Opinions from 50+ D365 CE engagements. Not a content-mill rewrite of Microsoft docs — real numbers, real tradeoffs, real decisions.
Seven deep-dives worth bookmarking if you're evaluating, implementing, or running D365 CE at an SMB.
The real jobs an AI consultant does for a small business, the use cases that actually pay back, how to choose one, the red flags to avoid, and what engagements really look like.
What actually drives the budget by deployment size — the four hidden cost drivers, where SMBs overspend, and when a fixed-scope Health Check is the smarter first step.
Named Copilot, AI Builder, and Power Platform capabilities — with realistic effort levels and the failure modes most vendors don't put in the slide deck.
Security roles, data hygiene, automation debt, license waste, adoption metrics — and what the fixed-scope deliverable package looks like at the end of five business days.
The licenses are just the beginning. Here's how the real total cost of a D365 CE rollout breaks down for a 5-50 user SMB — and the 4 things that blow up budgets before go-live.
Stop looking at feature matrices. The right answer depends on what your organization actually is — not which product has more checkboxes on a vendor slide deck.
ROI numbers from a real 25-tech HVAC engagement. Five levers that actually move the needle in Field Service — and the configurations that don't pay back despite the promises.
Copilot, AI Builder, and custom LLM integrations. An honest look at what's ready to deploy today, what's still a polished demo, and where the actual ROI lives in 2026.
Will Golden is the founder of Golden Consulting Partners and a working D365 CE consultant with 50+ client engagements across Sales, Customer Service, and Field Service. He also ships production AI software — GoodPickr and NearFaith are live. These posts are notes from that work, not vendor summaries.
If something you read here matched a problem you're dealing with, a 15-minute call with Will is the fastest way to figure out if GCP can help — and what it would take.