MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research reports that future-ready companies – those that have digitally transformed their customer experience and operational efficiency – achieve an average of 16 percentage points of margin better than their industry competitors. Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 provides the flexible infrastructure that future-ready companies require. Running on the Azure cloud platform, Dynamics 365 unifies CRM, ERP and business intelligence capabilities and lets clients adopt new productivity solutions faster without costly customization. But efficiencies don’t find themselves nor does Dynamics 365 implement itself. Organizations that aspire to be future ready align with expert partners who can guide them through technology’s endless uncertainties.

For the second year in a row, the Forrester Wave assessment of such expert firms has validated Avanade’s approach to helping clients deliver flexible, end-to-end operational efficiencies, now. Of all the Microsoft Dynamics 365 service providers that Forrester evaluated in their recent report, they selected Avanade as the market leader. Forrester recognized Avanade especially for three ways we’ve become a future-ready partner to our clients: by building valuable alliances, by creating industry-specific intellectual property and by developing processes that ensure agility.

1.Future-ready alliances
Forrester Wave praised Avanade’s unique alliances and the advantages those relationship bring for clients. As a joint venture of Accenture and Microsoft, we are naturally equipped with the deep industry expertise of Accenture and the Dynamics 365 product knowledge of Microsoft.

Avanade is also one of Microsoft’s global partners of choice for Azure (Microsoft’s cloud platform) and AI. We have migrated more applications the to the Azure consumption model than any other Service integrator and we share Microsoft’s cloud-first vision. We have the expertise to architect, integrate, secure and govern solutions based on the Microsoft cloud across systems and devices. Data and AI are key to our Intelligent Enterprise vision for clients and over the last year we have almost doubled the number of Data Scientists on our team, from 30 to 50 today.

2.Future-ready intellectual property
Avanade Intelligent Enterprise Solutions (AIES) take the best from Accenture’s Industry Business Process Models and extend them to Microsoft Dynamics 365. We have already built these Business Process Models across 25+ industries providing an end-to-end business process view specific to each industry. These models have been further enhanced with process flows, training documents and test scripts tied to standard Dynamics 365 functionality.

Our proprietary assets and processes are reusable IP allowing us to quickly close gaps in Dynamics 365 solutions and minimize customizations. As a result, clients more easily get the efficiencies they need to win. For instance, we were asked by a global asset management firm looking for a cloud-based solution to replace their existing financial and consolidation systems with minimal customizations. Their goal was to grow the speed and efficiency of their backend operations. Serving as the company’s main system integrator to implement Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, we reduced their time to run key business processes from 4 hours to under five minutes.

3.Future-ready problem-solving
Forrester was especially complementary of the investment we’ve been making in facilities that foster creative problem solving for our Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations customers. The Forrester Wave report stated, “Avanade has heavily invested in its network of global digital and innovation studios to create IP, support customers locally and to co-create solutions with their clients.”

One example of problem-solving excellence that emerged from our internal innovation efforts over the past 12 months is our approach to making migrations easier and faster. Avanade has been leading transitions from legacy ERP systems to state-of-the-art Dynamics 365 using our new Intelligent Upgrade Engine and Migration Factory to execute large-scale and extremely complex implementations at speed.

In addition, the Avanade Delivery Model matches the right people with the right tools and decisions to generate the best results for our clients and long-term relationships for us. Our culture fosters client-centric value-generating innovation including running “innovation days” and having ready access to Microsoft and Accenture technology innovation labs around the world in addition to our own labs.

Just as our clients must constantly improve operational efficiency to stay future-ready, so must Avanade. Our ability to take the leadership position in the Forrester Wave Dynamics 365 report for a second year is testament to the Firm’s commitment to continuous improvement. We have set a high bar for ourselves and our clients and fully expect to extend our capabilities over the next twelve months to secure the leadership spot for a third year in a row.

Download your free copy of the Forrester Wave Report: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Services.