History

Back in 2021, Microsoft announced that the functionality and infrastructure of the Dynamics 365 HR workload would be merging into the Finance & Supply Chain Management (F&SCM) workload. The product’s end of life is scheduled for December 2023. Two key points:

• The HR module within Dynamics 365 F&SCM has the same core capabilities as Dynamics 365 HR, so there’s no loss of functionality.
• There will be no licensing impact for customers currently using Dynamics 365 HR, so there are no hidden fees or expenses – other than the potential cost of partner support for the transition.

In 2022, Microsoft released an automated migration tool for customers and partners to streamline the work required to transition from HR to F&SCM. The tool is effective, but it simply creates an “extra” HR-dedicated F&SCM environment within your existing Dynamics landscape. In other words, if your organization is already running Dynamics 365 F&SCM, migrating HR does not merge it into your current F&SCM environment – it adds a new, second environment that exclusively runs HR. This also means any existing integrations need to be reconnected to the newly created F&SCM (HR) environment.

In 2023, with the end of standalone HR looming, HCLTech developed a reusable delivery approach that does merge HR and F&SCM into one environment. Our HR Upgrade Supercharger delivers a unified Dynamics 365 F&SCM environment for all business processes, including HR.

Your options for transitioning

Based on the complexity of the application landscape and your timeline, your organization has three transition options to consider:

1. Migrate using Microsoft’s automated migration tool
2. Direct merge using HCLTech’s HR Upgrade Supercharger
3. Migrate & future merge using HCLTech’s HR Upgrade Supercharger

Let’s look at all three in more detail so you can make an informed decision.

Migrate

As mentioned above, this approach does not unify your HR and F&SCM instances – it just adds a second F&SCM environment dedicated to HR capability. Things to consider:

• Having two environments of F&SCM – one for HR and one for the rest of your business processes – will inevitably increase infrastructure maintenance costs
• The need to carry forward existing integrations and reconnect to the new F&SCM environment
• It will also complicate future release updates and version management, leading to higher support costs

Remember, while all your modules will be in the same F&SCM workload, you now have two independent environments within that workload, and both need to be maintained and upgraded as needed.

Direct merge

As we mentioned, a direct merge leads to a unified Dynamics 365 F&SCM environment for all business processes – including all HR-related modules. By merging, a centralized integration architecture can be established with a single source of truth for all your employee data. Other advantages include:

• Ensures consistent lifecycle services and geographic availability
• You can utilize shared services and tooling, which will reduce platform costs
• Low and controlled impact of change for end users, new features can be controlled via feature management toggles

The HCLTech HR Upgrade Supercharger streamlines the merge process for a smooth transition customized for each customer’s unique situation.

Migrate & future merge

Depending on your business needs and unique timeline restrictions, you may need to go the migration route even though you know you want to merge eventually. If that describes you, this option is tailor-made for your organization.

Here, we start with Microsoft’s migration tool, getting you off your standalone Dynamics 365 HR environment and into F&SCM before the end of 2023. Yes, you’ll have two F&SCM environments in the near term, but with a commitment to a 2024 merge using the HR Upgrade Supercharger, you’ll receive extended support from HCLTech for that second environment. This will help mitigate any risks related to having two instances.

Benefits of the HR Upgrade Supercharger

Whether you decide to merge or migrate and future merge, you’ll be wrapping your transition in the cloak of protection, efficiency and experience when you use HCLTech’s HR Upgrade Supercharger. We focus on four architectural guiding principles to support the upgrade process: business continuity, enhancements, fast realization and sufficient documentation.

Business continuity

• Like-for-like migration, where applicable
• Recommendations for archive vs. merge
• Secure integrations
• Maintain data integrity

Enhancements

• Identify new capabilities to remove technical debt
• Toggled new feature release planning
• Reduce complex customizations
• Process re-engineering to take advantage of new features

Fast realization

• Ready-to-deploy upgrade runbook on Azure Dev Ops leads to fast build and deployment phases
• Microsoft-aligned HCLTech expertise

Sufficient documentation

• One-time activity
• Simplified, ready-to-use documentation

Conclusion

If you take nothing else from this blogpost, please know that Dynamics 365 HR is going away at the end of the year – that’s not up for debate. So, if you’re currently running it, you must do something soon. But you’re not in this alone. HCLTech has the technology and the experience to get you transitioned in whatever manner suits you best.

The first step in your journey is to contact the Dynamics 365 F&SCM and HR experts at HCLTech to discuss your organization’s needs and objectives. Together, we will determine the best course of action.

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