What Does It Mean to Migrate to Dynamics 365 From On-Premises Dynamics CRM?

So you read my last article, 10 Headaches With On-Premises Dynamics CRM, and you are convinced that Dynamics 365 is right for your organization. Fantastic! Now the fun begins. What does it mean to migrate to Dynamics 365 from on-premises Dynamics CRM? We just hit the magic button and kaa-blammm.

Not exactly. But for most organizations, this presents an opportunity to rethink, revisit, and improve their Dynamics ecosystem.

Step 1: Analyze your current environment’s configuration.

Investigate what works well and what processes are painful for users.

Managed Solutions

Is this from a third party? If so, you will want most likely want to install the latest version. If not, do you have access to the source code or an unmanaged version of the solution?

Workflows

Workflows still exist in the new system, you can add them to a solution and migrate them.

Business Process Flows

Oh yeah, they will migrate

Plug-ins

Odds are, the existing plugins will work in the online version – as long as they were developed as sandboxed.

Custom Reports using SQL Source

These will have to be rewritten using Fetch XML as the source or developed in tool such as Power BI. Power BI just looks better anyway!

Any ISV folder customizations

Out of luck on this one. Anything that used the ISV folder will have to be reimagined and redeveloped.

Unsupported Customizations

Do I need to say anything?

Personal Dashboards, Charts, and Views

XRM Toolbox has a great tool we can use to migrate these objects. The tricky thing is, if the objects are not owned by an active user, they will not appear in the tool.

Jscript Upgrade to new framework

XRM.Page has been deprecated and most of the time it does not work in the new Unified Interface. FormContext is the new object to use instead.

Step 2: Take some time to learn about the new platform and how you could improve the system for your users, and maybe for yourself as an administrator.

Shiny New Tools

Have you heard about Microsoft’s Power Automate Flow platform? This is Microsoft’s new workflow platform and it is spectacular. It is more flexible and intuitive than the traditional workflow tool was. There are two huge advantages with this tool.

1. You can work with data outside of Dynamics.
2. You can retrieve multiple records and process through them as a loop.

The only downside we are seeing right now is that it doesn’t replace real-time workflows.

Customizable App Experience

We now have the ability to create multiple experiences with Model Driven Apps. Let’s say you have a department that only uses 2 custom entities and nothing else. It may be a good idea to create an app for them to use with only those objects so not everything is exposed and cluttered.

Exchange Integration

Are you using Exchange Online? Great! Because that just works now. Super easy.

Licensing

I heard certain Universities are offering courses in how to license Dynamics 365. If you are done with school, Microsoft has a 66 page licensing guide that makes good Friday night reading.

Step Three: Move your records to the cloud.

This part can be long and arduous. We like to use a tool such as KingsWaySoft to quickly and effectively move the records. This tool also lets us retain original record GUIDs and preserve the complex relationships in the system.

Step Four: Test

Just please test. And test some more.

Step Five: Go Live and Prosper

Aren’t you glad you only have to migrate once? I don’t blame you. However, focus on the opportunity to create a better system and better user experience. It is worth it for sure!

Ready to make the leap to migrate from Dynamics CRM to Dynamics 365 in the cloud? Please reach out to us at any time!