5 Painful Reasons Chemical Manufacturers Are Switching to D365 & Power Platform

Mid-sized chemical manufacturers, particularly those earning between $20M and $100M annually with teams of 40 to 300 people, face a unique set of challenges. They're too complex for manual processes to hold up, yet too lean to justify a full ERP overhaul. As production demands grow and customer expectations rise, the cracks start to show:  

• Quoting gets slower 

• Compliance becomes harder to manage 

• Everyday operations depend too heavily on a few key individuals 

This is where Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform come in. While traditional ERP overhauls can take years and disrupt the entire organization, TrellisPoint implements Microsoft’s business applications with a focused, phased approach. Yes, these solutions still take time to implement, but they’re built to target high-impact pain points first, without requiring a full system replacement. For growing chemical manufacturers, it’s a smarter path to modernization and it’s one that balances meaningful progress with operational stability. 

Here are the five painful reasons why the switch is happening.

1. Winning Business is Harder When Quoting Is Too Manual & Too Slow

2. Sales & Operations Are Still Run on Tribal Knowledge

3. Customer Service Has No Real-Time Production Visibility

4. Audit Prep Still Means a Week of Scrambling

5. IT Teams Are Overloaded & Undersupported

1. Winning Business is Harder When Quoting Is Too Manual & Too Slow

Quoting is still a slow, manual process for many chemical manufacturers in the $20M–$100M range. Sales teams dig through shared drives, spreadsheets, or even old emails to piece together pricing and formulations. When every quote requires tribal knowledge, back-and-forth with production, and manual formatting, speed suffers, and accuracy often takes a hit. 

In an industry where turnaround time matters, these delays can cost deals. Competitors with faster quoting engines or more accessible data win business simply by being quicker and more responsive. Approval bottlenecks only make things worse, especially when executive oversight is required for every discount or exception. 

Microsoft D365 Sales (CRM), combined with Power Automate, changes the game. Sales reps can generate quotes directly from within the CRM using real-time data on pricing, order history, inventory, and even raw material costs. Approval workflows can be automated so there’s no more chasing down signatures or losing track of email threads. Every quote is built on the same structured logic, reducing errors, improving margins, and getting offers into customer hands before your competitor has even opened Excel. 

This is quoting built for speed, scale, and accuracy...all without ripping up your entire ERP all at once.

2. Sales & Operations Are Still Run on Tribal Knowledge

In many growing chemical manufacturing companies, the most important information isn’t stored in a system, it lives in someone’s head. Pricing nuances, custom formulations, special handling instructions, and key customer preferences often depend on a handful of long-tenured employees. When one of them takes PTO, retires, or leaves the company, entire processes stall or fall apart. 

This kind of tribal knowledge might work when your team is small and stable, but as you grow, it becomes a liability. Sales can't quote without checking with operations. Operations can't plan without asking sales. Customer service depends on someone who "just knows" how this account works. And when those people aren’t available, mistakes happen. 

Dynamics 365 solves this by capturing customer interactions, pricing logic, and order history in a centralized system that’s accessible across teams. Everyone from sales to service to scheduling can see the same up-to-date information without having to ask around. And with Power Apps, companies can build simple internal tools that guide users through steps that used to rely on memory or manual work. The result of this is a business that runs on systems, not sticky notes or institutional memory. 

When your knowledge is built into the platform, you reduce your risk, improve handoffs, and make your business more resilient no matter who’s in (or out of) the building.

3. Customer Service Has No Real-Time Production Visibility

For customer service teams in chemical manufacturing, one of the most frustrating parts of the job is not having answers. Customers call to ask about delivery timelines, order statuses, or last-minute changes, but the front-line team is flying blind. They can’t see what's happening on the production floor, whether raw materials are delayed, or if a formulation is waiting on lab approval. 

That lack of visibility leads to delays, guesswork, and a lot of internal emails. Even worse, it leaves customers feeling unheard and unimportant, especially when their competitors are getting faster responses elsewhere. 

With Power BI dashboards built on data from Dataverse and other integrated sources, customer service teams no longer have to wait for someone in production or planning to respond. They can see order statuses, inventory levels, and production bottlenecks in real time without needing full access to the ERP. Power BI puts the right insights in the right hands, whether it’s on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device. 

By empowering service reps with real-time visibility, Microsoft tools help mid-sized manufacturers close the communication gap between the shop floor and the customer. That means fewer dropped balls, fewer follow-ups, and faster answers, right when your customers need them most.

4. Audit Prep Still Means a Week of Scrambling

In chemical manufacturing, regulatory audits are not a matter of if, they’re a matter of when. Whether it’s OSHA, EPA, or ISO, mid-sized companies are held to the same standards as the industry giants. But without the same resources, many find themselves scrambling at the last minute to pull together documentation, verify SOPs, and retrace compliance actions across disconnected systems, or worse, inboxes and spreadsheets. 

This results in stressful, time-consuming process that pulls staff off their day-to-day responsibilities and increases the risk of noncompliance. 

Power Platform changes that. With tools like Power Apps and Power Automate, companies can build lightweight internal compliance apps that track activity in real time. From safety checks and quality control logs to training records and incident reports, everything is documented and timestamped as it happens. No more digging through shared folders or sending out frantic emails. 

Better yet, because these records live in Dataverse or are tied to SharePoint, they’re fully searchable and exportable, ready for auditors with a few clicks. That means less prep time, fewer gaps, and more confidence when the regulators come knocking. 

Audit readiness can stop being a fire drill and starts being business as usual.

5. IT Teams Are Overloaded & Undersupported

In mid-sized chemical manufacturing companies, IT teams often wear too many hats. With just a few people supporting the entire business, their days are spent juggling urgent tickets, maintaining legacy systems, and fielding one-off requests from nearly every department. They're the go-to for everything from fixing a broken report to updating a homegrown Excel tool built ten years ago by someone who’s no longer with the company. 

This model isn’t scalable and it’s burning out valuable talent. 

That’s where Power Platform provides a much-needed shift. With Power Apps and Power Automate, business users can start building the tools they need themselves. Whether it’s a simple app to log lab tests or an automated workflow to route approvals, these low-code solutions allow departments to solve their own problems all while staying within IT-approved guardrails. 

IT still sets the standards for security, data access, and governance, but they’re no longer stuck doing all the work. Instead of hand-coding every form or troubleshooting every formula, they can focus on architecture, integration, and strategic projects that actually move the business forward. 

By empowering business users and freeing up IT capacity, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform turn technology from a bottleneck into a growth enabler. 

The Main Reason They're Switching Is Flexibility Without Disruption 

When you look across all five pain points, a pattern emerges. These chemical manufacturers don’t need a monolithic ERP to run their business, they need targeted solutions that actually solve problems without creating new ones. They need more structure without added complexity. More automation, but not a full rip-and-replace. 

That’s why they’re turning to Microsoft. 

Dynamics 365 and Power Platform offer the flexibility to start small with things like quoting, compliance and customer insights while leaving room to scale up over time. You can solve what hurts most today while laying the foundation for future strategic growth. And because everything integrates within the Microsoft ecosystem, you’re not building one-off solutions, you’re building momentum. 

For mid-sized manufacturers trying to modernize without overextending their teams or budgets, that kind of flexibility isn’t just convenient. It’s critical for avoiding Ungrowth. 

Dynamics 365 & Power Platform for the Chemical Manufacturing Industry FAQ

How does Dynamics 365 help with quoting specifically?

Dynamics 365 Sales integrates pricing, order history, customer preferences, and real-time inventory data directly into the quoting process. Sales reps can generate accurate quotes faster and route them through automated approval workflows. This improves both speed and consistency without needing to consult half the organization.

Is Power Platform secure enough for compliance tracking?

Yes. Power Platform apps built with governance from your IT team can meet stringent industry standards. Dataverse and SharePoint ensure that documentation is centralized, searchable, timestamped, and export-ready for audits so there shouldn't be any moreore sifting through email threads or spreadsheets.

Why choose TrellisPoint as a partner?

TrellisPoint specializes in helping growth-focused chemical manufacturers implement Microsoft business applications with a balance of strategy, speed, and scalability. We understand the realities of your business and tailor every implementation to maximize impact without overcomplicating your operations.

Can Dynamics 365 and Power Platform integrate with our existing systems?

Yes. Both platforms are designed to work alongside existing systems. Whether you're using a legacy ERP, homegrown databases, or Excel-based tools, TrellisPoint can help connect data across your environment using Power Platform’s 900+ prebuilt connectors and custom integration capabilities.

Is this only for companies already using Microsoft 365?

Not exclusively, but companies already using Outlook, Excel, Teams, and SharePoint get even more value from Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. These tools are part of the same ecosystem, which means faster adoption, smoother integrations, and more connected experiences.

How do these tools improve audit readiness?

By digitizing SOPs, logging activity, and tracking approvals automatically, Power Platform creates an audit trail without the scramble. Everything is timestamped, searchable, and exportable so everything is and easy to find ready when regulators come calling.

Is Dynamics 365 just a CRM?

No. While Dynamics 365 Sales is a powerful CRM, the broader Dynamics 365 platform includes marketing, customer service, field service, and more. It can grow with you, starting where the pain is greatest and expanding as your needs evolve.