When a Dynamics 365 implementation project is started we often look at functionality that is in the system, but a close second would be the integrations that are needed to support external systems. These are often very complex in nature and require a lot of planning and many times a lot of development effort to implement.
We often focus on the big ticket integrations, but there are some wins that can be made by also looking at some of the manual integrations where the volume is not high enough to warrant a full blown automated implementation.
The simple integration
One of the things that I like to do during the discovery phase is look at any process where a user is moving data from one system to another manually. Often these tasks are not done frequent enough to need a full blown implementation, but often enough that they can require a lot of time from various users.
An example might be someone that creates some sort of journal each month. I was working with a client that had a couple of users that would create a monthly journal from another system that was used in a project management process. The volumes of the transactions weren’t that great but the dollars needed to be included in the ERP system.
Excel Add in
The excel add in is such a simple tool for data input we often forget its there. In can be used in many forms for entering data. This is especially useful in journal forms.
A user can export their excel worksheet and set it up exactly as needed then save it to their desktop. Then when they want to use it they can simply change the filters and enter the data.
Conclusion
While not a full blown integration the excel add in can be a very useful data entry tool for Dynamics 365. If you have a user that is complaining about how tedious it is to enter multiple lines into a form maybe see if the excel add in is available. The ability for a user to use the various functions in excel to copy and paste information can be a powerful tool for data entry.