updates

If you want to standardise ALL your code but also KEEP ALL your data then a Clean Start Upgrade is the option for you. Any feature GAP Fits can be addressed by Plugins or AppSource Add-ons as appropriate.

Key Considerations:

• Do you want to include a move to Cloud or On-Premise.
• Do you want to drop customizations if no longer used or replaced by standard features.
• Do you want to replace customizations with ready made AppSource solutions.
• As your license may move from Concurrent users to Named users this needs to be considered.

Next Steps:

• We first arrange a 1 to 2 hours Teams call to understand your current business processes that are being managed in your on-premises version and map that to the capabilities of Dynamics 365.
• We then book a remote technical review (1 hour) so we can gather your current system configuration.
• After typically 8 working days, we will revert with a fully costed upgrade proposal & recommendations.

This is a no obligation process and is free of charge.  So why wait reach out to us to begin the process and modernise your platform Now!

If you like what you have and just want to future proof or avail of new features then a Full Upgrade is what’s needed. You simply permit our migration assessor on-premises system access to help them identify your current technical architecture. This information will then be used to develop an analysis of your current code and determine how to best optimise. 

Key Considerations:

• Do you want to include a move to Cloud or On-Premise.
• Do you want to drop customisations if no longer used or replaced by standard features.
• Do you want to replace customistions with ready made AppSource solutions.
• As your license may move from Concurrent users to Named users this needs to be considered.

Next Steps:

• We first arrange a 1 to 2 hours Teams call to understand your current business processes that are being managed in your on-premises version and map that to the capabilities of Dynamics 365.
• We then book a remote technical review (1 hour) so we can gather your current system configuration.
• After typically 15 working days, we will revert with a fully costed upgrade proposal & recommendations.

 

 

ProducT Release Dynamics 365 Business Applications 

Product Release                              Release Date   

2021 release wave 2                         Apr 2022

2021 release wave 1                         Oct 13, 2021        

2020 release wave 2                         Apr 26, 2021

2020 release wave 1                         Oct 23, 2021        

2019 release wave 2                         Apr 30, 2020

 Fixed Lifecycle Version Support 

Product Release                              Release Date      Extended End Date

Dynamics 365 9.0/9.1                       Oct 31, 2018       Jan 13, 2026

Dynamics CRM 2016                        Nov 30, 2015      Jan 13, 2026

Dynamics CRM 2015                        Feb 11, 2015      Jan 14, 2025

Dynamics CRM 2013                        Jan 12, 2014       Jan 09, 2024

Dynamics CRM 2011                        Oct 20, 2016       Jul 13, 2021