When Dynamics 365 Project Operations joined Microsoft’s suite of cloud-based business solutions, you may have wondered how it differed from previous project management apps. For example, D365 Project Service Automation (PSA) precedes D365 Project Operations. And then there’s Microsoft Project, Microsoft Planner and D365 Finance & Operations - all of which also offer some project management capabilities.
But what makes D365 Project Operations so different? And what prompted Microsoft to add yet another project management solution to the family?
Microsoft describes Project Operations as the application designed to connect your professional services business, end-to-end. So, you can handle projects from the quoting stage all the way through to financials.
This will help you gain the visibility, level of collaboration and agility required to drive success across the organisation.
Thanks to its wide range of features and functionalities, D365 Project Operations can be used by various employees across different job roles.
This includes:
As mentioned earlier, Microsoft already had a well-established collection of project management solutions. In addition to D365 PSA, Microsoft Project and Planner, D365 Finance also offered project management capabilities.
So, why add another to the stack?
D365 Project Operations offers functionalities that the other apps don’t offer individually. For example, Microsoft Project comes with planning and scheduling capabilities - but PSA doesn’t. PSA, however, offers advanced sales and delivery functionalities. And D365 Finance obviously offers project management accounting, time and expense management features.
Project Operations offers all of these features (arguably the best of breed capabilities of the three aforementioned apps) in one solution. So, there’s no need for you to invest in and work with multiple apps.
This means:
And then there are more features, such as:
By putting together the best features of the three existing project management tools (plus a few extras), Microsoft has created a ‘complete’ solution to help drive efficiency for professional services firms.
Ensure your project management team can access the exact tools they need to succeed. This includes:
Thanks to a smart scheduling engine, Project Operations can help you assign the right people/resources to the right task at the right time.
Using insights such as the employee’s skill, availability and location, your project managers can:
Ensure your team are spending more time on value-added activities and less time on tasks, such as admin. For example, time and expense submission can be manual-heavy and time-consuming. This can lead to data inaccuracies which can affect future project planning and forecasting and cash flow.
Project Operations simplifies time tracking and expense management. Users can easily submit, approve and reconcile time and expenses wherever they’re located (e.g. if they’re out in the field, they can use the D365 mobile app).
One centralised solution means your team and customers can quickly and easily access the information they need, whenever they need it. An integration with Microsoft Teams, for example, also enables better internal and external communication.
A unified sales management dashboard allows your team to easily view product and project-based opportunities. All in one place.
This can help them:
As you can see, despite the similarities, Project Operations does differ from PSA. It’s a worthy addition to Microsoft’s project management family.
To read more about Project Operations, its features and how it can benefit your business, click the button below to download our solution factsheet.