Bridging business, functional & technical architecture
Experience. Dynamics 365 Principal Architect, 20+ years across ERP, Commerce, CRM and Azure-based integration — working at the intersection of business architecture, functional design and technical integration.
Profile. Alongside my ability to maintain a helicopter view across entire architectures, I’m skilled and hands-on across the Microsoft D365 and Azure integration ecosystems. I often apply this in prototyping solution alternatives, to provide evidence for architectural decisions before they are developed.
Data & integration. In modern architectures, data architectures are as important as the integrity of systems of record. I’m very aware of best practices in data and integration architecture: if the wrong foundation is in place here, strategic management decisions, future agentic use cases and operations and TCO in general are negatively impacted.
Focus. Most D365 solution architects are either functional or technical. My strength is that I oversee both domains. My industry specialisms are B2C and B2B Commerce, SCM, Wholesale and Manufacturing.
Context. I’m used to working in multi-cultural hybrid environments with distributed and offshore engineering teams and on-site/online collaboration. Thanks to my experience and know-how, I work effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, from executive leadership to distributed engineering teams.
Network. Regular speaker and blogger, well-connected within the D365 ERP/Commerce space, I stay close to product developments through independent research, regular community contributions and an international network of Microsoft specialists and peers.
Specialties
- B2C/B2B Commerce and omnichannel strategies
- Complex D365 and Azure integration scenarios: e-commerce platform/headless, POS, warehousing, EDI and vendor portals
- PDM/ERP integrations, including product data and catalogue synchronisation
- D365 ERP/CRM (CE) coherence
- Data platform for D365: medallion architectures, Fabric lakehouse, Power BI
- Agentic architecture and operation across D365 ERP, Commerce and CE
Industry expertise
- B2C, D2C, B2B, B2B2B Commerce
- Retail – Wholesale – Manufacturing – SCM
- Additional sector experience: Testing, Inspection & Certification
How I got here
Client-side business and IT
Inside end-user organisations, translating between the business and IT. This is where I learned to read what a business actually needs — and what it will live with afterwards.
Microsoft partner roles
Delivery and solution architecture inside Microsoft partners, across AX and Dynamics 365 implementations — the implementation reality, seen from the other side of the table.
Independent architect — PMN Consulting
Independent architecture and advisory, with personal accountability for the direction and no incentive to sell a particular build. This is the practice, and it continues unchanged.
365CONNECT — a delivery route, not a replacement
A later, separate response to repeated requests for delivery capacity. It did not replace my independent practice and does not sit in front of it.
How I work
- I hold both the functional and the technical side, rather than one of them.
- I test assumptions that carry real cost or risk before they become commitments.
- I keep specialists responsible for their areas, and stay responsible for coherence across them.
- I make trade-offs explicit — including the ones that count against my own recommendation.
- I tell you what you need to hear, not only what you want to. The honest read is usually the valuable one.
- Where I have a commercial interest in a delivery option, I make that interest explicit.
Why I founded 365CONNECT
As an independent architect, I was regularly asked a practical follow-up question: “Can you also help us prove or realise what you have designed?”
Sometimes the client lacked specialist capacity. In other situations, an existing delivery partner could not cover a specific Dynamics Commerce, Power Platform or Azure integration challenge. That led to the creation of 365CONNECT in 2022, a boutique delivery consultancy with specialists across Europe and India.
My architectural role and 365CONNECT’s delivery role are deliberately separated. Clients engage me for independent advice. 365CONNECT is only introduced where specialist delivery support is explicitly relevant, transparent and aligned with the client’s interests. It is not a default route and does not require replacing an existing partner.
My recommendations do not depend on whether 365CONNECT becomes involved.