Dynamics 365 TMA: maintenance, support and evolution of your ERP
Third-party application maintenance takes over after go-live: user support, fixes, version upgrades and enhancements. FiveForty provides TMA for your Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, including on environments deployed by another integrator.
Our Dynamics 365 TMA offering
An ERP is not a project that ends: it is a system that lives on. Changing regulations, evolving organizations, continuous updates from the vendor, new users to train. The application maintenance covers that whole lifecycle.
What we take care of
Functional and technical support for users, bug fixes, adaptation to regulatory changes, support for version upgrades, development of new features and performance optimization.
Taking over maintenance of an existing system
We regularly work on environments that we did not deploy. The knowledge transfer phase (configuration audit, inventory of custom developments, documentation) is treated as a project in its own right.
To understand the topic in depth
This page presents our application maintenance offering.
If your organization uses the term AMS rather than TMA (which is common in group subsidiaries and procurement departments), the two terms describe services that largely overlap.
What our TMA covers
Four types of intervention, with different rhythms and commitments.
Corrective maintenance
Handling of blocking and non-blocking defects, with response times defined by severity level.
Evolutionary maintenance
New features, adapting to an organizational change, opening a site or a subsidiary: the system keeps pace with your company.
Preventive maintenance
Monitoring of batch jobs, performance checks, anticipation of capacity saturation and verification of backups. An incident avoided always costs less than an incident handled.
Regulatory maintenance
VAT, filing formats, e-invoicing: legal changes require adjustments by fixed deadlines. We monitor them and implement them.
User support and assistance
Handling requests, help with day-to-day use, occasional training for new hires. A large share of tickets relate to usage rather than defects.
Version upgrades
Dynamics 365 evolves several times a year. We test updates on your environments, validate your custom developments and secure every cutover. The same team maintains the business applications built around your ERP.
“ An ERP without maintenance does not break down all at once: it drifts a little further from your needs every quarter.”
Our service commitments
TMA without measurable commitments is nothing more than an intention.
Severity levels and response times
A production outage and a convenience request do not call for the same responsiveness. Severity levels and their associated response times are defined in the contract.
Dedicated contacts
You know who is working on your environment. Continuity of knowledge is what distinguishes TMA from a call center.
Monitoring and steering committee
Periodic review of tickets, deadlines met and upcoming enhancements. TMA is managed like a service, not like a passive subscription.
Transparency on consumption
Volume consumed, type of requests, split between corrective and enhancement work: these elements must be visible to make decisions.
Emergency response
For critical situations (a compromised close, halted production), rapid intervention is possible, even outside the contract.
Continuous improvement
Recurring tickets often reveal a configuration or training gap. Addressing them at the root reduces their volume rather than billing for it.
Insource or outsource
The question arises differently depending on the size and criticality of the system.
Outsourced TMA or in-house team
| Criterion | In-house team | Outsourced TMA |
|---|---|---|
| Business knowledge | Excellent | To be built, then maintained |
| Product expertise | Limited to one person | Multidisciplinary team |
| Continuity | Risk if someone leaves | Contractual |
| Version upgrades | Heavy one-off workload | Built in and tool-supported |
| Cost | Fixed salary | Adjustable volume |
| Peak activity | Difficult to absorb | Absorbed |
The most common model is hybrid: an internal lead who knows the processes, and external TMA for product expertise and version upgrades.
ERP support and maintenance: how day-to-day assistance works
A user stuck in the middle of a close does not need a project, they need an answer. That is the role of support. Here is how it is organized, where the boundary with the vendor lies, and what happens between the moment a request is reported and the moment it is closed.
ERP support and ERP maintenance: two distinct needs
The ERP support answers a question or resolves a blocking situation: a screen that rejects an entry, a report that will not run, a user profile with the wrong permissions. The ERP maintenance acts on the system itself: fixing an anomaly, adjusting a configuration, absorbing a regulatory change.
The distinction matters, because it changes who steps in and how fast. A usage question is answered within the day; a configuration change is planned, tested and validated. Confusing the two means either keeping a blocked user waiting or delivering a change without checking it.
Microsoft support or your integrator’s support: who does what
Microsoft provides platform support: service availability, infrastructure incidents, defects in the standard product. You access it through your license agreement, and it is the right channel when the problem comes from Dynamics 365 itself.
Your integrator handles what the software publisher does not look at: your configuration, your custom developments, your interfaces, your processes. In practice, the vast majority of requests fall there, because an ERP stops behaving like standard software as soon as it carries your organization.
We qualify each request before routing it, and we open the publisher ticket ourselves when it falls within the standard product. You do not have to arbitrate between two contacts.
Levels 1, 2 and 3, and where to draw the line
Level 1 receives, qualifies and handles routine requests: usage, access rights, reports and procedural questions. Level 2 handles configuration and functional analysis of issues. Level 3 works on the code: custom developments, interfaces and in-depth fixes.
These levels describe the expertise required, not the urgency. Urgency is governed by the severity levels mentioned above and formalized in our SLA contract: a Level 1 request can be blocking, and a Level 3 request can wait.
The boundary lies where your organization’s capabilities end. Some companies keep an internal Level 1, which knows everyone’s habits, and entrust us with Level 2 and Level 3. Others outsource everything. The first model reduces the volume handed over; the second guarantees continuity when the internal point of contact is away.
The life of a request, from report to closure
Reporting. The user opens a ticket describing what they were doing and what they expected. A screenshot is often worth ten lines of explanation.
Qualification. We determine whether it is a usage question, a defect or an enhancement request, and we assess the impact: how many users, which process, what deadline.
Processing. A direct answer for usage questions, analysis and then a fix for a bug, costing and scheduling for an enhancement. Every change goes through a test environment before production.
Validation and close. It is the requester who confirms that the issue is resolved, not us. A ticket closed without user feedback almost always comes back.
Every step is tracked. That is what makes it possible, in periodic reviews, to look at facts rather than impressions.
Application maintenance or equipment maintenance: two different businesses
The word “maintenance” covers two realities that are best kept separate. The application maintenance, the subject of this page, concerns the management software, its configuration and its custom developments.
Equipment maintenance is a different field: machine upkeep, preventive plans, on-site interventions. Dynamics 365 can handle it, through Asset Management and Field Service, but the need is distinct. If that is yours, the conversation starts in a different place.
A question? An answer.
Frequently asked questions
Third-party application maintenance means outsourcing the maintenance of an application to a service provider. It covers user support, bug fixes, functional and regulatory enhancements, and version upgrades.
Functional and technical support, corrective, evolutionary, preventive and regulatory maintenance, support for version upgrades, development of new features and performance optimization.
Yes, this is a common situation. We start with an audit of the configuration and an inventory of custom developments, then structure the knowledge transfer before taking over.
By severity level: a production stoppage does not call for the same responsiveness as a convenience request. These levels and the associated response times are formalized in the service contract.
Because Dynamics 365 evolves several times a year, and an environment that is not maintained eventually diverges from the standard. We test each update, validate custom developments and secure the cutover.
The most common model is hybrid: an internal point of contact who holds process knowledge, and external TMA for product expertise, version upgrades and absorbing peaks in activity.
Generally through an adjustable contracted volume, with transparency on actual consumption and the split between corrective and enhancement work. These elements are reviewed by the steering committee.
Yes, in critical situations such as a compromised close or a halted production line, including for companies with which we do not have an active maintenance contract.
Microsoft covers the Dynamics 365 platform: availability, infrastructure and defects in the standard product. We cover what belongs to you: configuration, custom developments, interfaces and business processes. We qualify every request and open the vendor ticket ourselves when the issue lies in the standard product.
It depends on the severity level of the request, as defined in the contract. A production stoppage and a convenience request do not carry the same commitments. The applicable response times are set out in the service contract agreed with you.
No. ERP support and maintenance fall under the same TMA contract, with a contracted volume. The split between user support, corrective and enhancement work remains visible and is reviewed by the steering committee.