Welcome to the July edition of the Source & Connect newsletter.

July is a month of milestones for Source & Connect. We're turning three – and what a three years it has been! From navigating a challenging market in our early days to building the client relationships, team, and community that define us today, this anniversary feels like a moment to celebrate.

This month, we have a brilliant new podcast episode featuring Iwona Kasiborska, who shares her fascinating journey from accounting into Dynamics consulting. She offers some of the most honest, practical advice we've heard on what it really takes to succeed in this market.

We're also sharing our latest thinking on the value of senior contract resource in complex D365 programmes, and why permanent hiring is increasingly becoming the anchor that holds long-term delivery together.

As always, our aim is to bring you insight that's practical and relevant. Whether you're hiring, delivering, or thinking about what's next for your career, we hope you enjoy this month's edition.

A Note from the Director

I can't quite believe that Source & Connect turns three in July. It has certainly been a journey – and one I feel you’ve all shared with me.

I'm so grateful for every person who has supported us along the way - from our LinkedIn community to our events, our candidates, and our clients. It has been an amazing three years. 

Like most small businesses, we didn't get off to an easy start. The market wasn't on our side in years one and two, but looking back, those years were when we built the pillars this business now stands on. Year three is where it really came together. We've secured long-term client relationships that have supported us just as much as we've supported them, and we've made some brilliant placements – with candidates we've known for years and some we've only recently had the pleasure of meeting. 

In September 2025, I took the leap of bringing Vikki on board. What an investment that has been. Vikki has placed 13 candidates into some of the most complex roles in the market, and I'm incredibly proud of what we've built together. 

Tom has been supporting us on an ad hoc basis with marketing, content and operations, and I'm delighted to say he'll be joining us permanently this month. His impact has already been significant, and we're excited to have him three full days a week. 

Something I'm particularly proud of this year is the women's network we've founded within the D365 space. Having spent nine years building relationships with female candidates in this market — which remains around 80% male — the opportunity to create a dedicated space to empower and champion women felt both important and timely. We've already seen the positive effect this has on our clients' teams, with greater gender diversity consistently linked to stronger performance. 

I also want to give a special mention to two businesses who support us behind the scenes: Sunblink, our recruitment support partner who keeps everything running back-office, and 3R, our funding partner who ensures our contractors are paid weekly. Both are a quiet but essential part of what we do.

I've recently taken up netball — bear with me, because I think it's a decent analogy. I play centre, but running the business often feels like playing both centre and wing attack at the same time — a lot of ground to cover, setting up opportunities and keeping things moving. Vikki is our goal attack: lining up the plays and converting chances. Tom is wing defence, linking the team together and keeping everything connected in the middle. And Sunblink/3R are our defensive unit — holding it all together from the back. 

As we grow, I'll be looking to bring in that wing attack — someone to share the load, drive business development, and help us create even more opportunities. 🏐 

If you're open to something new in the next six to twelve months, I'd love to hear from you. 

🎙️ D365 Insights by Source & Connect — New Episode

In our latest episode, we’re joined by Iwona Kasiborska, an experienced Dynamics consultant with a unique journey into ERP, starting in accounting roles across multiple countries and progressing into a successful consulting career in Dynamics AX and beyond.

Iwona brings a clear and practical perspective on what it really takes to succeed as a consultant. While technical knowledge is the foundation, this episode makes it clear that great consulting goes far beyond understanding the system.

A central theme of the discussion is that consulting is often misunderstood as a relatively straightforward, high‑paying role. In reality, it requires constant learning, adaptability and the ability to quickly understand new industries, businesses and ways of working. Every new project brings a different set of challenges, meaning consultants must continuously develop both technical and interpersonal skills.

Iwona emphasises that success in consulting is built on much more than system expertise. The ability to read the room, manage different personalities and communicate effectively is critical, particularly during workshops and discovery phases. Strong consultants know when to step back, listen and allow stakeholders to fully express their challenges before moving into solutions.

One of the standout messages from the episode is the importance of listening. Iwona shares how many issues in Dynamics projects stem not from system limitations, but from misunderstandings of business needs. By focusing on the person behind the problem—rather than the technical language being used—consultants can often resolve issues far more quickly and effectively.

The episode also explores why organisations frequently struggle after go‑live. Common challenges include rushed implementations, insufficient training, poor data quality and reliance on workarounds. Iwona highlights that without proper knowledge transfer and adoption, even well‑implemented systems can fail to deliver value.

Another key takeaway is the importance of communication and teaching. Great consultants are able to translate complex systems into simple, relatable concepts, ensuring users understand not just how a system works, but how it fits into their day‑to‑day processes.

From a career perspective, Iwona shares valuable advice for both aspiring and experienced consultants. She highlights that curiosity, adaptability and a willingness to continuously learn are essential traits for long‑term success. In an ever‑changing market, the most successful consultants are those who can evolve, stay visible, and build strong relationships across projects and networks.

For clients, this episode reinforces that successful implementations depend just as much on people, communication and change management as they do on technology.

For candidates, it offers a realistic and insightful view into consulting as a career, highlighting both the challenges and the significant opportunities it provides.

🎧 Listen to D365 Insights by Source & Connect

Spotify

YouTube

Or search “D365 Insights by Source & Connect”

Contractor Bench — Contractors as Confidence, Not Just Capacity

Most failed go-lives don't fail in the build. They fail in the gaps nobody owned.

On complex Dynamics 365 programmes, the most valuable contractors aren't the ones who add hours, but the ones who close the gaps where programmes quietly come apart:

• Between finance and supply chain

• Between client and partner responsibilities

• Between design intent and operational reality

• Between build completion and real-world adoption

Clients don't bring in senior contract resource because they need more hands. They bring them in because they need people who can navigate ambiguity without defaulting to rework, challenge decisions at the right moment, escalate issues before they surface at UAT, and hold the line when timelines tighten.

This shows up hardest in data migration, complex finance processes, cross-stream integrations and remediation, the places where uncertainty compounds fastest and costs the most.

It's also why the same contractors get re-engaged again and again. Not for a module or a config skill, but because they keep programmes steady through the moments that actually test them, including the months after go-live, when adoption and trust are won or lost.

That's the difference between short-term capacity and a stabilising force inside delivery, and it's what separates contractors who get re-engaged from those who don't.

Permanent Roles as Anchors in Complex Delivery

In a complex D365 programme, it's rarely the technology that causes problems. It's losing the people who remember why a decision was made eighteen months ago. That's true whether you're the client running the programme or the partner delivering it, and it's why permanent hiring is increasingly being used as the anchor that holds everything else together.

On the end-user side, that means Programme and Project Managers overseeing multi-country rollouts, Data & Power BI specialists embedded in the business, and technical and functional leads who carry the history of the programme and the direction it's heading. On the partner side, including Big 4 organisations, it means experienced consultants, Programme Managers, Solution Architects and Directors who give clients a reason to stay loyal beyond the current contract. These are the people who shape delivery culture rather than just fill a seat on it.

In both cases, the value isn't in delivering today's milestone. It's in making sure nothing gets lost between waves, vendors, or contracts.

If you're delivering a Dynamics programme with a permanent need, or building that kind of bench inside your practice, we're always happy to talk.