Microsoft announced last year that Dynamics 365 HR will be merging into Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (F&O). Now that we know the migration deadline will fall somewhere around December 2023, customers using the standalone D365 HR solution must prepare to migrate to D365 F&O before this date.
If this is the first that you’re hearing about the upcoming HR-F&O merge, we strongly recommend reading the following FourVision resources before plowing ahead with your own migration:
- D365 Migration & Merge overview and FAQ
- HR Vision Podcast 46: A Microsoft update on the merge
- D365 HR/F&O Infrastructure Merge & Scenarios
- D365 HR and F&O infrastructure merge from an operational standpoint
If you’re already up-to-speed with the merge, then carry on reading to learn how you can get started with your migration.
First things first: Plan and prepare
Although the official deadline isn’t until the end of 2023, it doesn’t hurt to begin your preparations now; there are some critical operational and technical tasks that need to be carried out before you can begin your migration. And while it’s possible for customers to handle this on their own, we recommend involving a preferred implementation partner like FourVision to ensure that every step in the migration goes to plan.
From an operational standpoint, you’ll need to train your workforce on how to use the D365 F&O environment. There are some key differences between standalone D365 HR and F&O, such as a new interface, that staff members will have to get to grips with. Microsoft has helpfully produced a range of F&O onboarding guides to help you with this.
From a technical standpoint, you’ll need to work with your IT team to prepare your new D365 environment, field mapping, licensing, and integrations. It’s also important to be aware that you may come across new features in F&O that weren’t included in standalone HR, such as Leave & Absence Registration, Time & Attendance Tracking, and Benefits Management.
Carrying out your ‘lift & shift’ automated migration
Once you’ve got your plan in place and you’re ready to start your migration, the next step is the ‘lift & shift’ migration. Every D365 customer’s migration begins with this regardless of their migration scenario.
Data migration is handled by Microsoft’s automated migration tooling, and it will take approximately three-to-four hours to complete. There are five steps involved in this ‘lift & shift’ migration process:
- Create a new Lifecycle Services (LCS) project inside D365
- Migrate to your sandbox environment
- Update your user security features
- Configure and enable your new F&O features
- Migrate to your production environment
The total time this will take, of course, depends entirely on the amount of data that you need to migrate and whether you’ve got any custom integrations that you also need to migrate. These must be handled on a case-by-case basis and will need to be reconnected and reconfigured.
Again, we highly recommend handing your lift & shift migration off to a preferred implementation partner such as us.
To merge, or not to merge?
Following the completion of your ‘lift & shift’ migration, you’ll end up with two F&O systems that serve two distinct purposes: one for HR and one for Finance. You’ve now got a choice to make—you can either keep the two systems separate or you can choose to merge them.
This merge is an additional optional step. Unlike the ‘lift & shift’ migration, it’s not mandatory. In deciding whether to merge the two systems, you should consider things like:
- Whether your HR data should mirror your Finance data
- Whether your company, departmental, and financial structures are the same
- Whether things like security models and personnel numbers can be the same in both HR and F&O
Only you can decide whether merging the two systems makes sense for your own use case. Regardless, FourVision will be on-hand to support you with your migration and help you get the most out of your D365 F&O deployment.
If you’re unsure about your merge plan, what you need to do next, or have any burning questions about the upcoming Dynamics 365 merge, book a free knowledge session with one of our experts!
