Another digital transformation story leveraging Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE, told by the technology expert behind its success:
The objective of is to work alongside our clients to provide solutions that make it easier to do business while getting better at doing business. These professionals have the perfect balance of brains, experience, energy, and curiosity to take on business challenges and realize ways to apply technology like, Dynamics 365 CE, to take-on those challenges and ultimately transform the client’s business.
In this Challenge Accepted interview, you’ll hear directly from Igor Kuperman, HSO senior functional architect who talks about choosing Dynamics 365 CE over Salesforce for a business challenge accepted and conquered.
Igor Kuperman, Senior Functional Architect, tells the tale of how collaboration, supported by Dynamics 365, resulted in business value
Although I come from a technical background, I am a functional solution architect. I was a hands-on developer with various technologies, including Microsoft, but realized it was time to focus on one technology. The decision to choose Microsoft was not necessarily about the technology but more about providing business value. That’s what being a solution architect is all about.
From a business perspective, what is the client trying to accomplish? How do we translate that need into a technical solution that will deliver business value? The technology is important, but you must first understand the business value you’re trying to drive. What represents success to them? My job is to get the client to remain focused on the big picture, determining which business processes the new solution needs to support.
It’s not about pressing the right buttons; it’s about the entire company working together with processes that are going to help them succeed.
The Business challenge: Accommodate aggressive growth with a fast move from Salesforce.com to a new solution
The financial services industry has some incredibly sharp minds. Intelligent and effectual people who don’t have time to explain things from the ground up. I think it helps when the HSO team walks in already speaking their language.
For example, we helped an company implement the entire suite of Microsoft Dynamics products, including Dynamics 365 CE.
We started with the customer (client) engagement segment. The company has an asset management practice, but their private wealth business is also growing rapidly through acquisitions of small, private wealth advisories.
They wanted to bring all these companies under one umbrella but wanted to switch out Salesforce as their CRM solution and have that solution employed at all companies. Furthermore, that solution would need to be applied quickly to accommodate a fast-moving company. We were able to come to the first meeting with an appreciation of the types of relationships the company has with clients and the consultants, as well as the strategies they’re trying to sell. To put it simply, we got it! This got the relationship off on the right foot.
Challenge accepted: Dynamics 365 CE implemented across the organization, beginning with client engagement
We moved the company onto Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE and off Salesforce. In addition, we worked with them to build out an overall security framework specifically around access control, not only for the asset management team, but also for all the private wealth organizations and offices. 
All this was accomplished even faster due to the successful implementation for asset management. This process provided the kind of security the company wanted and needed—an across-the-board success.
The business outcome: Success through collaboration puts the company in a position for continued growth
I believe the reason for the success we experienced in such a short amount of time—in addition to the HSO team having the financial services experience to hit the ground running—was due to the group effort between our team and the client’s team. The client had a great attitude, which was, “Whatever it takes to get it done,” and they backed that up by making available resources, fast (yet responsible) decision making, and access to the data or security we needed to get the job done.
In a word, the HSO team became an extension of the client’s team. We worked together to get the solution designed and executed, and we continued the relationship through endless knowledge sharing, transfer of information, and education around Dynamics CRM and the Microsoft platform. This should be a best practice; a joint team approach eliminates “finger pointing” and achieves success faster.
While the experience was extremely positive, the business outcome of this engagement is the big story. By implementing a modern CRM solution for client relationship management, the company is positioned to grow even faster without impacting their ability to provide excellent client service. When a client comes back—as this one did—wanting to re-engage for a “phase 2” (in this case, implementing Dynamics 365 Finance), that’s always a good sign.
Is your company in need of value-driving transformation?
Start your transformation now. , and we’ll connect you with Igor or one of our other expert consultants, who can get your journey underway.
