Money Advice Trust Case Study – D365 CRM UAT Management

Money Advice Trust’s CRM project was at risk due to disorganised UAT and limited internal testing capability. Understanding Solutions rapidly introduced structure, led testing, and upskilled users - transforming a stalled project into a confident, well-governed launch with lasting internal capability.

The Challenge the Client Faced

The Money Advice Trust, a national charity supporting people and small businesses in financial difficulty, was in the final stages of a complex Dynamics 365 CRM implementation. The project had progressed beyond the development phase and into User Acceptance Testing (UAT) a crucial step to ensure the system met operational needs before launch.

However, the charity found itself in a difficult position. The supplier’s delivery delays and lack of structure had left the UAT process disorganised, and the internal team lacked the confidence and technical know-how to run testing at the required level of rigour. The project risked further delay - or worse, a system go-live that failed to meet user expectations.

Money Advice Trust needed an experienced partner who could take control quickly, introduce structure and discipline to testing, and mentor their users to build lasting capability for future projects

The Solution 

Understanding Solutions deployed a seasoned UAT Test Analyst with deep experience in CRM systems and enterprise testing. Joining the project late meant there was no room for ramp-up time - impact had to be immediate.

Understanding Solutions took ownership of the UAT phase within days, designing a clear and traceable testing framework. They built detailed test scripts in Azure DevOps, aligned to the project’s business-critical objectives, ensuring that every test had a defined purpose and measurable outcome.

Recognising that sustainability was as important as delivery, we didn’t just ‘do the testing’ - we upskilled the client’s business users in test design, execution and defect management. Through mentoring and daily collaboration, users became confident contributors to the process rather than passive participants.

What began as a project on the verge of stalling quickly transformed into a well-governed testing cycle, with defects logged, tracked, and resolved efficiently. The combination of structure, technical precision, and people enablement became the foundation of the project’s turnaround.

The Result 

Within just a few weeks, the UAT cycle reached a level of quality and control that exceeded expectations. The team identified and resolved significantly more defects than the supplier had anticipated, leading to a much more stable CRM environment.

The Money Advice Trust launched its new Dynamics 365 CRM with confidence - knowing it had been properly tested, validated, and accepted by the people who would use it every day. More importantly, the organisation was left in a stronger position than before. Business users had developed genuine UAT capability, the testing documentation and scripts became reusable assets for future releases, and the project’s governance framework set a new benchmark for internal delivery standards.

What began as a high-risk phase ended as a clear example of how USol’s outcome-first approach can rescue, stabilise, and strengthen a client project - delivering not just results, but capability and confidence that last well beyond our engagement.