From ERP project to ERP operating model
Approving Dynamics 365 Business Central is not just a technical decision. As a CIO or IT Director, you are committing to a new core system that will support your finance and operations teams every day. If it works well, you gain cleaner data, fewer manual reconciliations, and a platform that connects smoothly with Microsoft 365, Power BI, and your wider cloud strategy. If it doesn’t, you face rising support costs, the return of shadow systems, and difficult questions from leadership about the value of the investmen
What separates the two outcomes is rarely the software itself. Business Central is a mature, cloud ERP built on Microsoft’s wider Dynamics 365 and Azure stack. The differentiator is how you run it: the governance you set, the operating model you design, and the adoption tools you give to finance, operations, and IT teams.
This article lays out a pragmatic playbook for CIOs and Heads of Transformation who want Business Central to become a reliable, high-adoption platform rather than a one-off project. It covers the strategic decisions you cannot delegate, the role of a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) like Lemon Learning in your operating model, and the metrics that will keep you honest on value and risk over time, especially when scaling Dynamics 365 Business Central across multiple entities, geographies, and business units.
From ERP project to ERP operating model
Most Business Central programmes are framed as projects: a start date, a go‑live date, a hypercare phase, and then “business as usual.” That framing is misleading. Cloud ERP is not a system you install and leave alone; it is a service that evolves continuously. Treating it like a finite project almost guarantees that important responsibilities including data governance, change control, user enablement, end up in limbo once the initial team disbands.
A CIO‑level playbook starts from a different premise: Business Central is an ongoing capability that needs its own operating model. That model defines who makes decisions about architecture, which processes live where, how changes are introduced, and how adoption is supported and measured. In other words, it treats ERP less like a one‑time capital project and more like a product you own.
At a minimum, your model should answer questions such as:
• Who owns the end‑to‑end process design for order‑to‑cash, procure‑to‑pay, record‑to‑report, and inventory flows?
• How do we decide when to configure standard Business Central, when to extend via apps or AL code, and when to push work into other tools (Power Apps, Data Lake, specialist solutions)?
• How do we roll out Microsoft’s twice‑yearly release waves without breaking local teams?
• Who is accountable for user adoption and training—IT, Finance, HR, or a shared adoption function?
If your answers today are vague or scattered across slide decks, you have an operating‑model gap. That gap is where uncontrolled customisation, inconsistent processes, and high support costs tend to appear. The good news is that you can close it with a relatively small number of structural decisions and the right enabling tools.
Designing a realistic operating model for Business Central
This begins with governance. Dynamics 365 Business Central is not just finance software; it is a cloud ERP that affects cash management, inventory, revenue recognition, and increasingly AI-supported decisions through Copilot and the wider Microsoft ecosystem. Microsoft presents it as a central business management platform. That breadth creates real opportunities, but it also means someone at a senior level must clearly own the rules and guardrails around how it is used.
For CIOs, this means taking clear ownership of five key areas: architecture, data ownership, change management, AI usage, and adoption. From an architectural perspective, you need to define where Business Central is the system of record and where you intentionally rely on specialised tools, such as advanced planning solutions or industry-specific manufacturing systems. On the data side, it is essential to assign clear ownership for the chart of accounts, dimensions, master data, and security roles, because fragmented responsibility quickly leads to inconsistent reporting and uncontrolled access.
Managing the pace of change is especially important in the cloud era. Microsoft runs Business Central under a modern lifecycle, with frequent updates and two major release waves each year. Unlike traditional on-premise ERP systems, you cannot freeze the platform for long periods. Instead, it helps to set up an ERP change council that regularly reviews upcoming Microsoft releases, third-party applications, and internal requests, then prioritises them into a clear quarterly roadmap. A Digital Adoption Platform such as Lemon Learning supports this process by helping you roll out user-facing changes through updated in-app guidance, rather than relying on long slide decks or one-off training sessions.
AI usage is the newest area to govern. Business Central increasingly includes Copilot and related features, such as assistance with bank reconciliation or automated text generation. While these capabilities offer clear productivity gains, they also create risks if users rely on AI suggestions without proper oversight. Your governance framework should therefore define which AI scenarios are approved, what review steps are required, and where AI should not be used. A Digital Adoption Platform helps reinforce these rules directly in the workflow. For example, when a user launches an AI-assisted reconciliation, a short in-app message can remind them what still requires human validation and what the system is doing behind the scenes.
Finally, be explicit about who owns adoption. In too many organisations, Business Central training falls into the gap between IT, Finance, and HR. From a CIO’s perspective, that is unacceptable. You should assign a clear Product Owner for Business Central, backed by a cross‑functional adoption squad. Their mandate: define workflows, own in‑app content in Lemon Learning, and report on adoption and ROI metrics to the executive team.
This approach aligns with widely recognised ERP best practices recommended by implementation partners. They consistently emphasise the importance of strong governance, clear stakeholder alignment, and structured change management throughout the lifecycle of an ERP system. The key difference, from a CIO’s perspective, is that these principles should not remain part of a one-off project plan. They need to be embedded into an ongoing operating model and supported in day-to-day use through tools such as a Digital Adoption Platform.
In parallel, clarify how Business Central fits into your Microsoft ecosystem strategy. If you are already deep into Microsoft 365, Power BI, and Power Platform, Business Central should be the backbone that ties financial, operational, and analytical data together. That integration is heavily supported by Microsoft (see the integration and productivity sections on this Business Central welcome page), but integration alone does not guarantee value. Your operating model should define when to push work into Business Central (e.g. formal transactions and control‑relevant steps) and when to keep it in tools like Power Apps or Teams. Lemon Learning can then provide consistent in‑app experiences that guide users across these touchpoints.
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