Making Legacy Migrations to the Dynamics 365 Cloud Easier with AI

Migrating from legacy on-premises systems to cloud-based solutions has become a strategic priority for many businesses, especially in an era where flexibility, scalability, and access to the latest technological advancements are critical. Legacy systems like Dynamics GP, while reliable in the past, may no longer provide the agility and functionality businesses need to stay competitive. Moving to a modern cloud-based ERP system, like Dynamics 365, offers significant advantages, such as improved performance, streamlined processes, and lower infrastructure costs.

However, the journey from an on-premises solution to the cloud isn’t always simple. Customizations, built over years to tailor legacy systems to the specific needs of a business, often present one of the most complex hurdles. Migrating workflows and processes from a heavily customized on-prem system to a standardized cloud-based solution can be costly and time-consuming. Thankfully, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the game, making it easier to tackle these migration challenges and move businesses into the cloud with greater ease and efficiency.

Artificial intelligence has emerged as a powerful tool that can help mitigate these challenges and streamline the migration process. Here’s how our team is using AI to make legacy migrations to Dynamics 365 easier for our partners:

One of the most challenging aspects of migrating legacy systems is dealing with custom code, such as JavaScript web resources, plugins, and SQL scripts. AI tools, such as Copilot and ChatGPT, can significantly streamline this process by identifying and improving custom code, making it cloud-ready.

For example, AI can analyze JavaScript and plugin code to identify dependencies and interactions within the existing environment. This is critical when migrating customized workflows because understanding how these custom elements interact with one another helps prevent issues during migration. By prompting AI tools to examine a given script, you can quickly pinpoint dependencies or reference packages within the code, making the migration process smoother and more efficient.

Additionally, many legacy systems use outdated JavaScript that may not be compatible with a cloud environment. AI can analyze this potentially outdated code and refactor it for use in modern cloud applications. For instance, older functions like XRMPage that are no longer supported can be automatically updated to their modern equivalents, such as formContext. Similarly, outdated API calls can be replaced with updated URLs, ensuring that your custom code works seamlessly in the cloud.

AI tools can also optimize code performance. By feeding your JavaScript or SQL scripts into an AI model, you can identify performance bottlenecks, deprecated functions, or unnecessary complexity in the code. These optimizations improve overall efficiency in the cloud, ensuring that your system runs faster and more effectively once migrated to Dynamics 365.

Custom plugins developed for on-premises solutions often need significant reconfiguration to function properly in a cloud-based Dynamics 365 environment. This process can be streamlined using AI tools that help convert your existing plugin logic into cloud-compatible code. The advantage of using AI is that it preserves the original business logic while adapting the code to fit the cloud architecture.

In our experience, providing SQL scripts to AI tools like ChatGPT and prompting it to convert the code into a Dynamics 365 plugin can produce results that are, on average, about 70% correct. Our developers then use Visual Studio, along with the Copilot extension and their own expertise, to refine the code, ensuring that it meets all necessary cloud requirements. This combination of AI-generated code and expert developer oversight allows for a more efficient conversion process, minimizing manual coding efforts while ensuring accuracy.

Additionally, leveraging AI for this conversion process enhances scalability. AI tools can recognize and recommend cloud-native features that improve both efficiency and reliability in the cloud environment—optimizations that might otherwise be missed during manual conversion. This ensures that your reconfigured plugins are not only functional but also optimized for long-term growth and performance in the Dynamics 365 cloud.

Migrating SQL scripts from an on-premises environment to the cloud presents unique challenges due to differences in database architecture between the two platforms. However, AI tools can play a pivotal role in overcoming these challenges by streamlining the conversion process.

AI can help analyze SQL queries by reviewing the scripts themselves. By providing these queries to an AI tool and prompting it to assess them for performance and compatibility issues, businesses can ensure their queries align with Dynamics 365 best practices. AI can also suggest modifications that optimize the query for the cloud environment, ensuring that data retrieval and manipulation processes remain efficient and reliable.

Furthermore, AI tools can assist in transforming complex SQL queries into their optimized cloud equivalents. This means AI can automatically convert intricate on-prem queries into formats that are more suitable for cloud performance. This transformation ensures that data processes retain their effectiveness in the cloud while benefiting from cloud-native optimizations.

It’s important to note that AI outputs are highly influenced by the quality of the prompts provided. If the results aren’t aligning with expectations, adjusting the prompt language can often yield better outcomes. By leveraging AI in SQL migration, you can make sure your scripts are efficiently adapted for your new Dynamics 365 environment, while maintaining the integrity of your data processes.

While AI is a powerful tool in simplifying the migration process, the most impactful way to successfully navigate the challenges of migrating from a legacy system to the cloud is by working with a partner that has the right experience and expertise. A skilled partner will take the time to fully understand your unique workflows, customizations, and business requirements, ensuring that the migration is not only technically sound but also tailored to your specific needs.

At Catapult, we have extensive experience helping businesses migrate from legacy systems like Dynamics GP to the cloud. Our team of experts utilizes our proven Client Success Framework to guide you through every step of the migration process, from understanding your current system and customizations to optimizing your new cloud environment with AI-powered solutions. Let us help you unlock the full potential of Dynamics 365 and make your transition to the cloud as smooth and efficient as possible.

Get in touch with the Catapult team today to find out how we can support your cloud migration and help you modernize your business for the future.