From Roadmap to Results: Agricultural Cooperative Embraces Dynamics 365 CE
A leading U.S. agricultural cooperative set out to modernize its sales, service, and marketing operations. With a large business-to-business customer base in industries like candy, dairy, baking, and beverages, the cooperative needed better ways to manage relationships, streamline processes, and strengthen collaboration across its teams.
Partnering with Stoneridge Software, the organization pursued a two-part initiative: a roadmap to define a long-term vision and an implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement and the Power Platform to address immediate needs. The effort marked the start of a multi-phased journey designed to transform customer engagement and integrate critical business systems, even connecting Microsoft Dynamics CE with SAP.
Business Challenges: Breaking Down Silos and Inefficient Processes
Despite its strong market presence, the cooperative faced challenges common to many large, distributed organizations:
- Fragmented data and reporting: Inconsistent, outdated, and manually entered data limited reliable reporting and decision-making.
- Disconnected systems: A mix of platforms and portals created inefficiencies and a poor user experience.
- Communication gaps: Email-driven processes buried important details and slowed responses.
- Organizational silos: Teams lacked cross-functional transparency, creating misalignment on pricing, contracts, and customer needs.
These issues hindered the ability to grow sales, strengthen customer relationships, and improve efficiency across the enterprise.
Recommended Solution: Building a Roadmap for Transformation – Connecting Dynamics 365 and SAP for a Unified Experience
Stoneridge guided the cooperative through a structured roadmap that laid the foundation for a phased transformation strategy aimed at modernizing operations, improving customer engagement, and reducing technical debt.
The initial phase focused on immediate enablement, while setting the stage for deeper integration and intelligence in future phases. Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement and the Power Platform served as the foundation of this strategy, enabling flexibility, integration, and scalability.
Phase 1: Foundation & Enablement
- Implemented Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement for Sales and Customer Service.
- Introduced centralized case management, activity tracking, and integrated access to customer data.
- Deployed Copilot for Sales and Conversation Intelligence to support productivity and coaching.
- Connected Dynamics 365 with SAP (read-only integration) to provide sales and service teams visibility into key account information.
- Integrated Outlook and Teams for seamless collaboration within daily workflows.
Phase 2: Expansion & Integration (planned)
- Extend CRM to include customer onboarding, order and contract management.
- Deepen SAP integration for unified processes.
- Replace legacy portals with CRM-based workflows and centralized document management.
Phase 3: Optimization & Intelligence (planned)
- Enhance analytics and reporting with Azure Data Lake and Power BI.
- Introduce advanced automation and marketing capabilities.
- Retire outdated tools, reducing technical debt and complexity.
Results: Creating Lasting Impact and Future Readiness
With Stoneridge as a partner, the cooperative not only modernized its sales and service foundation but also gained a clear roadmap for long-term transformation.
- Sales and service teams now work within a unified system, with AI-driven insights from Copilot and streamlined workflows powered by Teams and Outlook integrations.
- Access to SAP data inside Dynamics 365 gives teams a complete view of the customer without switching systems and speeding up response times.
- Collaboration has improved with activity tracking, Outlook and Teams integration, and shared visibility across departments.
- Legacy portals and disconnected processes are on track to be replaced by centralized, Power Platform–based workflows, improving efficiency and reducing complexity.
- A phased strategy ensures technology investments deliver both immediate value and future scalability.
The cooperative is now positioned to grow stronger customer relationships, improve efficiency, and modernize legacy processes—while reducing the risk and cost of maintaining disconnected systems.
Technologies Used
Essentials Phase
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (Accounts, Contacts, Activities)
- Copilot for Sales
- Conversation Intelligence
- Microsoft Teams Integration
- Outlook Integration
- One-way SAP Integration (Azure Data Factory, Azure SQL)
Future Phases
- Customer Onboarding & Order Management in CE
- Contract Management Integration with SAP
- Azure Data Lake & Analytics Platform
- Power BI
- Marketing Automation
- Portal Replacement with CRM-based dashboards
