CRM Expert and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Trainer, Gill Walker's Take on the Top Technological Trends to watch out in 2023

Dynamics 365 is a rapidly rising technology that has been gaining popularity recently, offering a complete suite of cloud-based ERP and CRM applications for businesses. Its modular structure allows companies to implement only the required modules while allowing them to add more as their needs evolve.

Our Influencer Insights segment invites renowned industry leaders to discuss emerging technology developments and Microsoft Business Solutions.

To dive deeply into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Implementation/Migration, we spoke with the industry expert Gill Walker.

Let Us Quickly Get To Our Expert’s Point Of View.

Question 1- What, according to you, are some of the top Microsoft technology trends to watch out for in 2023?

Without a doubt, the top Microsoft technology trends to watch out for in 2023 are AI opportunities. It is fascinating to see how these have been linked to Microsoft Dynamics 365 to help users derive more value from their Dynamics 365 and its data more efficiently.

Question 2: What are some opportunities you would be looking at this year?

This year, I am keen to build my training further and speak within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 arena. Opsis provides a wide range of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and ClickDimensions training, some using the Microsoft Official Courseware and many other courses. I make this training real by illustrating it with examples (often mistakes!) from my 20+ years consulting on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and 10+ years advising on ClickDimensions.

Question 3: Would you like to share some tips on Dynamics 365 Implementation/Migration?

Tips on Dynamics 365 Implementation/Migration – I could speak for hours about this. But to distill it down to a few guidelines:

• The perceived project failure is higher than it should be, and the majority of losses can be attributed to a lack of understanding – of the methodology, the business, or the technology. So, think about swinging some of your planned investment from technical changes to education.
• Ensure that you keep the project ownership truly inside your organization. This requires confirming that the executive sponsors have the skills to perform the role fully.
• Make sure that the project's scope is agreed upon and detailed enough to be workable – whether you are planning a simple, functional upgrade, some data migration, or a full-blown implementation. Scoping is essential whether your project is agile or closer to the waterfall. This usually means investing the time into a facilitated scoping workshop which looks far more deeply than a wishlist.
• There is more education required than end-user training in most projects. Anyone involved in the project should understand the technology – to some degree, testers need to know how to test and what they are testing.
• End-user training must remain an essential item within the project – rather than being cut when budget or time becomes strained. It must be planned and delivered by an experienced trainer who can relate to people with different learning styles. It must contain hands-on practical exercises related to the users' intended use of Dynamics 365, and it must be delivered shortly, ideally no more than two weeks, before going live for the users in question. Training also should be given an appropriate amount of time.

Question 4: What is the potential for Microsoft Partners in Australia?

The potential for Microsoft Partners in Australia is both good and bad! The industry has suffered in recent years of organizations focusing more on selling projects than ensuring their team members have the necessary skills to deliver those projects. This has led to poor projects being delivered. The poor results are then often blamed on the client's lack of understanding – even though the same people probably downplayed the importance of experience and education earlier in the sales cycle. I hope we will see a change in the approach, where there is a deeper understanding of achieving success in these projects. I also wish there is more focus on genuine competency than size, controlled by license sales. I think the potential for partners who achieve this is awesome, and the potential for partners who continue in the billable hour, holding the client responsible, is significantly less sound. Switching focus to genuine competency will also help the smaller partners, who cannot hide behind their size.

Question 5: How can we leverage Microsoft 365 and Power Apps for improved collaboration?

Opportunities for leveraging Microsoft 365 and Power Apps for improved collaboration are plentiful. Dynamics 365 is all about the appropriate sharing of information. I frequently speak about the WORM (write once, read many) approach, which is collaboration across the entire user base, including clients and prospects, to create processes where each data element is only entered once in the system. It is then moved around as needed by the system. While this is not always possible, it must be aimed for. Intelligent use of Microsoft Office and Teams also makes collaborating with information easier. If we shift to collaborating across different organizations – partner and otherwise – staying aware of the strengths and skills of other organizations and collaborating to deliver the best to our clients is an obvious opportunity.

Get to Know Our Influencer

What is the best event that you attended recently? What were your key takeaways?

Events within the Microsoft partner community are still struggling to recover from the blight of COVID. I would love to see the partner community events get their focus sorted so they either target creating a high-class event that benefits participants and sponsors or are a learning environment.

The best event that I have attended recently – although it was just pre-COVID - was the Professional Speakers Australia Convention in 2020. This included a wide range of fantastic speakers, high-quality networking, and loads to learn. My key learning was "Get good or get off ."Since then, I have passed several Dynamics 365 exams and worked on speaking.

What's your success mantra?

My success mantra is to be open-minded – be prepared to learn, especially from people outside the Dynamics 365 partner community.