We are selling part of our business and want to split our environment into a separate environment and move to another D365 tenant. How do I do that?

splitting up

Recommendations

Here’s my recommendation for splitting on environment into two:

1. Identify the customer and related records that are shared by both groups. These are the joint custody children and pets in the D365 divorce. Flag these records (can use a custom field).
2. Start by separating the two groups into different business units—this lets you separate the records before deleting them out and test to ensure that the split is as clean as possible.
3. Make a copy of the environment.
4. In the target environment, delete the records in BU1 except for the records flagged in step 1—I would do this first because you can go back and redo if you mess up. Then test.
5. In the source environment, delete the records in BU2 except for the records flagged in step 1.
6. Work with Microsoft support to move the new environment to the other tenant

Other considerations

1. Integrations need to be adjusted to only integrate the appropriate records
2. Third party ISV solutions may need to be reconfigured/updated and licensing adjusted—the new company will need to license D365 and any third party solutions included.
3. Under the new licensing model, Microsoft is enforcing functionality via licensing. If, for example, configuration includes field service but the new organization won’t be using field service and users aren’t licensed for it, you will likely need to remove some Microsoft solutions after you copy the environment.

Summary

Separate the data and copy before moving. This minimizes the risk as it can be tested and rolled back before burning the ships.