Most Dynamics 365 consultants can configure a dashboard.
Very few can configure your business to actually use it.
That’s the difference between implementation and impact. And too many companies settle for the former.
The real challenge isn’t technical complexity. Microsoft has made Dynamics 365 incredibly powerful and user-friendly. The challenge is finding consultants who understand that successful customer engagement requires equal parts technical expertise and organizational psychology.
Coffee + Dunn’s 100% Microsoft-certified consultants understand this balance. Our approach focuses on building partnerships that drive lasting results for your organization. Let’s build your connected experience together.
What Do Dynamics 365 Consultants Do?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 consultants wear many hats, but their core mission remains consistent: translating your business needs into technology solutions that actually work.
Functional Consultants
They bridge the gap between what your business does today and what it could do tomorrow. They spend time understanding your current processes, identifying bottlenecks, and designing workflows that make sense for your team.
You’ll find them:
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- Facilitating workshops with your sales, marketing, and service teams,
- Mapping customer engagement processes, and
- Configuring Dynamics 365 to match how your business actually operates.
Technical Consultants
They handle the behind-the-scenes work that makes everything function smoothly. They build integrations with your existing systems, develop custom applications using Power Platform tools, and ensure your data flows seamlessly between different business applications.
When your sales team needs customer information to automatically populate from marketing campaigns, technical consultants make that happen.
Industry Specialists
They bring domain expertise that generic consultants simply can’t match.
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- A healthcare consultant understands patient data management and regulatory compliance.
- A manufacturing specialist knows supply chain complexities and production planning requirements.
This specialization has become valuable as organizations demand solutions that fit their specific industry challenges.
But modern consultants do more than just implement software. They help organizations leverage AI capabilities like Dynamics 365 Copilot, design omnichannel customer experiences, and create data-driven decision-making processes.
They’re equally comfortable discussing customer engagement strategy with your leadership team and troubleshooting technical configurations with your IT department.
The best Dynamics 365 consultancy partners also serve as experts in change management. They understand that technology success depends on user adoption.
So they design training programs and help teams navigate the transition from old processes to new ones.
Why Your Organization Needs a Dynamics 365 Consultant
Let’s be honest: implementing Dynamics 365 without expert guidance is like trying to renovate your house without an architect.
Sure, it’s technically possible, but the results rarely meet expectations.
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- Complexity Is the Primary Challenge: Dynamics 365 implementations involve countless decisions about system architecture, data migration, integration requirements, and business process design. Organizations attempting self-implementation face higher risks of budget overruns, timeline delays, and scope reductions. Most end up requiring rescue projects that cost significantly more than working with consultants from the start.
- ROI Justifies the Investment Across All Organization Sizes: Forrester’s research shows Dynamics 365 Customer Service implementations achieve 315% ROI with $14.7 million in total benefits over three years. Field Service deployments deliver 346% ROI with benefits totaling $42.65 million. Even accounting for consultant costs, organizations see substantial returns through improved productivity, better customer experiences, and streamlined operations.
- Speed Matters More Than Most Organizations Realize: Experienced Microsoft Dynamics 365 consulting services reduce implementation timelines through proven methodologies and pre-built accelerators. Organizations working with qualified consultants typically achieve go-live in months compared to years for self-implementations. This acceleration translates directly to faster business benefits realization.
- Risk Mitigation Provides Hidden Value: Expert consultants prevent costly mistakes in data migration, system configuration, and integration design. They’ve seen common pitfalls and have established processes to avoid them. The insurance against project failure becomes particularly valuable given the high costs of rescue projects and business disruption.
Consider this: the cost of hiring consultants represents a fraction of your potential losses from failed implementation.
Organizations often discover that poorly implemented technology is actually costing them revenue through inefficient processes and missed opportunities.
When you factor in lost productivity, delayed benefits realization, and the expense of fixing problems, expert guidance becomes an obvious choice.
Key Skills of a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Consultant
Not all consultants are created equal. The best Microsoft Dynamics 365 consultants combine technical proficiency with business acumen and industry expertise.
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- Current Certifications with Practical Experience: Hold relevant Microsoft certifications like the new Dynamics 365 Customer Experience Analyst Associate or MB-230 for Customer Service, plus AI-related certifications, but more importantly, demonstrate hands-on experience in implementing solutions similar to your needs.
- Business Analysis Capabilities: Excel at facilitating workshops with diverse stakeholders, documenting complex business requirements, and translating them into technical specifications while balancing business needs with technical constraints.
- Industry Domain Expertise: Bring specialized knowledge like healthcare HIPAA compliance, professional services project management, or manufacturing quality control that commands premium rates but delivers substantially better outcomes.
- Project Management Proficiency: Understand Microsoft’s Success by Design framework and adapt it to your organizational context, managing scope and communicating project status while escalating issues before they become problems.
- Change Management Skills: Design training programs, develop communication strategies, and help organizations manage resistance to change.
- Technical Architecture Understanding: Know when to configure versus customize the system, plan integrations that actually work, and build solutions that won’t break when your business grows.
- Data Management Expertise: Handle messy data migrations without losing critical information, set up proper data governance, and ensure your data is clean and usable from day one.
- User Adoption Focus: Recognize that technical implementation means nothing without strong user adoption and design solutions that people actually want to use daily.
Look for consultants who can show you real results, rather than just talking about them in theory.
At Coffee + Dunn, our work with Rush Enterprises demonstrates how the right expertise can preserve customer trust through strategic Dynamics Customer Insights implementation, achieving a 10x increase in campaign execution within just 30 days.
Similarly, our partnership with a leading Virginia-based insurance firm shows how financial services companies can boost channel effectiveness with Dynamics 365, resulting in a 55% lift in contacts over four months.
Services Provided by Dynamics 365 Consultants
Microsoft Dynamics 365 consulting services extend far beyond simply setting up software. Today’s consultants help you through your entire customer engagement journey.
1. Strategic Assessment and Planning
Before jumping into implementation, good consultants figure out where you are and where you want to go.
They look at:
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- Your business objectives and desired outcomes
- Technology gaps that slow you down
- Integration needs with existing systems
- Roadmap for achieving your business goals
2. Implementation Services
This represents the core offering most organizations think of first.
Implementation includes:
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- System configuration and customization,
- Solution design and architecture,
- Data migration and cleansing,
- Integration development, and
- Comprehensive testing.
Most organizations spend 60-70% of their consulting budget here.
At Coffee + Dunn, we take a holistic approach to implementation that goes beyond technical setup.
Our customer engagement services include advisory planning, technology implementation, and operational support to ensure your entire team succeeds with the new system.
3. Training and Change Management
Getting the technology working is only half the battle. Your team needs to actually use it.
Consultants create training programs for different roles, help identify internal champions, and support your team through the transition.
Without this piece, even perfect implementations fail.
Coffee + Dunn recognizes that ongoing education drives long-term success. That’s why we’re launching the Knowledge Hub—a comprehensive learning platform with self-paced courses, expert-led webinars, and one-on-one guidance sessions.
Get exclusive access to the Knowledge Hub and ensure your team masters customer engagement best practices.
4. Optimization and Enhancement Services
Once you’re live, there’s always room for improvement. Consultants help with:
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- System performance tuning
- Adopting new Microsoft features
- Workflow improvements
- License optimization
5. Ongoing Support and Managed Services
Some organizations prefer having experts handle day-to-day maintenance. This means 24/7 monitoring, security updates, and user support.
Managed services can often cost less than hiring additional internal resources while providing specialized expertise that’s hard to maintain in-house.
For example, at Coffee + Dunn, our DUNN Right Services start at $5,000 per month, which is much less than the cost of hiring and training dedicated Dynamics 365 staff internally.
How to Find the Right Dynamics 365 Consulting Services
Finding the right Microsoft Dynamics 365 consulting partners comes down to doing your homework.
Don’t just go with the cheapest option or whoever has the most certifications.
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- Start with Experience Verification: Look for consultants who’ve worked with organizations like yours. Ask to see real examples of how they’ve solved problems similar to what you’re facing.
- Evaluate Technical Capabilities Through Live Demonstrations: Don’t settle for generic demos. Ask them to show you how they’d handle your actual data and business scenarios. Pay attention to whether they lean too heavily on customizations. That usually means higher costs down the road.
- Reference Checking Provides Critical Insights: Speak with 3-5 recent clients about project outcomes, timeline adherence, budget management, and post-implementation support. Ask specific questions about challenges encountered and how consultants addressed them. References from similar organizations provide the most valuable insights.
- Cultural Fit Matters More Than Most Organizations Realize: The best consulting relationships feel like partnerships rather than vendor relationships. Assess communication styles, responsiveness, and alignment with your organizational values.
- Consider Total Cost of Ownership Beyond Initial Implementation: Include ongoing support costs, training requirements, optimization services, and future enhancement needs.
Looking for a consulting partner who’ll stick with you beyond go-live?
At Coffee + Dunn, we don’t just implement technology; we become your trusted advisor throughout your entire customer engagement transformation.
Our team knows how to make Dynamics 365 work for your specific industry and business needs. We’re here when you’re ready to talk.
Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Dynamics 365 Consultant
We’ve seen organizations make predictable mistakes when selecting consulting partners. Learning from these common pitfalls can save you significant time, money, and frustration.
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- Don’t Choose Based on Price Alone: Significantly lower pricing often indicates reduced service quality, hidden costs, or inadequate resource allocation. The cost of implementation failure far exceeds the savings from choosing cheaper consultants. We suggest focusing on value delivery rather than initial cost minimization.
- Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Change Management: Organizations often focus entirely on technical implementation while ignoring the organizational change required for successful adoption. Without proper change management, even perfectly implemented systems achieve poor user adoption rates. Ensure consultants include comprehensive change management in their proposals.
- Avoid Consultants Who Promise Unrealistic Timelines or Outcomes: Be skeptical of consultants who significantly underestimate project complexity or promise delivery timelines that seem too good to be true.
- Don’t Overlook Post-Implementation Support Planning: Many organizations focus entirely on go-live without considering ongoing support needs. Discuss support models, response time commitments, and knowledge transfer procedures before signing contracts. Plan for hypercare support during the critical weeks following go-live.
Want to separate fact from fiction when it comes to project expectations?
Check out our guide on busting common implementation myths to avoid falling for unrealistic promises.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are answers to common questions organizations ask when evaluating Microsoft Dynamics 365 consulting options:
Can Consultants Help Optimize Existing Dynamics 365 Implementations?
Yes. Many organizations discover their existing implementations aren’t delivering expected value due to poor configuration or limited user adoption. Consultants conduct system assessments and develop optimization roadmaps that typically show improvements within 2-3 months.
How Long Does a Typical Dynamics 365 Implementation Take?
Every implementation project is different, so it’s not really possible to provide any set timeline. It could take anywhere from 3 months to 12 months, or even longer.
Project duration depends on organizational complexity, number of modules being deployed, data quality, integration requirements, and how quickly your team makes decisions during the project.
What Should Organizations Ask Before Engaging a Dynamics 365 Consultant?
Ask about their experience with your industry and organization size. Request case studies and speak with recent clients. Understand their project methodology, support approach, and how they handle scope changes.
What Is the Typical Cost of Working with a Dynamics 365 Consultant?
Costs depend on what you need and how complex your setup is. Don’t forget to budget for extras like licensing costs, additional testing environments, and ongoing support—these always come up but rarely get discussed upfront.
Conclusion
The most successful Dynamics 365 implementations share one thing in common. They partner with consultants who understand that technology alone doesn’t drive results—strategy, process, and people do.
At Coffee + Dunn, we help organizations build connected customer experiences through our proven Plan-Build-Run methodology.
Our 100% Microsoft-certified team has delivered measurable results across healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, education, and professional services. As a Microsoft Partner of the Year finalist, we bring deep functional expertise that most consultants simply can’t match.
Don’t let another quarter pass with disconnected systems and missed opportunities.. Contact us today to see how we can accelerate your results.
