Tips and Tricks for Dynamics 365: Personalization
Software such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems can transform a business — if your staff uses them, that is.
Unfortunately, end-user adoption remains a problem for many organizations. Even if the deployment of a new software solution is smooth, it doesn’t always result in end-user adoption.
Human Resource Executive recently wrote about this struggle, with Chris Pinc of Willis Towers Watson stating that, “The idea that, if you just buy it and roll it out, ‘they will come’ is not going to happen unless there’s an effective strategy in place.”
There are steps organizations can take to improve employee buy-in, such as communicating the benefits, user adoption training, and more. However, there is one simple method that is often overlooked:
Personalization.
Personalizing screens, dashboards, and reports increases comfort with a new system, improves user adoption, and more. Read on for the benefits and how to make it work for your organization.
Benefits of Personalizing Screens
While personalization is simple in concept, it can bring many benefits, including:
- Increasing user adoption
- Saving time — users don’t have to search for what they’re looking for
- Improving employee onboarding
- Reducing errors — customized screens can decrease shortcuts or makeshift workarounds
- And more
For instance, in Microsoft Dynamics 365, users can tailor their screens to their personal preferences. They can make it so that a screen has a similar layout to a familiar past program and shows them exactly what they’re looking for at a glance.
“With personalization, if you can see every data that you want to see in that one screen, as opposed to clicking multiple places, a lot of people get more comfortable with the system,” says Semra Tuzin, Business Consultant at SHEA Global.
Comfort and ease of use play a big factor.
Tuzin has found that people started liking new systems a lot more once they realized they can personalize and add the data they want.
Examples of On-Screen Personalization in Microsoft Dynamics 365
There are many opportunities for on-screen personalization in Microsoft Dynamics 365. For instance, users could:
- Personalize orders
- Add columns/hide columns
- Reorder columns so the information they need is always upfront
- Change the width of grids
- Create a ledger account alias to find a common combination of accounts
The exact personalization can vary by user and organization — and by pre-existing habits.
A common challenge with transitioning to a new program, Tuzin says, is breaking out of a habit.
“You have to pay attention to every button you click,” she says. Personalizing screens can help mimic the familiar experience.
A recent ERP Focus article noted a similar idea about habit change and user adoption.
“Make the effort to understand ‘resistance,’” the article stated.
“We often assume slower adoption is resistance, but it can also be an indication of different learning curves or approaches to change. Use interviews, observations, focus groups, and surveys to ensure you know where key trip-ups may come and how to support the early adopters, the procrastinators, and the resisters.”
Mass Personalization
Another benefit of Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the ability to share customizations — otherwise known as mass personalization.
“One company personalized their whole screen for sales orders, and everybody liked it,” Tuzin says. They ended up sharing their personalization across the organization.
Through Dynamics 365, users can export the screen and an individual user can either import it for their own use or apply it to the whole company.
This becomes even more helpful for cross-department tasks. Tuzin gave the example of a customer service representative needing to see sales order information. Instead of searching for it, they could just import the personalized sales order screen, which would save time.
How to Personalize
Personalization will look different for every user and every company. Tuzin advises to pick out the customizations that will be the most useful individually and across the organization.
It’s also helpful to have an outside perspective. This type of consultation can save businesses time and effort by finding the most efficient personalization preferences that make the biggest impact.
Have you personalized your screens in Microsoft Dynamics 365 or another software system? Share with us on social media. SHEA Global is on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Ask us any questions about screen personalization, onboarding, user adoption, and more at our LIVE Quiz the Wiz web sessions. Our Wiz Panel is answering all of your business questions free of charge. Register today and submit your questions.
At SHEA Global, our business consultants are experts in Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation and provide training during the onboarding process and beyond — including giving personalization tips. Reach out to us for help implementing or leveraging Microsoft Dynamics 365.