5 Steps to a Successful Business Central Discovery Session

A good Discovery Session will work both ways, your Business Central partner will have the opportunity to deep dive into your processes and current problem areas and you’ll be able to address any initial concerns about the suitability of the system. That means a little bit of work on your part beforehand, to make sure you come away with the answers and direction that you want and need.

Here’s the 5 steps you should be aware of before you embark on your Discovery Session and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central journey with your new Business Central partner.

5 Steps to Get The Most Out Of Your Discovery Session With A Business Central Partner

1. Clearly Define Your Goals and Outcomes

They say the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, but that needn’t be the case with clear desirables and outcomes from the outset. Before any Business Central discovery session or demonstration takes place, you should be clear on your goals and outcomes of your new system. Your discovery session will be a great deal more productive if you can clearly communicate what you want – from finances and lengthy or manual processes that take up too much time, to issues with simplifying supply chain.

Look at each aspect of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP system and determine what you want out of each, or, focus on your key issues and what you are certain must be improved for more efficient ways of working. Our Product Features is a good starting part for identifying the key areas of the system.

2. Consider Which Key Stakeholders Need To Be Involved at This Stage

It’s important to get insight and participation from key stakeholder who’s roles, or teams, the new Dynamics 365 Business Central system will affect. That way, they can each come prepared with their own knowledge of key tasks and questions relevant to them that they can present to the Business Central partner. You don’t need to boil the ocean with this one, or have too many people involved – Finance Directors and Managers and IT Directors or Managers are a great place to start to get the ball rolling.

3. Know and Understand Your Current Processes

At this stage, expect to be asked by your Business Central partner a series of questions about your business and how you carry out key tasks, such as your processes for managing financials, taking and processing orders, stock control and your document management and reporting, for example. If you can clearly relay these during your discovery session, your Business Central partner can properly discuss how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central could manage each one quicker, easier and with a single data location.

4. Have Your Questions Prepared

Come armed with your questions too. Get to know your Business Central partner. It’s important they know the ins and outs of your business, but you want to know that you’re teaming up with a partner that has the expertise and attitude that fits with your needs, budgets, timeframes and ethos.

5. Choose The Right Business Central Partner

Make sure you find yourself a reliable and knowledgeable Business Central partner.

At The HBP Group, we have over 30 years’ experience helping businesses move accounts software, so you’re in safe hands with our experts. We’ve also been a Microsoft partner for over a decade and our teams have a vast and deep understanding of the Microsoft suite.

Once you make an enquiry with us, we’ll match you up with a software consultant who will focus on understanding your business, the software you use currently and what you’d like to achieve in a Dynamics 365 Business Central Discovery Session. All of our software consultants have decades of experience in the industry, so they understand exactly what is needed to meet your needs. As an absolute minimum, every one of our support consultants is AAT accredited.

As your project moves through our business, you will be assigned a dedicated Project Manager who will work with the software and implementation consultant and anyone at your business to organise and schedule all of the work that is required. You’ll be kept up-to-date at every stage so that you understand timescales related to your project and the handover process is seamless.