From Legacy to Leading Edge: How JE Dunn Modernized Its New Business Process With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales
JE Dunn Construction, the nation’s 8th-largest general contractor with $8 billion in annual revenue, had an outdated CRM system that could no longer keep pace with the complexity of modern sales and opportunity management. Manual processes, siloed data, and slow reporting hampered productivity and jeopardized opportunities. Partnering with New Dynamic, JE Dunn deployed Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales to unify business development, client solutions, and operations around a single source of sales intelligence. The result: streamlined collaboration, integrated data, and a scalable foundation for sales insights that has positioned the company for smarter, more efficient growth well into the future.
JE Dunn Construction has grown into one of the largest general contractors in the United States, with annual revenue exceeding $8 billion across 26 offices. For years, the company had relied on an outdated CRM system that could no longer keep pace with the business’s evolving needs and the increasing diversity of users across departments.
Manual processes and siloed data left marketing, client solutions (business development), and operations struggling to stay aligned. Information lagged, reports took too long to generate, and the risk of version-control errors grew.
“We needed a CRM system to better track the customer journey from initial contact, to new project, to repeat client,” said Michelle Ott, Vice President of Marketing Operations at JE Dunn. “We also needed pipeline predictability and the ability to scale as we continued to grow.”
Ott and her colleagues established several non-negotiable requirements for the new CRM solution. It needed to support full pursuit lifecycle tracking, from the first client interaction through project award, while remaining easy to use for employees with varying levels of CRM system experience.
The system also had to integrate seamlessly with JE Dunn’s existing project and personnel systems, providing a scalable foundation for predictive analytics and insights.
"Our biggest wins are integration and collaboration. We’ve greatly reduced manual effort, we’re all looking at the same thing, and we’re building toward a more predictive, data-driven approach to business development."
Michelle Ott
Vice President of Marketing Operations
Pains & Gains
Pains
- Outdated legacy CRM system
- Manual data entry with frequent errors
- Lagging reports, limited visibility
Gains
- All pursuits (opportunities) are tracked in Dynamics 365 Sales
- User-friendly interface driving adoption
- Shared visibility across marketing, client solutions, and operations
- JE Dunn is better positioned to leverage AI capabilities in its CRM solution journey
“People love the clean interface and speed. It’s been well-received, and the feedback we’re getting is that the user friendliness is driving a better experience overall, which leads to faster adoption.”
Michelle Ott
Vice President of Marketing Operations
Ambition: A Hub for All Pursuits
The vision at JE Dunn was to create a centralized CRM system that supported every phase of a pursuit and provided visibility across functions.
“Our client solutions team uses the system to capture that initial contact, track activities, and build visibility around potential opportunities,” Ott said. “Our operations team shapes our value propositions and RFP responses, while marketing uses the CRM solution to track pursuits, competitors, and proposal content.”
Future integration options with other systems and platforms, including marketing automation and workflow, as well as finance and project management, are also a priority.
Action: Superior Scoping, Design, and Implementation
New Dynamic was selected as the Dynamics 365 implementation partner for the project, which was delivered in two phases, with launches in December and June.
The project demonstrated a thoughtful approach to scoping, design, and implementation. The team delivered two custom model-driven apps, one for read-only users and one for active team users, precisely tailored to JE Dunn’s access requirements.
Business process flows were also designed to streamline and standardize opportunity qualification, while data cloud flows connected Dynamics 365 Sales with project management and ERP systems. Custom APIs, plug-ins, and data migrations ensured tight system connectivity, and the implementation was rounded out with mobile app configuration and ClickLearn training to prepare end-users for success.
Ott credited the agility and diligence of New Dynamic, along with JE Dunn’s IT and marketing operations teams, with keeping the project focused and on track.
“It was a learning curve for everyone involved, due to the size and complexity of our organization,” Ott said. “But we did a lot of pre-planning and stakeholder interviews to make sure the solution was user-driven. That preparation helped us stay on schedule and design the best solution for our needs, our people, and our future.”
Results: An Improved User Experience and Greater Productivity
Today, Dynamics 365 Sales is the system of record for pursuits and other marketing activities across JE Dunn departments and offices. Pursuits are now captured, tracked, and advanced in one convenient view.
Other wins include:
- Integration with systems — project data, personnel records, and client information now flow automatically, eliminating duplicate entry and reducing errors.
- Shared visibility across teams — operators, marketers, and client solutions all see the same data in real time.
- Faster, easier collaboration — proposal teams can pull project and personnel details directly from Dynamics 365, instead of navigating between other databases.
- Foundation for predictive analytics — Dynamics 365 AI can now provide data-driven guidance for tactics and strategies.
“Our biggest wins are integration and collaboration,” Ott said. “We’ve greatly reduced manual effort, we’re all looking at the same thing, and we’re building toward a more predictive, data-driven approach to business development.”
Ott likens the CRM system integration to any large construction project. Thoughtful planning, expert project management, and calm determination were necessary qualities exhibited by everyone involved.
“We learned a lot along the way,” Ott said. “It wasn’t easy. In fact, it was tough at times. But we got it done. And now we have a CRM solution that’s functional, scalable, and ready for the future.”
“People love the clean interface and speed. It’s been well-received, and the feedback we’re getting is that the user friendliness is driving a better experience overall, which leads to faster adoption.”
Michelle Ott
Vice President of Marketing Operations