Customizing D365 Sales — For Our Own Sales Team (Customer Zero) Preparation

The DX team at a company is implementing a 'Customer Zero' strategy by customizing D365 Sales for their own sales team before rolling it out to external customers. The team is adding custom fields and using Power Automate to automate next actions, opportunity velocity monitoring, customer health management, and document flow. This in-house deployment aims to validate the product and create a persuasive success story for client pitches.

"Customer Zero" is a strategy used by IT and technology companies in which the company itself becomes the "0th customer" a test monitor for a new product, AI service, or cloud service before rolling it out to external customers. Key benefits: faster validation and improvement using the product in a real working environment surfaces bugs and usability issues early , and more persuasive sales pitches a proven in-house success story/use case lets you propose to clients with confidence . With that in mind, the DX team has kicked off an initiative to get our own sales team using D365 Sales more fully. | Zone | Content | Implementation | |---|---|---| | Zone A | Auto-generated Next Actions / detecting stalled deals | Power Automate | | Zone B | Opportunity velocity monitoring / large-deal alerts | Power Automate | | Zone C | Customer health management / churn prevention / renewal alerts | Power Automate | | Zone D | Document flow / chained tasks | Power Automate + BPF | Custom fields are added from Power Apps using the following steps. | Step | Task | Details | |---|---|---| | 1 | Open Power Apps | Go to make.powerapps.com and select the target environment sandbox | | 2 | Select the table | Left menu "Tables" → select "Opportunity" | | 3 | Add a column | "Columns" tab → click "Add column" | | 4 | Enter field info | Enter display name, data type, and schema name cr917 xxxxx , then save | | 5 | Do the same for Account | Add the corresponding fields to the "Account" table the same way also create the Initiative ② additional fields using the same steps | | 6 | Configure choices | For cr917 customer type, add a "new choice" with the two options "License-continuation type" and "Project type" | | 7 | Add to forms | Open the main form for each table, add the new fields, then save and publish | Note: prefixes like cr917 vary by environment. | Field Name | Type | Input Method | Purpose / Description | |---|---|---|---| Proposal Sent cr917 proposal sent | Yes/No Boolean | Manual rep | Checked by the rep when the proposal is sent. Trigger condition for Zone D-1 flow. | PO Received cr917 po received | Yes/No Boolean | Manual rep | Checked when the PO is received. Trigger condition for Zone D-2 flow. | Invoice Sent cr917 invoice sent | Yes/No Boolean | Manual rep | Checked when the invoice is issued. Flow D-3 auto-sets cr917 invoice date . | Acceptance Confirmed cr917 acceptance done | Yes/No Boolean | Manual rep | Final completion flag. If left unchecked for 30 days, flow D-4 generates a reminder task. | Invoice Date cr917 invoice date | Date and Time | PA auto D-3 | PA automatically records the date cr917 invoice sent became Yes. Used as the baseline date for the 30-day acceptance check. | Stage Changed Date cr917 stage changed date | Date and Time | PA auto A-4 | PA updates this with the current date/time every time the stage changes. Used for stall-day calculations in flows A-1 and B-1. | NDA Status cr917 nda status | Option Set | Manual rep | For ① NDA Signing. Three choices: Not Submitted / Under Review / Complete. PA monitors status changes to advance the flow. | NDA SharePoint URL cr917 nda sharepoint url | Text | PA auto | For ① NDA Signing. After signing completes, PA automatically writes in the SharePoint storage URL. | WBS Approved cr917 wbs approved | Yes/No Boolean | Manual rep | For ⑤ Offering. Checked once WBS approval is complete. PA then advances to the order-registration step. | Order Registered cr917 order registered | Yes/No Boolean | Manual rep | For ⑤ Offering. Order-registration completion flag. Checking it generates the flow-completion task. | Payment Confirmed cr917 payment confirmed | Yes/No Boolean | Manual rep | Shared by ④⑥ Renewal/Inspection. Checked after payment is confirmed. If unconfirmed 60 days after invoicing, an alert fires. | SP Registered cr917 sp registered | Yes/No Boolean | Manual rep | For ⑥ Delivery Inspection. Flag for completed SharePoint registration of deliverables. PA checks this as a precondition before triggering invoicing. | | Field Name | Type | Input Method | Purpose / Description | |---|---|---|---| Renewal Date cr917 renewal date | Date | PA auto + manual override | PA auto-sets this to close date + 365 days on a Won close. Rep may optionally adjust it. Baseline date for flows C-3/C-4. | Last Activity Date cr917 last activity date | Date and Time | PA auto C-6 | PA updates this to the current date/time whenever a completed activity call, email, visit, CI-J integration is created. Baseline date for A-2, C-1, C-2. | Customer Type cr917 customer type | Option Set | Manual rep | 5 choices: License-continuation / Project / Support spot / Support term contract / Support time-purchase . 60-day group: License-continuation, Support term contract . 90-day group: Project, Support spot , Support time-purchase . | BC Registered cr917 bc registered | Yes/No Boolean | Manual rep | For ② Partner Contract. Rep records completion of Business Central registration. Interim flag pending full BC integration. | Contract SharePoint URL cr917 contract sharepoint url | Text | PA auto | For ② Partner Contract. After the contract is signed, PA automatically writes in the SharePoint storage URL. | PO Number cr917 po number | Text | Manual rep | For ③ PO Issuance. Rep enters the PO number when it's received; used for reconciliation at invoicing time. |