Microsoft brings Dynamics 365 Human Resources into the Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations family of apps.

As part of the 2021 release wave 2 plan, Microsoft announced plans to merge Dynamics 365 Human Resources (Dynamics 365 HR) with the Finance and Operations infrastructure, making it part of the Finance and Operations family of apps again. The Finance and Operations (F&O) family of apps include Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.

Now, Microsoft has released tools available in Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS), to support its customers in migrating their Dynamics 365 Human resources environment across to the Finance and Operations infrastructure. Microsoft has also announced the following:

“The timeline for all customers to transition off of the standalone Human Resources application is twelve months and will require all customers to be migrated by December 31, 2023.” Microsoft

We appreciate this timeline can mean different things to different organisations depending on their current HR solution. So, we have broken down the three probable customer scenarios and what is currently known for each.

Dynamics 365 HR customer scenarios

1. Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (Dynamics 365 F&O) and its HR Module, all within the same environment

You are already on the F&O infrastructure, so you don’t need to migrate. Just turn on the new Human Resources functionality as and when it becomes available. Depending on what version you are on, many of these features are available now to evaluate in your sandbox environment. To find out more about the new functionality please contact your Account Manager or message us here.

2. Standalone Dynamics 365 Human Resources environment

Your HR environment is currently on the old infrastructure, so you will need to use Microsoft’s migration tools to “lift-and-shift” it onto the new infrastructure. Some planning will be required if you have any external integrations or extensions.

3. Hybrid – Standalone Dynamics 365 Human Resources for managing HR data and using Dynamics 365 F&O

Previously, Microsoft only presented one option for Hybrid customers which was to migrate and merge. However, it recently announced a migrate-only solution giving Hybrid customers a choice:

  • Migrate-only: Hybrid customers now have the option to migrate their standalone Dynamics 365 HR environment across to the F&O infrastructure, but are not able to merge the two systems together and operate them separately going forward. If you opt for this option, your experience will be the same as the HR scenario (Standalone Dynamics 365 HR environment).
  • Migrate and merge: Originally, Microsoft indicated that Hybrid customers would have to migrate onto the F&O infrastructure and merge all the data from their HR system into their existing F&O system. This option is still available, but by splitting the migration and the merge into two steps and making the merge optional, you can now take as long as you need to complete your merge. It should be noted that Microsoft is not providing tooling for the merge.

Why the updated merge scenario for Hybrid customers is good news

The updated migrate and merge scenario is excellent news for Hybrid customers. Microsoft has recognised the following challenges of merging two production environments:

  • Merging data between two production systems is always going to be a challenging project and there is likely to be a certain amount of compromise in order to make it work.
  • Any differences in configuration between the two systems would have to be resolved during a merge. This could have a significant impact on business processes.
  • Bringing across sensitive data, such as salaries and performance reviews, would require a review and overhaul of security roles within F&O to ensure that data remained private and is only accessible to appropriate people.

Next steps

We are encouraging all of our Dynamics 365 Human Resources customers to familiarise themselves with Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Human Resources infrastructure merge FAQ document. In addition, we would also encourage you to download our Dynamics 365 Human Resources infrastructure merge guide which provides a high-level overview of what’s involved in the migration to F&O and the importance of sandbox migration.

Please don’t hesitate to contact your Telefónica Tech Account Manager or message us here to discuss any of your migration concerns.