Know your cloud migration options

Is your businesses one of the thousands using Microsoft Dynamics CRM On Premises? Would you like to take advantage of the updated features, valuable new benefits, and cost savings of Dynamics 365 in the cloud? Are you searching for the best way to move from Dynamics CRM/365 On Prem to Dynamics 365 online?

Rest assured that you are not alone!

But you have probably already noticed that there is no turnkey migration solution provided by Microsoft to assist with this process. And without a tried-and-tested turnkey system, there is a lot of work to ensure a successful migration.

The amount of effort involved adds up very quickly when you account for project design, project management, mapping the tables and fields, examining and moving (or rebuilding) any custom components, validating data and functionality in the new instance, training users, etc.

As a Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM partner, we also noticed that something was missing—an efficient, cost-effective, fixed-priced solution to help businesses move to the cloud.

After years of helping small and medium-sized business migrate to the cloud and feeling like we were reinventing the wheel each time, we created the OnTrack Microsoft Dynamics CRM Migration System.

The OnTrack Microsoft Dynamics CRM Migration System is a turnkey solution that enables you to move efficiently and effectively from your Dynamics CRM On Prem instance to Dynamics 365 online.

This migration system handles the migration of data; creation of custom entities & fields; Javascript, plugins and custom workflow assemblies; SSRS Reports; workflows; processes; and form design. It is a complete upgrade and migration system. We handle all the heavy lifting for you.

At this point you might be thinking, “That all sounds great, but certainly there must be other options?” And you would be correct.

There are several Microsoft Dynamics CRM migration tools and programs designed to help companies move from an on-prem Dynamics CRM instance to the cloud. Microsoft’s Fast Track program and third-party migration/integration software like Scribe and KingswaySoft can lend a much needed helping hand to the migration process.

So with several options on the table, how do you know which one is the best fit for your business?

In this article, I’ll introduce you to the available Microsoft Dynamics CRM migration tools and services, weigh some of their most important strengths and weaknesses, and offer suggestions for how to choose the right approach for your Dynamics 365 migration.

Microsoft FastTrack

Microsoft offers incentives to make D365 attractive to larger companies. One of these is the Fast Track program for Dynamics 365 customers with 250 or more full user licenses.

FastTrack is designed to give you some much needed assistance from Microsoft professionals throughout the cloud migration process.

According to Microsoft’s website, FastTrack features include:

• Implementation guidance, including tools and processes
• Onboarding, adoption, and migration guidance and assistance
• Architectural and technical guidance
• Customized workshops to review project milestones
• Technical talks on best practices for technical subjects
• Product roadmap and related feedback loop

These are valuable services. Having Dynamics 365 experts involved to weigh in on the migration process is essential.

However, the customer and partner still need to take responsibility for most of the actual work. For instance, project management, design, development, data migration, setup, and training all fall on the shoulders of the customer and/or partner. Microsoft provides guidance throughout the migration process, but FastTrack is in no way a turnkey solution.

Setting that aside, who wouldn’t want free assistance from Microsoft? After all, they’re the ones responsible for building and maintaining D365.

Unfortunately, not every Dynamics CRM customer is eligible for FastTrack. The minimum licensing requirement is 250 or more full D365 users (Team Members do not count). And again, even if you are a larger organization with 250 or more full CRM users, you (or your partner) are still on the hook for the actual work—including customization and migration.

However, if your company meets the license requirements and has an experienced functional & technical team ready to shepherd the migration project from start to finish, FastTrack might be a great fit.

Third-party migration tools

There are other migration tools, like Scribe and KingswaySoft, which can connect to both Dynamics 365 On Prem and Dynamics 365 Online.

Tools like these allow you to map tables and fields from one system to another. Often used for integrations between systems (for instance, an integration between CRM and an accounting/ERP system), they can also be used to perform a one-time migration.

Using one of these solutions, the migration process would look something like this:

1. Pay the software license for the tool.
2. Pay for services (or train someone to use the tool internally) to map the tables and fields from on prem to online.
3. Pay a developer to build all your custom entities, fields, SSRS Reports, javascript, and other custom code in Dynamics 365 online.
4. Pay a partner to train users on the new interface and features of D365.
5. Run a test migration and validate the data and functionality in D365.
6. Run a final data migration to the cloud, go live, and pay for support and troubleshooting if/when issues arise.

If you have some internal resources that can assist with most or all of the work outlined above, using a migration tool might be a great option.

If not, paying a Microsoft partner to do the majority of the work will add up, and that’s on top of the cost to license the actual migration software.

OnTrack Microsoft Dynamics CRM Migration System

If neither Microsoft’s FastTrack nor a third-party migration tool are a good fit for your organization, you’ll probably want to consider the OnTrack migration system.

We have focused our efforts around standardizing the migration methodology, the tool, the discovery process, and the price.

The fixed price is based on the size of your database and the amount of customization (javascript, plugins, workflow assemblies, SSRS Reports, and workflow processes). And we back it up with a money-back guarantee!

Rather than taking a chance on a time & material project that will likely go over budget, more and more small and medium-sized businesses desire a set of deliverables for a fixed price.

The OnTrack Microsoft Dynamics CRM Migration System reduces your risk and guarantees you get your data, customization, and everything else you need migrated to the cloud with no stress, no strain, and no surprises.

You also have the option to include our OnTrack CRM Success System, our one-of-a-kind program designed to ensure that your team is fully trained and ready to adopt Dynamics 365 in the Microsoft cloud.

With our structured training program and combination of online training videos and scheduled coaching calls, we guarantee your successful adoption of Dynamics 365 online.