In chemical manufacturing, the distance between a customer conversation and a new product formulation can be surprisingly short — or painfully long, depending on how well your systems support the handoff. When sales, R&D, and ERP data all live in separate places, that distance grows into a gap that slows everything down.
That was the reality for one chemical manufacturer. Their CRM wasn't being used the way it was intended — the system didn't match how the sales team actually worked, so adoption had stalled. Meanwhile, product development was being tracked in a standalone third-party tool that had no connection to sales activity or ERP history. Decisions were being made in silos, and the cost of maintaining disconnected systems kept climbing.
TrellisPoint partnered with this manufacturer to deploy Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform — rebuilding their CRM around real sales workflows, integrating R&D directly into Dynamics 365, and migrating the entire operation to the cloud. Here's how it came together and what other manufacturers can learn from it.
CRM adoption problems rarely start with the technology itself — they start with a mismatch between what the system asks people to do and how those people actually work. That was exactly the situation here. The sales team had a CRM, but it had been configured around an idealized workflow rather than the real one. Over time, adoption dropped off, data went stale, and the system became more of a compliance burden than a useful tool.
At the same time, the product development team was managing R&D work in a third-party project management tool that operated in complete isolation. Sales couldn't see what was being developed. R&D couldn't see what customers were asking for. And neither team had visibility into ERP sales history that could have helped them both make better decisions.
The compounding effect across the business was significant:
TrellisPoint approached this engagement using the TrellisPoint Strategic Framework (TPSF) — a structured methodology that starts with understanding how a business actually operates before any technology decisions are made. That discovery work was essential here, because the existing CRM's failure was rooted in a process misalignment that had to be understood before it could be fixed.
The solution combined Dynamics 365 Sales with Power Platform to address each problem area in an integrated way, alongside a full migration to the cloud.
Technology doesn't drive adoption — alignment does. When a CRM reflects the way a sales team actually works, they use it. When it doesn't, they find workarounds. Getting that foundation right before configuring anything else is what separates a successful implementation from one that stalls.
Rather than reconfiguring the existing setup, TrellisPoint rebuilt the CRM experience in Dynamics 365 Sales around how the sales team actually operated day to day. Stages, fields, and processes were designed to reflect real workflows — reducing friction, improving data quality, and giving reps a system they wanted to use rather than one they had to.
Using Power Platform, TrellisPoint built a custom R&D request process inside Dynamics 365, eliminating the need for the standalone project management tool entirely. Product development requests are now triggered directly from Accounts and Opportunities — creating a direct link between what customers are asking for and what the R&D team is working on.
This wasn't just a consolidation exercise. Linking R&D to CRM records means product development teams can see the sales context behind every request — which accounts are involved, what's in the pipeline, and what ERP history says about demand — giving them a much stronger basis for prioritization.
TrellisPoint connected the company's ERP sales history to Dynamics 365, giving sales reps access to past order data directly within their CRM. Rather than pulling separate reports or asking operations for account history, reps can now see purchase trends, order volumes, and past interactions in context — enabling better forecasting and more informed customer conversations.
The entire platform was migrated from on-premise infrastructure to Microsoft's cloud, eliminating the maintenance overhead of aging hardware and positioning the company to scale without significant infrastructure investment going forward.
Once the new Dynamics 365 environment was live, the impact was felt across sales, R&D, and IT. The improvements weren't limited to any one department — connecting the systems created compounding benefits across the organization.
With the system now configured around real workflows, the sales team began using it consistently. Data quality improved, pipeline visibility returned, and sales leadership gained the reporting foundation they'd been missing.
With product development requests now triggered from within Dynamics 365 and linked to Accounts and Opportunities, the wall between sales and R&D came down. R&D teams can see the customer context behind every request; sales teams can see the status of development work they've initiated.
By bringing R&D project management into Dynamics 365, the company was able to retire the standalone third-party tool entirely — removing a licensing cost that had provided little integration value.
Access to historical order data inside the CRM gave sales reps a tool they hadn't had before — the ability to see account trends and past purchase behavior in context, without leaving Dynamics 365.
The move to Microsoft's cloud eliminated the constraints and costs of on-premise infrastructure, giving the company a platform that can grow with the business without requiring hardware investment or manual maintenance cycles.
If your organization is dealing with similar challenges — low CRM adoption, disconnected product development, or an on-premise infrastructure that's reached its limits — this project offers a useful reference point. A few things worth keeping in mind before you start:
If your CRM isn't being used, the instinct is often to add training or enforce compliance. But the more common root cause is a mismatch between system design and actual workflow. Spending time understanding how your team really works — before touching configuration — is what determines whether a new implementation lands or stalls for the same reasons the last one did.
Connecting product development to CRM records isn't just a convenience feature. It changes how R&D prioritizes work, how sales communicates customer needs, and how quickly new formulations or products can get from concept to delivery. For chemical manufacturers where product customization is part of the value proposition, that connection is a competitive advantage.
Migrating to the cloud while consolidating onto a unified platform — rather than lifting and shifting the old setup — is what creates long-term value. Doing both at once requires careful planning, but it avoids the cost of migrating a fragmented stack and then having to consolidate it later.
The system had been configured around an idealized process rather than how the sales team actually worked. That misalignment eroded adoption over time — reps found workarounds, data quality dropped, and the CRM stopped providing useful visibility for sales leadership.
By rebuilding the Dynamics 365 Sales configuration around the team's real workflows — not a standardized template. When a CRM reflects the way people actually work, maintaining records becomes a natural part of the process rather than an additional task layered on top of it.
Using Power Platform, TrellisPoint built a custom R&D request process inside Dynamics 365 that allows product development requests to be triggered directly from Account and Opportunity records. R&D teams can track requests, see the associated sales context, and collaborate with sales without ever leaving the platform. The standalone project management tool was retired entirely.
It gave sales reps access to past order data — purchase trends, order volumes, account history — directly inside Dynamics 365, in context alongside their current opportunities. That information had existed in the ERP but required separate reports or requests to access. Now it's visible in the CRM where reps are already working.
Scalability without infrastructure investment, lower maintenance overhead compared to on-premise systems, and access to Microsoft's built-in security and compliance capabilities. For manufacturers, the practical benefit is that adding users, capabilities, or business units no longer requires hardware provisioning or IT-heavy setup work.
Yes. Any manufacturer — or complex B2B organization — dealing with CRM adoption challenges, disconnected R&D or product development processes, or an aging on-premise infrastructure can apply the same framework. The specific configuration and integrations vary by business, but the underlying approach scales across industries.
If your sales team isn't getting value from your CRM, your R&D process is disconnected from customer data, or your on-premise infrastructure is holding you back — the path forward looks a lot like this one. The right platform, configured around how your team actually works, changes what's possible across the entire organization.
TrellisPoint specializes in Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementations for manufacturers and complex B2B organizations. From CRM modernization and R&D integration to cloud migrations and systems integration, we help you build technology that works the way your business does.
Schedule a conversation with the TrellisPoint team to explore how a modernized Dynamics 365 environment could work for your organization.
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