Microsoft launched Dynamics 365 for Talent using the core HR capability in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations and added new features to it. Dynamics 365 for Talent fully integrates with Finance and Operations but for users of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations you might be wondering whether you should now be managing HR from Talent.

 

	Talent	Finance and Operations
Payroll	No – but integration is coming	US Payroll only as standard and third party solutions available
Time & Attendance	No	Yes
Benefits & Compensation	Yes	Yes
Absence Management	Yes – full absence request submission and manager approval, balance tracking and accrual.	Yes – ability to record periods of absence within Time and Attendance.
Training Records & Courses	Yes	Yes
Skills Analysis	Yes	Yes
Employee Self Service	Yes – the Talent portal offers a better experience.	Yes
Candidate Portal	Yes	No
Employee Questionnaires	Yes	Yes
Legal Entities	Yes	Yes
Organisational Structure	Yes	Yes
Employee Records	Yes	Yes
Attract & Recruit	Yes – Talent offers a better experience.	Yes – basic recruitment tracking
On-boarding	Yes	No
LinkedIn Recruiter Integration	Yes	No

What HR capability is available in each solution?

As you can see when it comes to core HR capability both solutions offer very similar functions. For users of Dynamics AX 2012 or Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations much of this core HR capability in Talent should be very familiar but there is some powerful extra capability available.

Why chose Dynamics 365 for Talent?

There are several reasons that make managing your HR from Talent an obvious choice.

• The intuitive employee portal – This allows your employees to self service and is very accessible. As much as there is this capability in Finance and Operations, it is not designed for non-Finance and Operations users and can be challenging to use, whereas the Talent portal is simple and intuitive.
• LinkedIn integration – Seamlessly integrate your LinkedIn recruitment activity with Talent, to identify prospects and combine the power of LinkedIn Recruiter and Talent. It is worth noting that you will require a LinkedIn Recruiter subscription to make this work but most recruitment teams should already have this.
• Integrated recruitment – In the Attract module there is the ability to design personalised recruitment processes for each role your organisation is trying to fill, automating steps throughout and providing candidates with a great, transparent experience.
• On-boarding capability – Create an interactive enrolment process with the successful candidate, from making an offer, gathering documents, to ordering IT access you can design every step to ensure each employee is ready to hit the ground running when they join.

The other consideration is that Microsoft are investing heavily in Talent, adding new capability with every release and we expect this to continue. Your people are key to your success and for any business looking to attract top talent and reduce administrative tasks for their HR team, Talent is the clear winner.

Why chose Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations?

For some organisations where staff turnover is low, and recruitment is less of a challenge or priority then sticking with Finance and Operations might make sense. This solution also contains some features not available in talent, such as:

• Time and attendance – For many businesses this is an extremely important feature which allows you to report on projects and for services businesses, work out utilisation of your billable employees.
• Low focus on recruitment – Not every business is struggling to get the talent they need, with some businesses showing very low turnover, this would mean they wouldn’t benefit from Talent as much as other organisations.
• Payroll integration required – Fully integrated payroll with your finance system and HR capability is a priority for many businesses and with Finance and Operations there is payroll capability and there are a number of third-party solutions that integrate with Finance and Operations available on Microsoft AppSource.

For now, there are clear benefits of running your HR capability in either system, however as Microsoft continues to invest heavily in Talent we do expect the benefits of Talent to start to outweigh the benefits of Finance and Operations. For many organisations the decision between the two will come down to cost and understanding the cost savings available through automation, improved recruitment and the self-service that Talent creates.