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A digital transformation is not a one-off project, but instead is a continual process of digitisation. It brings huge benefits in revenue, efficiency and competitiveness. However, recent research indicates that implementing digital transformation is creating significant challenges for organisations. Currently, “88% of IT decision makers are facing costly project delays” with the cost of those delays totalling millions for some organisations. This risk can be mitigated. We find in our work on digital transformation projects that organisations which incorporate certain […]

Recently, several of our clients have expressed an interest in Power Automate. This Microsoft service, previously called Flow, allows users to integrate applications to automate processes and tasks. Pre-built connectors to a wide range of applications, from SharePoint to Salesforce, enable you to create automated workflows and simplify your task management. You also have the option to build your own custom integrations to automate everything from small tasks to large systems. The advantages include improved productivity and increased accuracy, making […]

By Christian Waters, Director, Delivery at TrueNorth In the early 90s, during the push to develop the Windows NT operating system in record time, the engineers at Microsoft started to use early versions of the system itself. This gave them immediate feedback on any issues, and added to the motivation to stabilise the system as quickly as possible. This is a famous example of an organisation using its own products or services, which has become known as “eating your own […]

By Gareth Davies, Director, Client Engagement at TrueNorth Having ditched your antiquated Excel-based systems, your team are merrily and efficiently flying through their business process on your shiny new Dynamics 365/Power Platform-based system. But there’s one problem: interactions with external stakeholders are still dependent on sending sensitive information backwards and forwards via email. This is inefficient, often involving manual transcription of data, and potentially insecure. What can be done? Many business processes include interactions with external stakeholders: cases are submitted; […]

By Steve Drake, Director, Technology and Christian Waters, Director, Delivery “An API-first approach involves developing APIs that are consistent and reusable. This can be accomplished by using an API description language to establish a contract for how the API is supposed to behave.” swagger.io When we deliver web portals using an API-first approach, it is a simple process to expose these operations to Power Automate. This allows your users to combine your business-specific operations in innovative ways. To do this, […]

By Steve Drake, Director, Technology at TrueNorth IT   What is Application Life Cycle Management? (ALM) As shown in the diagram below, ALM has many aspects. Microsoft defines ALM as follows: “ALM is the lifecycle management of applications, which includes governance, development, and maintenance. Moreover, it includes these disciplines: requirements management, software architecture, development, testing, maintenance, change management, support, continuous integration, project management, deployment, release management and governance. ALM tools provide a standardized system for communication and collaboration between software […]

The Dynamics 365 customer engagement applications help small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) improve their interaction with customers and leads. The original ‘Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement’ bundle of licenses is now defunct. It has been replaced by the option to choose specific modules instead of the whole bundle. There are four core apps that focus on customer engagement; this article highlights some of the ways that each app can benefit a business’s sales, marketing and service functions.   Microsoft Dynamics […]

Digital transformation is the process of digitising all areas of an organisation, delivering efficiencies and improved customer service. Digital transformation projects are long-term efforts in which the organisation continually adapts its systems. This is driven by ever-changing technology and evolving customer needs. According to McKinsey, 70% of digital transformation projects fail. The main reasons include lack of investment and lack of engagement within the organisation. Furthermore, those respondents reporting success in their digital transformation efforts estimate that they have achieved […]

To mark International Women’s Day, we sat down with Simrah Khan, functional consultant at TrueNorth IT. Simrah started with us as a graduate in November 2020, originally as a solution developer. She has made great progress and is now on our functional consultant path, helping to gather requirements, delivering Power Platform solutions and using her great communication and organisational skills.   Simrah, Tell us About Your Role at TrueNorth My role as a functional consultant involves liaising with customers, gathering […]