Process optimization and change management in Business Central
At the start of the guide we encouraged you to know your processes, your solution, and your mandate. If you have done that homework, you have a good foundation. You know what runs well and where there is friction. You must use that insight proactively to optimize your business.
Process optimization is part of your responsibility
Process optimization is part of your responsibility, whether or not it is in your job description. You are the person in the organization with the best basis for spotting optimization opportunities. You know the processes, you know the system, you know the users, and you know when someone spends half an hour on something the system could handle in ten seconds.
You can’t carry the task alone
Process optimization requires backing from management. You need management to prioritize the effort and to give you a mandate to carry out changes. Without that backing you risk good proposals stranding because no one has said yes to spending time and money on them.
Two approaches: reactive and proactive optimization
There are two ways to work with process optimization, and you should embrace both.
| Approach | What it is | What it requires |
|---|---|---|
| Reactive | Microsoft releases a new feature, and you spot an opportunity to solve a need | That you keep up with Microsoft’s release waves and Feature Management |
| Proactive | You know an employee spends disproportionate time on something, and you find a solution | That you know your employees’ everyday work well enough to know where the shoe pinches |
Example of reactive optimization
Maybe a smarter way to handle bank postings has arrived, and you know your colleague in finance spends a lot of time on it today. You suggest turning the feature on.
Example of proactive optimization
An employee spends disproportionate time on a manual task. You investigate the options:
- an app on Microsoft Marketplace
- a Power Automate flow or a Power App
- an AI agent that can take over part of the process
Stay informed about the possibilities
Both approaches assume you stay informed about what Business Central, Power Platform, Copilot, and AI agents can do. You don’t have to know everything yourself, but you need to know enough to spot the opportunities.
Feature Management as a fixed source of inspiration
You don’t have to read every release note for Business Central from end to end, but you should keep up with new features in Feature Management, where you choose what to turn on. Look at that page regularly and systematically. There may be options that fit perfectly with a problem you didn’t know Microsoft had solved.
Know the possibilities in Power Platform
You should also know the possibilities for automating and building agents that you get with:
- Power Apps
- Power Automate
- Copilot Studio
- other Microsoft tools
Overview makes prioritization easier
The new possibilities are much easier to evaluate when you have an overview of your own solution and your users’ processes. With that knowledge as a foundation, you can quickly assess whether a new feature is relevant to you. Without overview, release notes are just a long list that is hard to prioritize.
Define the gain in advance
When you propose a process change, you should have an idea of what the gain should be. That sounds formal, but it doesn’t have to be heavy.
Example of a concrete target
“We currently spend four hours a week on this task. With the new setup we expect to cut the time in half.”
Without a target you can’t prove the gain
If you don’t define the gain target in advance, you can’t prove afterward that the target was met. Without proof you only have a sense, and senses rarely convince a CFO that your projects create value.
Gains can take many forms
Gains don’t have to be about time. Possible target types:
- fewer errors
- better data quality
- faster invoicing
- shorter lead times
- higher customer satisfaction
- better data overview for management
The gains must be concrete enough for you to assess whether you reached the goal.
Documented gains strengthen your position
It is also a good tool for you yourself. If you want to show that your effort as ERP manager makes a difference, documented gains are the strongest argument you can have.
Testing and approval of process changes
If you change a work process that involves Business Central, the change must be tested and approved before it is put into operation. That applies whether it is a new app, a new configuration, or simply a changed sequence in an existing process.
The technical side of sandbox environments and test procedures is covered in the chapter on updates and testing. This is about the change process:
- that the change makes sense in practice
- that the affected employees are on board
- that there is a plan for when and how the change takes effect
You own the plan, but not necessarily the execution
As ERP manager you are responsible for the plan. That doesn’t mean you perform all the testing yourself, but you are the one who ensures that:
- there is a plan
- the plan is followed
- the change is approved before it hits the production environment
If you let changes go into operation without a plan, you end up cleaning up afterward, and that is always more expensive than testing in advance.
Update your documentation with every change
Make sure that changes in processes are reflected in your documentation. The process overview we talked about at the start of the guide loses its value if you don’t update it when something changes.
Change management: the human side
The hardest part of process optimization has nothing to do with technology. It is about people. You can find the cleverest solution in the world, but if the employees don’t embrace it, it is worth nothing.
You will meet resistance. It isn’t a question of if, but when and from whom.
Two typical sources of resistance
| Source of resistance | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| “That’s how we’ve always done it” | Employees who have sat in the same role for many years and have developed well-functioning routines |
| Fear of losing one’s job | Media coverage of AI and automation as savings and layoffs |
Why “that’s how we’ve always done it” is hard
The resistance often comes from employees who have developed routines that work for them. Asking them to change those routines can feel like criticism of their work. It naturally isn’t, but that is how it can be perceived.
The existential fear
We live in a time where the media every week brings stories about companies cutting staff with reference to AI and automation. So when you come along and say “process optimization”, it isn’t strange that some hear “savings” and think “layoff”. You must be aware of that.
How to get teammates instead of opponents
The best approach is to let the employees who perform a process take ownership of the change.
Invite in instead of imposing
If you impose a new process from above, you meet resistance. If you instead invite them in and ask whether the new feature can make their workday easier, you get teammates.
Present optimization as a helping tool
This requires that you present process optimization as a helping tool. The purpose is to remove the manual handling and the trivial tasks so that employees can spend their time on what creates real value:
- analysis
- decisions
- customer contact
- everything a machine can’t do as well as a human
The counter-argument matters too
If the company doesn’t optimize its processes, it is less competitive tomorrow than it is today. It isn’t a choice you can defer until the employees who are uncomfortable with change have switched jobs or retired. The business needs it now.
Change management as a discipline
Tread carefully. Change must be handled with care.
The numbers behind planned change
Microsoft’s own implementation guidance references research showing that projects with a planned change strategy are six times more likely to reach their goals than projects without. The numbers are from implementation projects, but the principle also applies to ongoing process changes: if you don’t think about how you communicate and involve, you risk a good change never being adopted.
Get help from experts
Change management is a science in its own right because it deals with the most complicated thing in the world (people) and the goal is the most difficult (change). Get help from experts to plan change. It can pay off.
Follow-up after the change
When the optimized process has run for a while, follow up. Have you achieved the gain you set as your goal?
What to do if the target wasn’t met
If the result doesn’t live up to expectation, find out why:
- was the setup wrong
- was the process not followed
- was the gain smaller than assumed
That knowledge makes you wiser for the next time you want to optimize a process.