Barona decided to move from its legacy Salesforce CRM to Microsoft Dynamics 365 because the existing setup had become complex, fragmented, and difficult to develop further. Key challenges included: - **Siloed data and inconsistent processes:** Each of Barona’s four main business areas had its own way of managing leads and opportunities. Some units weren’t using CRM at all and relied on pen and paper. This made it hard to get a unified view of customers and sales. - **Manual, time‑consuming invoicing:** Salespeople had to process invoices manually by moving between multiple fields and workflows, which slowed down operations and increased the risk of errors. - **Overly complex Salesforce environment:** After using Salesforce since 2009, the system had accumulated unused fields and metadata, making it difficult to maintain and evolve. - **Limited visibility and reporting:** Fragmented integrations and inconsistent data structures limited cross‑unit collaboration and made reporting more complicated than it needed to be. - **Preparing for AI:** Barona wanted a platform with built‑in AI capabilities that it could start using when the organization was ready. Dynamics 365 aligned with Barona’s Microsoft ecosystem, offered AI readiness, and was cost‑effective. It also provided a way to standardize sales and customer service processes across all business units and support the company’s “One Barona” strategy.

Barona used Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and Power BI to simplify and unify how sales and service work across the company. Here’s what changed in practice: 1. **Standardized sales process across all units** - Barona now uses a single, shared process for managing accounts, leads, and opportunities, with unified stages such as qualify, negotiation, order received, and won/lost. - This supports the “One Barona” strategy, so everyone works in the same way instead of each business unit “doing their own thing.” 2. **Streamlined invoicing and less manual work** - Previously, sales teams had to manually move between fields to create and process invoices. - With Dynamics 365, moving from opportunity to invoicing is automated and more straightforward, which reduces manual work and speeds up the process. 3. **Better cross‑sell and collaboration** - Because data is shared across units, salespeople can see who is working on which leads and opportunities. - This visibility makes it easier to share leads between business units and sell Barona’s full portfolio of services, not just what a single unit offers. 4. **Improved reporting with Power BI** - Power BI is integrated with Dynamics 365 to provide real‑time reporting on invoicing, opportunities, and customer activities. - Sales teams no longer need to choose from complex report templates or worry about selecting the right fields. The data they need is visible and available directly in the system. - This gives clearer visibility into the sales pipeline and helps leaders understand where the business is heading from a sales perspective. 5. **Faster, more consistent deployment** - The new Dynamics 365 environment was rolled out across all business units in less than five months. - Barona kept custom configurations to a minimum and used monthly meetings and dedicated channels to gather user feedback, which helped ensure adoption. Overall, Dynamics 365 and Power BI helped Barona unify its sales operations, reduce manual tasks, and gain more reliable, timely insight into performance.

Dynamics 365 has helped Barona improve both customer experience and internal efficiency by simplifying support processes and enhancing everyday tools for sales and service teams. Key improvements include: 1. **More efficient internal and external support** - Dynamics 365 Customer Service is now used for case management, handling both internal and external support tickets. - Multiple support email queues are managed in one place, which has helped Barona remove internal support backlogs and respond faster to cases. 2. **Unified view of customer interactions** - Salespeople can manage customer contact lists, tasks, and appointments in a single system. - This unified view supports smoother handoffs between teams and more consistent communication with customers. 3. **Mobile access and Outlook integration** - A mobile app for Sales users gives teams access to Dynamics 365 on the go, helping them stay on top of opportunities and customer meetings. - Integration between Dynamics 365 and Outlook helps salespeople keep better track of their appointments and customer interactions without switching between tools. 4. **AI readiness and productivity gains** - Barona is adopting AI tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales to automate routine tasks and surface actionable insights. - Because Dynamics 365 was chosen with AI in mind, Barona can gradually introduce AI capabilities as the organization is ready. 5. **Consistent experience across the group** - With standardized processes and shared tools, employees across Barona’s four main business areas and several subsidiaries work in a more consistent way. - This consistency supports a better overall customer experience, as clients interact with a more unified organization rather than separate, siloed units. Together, these changes help Barona drive efficiencies, support its “One Barona” strategy, and reimagine how sales and service teams collaborate to serve customers.