Introduction to concept to market end-to-end business process for managing service lifecycles
Applies to: Dynamics 365 Commerce, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Customer Service Insights, Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Marketing, Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Microsoft Supply Chain Center
This article introduces the concept to market end-to-end business process for managing the lifecycle of services. It outlines how Dynamics 365 products can help service-based organizations manage and optimize their service lifecycle management processes. This end-to-end business process has the number 30 in the business process catalog. Learn more at About the business process catalog for Dynamics 365 apps.
Concept to market management overview
Concept to market is the process of managing a service offering from its inception to its eventual end of life. The process typically begins with the development of a service offering idea, which is then refined and tested to ensure that it meets customer needs. After the service is launched, it's important to monitor its performance and make necessary adjustments to keep it competitive in the marketplace. As the service offering matures, it might be necessary to update or refresh the design to maintain customer interest. Eventually, the service offering might reach the end of its marketable life and be retired from the market. Throughout the concept to market process, careful attention must be paid to customer needs, market trends, and technological advancements to ensure that the service offering remains relevant and successful.
In service-based organizations or organizations that sell services alongside tangible products, Dynamics 365 offers a variety of products to help support the design and development of new service offerings and control the downstream transactions that occur in the organization. For example, when you use Dynamics 365 Field Service, you can define service offerings that are sold by using Dynamics 365 Sales or Supply Chain Management. For complex services, such as professional services, you can define the services in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management or Sales, and use Dynamics 365 Project Operations to help manage the lifecycle of your customer relationship. Additionally, you can mix and match services with tangible products on orders, include services in your production process, or outsource services by using Procurement and sourcing, Project Operations, or Field Service, to give just a few examples.
Important
The process that is defined here doesn't include the process for designing tangible products. Learn more at Design to retire introduction.
Every organization has variations of the concept to market process. Here, we define the basic outline for any organization that is looking to implement a technology solution to support the concept to market process for services.
Impact
The concept to market process can have a significant impact on an organization's overall operations and effectiveness. A well-designed process can help organizations streamline the development of service offerings, improve collaboration between teams, and ultimately deliver high-quality services to market faster.
By managing the entire service offering lifecycle in a single system such as Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management or Field Service, organizations can help reduce errors and delays that are caused by manual data entry or communication breakdowns between teams. The result can be more efficient development cycles, because teams can quickly access and share service offering information, identify issues, and make necessary changes.
Moreover, the tools and features that are available in Dynamics 365 can help organizations better understand their service offerings and the performance of those service offerings throughout their lifecycle. In this way, organizations can identify opportunities for cost savings, process improvements, and optimization of resources. By analyzing sales data, organizations can gain insights into how to improve service offering design.
Stakeholders
The implementation of Dynamics 365 to support the concept to market process requires involvement from multiple stakeholders across the organization. The following are some of the key stakeholders that should be involved in the implementation.
- Product development stakeholders: This team is usually at the forefront of creating new service offerings. It's responsible for conceptualizing, designing, and developing the new services. This team often includes product managers, designers, and developers who work together to bring the service to life.
- Marketing stakeholders: Marketing plays a crucial role in the design of new service offerings. The marketing team conducts market research to identify customer needs and preferences, defines the target audience, and creates messaging and branding strategies to promote the new service.
- Sales stakeholders: The sales team is responsible for understanding customer feedback and market demands. It can provide valuable insights into what customers are looking for in new services and help shape the offerings accordingly.
- Customer Service/Support stakeholders: Feedback from existing customers is essential in the design of new services. The customer service or support team can provide insights into common customer issues and areas where new services can address customer concerns.
- Research and Development (R&D): For organizations that are involved in more advanced or technology-driven services, an R&D department might be responsible for the development of innovative features and technologies that can be incorporated into new services.
- Finance stakeholders: The finance department plays a critical role in determining the financial feasibility of new service offerings. It assesses the potential costs, pricing strategies, and revenue projections to ensure that the new service is financially viable.
- Operations and logistics stakeholders: After a new service is designed, it must be implemented efficiently. The operations and logistics team is responsible for planning how the service is delivered, including supply chain management, distribution, and logistics.
- Legal and compliance: Depending on the industry and the nature of the service, legal and compliance teams ensure that the new service offerings meet all regulatory requirements and legal standards.
In summary, the involvement of multiple stakeholders is critical for the successful implementation of Dynamics 365 to support the concept to market process. A cross-functional approach is needed to ensure that the system is properly configured, integrated, and optimized to meet the needs of the business.
Concept to market benefits
When your organization plans to implement Microsoft business applications to assist with the concept to market process, there are several benefits that the solution can help provide. These key benefits should be used to determine whether the solution is a good fit for your business and to drive the specific business requirements for implementing the solution. As a side effect, these benefits can be used to create a baseline for your goals and objectives for the project, so that you can measure the success of implementing solutions to meet those business requirements.
Improved collaboration and productivity
When you use Dynamics 365 together with Microsoft Teams and Office 365, you can improve collaboration between teams by providing a centralized platform for managing service offering information. This approach can help reduce errors and delays that are caused by manual data entry or communication breakdowns between teams. Additionally, by automating manual processes for service offering development, organizations can increase productivity and optimize resource use. By using Dynamics 365 and the real-time visibility that it provides into service offering development, organizations can also be more agile and responsive to changing market needs.
Streamlined process efficiency
When you use Dynamics 365 together with Power Automate, you can automate and streamline various stages of the concept to market process. In this way, you help reduce the number of manual tasks and improve overall process efficiency. The result can be faster time-to-market for new services. For example, you can use Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to quickly onboard new products and gather all the right data that you need to start testing and selling the services. When you use Dynamics 365 Marketing, you can create customer journeys and automate marketing such as emails, upselling, and cross-selling in various channels to create interest and draw in existing or prospective customers.
Better quality and compliance
By managing the entire service offering lifecycle in a single system, organizations can identify and address quality issues early in the development cycle. In this way, they help reduce the risk of damage to their reputation. Additionally, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Field Service can help organizations improve compliance with regulatory requirements by providing a centralized platform for managing service offering information and ensuring that products meet regulatory standards.
Increased competitive advantage
Implementation of Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform to support the concept to market process can give your organization a competitive edge by enabling faster response to market trends and customer needs. Therefore, you can stay ahead of your competitors. For example, by using Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, you can get valuable insights into how services are performing and make any necessary adjustments. Additionally, if you use Dynamics 365 Project Operations to manage your service offerings as projects with your customer, you can get valuable information about services, risks, and more, and easily track all of it in the same system.
Next steps
If you want to implement Dynamics 365 solutions to assist with your concept to market business processes, you can use the following resources and steps to learn more.
Define the goals and objectives for a technology solution that supports the organization's need for a concept to market process. Learn more at Implementation strategy.
Define the business process scope of your project. Learn more at Process-focused solution.
Request a demo or get a free trial of Dynamics 365 solutions for the product and service lifecycle management process. Learn more at Request a demo.
Get an overview of the product and service lifecycle management process. Learn more at concept to market overview.
Related information
You can use the following resources to learn more about the product and service lifecycle management process in Dynamics 365.