Topic hub · Microsoft Dynamics 365 Introduction
A Microsoft Dynamics 365 introduction in the mid-market is not a pure IT project — it's a process, data, license, and adoption endeavor with clear accountability. We deliver it for European mid-market companies in three packages for different sizes and in a 4-phase model with fixed price per phase: Discovery, Build, Migration and UAT, Hypercare. Microsoft Partner since 2007, 20+ years of CRM and ERP practice since Microsoft CRM 3.0.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Introduction · Terminology
Anyone who today speaks of "introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365" means much more than activating a license bundle in the admin center. A proper introduction covers four connected work streams: Discovery (understanding business processes, module mapping, license architecture), Build (configuration, Power Platform customization, integration with Microsoft 365 and ERP), Migration (data from predecessor systems, user acceptance testing, end-user training), and Hypercare (support during the first productive weeks, planned transition into Application Care).
"Introduction" and "implementation" are used largely synonymously in practice. "Introduction" emphasizes the organizational side — change management, adoption, training, the standing of accountability in the company. "Implementation" emphasizes the technical side — configuration, customization, data migration, cutover. Both terms cover the same full path from discovery to go-live with hypercare. In SEO terms, one ranks for more functional searches, the other for more business-oriented searches — the work behind them is the same.
A Microsoft Dynamics 365 introduction touches five topics at once — and decides at each of them about later project success:
Anyone not thinking about these five topics simultaneously builds shadow processes, gives away 20 to 50% of license value, and faces an unexplained adoption gap at the latest by the first quarterly review. arades GmbH delivers the complete introduction in a 4-phase model with fixed price per phase and three clearly calculated packages for three mid-market sizes.
Three introduction packages · for three mid-market sizes
An introduction for 30 sales reps looks different than a multi-country introduction for 400 users. We structure this into three clearly delimited packages, each with its own timeframe, module depth, and price corridor.
Timeframe: 3 to 4 months from discovery to hypercare.
Modules: typically Sales alone or Sales + Customer Service. Optionally Business Central if the ERP question is answered at the same time. Without ERP integration from third-party systems.
Migration: from Excel, a lean predecessor system, or without historical data.
Adoption: train-the-trainer program, one training wave, documented quick-reference cards.
Investment: from €60,000 net, typically €60,000 to €110,000 net. Plus Microsoft licenses.
Timeframe: 6 to 9 months from discovery to hypercare.
Modules: two to four CE modules (Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Customer Insights Journeys, or Project Operations), often with Business Central or with integration to an existing Finance & Operations or SAP system.
Migration: from a productive CRM system (Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics CRM on-premises) with master data and selected historical data. Integration with Microsoft 365, ERP, and marketing tool.
Adoption: key-user program per department, several training waves, documented onboarding for new employees.
Investment: €120,000 to €280,000 net. Plus Microsoft licenses.
Timeframe: 9 to 14 months from discovery to hypercare. Iteratively in multiple release waves.
Modules: multi-module program with three to five CE modules, Business Central or integration with Finance & Operations, Power Platform extensions, Customer Insights data platform for a 360-degree view.
Migration: multi-system consolidation, multi-country setup with tenant strategy, ERP integration, BI integration.
Adoption: dedicated adoption program over 6 to 12 months, champion network, power-user office hours, adoption metrics in monthly reporting.
Investment: from €350,000 net. Concrete calculation after discovery. Plus Microsoft licenses.
Note on pricing: The corridors named refer to the pure advisory and implementation work across all four phases. The Microsoft licenses are itemized separately and billed monthly in euros via the Microsoft CSP model — they depend on user count, module choice, and tariff choice and can be modeled upfront with our License Cost Calculator.
Four phases · fixed price per phase
Four clearly delimited phases with their own deliverable. After each phase you can decide whether to continue with us or take over internally. Fixed price per phase, predictable budget line.
In two to four weeks we analyze the current sales, service, project, and marketing processes, conduct stakeholder interviews with management and business units, map requirements onto the matching Dynamics 365 modules, calculate the license architecture (full-user, Team Member, Device licenses, attach logic), and prepare the migration risk inventory. We honestly examine whether Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the right answer — and tell you if a different system fits better.
Deliverable: solution blueprint (15–25 pages), license calculation as Excel, roadmap sketch, risk register.
Based on the solution blueprint we set up the Dynamics 365 environment: configured modules with business rules, security roles, and workflows; standard customization via Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse); integration with Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, SharePoint), ERP interfaces, and third-party systems; setup of standard dashboards and reports. We work in 2- to 4-week sprints with weekly demo and clear quality gates.
Deliverable: productive sandbox tenant with all business processes, documented configuration, integration contracts.
Data migration from predecessor systems (Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics CRM on-premises, NAV/Navision, Excel) with a clearly defined migration inventory — accounts, contacts, open opportunities, cases, selected historical activities. End-to-end testing by business units, user acceptance testing with key users, end-user training in role-specific waves, cutover planning, and dress rehearsal. At the end: a validated production system with migrated data and trained users.
Deliverable: validated production system, migration log, training material, cutover plan.
Four weeks of hypercare after go-live with elevated response readiness. Daily stand-up with the key users, quick corrections of first production findings, adoption support. At the end of the fourth week, planned transition into Application Care (predictable monthly contract with SLA for releases, hotfixes, enhancements, tenant hardening) or pay-per-hour. We take over the operation ourselves — no handover to an external run partner.
Deliverable: productive system with enabled users, transition protocol, Application Care contract or pay-per-hour setup.
What we've learned from 20+ years of CRM and ERP introductions
Most failed Dynamics 365 introductions don't fail on the technology. They fail on recurring patterns in preparation and execution. We've collected them — as honest self-disclosure and as an evaluation aid for any introduction project, even if you don't work with us.
"We'll just take Sales and Customer Service for everyone." That looks decisive — and almost always leads to two license categories too many and one too few. An 80-person organization where the sales team and the service team have different expectations of data model, workflows, and reports cannot be covered with a standard mapping. Discovery is therefore not an optional warm-up but the phase in which the later project volume moves by a factor of 2 or 3. Without discovery, the build phase becomes twice as expensive.
"We'll move the data over the weekend, the intern can handle it." Until the first real data-quality assessment: 30% of accounts without industry classification, 18% of contacts without email address, 7 custom fields in the legacy CRM without label. Data migration isn't the transfer of records but a mapping, cleaning, and validation task. In every introduction we calculate dedicated migration effort with clear steps: inventory, mapping, cleansing, test migration, validation, production migration. Anyone who underestimates this risks a production system the users don't trust.
"We'll do a one-day training for everyone on the go-live weekend." Three months later, 40% of licenses are using the standard list view, 12% don't log in at all, and 6 people continue their Excel lists in parallel. Real adoption covers role-specific curricula (sales, service, marketing, management), key-user programs with clear role descriptions, accompanying office hours over the first three months, and documented quick-reference cards. Adoption is not a training session, it's a program.
"Sales Professional for everyone, that's enough." Until the first customer service case that needs an SLA timer. Or the first field service call that requires tour optimization. Or the first project billing that demands resource-based time tracking. The right license mix of full-user, Team Member, Device licenses, and Attach logic (Sales license with attached Customer Service function at attach price) can only be cleanly calculated in discovery — and for an 80-person organization can save 20 to 35% in license spend.
"We'll have it all custom-built for us." Six months later: 14 custom plug-ins that have to be reworked with every Microsoft release wave, three Power Apps overlays that no one understands anymore, and a workflow mesh that's no longer documented. The healthy default is the opposite: first check whether the Microsoft standard is enough, then work with Power Platform configuration, only then reach for pro-code extensions. Every customization must be justified — not every requirement must turn into a customization.
"Go-live was Friday, on Monday everyone runs by themselves." Until the first quarterly close in which no one knows how to read a particular report. Or until the first employee turnover where the knowledge has walked out. Four weeks of hypercare are the minimum — with daily stand-up, quick corrections, adoption support, and a clear transition into Application Care or pay-per-hour. Anyone saving here saves in the wrong place and pays double in the first half-year after go-live.
Total cost of ownership · calculated transparently
The answer to "What does it cost?" has four components — and the largest is not the introduction project itself. We make the TCO structure transparent before the first contract so you can really compare.
The pure advisory and implementation work across all four phases (Discovery, Build, Migration, Hypercare). We calculate as a fixed price per phase: from €60,000 net (Quick-Start), €120,000 to €280,000 net (Mid-Market), or from €350,000 net (Plus). Change requests not covered in discovery are calculated separately as fixed-price packages.
The ongoing Microsoft Dynamics 365 licenses are billed monthly in euros via the Microsoft CSP model. They depend on user count, module choice (Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Project Operations, Business Central), and license mix (full-user, Team Member, Device, Attach). A typical 80-person sales organization lands at around €70 per user per month with the right mix — and the right mix saves 20 to 35% compared to the naive "full-user for everyone" approach. More details on our D365 licensing topic page and in the License Cost Calculator.
After the four weeks of hypercare, every productive system needs ongoing care: releases, hotfixes, small enhancements, tenant hardening, license optimization, release-wave assessment. We offer this as Application Care with a predictable monthly flat fee and SLA. Order of magnitude: 3 to 8% of the introduction volume per year, depending on module depth and number of integrations. Alternative: pay-per-hour without a fixed contract.
Initial user training is part of the migration and UAT phase. But adoption is an ongoing program: new employees, module extensions, release-wave training, Copilot use-case workshops. We calculate this as an annual adoption budget with role-specific curricula. Order of magnitude: 8 to 15% of license volume per year. More details on our D365 training topic page.
Example A — Mid-market B2B sales, 35 employees, Sales + Customer Service. Introduction project (Quick-Start): €85,000 net one-time. Ongoing licenses (mix of full-user + Team Member): around €2,400/month = €28,800/year. Application Care: around €1,500/month = €18,000/year. Adoption budget year 2: €6,000/year. Investment year 1: around €138,000. Ongoing annual cost from year 2: around €53,000.
Example B — Mid-market machinery manufacturer, 140 employees, Sales + Customer Service + Field Service + Business Central. Introduction project (Mid-Market with ERP integration): €220,000 net one-time. Ongoing licenses: around €12,000/month = €144,000/year. Application Care: around €5,500/month = €66,000/year. Adoption budget year 2: €18,000/year. Investment year 1: around €448,000. Ongoing annual cost from year 2: around €228,000.
Example C — International service firm, 380 employees, Sales + Customer Service + Project Operations + Customer Insights Journeys + F&O integration. Introduction project (Plus, three waves over 12 months): €420,000 net one-time. Ongoing licenses: around €38,000/month = €456,000/year. Application Care: around €15,000/month = €180,000/year. Adoption budget year 2: €55,000/year. Investment year 1: around €1,056,000. Ongoing annual cost from year 2: around €691,000.
The values are orientation magnitudes from real SMB and mid-market projects. Specific fixed prices after the 30-minute discovery, or at the latest at the end of the discovery phase.
Where arades is strong · 6 pillars
Six strengths we bring from more than 20 years of Microsoft practice — and what makes an arades introduction different from one delivered by a large consulting firm or a generic IT shop.
20+ years of CRM and ERP introductions — through every platform shift, release-wave rebrand, and license-model change. Much of what's not in the Microsoft documentation we know from lived projects.
We build not only for customers but also our own solutions on Microsoft Dataverse (Project & Service Management, Intercompany Integration, Teams Integration for Dynamics 365). Eat-your-own-dogfood — we know the platform from a builder's view, not just from training slides.
After the discovery conversation you speak with the same people who will build the system. No account-manager layer, no handover to offshore teams. We work in teams of 2 to 6 — the decision-makers are technically deep in the topic.
Microsoft Partner since 2007, Microsoft CSP for direct license delivery with monthly consolidated invoicing in euros. Stable supply chain, clear escalation path to Microsoft, no handoff chain between advisory, license, and implementation.
After every phase, a fixed price for the next phase. You decide at the end of a phase whether to continue with us or take over internally. No timesheet escalation, no open effort corridors, no surprise invoices at month-end.
Application Care is not handed off to an external run partner. The same people who built the system also care for it in run. Releases, hotfixes, enhancements, tenant hardening — from a single source, with continuous context.
Frequently asked questions about the Microsoft Dynamics 365 introduction
A Microsoft Dynamics 365 introduction is the complete commissioning of one or more Dynamics 365 modules (Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Project Operations, Business Central) in a company — from discovery through build and data migration to hypercare after go-live. Introduction and implementation are used largely synonymously.
Quick-Start (10–50 users, 1–2 modules): 3 to 4 months. Mid-Market (50–300 users, 2–4 modules with integration): 6 to 9 months. Plus (300–500+ users with ERP integration and multi-country): 9 to 14 months. Longer projects are often a warning sign — we prefer to build iteratively in several smaller waves.
Quick-Start: from €60,000 net. Mid-Market: €120,000 to €280,000 net. Plus: from €350,000 net. Add the ongoing Microsoft licenses, depending on user count and module choice, and after go-live either Application Care as a monthly contract or pay-per-hour.
Four phases with their own fixed price: Discovery (2–4 weeks), Build (8–16 weeks), Migration and UAT (4–8 weeks), Hypercare (4 weeks) with transition into Application Care.
Largely synonymous in practice. "Introduction" emphasizes the organizational side (adoption, change management), "implementation" the technical side (configuration, customization, migration). Both cover the same path from discovery to go-live with hypercare.
Yes. We regularly migrate from Salesforce, HubSpot, SugarCRM, Dynamics CRM on-premises (2011/2013/2015/2016), NAV/Navision, and Excel. The migration is usually technically solvable — the more important question is which data you deliberately don't migrate. In discovery we clarify this and calculate the migration effort as a fixed price.
Yes, that's essential. A Dynamics 365 introduction without a business-side person who takes responsibility in the company (Product Owner or Key User Lead) will fail. They need 30 to 60% of their working time during the project and remain accountable after go-live.
Four weeks of hypercare are included in every introduction. Then transition into Application Care (predictable monthly contract with SLA) or pay-per-hour. We take over the operation ourselves — no handover to an external run partner.
Fixed price per phase. After discovery there's a fixed-price quote for build, after build for migration and UAT, after UAT for hypercare. Change requests are calculated separately as fixed-price packages.
You speak directly with the people who build. No account-manager layer, no handover to offshore teams. 2–6 people per team, own solutions on Dynamics 365 (eat-your-own-dogfood), Application Care after go-live from the same hand.
Further reading
Before the first click in the system: discovery conversation, strategy workshop, architecture review. Module choice, license architecture, roadmap. 30-min discovery free.
Six criteria for selecting a Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner. With honest self-disclosure about arades.
The technical engineering view of the introduction: 4-phase approach, sprint logic, quality gates, cutover planning.
For a migration instead of a greenfield introduction: eight typical source systems (Salesforce, SAP CRM, HubSpot, on-prem CRM, and more), 4-phase model with HowTo schema, fixed-price packages from €25,000.
Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Project Operations, Business Central, Contact Center. Base/Attach logic, Copilot Credits, NCE mechanics.
Turning 50 licenses into 50 users. Role-specific curricula, online-live, on-site, on-demand. Adoption programs up to 6 months.
After hypercare. Predictable monthly contract with SLA. Releases, hotfixes, enhancements, tenant hardening. From the same hand as the introduction.
Plan your introduction
30 minutes of discovery — we clarify together whether Quick-Start, Mid-Market, or Plus fits your situation, which modules make sense, and what order of magnitude you should realistically plan for. First assessment with concrete numbers, usually within one business day. Or call us directly.
