Dynamics Project Operations in 2023 – plain sailing or storms ahead?

Dynamics Project Operations in 2023 – plain sailing or storms ahead?

Welcome and let me start by wishing you a great New Year. Let us hope it will be much better than 2022!

Some figures for 2016-2022

Before I move to my predictions for 2023 let me provide you some figures for 2016-2022. They are based on 30 Dynamics Project Operations and PSA implementations for which I have reliable data.

Number of users. Average size of a ProjOps implementation is 300 users. 35% 30-100 users, 50% 100-500 users, ?15% 500-2000 users.

Industry. 50% IT consultancies, 20% AEC firms, 30% other specialist consultancies (e.g. aviation, clean energy, innovation agency, insurance, law, lean manufacturing, risk management, shipping). Microsoft describes the target industry as project-centric businesses. Actually ProjOps is best suited for professional services firms or put differently for companies that run projects - as time and materials or fixed price - on behalf of their clients.

Platform and ERP. Starting point: 85% existing CE and fresh ProjOps, 15% no former CE and fresh ProjOps. Implementation type: 90% lite (CE only/custom integration), 10% integrated (CE & F&O). Integration with finance system: 25% BC (200 users on average), 15% F&O (1000 users on average), 5% SAP (500 users on average).

Geographical distribution (for my projects). 50% Anglosphere (UK, US, Australia, South Africa), 40% German-speaking (Germany, Switzerland), 5% Nordic (Denmark), and 5% rest of the world. There are definitely projects in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, Middle East, & India. Still no projects that I have heard of in Far East. 60% are multi-country. One unusual project I delivered was for a client in France with users in FR, IT, ESP, PT, and BR.

Leadership. 40% C-level. 30% C-level minus 1 (Finance Controller, Applications Director, Consulting Director). 30% C-level minus 2 (IT Manager, PMO Lead, Business Analyst). C-level managers get involved when the company is smaller or on the largest projects where the implementation involves both F&O/BC and CE.

Delivery: 25% MS Partner implements internally. 60% MS Partner implements for another client. 15% client implements using own resources and freelancers. From my side 40% projects were for clients directly and 60% through MS Partners.

So now onto my 2023 projections

In 2023 many existing PSA clients will upgrade to Project Operations. Existing Project Operations clients will start using some on relatively new and brand new features released by Microsoft such as scheduling modes, subcontractor management, external planning, quote revisions, and global approver.

I am expecting more mid-size and large IT consultancies and Management consultancies to launch Project Operations projects; some will implement ProjOps in CE on top of existing BC, F&O or SAP; some will decide to replace their accounting system with F&O and with ProjOps in CE.

Microsoft Partners and clients will continue to struggle to implement ProjOps integrated as one implementation project (in F&O and CE and using standard Dual Write integration). Instead they may choose an option of implementing F&O and ProjOps Lite as two separate projects and re-using Microsoft’s Dual Write packages or building custom integrations. You can read more about that option at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/project-operations/environment/lite-deployment#existingdw.

Microsoft will increase the pace of releasing new ProjOps features: modernized sales, billing, and pricing, modernized time entry creation, project budgeting and time-phase forecasting, bulk confirmation of invoices and import of projects from MS Project. You can read more at: https://experience.dynamics.com/releaseplans/?app=Project+Operations&status=planned. No doubt Microsoft will continue to develop existing and launch new project management tools making it often hard for each client to choose the option that is suitable for them.

Overall professional services firms seem to weather the current macroeconomic storms quite well. Clients need advice: how to switch to clean energy, how to manufacture in a lean fashion, how to improve processes through culture change and IT systems, how to remain compliant with laws and regulations etc. This means that prospects for professional services firms remain positive despite clouds on the horizon for the wider economy. And consequently this means that the market for Dynamics Project Operations will continue to grow. I expect that expansion will remain concentrated in highly developed countries but as awareness and knowledge continue to grow in India, Eastern Europe, and South America we are going to see implementations in these regions as well.

I am sure that clients, Microsoft, Partners, MVPs, users, and freelancers will continue to surprise us and I am sure it is going to be an exciting new year for us all!

Your comments are highly appreciated!

Please leave comments, likes, dislikes, and share the article. And message me if you have any questions about your Project Operations project or a feature in Project Operations. I am here to help!