There’s a good chance that every team in your business has its preferred platforms and technology that they use in their day-to-day work.
It happens slowly over time. Typically, someone identifies a pain point or problem and then finds a platform that solves it.
But this infrastructure creates a new problem: siloed data. This means that the work one team is doing isn’t “talking” with others, and it’s an analytical nightmare as data needs to be manually compiled before any analysis can even take place.
This problem is solved with ERP systems like Microsoft Dynamics 365. With a modular infrastructure of tools that can be easily added and removed as needed, it provides the ultimate tool for unifying data, expediting workflows, and providing actionable insights across departments.
What is Microsoft Dynamics 365?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a suite of business applications and tools used in business management, customer relationships, and financial processes. It’s a modular enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) tool that is customizable to a business’s needs.
Instead of being an out-of-the-box, one-size-fits-all solution, individual applications are pieced together to create a comprehensive solution based on your needs.
Each piece integrates with the other and your existing technology to streamline workflows and automate processes. Since Microsoft Dynamics 365 has individual applications, you can start small and add additional components as needed, scaling with your business.
For businesses of all sizes, Microsoft Dynamics 365 connects disparate business functions into one cohesive system, allowing for data to flow seamlessly between teams and departments. This helps teams make faster, data-backed decisions using the entirety of the business’s data, not just what’s within the department.
Key features of Microsoft Dynamics 365
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is highly customizable, but many setups share some of these key features.
Customer relationship management (CRM)
Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers CRM tools that can be incorporated in the sales, analytics, support, and contact arms of the customer service process. Each aspect is empowered with the use of AI and autonomous agents to streamline and automate when possible.
By having each stage serviced by Microsoft Dynamics 365, you’re ensured consistency and accessibility in data throughout. Sales, support, and fulfillment data interconnect to provide actionable insights for each team to improve.
AI-driven analytics combine all this information to highlight the best opportunities based on conversion probability and value, recommending who to focus on and what next steps to take.
When marketing, sales, and customer support are operating seamlessly together, the business flourishes with the best opportunities that maximize ROI and provide top-tier customer service.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
The ERP applications available through Microsoft Dynamics 365 transform the way back offices and administrative teams work. Financial management, supply chain optimization, and human resources can all be automated and synergized for optimal planning, analysis, and execution.
Multi-location businesses no longer need to crunch multiple disparate sources of data for planning. Instead, AI-powered automation assists in predicting demand, optimizing inventory levels, and determining headcount as a whole, or on a per-location basis.
These analytical tools help cut costs by preventing costly mistakes like overbuying inventory or overstaffing a department. And with built-in controls that help keep financial reporting compliant, you’ll have peace of mind that every cent is properly accounted for.
Modular apps
If regular software is a multi-course tasting menu, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is ordering dishes a la carte. The modular framework of the platform allows businesses to pick and choose the tools they need, easily adding or removing parts as their needs change.
You may start with the sales tool and find that customer volume is so high that you need the CRM to stay on top of them all. And as transaction volume increases, maybe you add the financial tools to automate processing them all.
Whether it’s sales, customer service, financial management and planning, supply chain management, or project planning, Microsoft Dynamics 365 has a tool that can be slotted in to automate and improve the experience as needed.
How Microsoft Dynamics 365 works
Regardless of whether it’s one module or a full suite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 works through largely the same technology.
Integration
Microsoft Dynamics 365 easily connects with many of the tools and systems you likely use daily. Any Microsoft tools seamlessly integrate with Microsoft Dynamics 365, including Outlook, Excel, and Teams. For example, an email received in Outlook would automatically update the customer communication records in the CRM.
It’s also possible to connect Dynamics 365 to third-party applications using pre-built connectors and APIs, helping you keep you gain new abilities without sacrificing your existing tech stack. Instead, Dynamics 365 operates as the central hub that keeps all of your systems consistent and up-to-date without manual intervention.
Flexibility
The modular quality of Dynamics 365 helps you implement the right tools for the job now and in the future. The platform is deeply customizable with individual applications that can be added and removed as you see fit.
Within each tool is another layer of customizability with modifiable forms, fields, workflow automations, and processes.
Being a cloud-based solution, you don’t need to worry about the capital costs of scaling up. The same platform you use at 100 employees scales to 1,000, 10,000, and beyond. You’re guaranteed consistent performance no matter the number of users or the volume of data.
AI-powered
Artificial intelligence is leveraged in each individual tool of Dynamics 365. Whether it’s manual data entry or complex analytics, AI is there to automate, predict, and adapt to streamline the process.
The machine learning algorithms that underlay the AI features continuously improve over time, learning and adapting based on historical patterns and user behaviors. This could be an AI agent improving in its customer services or an inventory management AI predicting necessary inventory levels based on past sales data.
The purpose of these AI features is to give your team members the information and insights they need to do their work most effectively. Instead of digging through data and reports to try to find a valuable nugget of information, it’s surfaced by the AI, allowing the worker to focus on the action, not the insight.
Applications of Microsoft Dynamics 365
Given its highly customizable makeup, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is valuable for businesses of different sizes, industries, and complexities.
Use cases of Microsoft Dynamics 365 across industries
Manufacturing companies could use Dynamics 365 to manage their production schedules and supply chains. Using AI, the system predicts when production needs to ramp up or slow down in order to meet sales demand.
Retail businesses can enjoy unified and per-location views of their operations, managing inventory across physical stores or e-commerce channels. The marketing team also has all the information it needs for location-specific promos.
Professional service companies could leverage Dynamics 365 for project management, including job costing to measure the profitability of different jobs or clients. The CRM tools also keep track of any conversations to ensure no project details slip through the cracks.
Use cases of Microsoft Dynamics 365 across teams
Dynamics 365 has a wide array of tools that are purpose-built for specific teams or operations.
Finance teams can reinvent their processes with automated workflows and real-time reporting. Advanced forecasting tools help model scenarios, estimate the impact of investments, and inform strategic decision-making with data. Plus, compliance features give peace of mind that every detail is accounted for.
Sales teams can focus on the highest expected value with predictive AI, highlighting customers with the greatest likelihood of converting. Automated follow-ups save time on drafting messages while keeping leads warm in the pipeline. Rather than being analysts, salespeople can focus their time on generating revenue.
Operations teams can stay on top of production schedules with predictive demand, defining ideal inventory levels, optimized on location or channel. Supply chain management add-ons support vendor management with supply risk, cost management, and sourcing tools.
When each of these teams uses Dynamics 365 in tandem, data is harmonized across channels, helping everybody operate off of insights that otherwise may go unnoticed or unshared.
Getting started with Microsoft Dynamics 365
Successfully implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 requires a thoughtful plan and approach with structured steps.
Assess your current needs
Dynamics 365 can be prominent, implemented in every part of the business, or it could be a small, team-specific tool. This flexibility means you need to define how the tool will be used before you start the setup process. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself falling victim to scope creep.
Start by assessing your current business processes with an emphasis on pain points, inefficiencies, and room for improvement. This step should involve the end users who will be using the platform and who understand the work best.
Pick the applications you’ll be using
The Dynamics 365 platform is made up of modular building blocks that can be added and removed to suit your needs. Select the specific Dynamics 365 applications that address the needs you’ve identified.
Start by addressing the most pressing needs first. New modules can be easily added down the line, so let the initial setup be focused on the most important aspects with room to grow later.
Develop a phased rollout plan
A phased rollout of Dynamics 365 helps provide quick value and wins throughout the process rather than all coming at the end. Consider starting with a rollout in one department or team as a pilot project. Not only will you get value from implementation sooner, but you’ll learn about how to have a successful rollout for each subsequent phase.
Migrate data and set up integrations
Integrating Microsoft Dynamics 365 with your existing tech stack and data sources is a step that shouldn’t be rushed. As you’re integrating Dynamics 365 into your operations, it’s an opportunity to also vet where your existing setup needs improvement, something that could be better addressed earlier rather than later.
You should also review your data quality before the implementation process. This means cleaning your data sources, reviewing for duplicates or errors, and using standardized formats in your reporting.
Consider working with an experienced implementation partner with experience in your industry. Not only can they help with a successful rollout, but they can also provide best practices that extend beyond Dynamics 365 and set you up for smooth growth.
Provide training and support resources
Microsoft provides training resources that range from basic how-tos to instructor-led training and certifications. Role-based learning material keeps training focused on the essentials rather than overwhelm with unnecessary information.
Consider having someone in the organization go through a guided education and get certified for Dynamics 365. Having a power user on the team helps keep the transition smooth and can be invaluable down the line if you’re looking to add more modules.
The future of Microsoft Dynamics 365
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is constantly evolving, as modules are added and updated with new features to make the most out of your data.
An example of this is the convergence of Dynamics 365 and Copilot AI, leveraging adaptive AI to streamline and automate existing tasks. It could also simplify the experience of working with the platform, as a process can be completed with a conversational prompt rather than manual work; think of generating a report based on a text prompt rather than manipulating the platform yourself.
The AI within Dynamics 365 only improves as it processes more data and completes more tasks. This shows up as the platform being even better at identifying trends, anomalies, and correlations that may be overlooked by analysts. These predictive capabilities will help businesses know their own needs and the needs of their customers earlier and earlier.
As that AI improvement continues, more and more manual tasks will be completely automated, with examples like invoice processing, customer conversations, and inventory purchases being increasingly tackled by AI. For your employees, that’s less time spent on menial work and more time providing actionable insights to the business.
The increased interconnectivity of modules will help foster improvements, as data and workflows will be less siloed. For example, a prediction of a surge of sales based on CRM data could inform inventory purchases. Even if teams aren’t directly communicating, their work will through the various Dynamics 365 tools.
Maximizing the value of Dynamics 365 with integrations
If you’re making the switch to Microsoft Dynamics 365, you need to think about the tools you use and how your tech stack may need to change. After all, Dynamics 365 will only be as efficient and effective as the tools you use with it.
With BILL, you get an AP and AR platform that reduces manual entry errors, completes reconciliations faster, and maintains up-to-date reporting with two-way sync. You’ll have complete confidence that you have the right data in BILL and across all Dynamics 365 tools that it seamlessly integrates with.
Take back the time spent on menial administrative work by switching to BILL. Request a live demo to see how it works in action.
Frequently asked questions
Is Microsoft Dynamics an ERP or CRM?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 operates as both an ERP and CRM platform. Through its customizable modules, which can be added or removed as needed, businesses can include both ERP and CRM functionality in their Dynamics 365 build.
Since these components can be added and removed as necessary, businesses can deploy both CRM and ERP at once, or separately add one and then the other later, whichever is preferred.
Is Microsoft Dynamics the same as Office 365?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Office 365 are distinct products that serve different business needs.
Office 365 includes productivity tools like Outlook, Word, Excel, and Teams. These are tools used by employees to complete their work manually, as well as communicate both inside and outside of the organization.
Dynamics 365 offers business applications that solve more complex problems and workflows. This could be customer relationships, financial planning, supply chains, or other operational processes.
The two products can be integrated to get the most amount of value from them. Dynamics 365 could export data to a spreadsheet for use in Excel or draft an email to a customer in Outlook. But while they’re complementary products, they are ultimately different subscriptions.
What are the four types of CRM?
CRM systems are typically categorized as one of four types depending on their focus and capabilities:
- Operational CRM is focused on streamlining customer-facing processes, such as sales automation, marketing management, and customer support. The purpose is to help businesses execute their daily work more efficiently.
- Analytical CRM specializes in turning customer data into insights about buying patterns and behaviors. These insights are then turned into strategic decisions around revenue optimization.
- Collaborative CRM emphasizes sharing customer data across teams and departments, as well as external partners. The goal is to keep the customer experience the same no matter what aspect of the business the customer interacts with.
- Strategic CRM prioritizes long-term value by aligning each part of a business around a customer-centric approach, to boost loyalty and lifetime value for the business. It focuses on turning customer data in high-level planning that extends a customer’s patronage.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 aims to serve all four types with modules specialized for each of the approaches listed above.
