after another and you may also deep-dive into one section that you may need in order to understand the concept in more detail if you are already familiar with one section.
We would like to stay engaged with our readers and you can reach out to us for sharing your customer story or if you need to discuss any area of the book in more detail. Here is the book website link: http://buildingadigitalfuture.com/.
FIGURE 1 Digital Transformation Timeline
Acknowledgments
Watching an award-winning movie in a cinema hall or the luxury of watching from home in recent times, in the end the audience is left with a lasting impression by the actors. Usually, the actors and directors are awarded but there is much more to it than meets the eye. There is a huge team of people that supports and contributes to making a movie award-winning and a success. Until we wrote this book, we didn't realize the amount of effort that goes into the making of a book. We are profoundly grateful for our incredibly supportive, respected, and diligent advisory team who made this dream possible. This book is theirs as much as ours.
The initial drafts of the book have passed multiple hands and undergone several revisions. Each revision provided us with invaluable feedback from the following collaborators. They have been relentless in their contributions, which enabled us to include additional concepts, refine ideas, increase our focus, add clarity, and continuously evolve.
We owe immense gratitude to all our reviewers, who are industry experts and leaders in their own profession and gave their time by providing great inputs, offering insights, and challenging the draft chapters constructively by providing valuable suggestions throughout the production of the book. Without their support our work would not have evolved into the book that you are reading now.
Several Dynamics 365 and Power Platform customers have been kind enough to allow us to mention their work in case studies, and we are grateful for their contribution in sharing their journey.
We are forever indebted to all of them.
Collaborators: Antti Pajunen, Microsoft Business Applications MVP, Power Platform Advisor; Ajay Singh, Senior Executive at DXC Technology; Ashish Rana, Microsoft MVP, Dynamics 365/CRM Solution Architect & Consultant, Power Platform; Arvind Sahu, Global CIO, Digital Transformation Leader; Ashu Bhatia, Sr. VP - Digital Strategy & Transformation; Carlos R Villasana Gutierrez, Sr. ERP Functional Lead(D365FO) T&L, Manufacture; Carsten Olholm, Head of global IT; Craig Fleming, Senior Manager; Ejaz Ahmed, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance Consultant; Eric Johnson, Director, Consumer Engagement Technology; Graham Scanlon, Dynamics 365 Technical Architect; Imen Ben Zakour, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Consultant; Jason Earnshaw, Lead Architect (Business Applications); Jason Gumpert, Editor, MSDynamicsWorld.com; Joseph Colvile, Partner Business Analyst, Supply Chain; Jeff Suellentrop, Vice President, Enterprise Architecture, Digital (DTC) and Programs; Jason Abed, Management Consulting Director, Digital Finance and Operations; Kajsa Hofvendahl, Transformation Leader; Kari Amundson, Business Program Manager; Kim Guldager, Product Owner; Laco Vosika, Trusted Advisor, Dynamics 365, Power Platform; Linas Sneideris, Associate Partner; Lisa Hammond-Marsden, Microsoft Dynamics AX/D365 Principal Consultant; Lydia Broekhuizen, Digital Transformation Manager combining change and project management, specialized in Microsoft D365; Marc Lebeau, Digital Transformation Leader; Martijn Brons, Global ERP Director; Matt Shearsby, Principal Consultant; Maggie Charman, Programme Director; Magdalena Schindler Ademovic, Managing Consultant D365 CE & Power Platform; Nitin Malhotra, Senior Director, Head of Enterprise PMO; Pablo Villa Pascual, Lead Architect; Patrick Mouwen, Solution Architect, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations; Peter Prokopecz, AX Technical Lead; Peter Edén, Head of IT; Phil Scully, CIO; Pedro Rodriguez, Senior Microsoft Dynamics Technical Consultant; Ragupathy Nagarajan, Lead Functional Architect; Rajesh Rajan, Director, Consulting, Dynamics F&O Practice Lead; Ronald Haantjes, Business Development Executive; Rejin Surendran, ERP Head; Scott Schultz, Director of Business Applications; Senthil Arumugam, Lead Consultant; Shobhit Sah, Head Global Digital Program, D365 FinOps; Sukrut Parab, Microsoft Business Applications MVP, Solutions Architect; Tobias Lång, CTO; Umesh Pandit, Lead Consultant; Vaibhav Pednekar, Solutions Architect; Sheila Maria Taestensen, Senior Project Manager; Steve Snowden, Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Functional Lead; Lax Gopisetty, Vice President at Infosys; Laurent Deramaix, CEO at Business Elements; and Andy Hafer, Founder Dynamic Communities.
From Microsoft: Aline Pereira, Technology Solutions Professional, Dynamics 365; Alok Singh, Senior Program Manager (Business Application Group R&D); April Olson, Principal Group Program Manager, Dynamics 365 Finance; Ayman Husain, Director, Customer Success, Intelligent Cloud & Digital Transformation; Bob Hogan, Microsoft Business Applications, Specialist; Chris Knowles, Senior FastTrack Solution Architect, Dynamics 365 Apps and Common Data Service R&D; David Reid, Solutions Architect, Business Applications Platform; Fawad Khan, Cloud & Digital Transformation Leader; Fredrik Sætre, Senior Technical Specialist (Business Applications); Giovanni Tafi, Global Solution Architect, Dynamics 365; Giri Fox, Director, Customer Success for Dynamics 365 and Power Apps; Guylene Tarrazi-Prault, Cloud Consumption Lead; Hemant Gaur, Principal Program Manager; J. D. Meier, Director of Innovation, Microsoft Digital Advisory Services; Jason Newbatt, Senior Solutions Specialist; Jonathan Rowley (Jonny), Senior Customer Success Manager, Business Applications; Katarina Arbanas, Global BlackBelt Microsoft Business Applications; Maria Leuch, Business Applications specialist; Mohamed Aamer, Sr. R&D Program Manager, Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations; Murray Fife, Dynamics 365 Principal Technical Specialist; Paul Kerrigan, Delivery Director, Business Applications, Dynamics 365; Paul Langowski, Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Global Fast Track Program Lead; Raphael Tagliani, Technology Solutions Professional; Ramshanker Krishnan, General Manager, EMEA Azure Cloud & AI; Renee Dothard, World-Wide Public Sector Government CTO; Rui Santos, Technical Specialist; Satish Panwar, Senior Program Manager; Suzanne Quinn, Dynamics 365 Readiness Lead; Shaun Riordan, Senior Technology Solutions Professional, Dynamics CRM Field Service; Somnath Nandi, Digital Transformation Leader & Strategist; Swamy Narayana, General Manager, Customer Success, Dynamics 365 Operations Applications; Tommy Skaue, Senior R&D Solution Architect; Vadim Korepin, Senior Functional Architect; Janet Robb, Customer Success Manager Business Applications; Cecilia Flombaum, Sr Director Ecosystem Lead for Microsoft Business Applications; Darren Hubert, Director, Customer Success - Worldwide Business Applications.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the great team at John Wiley & Sons. Thanks to Sheck Cho, our Executive Editor, for his guidance and advice throughout. We are also indebted to Susan Cerra, Managing Editor, and Samantha Enders, Editorial Assistant, and many others who edited, produced, and marketed our work. We are also indebted to Dean Carlton and Paul McPherson for their hard work in shaping up the format and outline of this book.
About the Contributors
At the time of the writing this book, we are at a very difficult period with the Covid-19 pandemic. This pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and led to a “structural change” with many customers seeing a shift to digital operations as essential to increasing their business resilience and adjusting to new ways of doing business.
It is a significant decision for an organization to invest and embark on a digital transformation journey with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform and realize the benefit over a period. Every journey has its own unique experience to learn from and hence we have reached out to a few people to contribute to this book. We want to thank them all for sharing their expertise and input, which has helped us to shape
