Web portals that integrate with Dynamics 365 boost efficiency and engagement with customers, partners, and other stakeholders. However, these projects often cost more than expected because critical architectural decisions are made too late.
That’s because it’s common to prioritise visible aspects like UI design, functionality, and data when planning a portal. The underlying technical architecture often gets glossed over, treated as a detail to be sorted out later.
This approach creates significant financial risk.
The Hidden Cost of “We’ll Sort That Out Later”
Consider what happens when portal architectural planning takes a back seat.
If you assume the cloud will automatically handle any performance issues or that integration challenges can be easily resolved post-launch, the result could be a portal that performs poorly under load, resists scaling efforts, and requires expensive emergency fixes.
The outcome? User frustration, missed business objectives, and unbudgeted costs for architectural rework that could have been avoided.
A portal that cannot handle peak usage, increases infrastructure costs, or demands significant re-engineering to meet change requests becomes a drag on performance.
The Architecture Decisions That Determine Success
Thoughtful portal planning starts with understanding the architectural decisions that determine your project’s long-term success and costs.
These are business-critical choices affecting everything from user adoption to monthly running costs. ServerSys can assist you by providing expert guidance that simplifies this process and ensures your portal is built with an appropriate architecture for your needs.
Performance and Scalability Planning
Before your portal is designed, you should forecast its expected usage. How many users do you expect on day one, after year one, and in year three? Will people log in at 9 AM on a Monday, or will usage be spread throughout the day?
More importantly, can you identify predictable triggers that could cause traffic to spike dramatically? Time-critical registrations, application deadlines, or product launches can increase portal traffic by 10x or even 100x normal levels.
Designing a system for 50 simultaneous users differs fundamentally from handling 1,000 or more.
Without planning for peak usage, you’re building infrastructure without understanding the demands it must handle. This leads to wasteful over-provisioning or severe under-capacity when you need performance most.
Security and Authentication Architecture
How you manage user identity is a foundational decision with lasting implications.
For Dynamics 365 customers, this might mean integrating with your pre-defined user security roles or using Microsoft Entra ID for seamless single sign-on, but the architectural choices go deeper.
Key questions include how your portal will support multi-factor authentication. What audit trails do you need to show who accessed what data and when updates were made?
These decisions dictate how your portal integrates with your existing security infrastructure.
They will also determine whether you build user trust.
A further tactic to achieve this goal is through transparent data collection using just-in-time notifications alongside form fields that explain why information is needed at the point of collection, rather than burying details in a lengthy privacy document.
Data Management and Integration Strategy
Your portal can leverage existing Dynamics 365 data sources, including Dataverse, or its own database for portal-specific information. This choice affects performance, maintenance complexity, and long-term costs.
If you’re using existing systems, what are the performance implications of real-time queries versus creating synchronised copies of data? What happens when your Dynamics 365 system is offline – can the portal continue functioning with cached data?
Poorly designed integrations become primary sources of performance bottlenecks and data integrity issues. You need a clear strategy for how data flows between systems and how workflows are managed across your technology stack.
File Management and Regional Considerations
Modern portals handle more than just data display. Users might need to upload documents, images, and other files that must be managed securely and cost-effectively. In these scenarios, what file types will you support? How will you balance user needs with storage costs and security requirements?
For global organisations, language and regional requirements add another layer of complexity. Decisions about URL structure, hosting location, and compliance requirements like GDPR will impact user experience and legal obligations.
The Pragmatic Path Forward
These topics might appear overwhelming, but they don’t have to be. At ServerSys, we advocate a minimum viable product (MVP) approach that gets portals live quickly while building on solid architectural foundations.
The key is addressing these considerations during scoping, not after your portal goes online when changes become more expensive and complex. You don’t need to have all the answers immediately – that’s where specialist expertise becomes invaluable.
A consultative approach helps you understand which architectural decisions are critical for your specific situation and which can be deferred.
The goal isn’t to over-engineer your portal or extend timelines unnecessarily. It’s to ensure that your architectural choices enable seamless growth.
Making Architecture Work for Your Business
The organisations that invest time in this planning during scoping avoid the costly rebuilds that plague rushed projects. They launch faster, scale more effectively, and deliver better user experiences from day one.
Don’t let poor planning turn your portal vision into an expensive lesson. Addressing these architectural decisions early will ensure your portal becomes an operational strength.
Ready to discuss your portal requirements?
Our specialists will help you navigate these decisions to deploy a portal that delivers lasting value. Get in touch for a free consultation.
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