Power Apps, Power Automate and Dynamics 365 Delivery
How we led requirements and Agile delivery for Dynamics 365, Power Apps, Power Automate and Power BI, replacing manual sales and service work on one platform.
- 1 shared customer record for sales, service and field teams
- 4 Microsoft products on one Dataverse data model
- ~18 months, delivered in quarterly releases
- 2 week sprints, with working features shown to business owners
Project at a glance
- Client
A US mid-market commercial services company with sales, customer service, field operations and finance teams across several regional offices - Solution
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service, custom Power Apps, Power Automate workflows and integrations, and Power BI reporting on a shared Dataverse data model - Engagement
Business analysis, Agile delivery leadership and solution design support, delivered remotely from Canada - Duration
About 18 months, delivered in quarterly releases - Our role
Ivan Klepikovski led the delivery team as lead business analyst. He worked with the client's business process owners, IT and security teams, Power Platform developers and a Dynamics 365 functional consultant. - Scope
Requirements, process redesign, backlog management in Azure DevOps, Agile ceremonies, integration requirements, testing, release planning and stakeholder reporting
The challenge
What problem was the client trying to solve?
Sales, service and field teams each worked in their own tools, so no one had a full picture of a customer, and simple tasks needed several manual handoffs.
- Pipeline in spreadsheets and email
Leads, opportunities and quotes were tracked in spreadsheets and email, so pipeline reports were unreliable and slow to produce. - No case tracking
Customer service requests arrived by phone and email with no case tracking, priorities or service level targets. - Paper forms in the field
Field staff used paper forms for site visits and inspections, then retyped the results at the office. - Approvals by email
Approvals for discounts, purchases and contract changes moved by email, with no audit trail and frequent delays. - CRM and finance out of step
Customer and invoice data was entered separately in the CRM and the finance system, so the two often disagreed. - More value from Microsoft 365
The client already had Microsoft 365 licences and wanted to get more value from the Microsoft stack rather than add more point solutions.
Our business analysis approach
How did we approach the engagement?
We started with end-to-end processes and decided which tool owned each step: Dynamics 365 for core sales and service records, Power Apps for gaps, Power Automate for workflow and integration, and Power BI for reporting.
- Discovery and current-state analysis
We held workshops with sales, service, field operations and finance, and mapped as-is processes in BPMN from lead to cash and from request to resolution. Every manual handoff, duplicate entry and approval delay was logged as a pain point. - Future-state process design
We designed to-be processes that used standard Dynamics 365 features first and kept customization to genuine gaps. This lowered build cost and made future Microsoft updates easier to absorb. - Fit-gap analysis
Each requirement was classed as standard configuration, low-code extension in Power Apps or Power Automate, integration, or out of scope. The fit-gap matrix drove estimates and release planning. - Requirements and backlog
We captured business and technical requirements as epics, features, user stories and tasks in Azure DevOps. Each story had acceptance criteria, security role requirements, data fields and test notes. - Data model and security
We defined the Dataverse data model with the developers, including standard and custom tables, relationships, and business units. Security roles were mapped to each team so users saw only the records they needed. - Integration requirements
We specified integrations between Dataverse and the finance system for customers, products, orders and invoice status. Specs covered field mappings, triggers, frequency, error handling and ownership of each data element. - Agile delivery
We ran two-week sprints with backlog grooming, sprint planning, reviews and retrospectives. Sprint reviews showed working features to business owners and kept feedback flowing into the backlog. - Schedule and stakeholder reporting
We maintained an Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) covering releases, integration milestones, training and dependencies. Status reports went to stakeholders every week, covering progress, risks, blockers and decisions needed. - Testing and release
We wrote test scenarios from the acceptance criteria and supported system, integration and user acceptance testing. Solutions moved through development, test and production environments as managed solutions, and each release came with release notes and training.
Solution
What did we deliver?
Area
Problem
What was delivered
Dynamics 365 Sales
Pipeline tracked in spreadsheets
Configured lead, opportunity and quote processes with business process flows, stages and required fields
Dynamics 365 Customer Service
No case tracking or service targets
Case management with queues, routing rules, priorities and SLA timers
Field inspection app
Paper forms retyped at the office
Canvas Power App for site visits and inspections that works offline, with photos and signatures saved directly to the customer record
Contract and vendor management
Records spread across shared drives
Model-driven Power App for contracts, renewals and vendor details, linked to customers and cases
Approval workflows
Email approvals with no audit trail
Power Automate approvals for discounts, purchase requests and contract changes, with escalation and a full approval history
Finance integration
Customer and invoice data entered twice
Power Automate flows syncing customers, orders and invoice status between Dataverse and the finance system, with error logging and alerts
Notifications and documents
Manual follow-up emails and documents
Automated notifications for case updates and renewals, plus document generation for quotes and inspection reports
Reporting
Reports built manually
Power BI dashboards on Dataverse for sales pipeline, win rates, case volumes, SLA performance and field activity
Governance
How did we keep the platform governed?
Low-code makes it easy to build quickly, so we put guardrails in place from the first sprint.
- Separate development, test and production environments, with changes moved only as managed solutions.
- Data loss prevention policies that controlled which connectors could be combined, protecting customer and financial data.
- Security roles and business units defined as requirements and tested like any other feature.
- Naming conventions and documentation standards for apps, flows, tables and fields.
- A requirements traceability matrix in Azure DevOps linking business requirements to stories, test cases and releases.
- A support handover pack for the client's IT team covering architecture, integrations, flow ownership and known limitations.
Which BA techniques and tools did we use?
Techniques
- Stakeholder workshops
- BPMN process modelling
- Current and future state analysis
- Fit-gap analysis
- User stories with acceptance criteria
- Data modelling
- Security role mapping
- Integration specifications
- Agile ceremonies
- Integrated Master Schedule planning
- Risk management
- Requirements traceability
- UAT planning
Tools
- Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service
- Power Apps
- Power Automate
- Power BI
- Dataverse
- Azure DevOps
- Microsoft Visio
- Excel
Results
What were the results?
- 1 shared customer record for sales, service and field teams
- 4 Microsoft products on one Dataverse data model
- ~18 months, delivered in quarterly releases
- 2 week sprints, with working features shown to business owners
Sales, service and field teams working from one shared customer record in Dynamics 365.
- Reliable, near real-time pipeline and service reporting in place of manual spreadsheets.
- Faster approvals with a full audit trail, replacing email chains.
- Field data captured once on site, without retyping at the office.
- Fewer data mismatches between the CRM and the finance system, thanks to automated sync.
- Releases delivered on a predictable quarterly cadence, with stakeholders kept informed through weekly reporting and the IMS.
- A governed Power Platform foundation the client can extend with new apps and flows.
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Lessons learned
What can other Microsoft platform teams learn from this project?
- Use standard Dynamics 365 features first. Every customization is something you will maintain through every update.
- Run a fit-gap analysis before estimating. It turns a wish list into a plan with realistic costs.
- Decide which system owns each data element before building integrations. Otherwise the systems will keep overwriting each other.
- Put environment, solution and connector governance in place in the first sprint. Not after the first incident.
- Treat security roles as requirements. Getting access wrong is the fastest way to lose user trust.
Are your teams still working in separate tools?
Talk to a senior business analyst about bringing sales, service and field work onto one Microsoft platform with Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform.
Power Apps, Power Automate and Dynamics 365 Delivery
Project Description
This engagement delivered Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service, custom Power Apps, Power Automate workflows and integrations, and Power BI reporting on a shared Dataverse data model for a US mid-market commercial services company. Over about 18 months, delivered in quarterly releases, Ivan Klepikovski led the delivery team as lead business analyst, managing requirements, process redesign and the Azure DevOps backlog. The result was one shared customer record for sales, service and field teams, near real-time pipeline and service reporting in place of manual spreadsheets, faster approvals with a full audit trail, and a governed Power Platform foundation the client can extend with new apps and flows.
Delivered Value
- Captured and documented business and technical requirements
- Created and maintained user stories and tasks in Azure DevOps
- Analyzed current workflows and defined optimized future-state processes
- Provided clear, consistent status updates to project stakeholders
- Managed the full lifecycle of requirements, from discovery to delivery
- Facilitated backlog grooming sessions for development readiness
- Led sprint planning meetings and Agile ceremonies
- Tracked timelines and milestones using an Integrated Master Schedule (IMS)