Vertical Remix: Tailoring the Business Process Catalog for Three (3) Industries

(DynamicsDad edition – because one size never fits all)

Cold-open... same track, new crowd

Imagine you are the wedding DJ who has spun “Sweet Caroline” (shout out to all Iowa State fans, iykyk) a thousand times. The song stays the same, but the crowd changes every Saturday. You crank the tempo for the college reunion crowd, drop the key for the father-daughter dance, and somehow the dance floor still erupts on cue. That is the Business Process Catalog in a nutshell: Microsoft gives us the base track, we remix it for each industry audience.

Dad joke warm-up: My neighbor gave me a new roof for free. He said it was on the house.

Why verticalize the catalog?

A. Business value that lands on day one

When a brewery sees “Plan-to-Batch-Produce” instead of “Plan-to-Produce,” heads nod faster. Users answer questions instead of translating jargon.

A catalog tagged with “Catch-Weight Pricing” or “Meter Reading” surfaces ISV needs before the estimate is signed. The scope stays true, budgets stay happier.

Industry roles like Brewmaster, Field Technician, and Engagement Manager map to security roles early. Procurement teams know exactly how many Enterprise versus Team Member licenses to buy. And trust me, this is important because cost adds up really quickly.

B. Risk and cost reduction

• Early insight into yield variance or SAIDI metrics stops re-work sprints later.

• KPIs align to board reports from day one, so adoption is not stalled by “wrong numbers.”

• RSAT scripts can be picked from existing libraries because catalog rows are properly tagged.

C. Real-world vignettes

• A Food & Bev processor shaved two weeks off Conference Room Pilot by cloning “Plan-to-Produce,” adding lot tracking patterns, and presenting a ready-made gap-fit list.

• A mid-size utility avoided a six-figure change order when SAIDI appeared in the Metrics column during week one, not month six.

• A consulting firm targeting project billing won board approval in one session after renaming “Quote-to-Cash” to “Pitch-to-Pay” and tagging every row with Utilization KPIs.

Buying a suit off the rack is fine. Tailoring makes it intentional.

Food & Beverage Remix – from recipe card to master batch record

Food & Bev lives or dies by traceability and yield control. Here’s how to make the catalog speak fluent HACCP and FDA:

Catalog element	Practical remix	Variant Notes example	Why it matters
End-to-End Scenario	Clone “Plan-to-Produce” → rename “Plan-to-Batch-Produce” and give it ID prefix FNB-P2BP-###.	Batch size variability due to seasonal solids content.	Signals batch orders (not discrete jobs) and kicks off the “batch order” vs “production order” parameter discussion in week 1.
Business Process	Insert “Bulk Dosing & Micro-Dosing” beneath Formula Design.	Use catch-weight UoM = LB; density factor set per formulation.	Surfaces lot attribute handling before anyone codes a split bill-of-materials.
Pattern / Task	Add “Catch-Weight Pricing” task under Sales Order.	Price = CW x MarketRate; rounding rule = 0.01.	Ensures the pricing engine is aligned to weight-invoicing—critical for meat & cheese sectors.
Metric/KPI	Create new Metric column value “Yield Variance % (Planned vs Actual)” tied to the batch order ID.	—	Operations can trend shrinkage by formulation; finance can set scrap accrual rules.
Security Role	Tag “Brewmaster – Enterprise” (Finance license) and “Production Line Worker – Team Member.”	—	Buying the wrong license tier for line workers is a six-figure oops.
ISV flag	Mark rows needing Innova, Aptean, or NAVEKSA extensions (examples of ISVs only, these are not recommendations or endorsements).	Requires Innova for Weighbridge interface.	Keeps scope honest—custom X++ vs packaged ISV.

Narrative walk-through

When an F&B client sees “Plan-to-Batch-Produce” on slide 1, procurement immediately asks, “Where do we track fat content?” Your Variant Notes column answers: “Lot attribute = FAT_PERCENT; captured at intake.” That single line prevents a month-three change order.

Tie it together in DevOps by tagging every F&B backlog item with area\FNB. Dashboards then burn down by industry slice (handy if you run multi-vertical implementations).

Utilities Remix – keeping the lights on (literally)

Utilities juggle regulatory compliance, field mobility, and 24×7 outage response. Your catalog should reflect all three:

Catalog element	Practical remix	Variant Notes example	Why it matters
Scenario	Duplicate “Meter-to-Cash” → prefix IDs UTL-M2C-###; add sibling scenario “Outage-to-Resolution.”	Includes OMS integration to SCADA.	Gives the outage journey equal billing with billing—regulators will ask.
Business Process	Under Customer Service, add “High-Bill Investigation” process.	Trigger threshold = 40 % YoY increase.	Pre-defines exception workflows that normally get buried until go-live support tickets pile up.
Pattern / Task	Insert “Field Ticket – Mobile” task (Dynamics 365 Field Service).	Offline sync every 15 min; photo capture mandatory.	Drives mobile license/F&O connector decisions before hardware is ordered.
Metric/KPI	Add columns SAIDI and SAIFI with formulas referencing outage data.	—	Governance teams measure reliability daily; surface it in the ERP meta-model.
Security Role	“Field Tech – Limited” (Activity license) vs “Dispatcher – Enterprise.”	—	Mismatching licenses here can triple annual OPEX.
ISV flag	Tag any row requiring Copperleaf or Hexagon asset analytics.	Requires Copperleaf API for risk index.	Aligns budget and integration timeline early.

Story time

One utility client shaved three months off regulatory readiness because SAIDI metrics were baked into the catalog RSAT scripts and Power BI dashboards followed naturally. When their board asked “Are we green for the 10-year rate case?” they had numbers, not anecdotes.

5. Professional Services Remix – selling hours, not widgets

Project-centric firms care about utilization, forecast accuracy, and milestone billing. The vanilla catalog ignores half of that. Here’s the beefier cut:

Catalog element	Practical remix	Variant Notes example	Why it matters
Scenario	Duplicate “Quote-to-Cash” → rename “Pitch-to-Pay.”	Starts at PPT proposal deck; ends at final client remittance.	Aligns pre-sales collateral with ERP hand-off—no more shadow CRM workflows.
Business Process	Add “Engagement Kick-off” with tasks for WBS approval, resource allocation, and risk register creation.	WBS depth rule = 3; variance exception triggers SOW change.	Forces project controls discipline during discovery, not post-cutover triage.
Pattern / Task	Insert “Resource Forecast vs Actual Variance Analysis” task (Project Operations).	Variance threshold = ±10 %; alerts via Teams webhook.	Automates margin protection—key for CFO buy-in.
Metric/KPI	Utilization % (Billable vs Capacity) and Margin per Engagement.	—	Finance gets board-grade metrics without off-book spreadsheets.
Test Mapping	RSAT script PS_001_TimeEntry tied to the time-entry task.	—	Ensures UI tweaks don’t break consultant time capture—the lifeblood of revenue.
License note	Tag Project Operations (Enterprise) for consultants; Project Ops Team Member for PMOs.	—	Prevents the “$95 vs $180 per user” shock during final true-up.

Real-world punchline

A 200-consultant firm saw a 3-point gross-margin lift in quarter one because the “Resource Forecast vs Actual” variance alerts triggered early re-staffing—something their old system hid until month-end close.

Optional toppings – tagging and version control

• Convert the sheet to an Excel Table so filters travel with it.

• Store each vertical catalog in a DevOps repo with semantic versioning (v1.2.0-fnb).

• Map Vertical Tag values to DevOps Area Paths so backlog queries stay clean.

Common pitfalls and quick fixes

1. Copy-paste drift – never edit the Microsoft ID. Add a prefix tag instead.

2. Excel bloat – delete empty rows and unused columns, then save as Table.

3. License shock – run your new roles against the license matrix before procurement signs the check.

Stay flavor-forward, my friends

DynamicsDad