Anyone that has ever worked with my on a Dynamics 365 project knows that one of my pet peeves is seeing CW on the PO screen or the Sales order screen if the client does not use CW. The catch weight fields are just the focus of my angst when looking at screens we are implementing for a client.
Dynamics 365 can be very daunting for the every day user. There are so many buttons and fields that it can be overwhelming. An interesting experiment that you should do from time to time is take a look at a PO screen or a SO screen and think about which buttons or fields does the user I’m working with actually use in this screen.
Odds are they don’t use that many of what is there. The same thing can be said of grids. Leaving the various grids as the Microsoft default often times the fields that you actually need the user has to scroll to the left to see them.
The Plan
Early on in your project you should think about how you can implement views and use them to your advantage.
At a minimum I tell the teams that I’m working with is that we should at least have a corporate view that is set by default. For example, If I’m working with Acme corporation every screen that they use should default to a view that is called Acme corporate view.
This view should be a cleaned up version of the Dynamics 365 screen that shows the main fields and buttons that the user would use. If something is missing from this view there is no need to worry the user can go back to the standard Microsoft View. Those shouldn’t be taken away from a user.
I say try and think about this early in the project as you are delivering functionality to the client as with most things Dynamics you are better off implementing functionality as you go rather than trying to cram it all in at the end of the project.
Conclusion
Cleaning up the user interface in Dynamics 365 is, to me, as important as the functionality. I have seen many a user that has been really frustrated with Dynamics 365 and when given the chance to clean up their screens have a turnaround and adopt the system.
System implementations are hard on the client team members most people do not like change. The easier we make the system to use the better adoption rate you will get.