What Is Microsoft Dynamics Project Operations?

Microsoft Dynamics Project Operations

Businesses that provide project-based services operate in a highly competitive market. They have to contend with significant challenges like fast-tracking project delivery, winning new deals, and increasing profit margins. In most cases, the teams in these organizations rely on disconnected systems for collaboration, project management, sales, and financials, yet the success in the environment calls for unifying teams around actionable data.

This is where Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations comes in to save the situation. It’s a solution that helps businesses deliver projects on time and budget with a single engagement system for resources, project sales, delivery, and billing teams.

What is Dynamics 365 Project Operations?

Dynamics 365 Project Operations is a new application from Microsoft that was released in October 2020. The platform comes as an evolution of the existing account modules and project management inside Dynamics 365 Finance. It also serves as an updated version of Microsoft’s previous Project Service Automation (PSA) solution.

The project functionality that was previously in-built in Dynamics 365 Finance and PSA now comes merged into a separate SKU, known as Project Operations. The old Dynamics 365 Finance and PSA are now non-existent.

Dynamics 365 Project Operations works by unifying operational workflows for enhanced collaboration, visibility, and insights needed for business success across teams, including sales and finance. It improves efficiency by connecting your resourcing, sales, finance, and project management teams with a single application. This way, the teams can win more deals, deliver promptly, and maximize profitability, while empowering themselves.

Dynamics 365 Project Operations Capabilities

By using Dynamics 365 Project Operations, your business can hope to achieve more efficiency and productivity. It comes with outstanding modules for success across your entire project-centric business.

Deal Management

With better contract management and more accuracy in forecasting, project quotes, estimation, and scope, your company is sure to win more bids. The platform provides you and other leaders in the company with valuable business insights that help to increase visibility across all data, teams, and processes.

Besides, the AI capabilities come in handy for more informed and timely business decisions. In the long run, your business shortens deal cycles while managing the pipeline with a unified sales dashboard.

Resource Utilization

The platform helps you to always ensure you assign the right people to all projects through proper scheduling, resourcing insights, skills matching, and governance. When you have the right people, with the right skills, in the right projects, you can improve the overall quality of your business projects and retain the top performers for future projects.

Project Financials

You will be better positioned to manage project accounting with more precision while ensuring compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards. Dynamics 365 is also designed to help you realize revenue promptly and with minimal errors. With the tool, your business will be able to involve customers quickly while having an accurate account management system.

Time and Expenses

Dynamics 365 Projects Operations allows you to approve, submit, and reconcile time and expense entries on the go for improved efficiency in reimbursement and client billing. The platform will enable your company to make team member compliance easier. Whether using the mobile app or browser, you can make time and expense submissions promptly, regardless of your location.

Project Management

Your project managers will always succeed at what they do if you furnish them with the right tools. Dynamics 365 Project Operations allows them to estimate and track project mechanisms with more efficiency. They can collaborate easily across the project’s lifecycle, ensuring they apply vital insights to the project for the best results. The tool incorporates easy-to-use embedded Microsoft project capabilities, including Gantt charts and Kanban boards, for greater productivity.

Business Intelligence

The consolidated view of financial data and sales enables your business to rapidly adapt to the business environment based on actionable insights. Make use of the built-in dashboards that provide crucial information like forecasting, resource utilization, and budgeting to help your business quickly adapt to changing business conditions.

Team Collaboration

The platform provides a collaborative and secure workplace for project members, partners, and customers. Through the platform, they can share information and project deliverables as the project continues to be executed. As they continue working together, team members can proactively identify and solve potential risks for the success of each project. The platform also enhances the operational visibility of your business projects for improved process efficiency.

Project Planning 

The module is natively integrated into Microsoft Project to help you improve your project planning right from the design stage through the estimation phase to completion. Its scheduling and management power also enables the sales and project management teams to collaborate for productivity and efficiency. The dashboards reflect the cost, duration, and value your team offers to the prospect or client.

Mobility 

The mobility module provides project information with the suitable device for the proper role. Therefore, you can easily access customer or project data and collaborate directly with your team via mobile PSA.

Service Analytics 

The platform provides real-time analytics that go from being reactive to proactive. Its Interactive Business Intelligence feature is crucial in helping you ensure that your projects are feasible and profitable. It also enables you to analyze the critical KIPs for the successful completion of every project.

Project Operations also has Cortana Intelligence and Power BI built-in. As a service-driven organization, the tool will help you to submit your bids after identifying potential opportunities. Besides, it has the tools to help you deliver projects on time and budget and invoice your customers according to the billing arrangements.

Final Thoughts

Dynamics 365 Projects Operations is a reliable end-to-end solution for project-driven businesses. It comes with suitable billing, resourcing, sales, time tracking, and work delivery modules. While the software is not inexpensive, it will undoubtedly enhance your business productivity and efficiency, especially if you integrate it into a full-service lifecycle.

If you are a Dynamics 365 customer and want to connect your Project and Resources scheduling with Finance and Operations, this is the tool for you. For more information on how it works and how it can benefit your business, experts at Pure IT are here to help. Contact us today for more information on this and all your Microsoft support needs.