User Review
( votes)Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the latest version of Microsoft’s business applications. It includes Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE/CRM (Customer Relationship Management) applications, and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) applications. As Microsoft has updated, separated, and renamed its Dynamics suite of products over the years, this paper will provide an overview of the main components, or modules of the latest Dynamics product called Dynamics 365 Business Applications.
This article, part 2, is a continuation of “What You Should Know About Microsoft 365 Business Apps.” Click here for part 1.
Dynamics 365 Marketing
The goal of the Dynamics 365 Marketing app is to allow SMBs to use one-on-one interactions with buyers at scale to build solid relationships. It allows the user to align sales and marketing strategies and automate many basic marketing tasks.
Users can develop marketing campaigns that are delivered across digital channels such as email, mobile, social media, custom channels, and even in-person interactions. These plans can personalize journeys based on customer interactions. The dynamic authoring helps users to create robust content using digital asset management, reusable content blocks, and a variety of templates.
This information can be used by customer service, sales, marketing, and other teams who need to enhance their relationships with buyers. Lead nurturing is easy with newsletters, emails, and personalized notifications. These campaigns can be coordinated with sales activities. And there are built-in features to remain compliant with GDPR and HIPAA regulations.
The Marketing app also uses AI to recommend images, offers, and content that will optimize successful engagement down to the individual level. A/B tests can be used to find the right offers, content, and channel that will identify the best approach to buyers.
The security surrounding the customer data allows users to share it without fearing security risks. This ability to share customer data across the organization gives everyone in your organization a real-time view of buyers. It’s also possible to customize the app to produce company-wide, departmental, or product-level campaigns.
Dynamics 365 Field Service
For a company that serves customers in the field, delivering excellent customer experiences can be a challenge because there are so many opportunities for miscommunication. The Dynamics 365 Field Service app is designed to avoid those problems and to add value to field service operations that will delight customers.
The Field Service customer records are aligned with Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service apps to ensure that there is one source of truth in the organization. The app offers AI-enabled scheduling insight and manual, semi-automated, and fully automated scheduling that streamlines the process of assigning the right technician. An interactive map is also available to locate field-staff that can most easily handle a particular service call, and a schedule board optimization feature helps to reduce travel and optimize the use of field resources.
An insights dashboard helps managers to spot opportunities to improve first-time fix statistics.
The app is mobile friendly, with knowledge base articles available to help field-staff find and fix problems.
Customers are engaged with the app’s self-service scheduling and technician location information. In addition, the feedback survey available to customers after a call helps customers feel that their opinions are valued.
If your product can be monitored using Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, the Field Service app can capture readings and help detect and resolve small problems before they require on-site service.
Empowering field-service staff members will help your staff succeed in giving customers world-class service. You can integrate Dynamics 365 Remote Assist with Field Service to give your staff access to the step-by-step procedures required to complete maintenance. It also allows field-staff to connect with experts to help solve problems.
Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation (Now Project Operations)
Microsoft has made Project Service Automation a part of Dynamics 365 Project Operations to connect sales, project management, and finance teams. If your business revolves around defining and managing projects to delight your customers, the Project Operations app allows you to accomplish your goals with a single dashboard. The app is designed to help users win more contracts, utilize resources most effectively, and streamline the process of completing project deliverables.
Project Operations allows users to optimize resources with features that match skills with project requirements. The app helps distribute workloads and anticipates needs using intelligent scheduling.
The app also offers flexible project management tools and KPI dashboards. The comprehensive financials include a Configure Price Quote (CPQ) feature that allows users to generate quotes and proposals; the CPQ is configurable and tracks document receipt and e-signatures.
Dynamics 365 Retail (Now Commerce)
Dynamics 365 Retail is now called Dynamics 365 Commerce. It manages activities across e-commerce, in-store, call center, back office, and emerging channels. Commerce allows users to offer customers the option to buy on any device with consistent access across online and offline channels.
Intelligent product searches help buyers find the products they need, and they receive their purchases using intelligent distributed order management. Users see a single view of the buyer across channels, and it’s easy to scale operations using a headless commerce* engine.
(*Headless commerce refers to the decoupling of the frontend content of a store from the backend commerce capabilities.)
Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations
The Finance app is designed to increase the user’s visibility into financial operations to increase profitability. Real-time financial reporting incorporates AI-driven insights and is offered to identify the health of the business, improve financial controls, and make informed and timely decisions.
The app allows users to automate time-consuming and repetitive tasks. Users can also find ways to minimize costs and optimize spending with extensive financial planning and analysis tools. The app allows users to simplify regulatory reporting and includes electronic invoicing and more.
Users can improve financial operations by integrating financials into core business processes to increase productivity and maximize performance.
The Operations app is focused on Supply Chain Management. The app helps the user create an intelligent and flexible supply chain.
Dynamics 365 Talent (Now Human Resources)
Dynamics 365 Talent has been renamed and updated to Dynamics 365 Human Resources. The Human Resources app provides a variety of features, including:
- Centralizing employee profiles
- Offering employees self-service tools
- Managing leave programs, compensation plans, and benefits packages with a connection to the existing payroll system
- Integrations with talent systems such as LinkedIn
- Simplified and automated HR processes
- And much more
For a complete overview of all of the Dynamics 365 Business Applications, download Datavail’s white paper, What Everyone Needs to Know About Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Apps – An Overview.
Feel free to reach out to one of our Microsoft Dynamics 365 experts to discuss your CRM implementation, upgrade, or cloud migration initiatives.
The post What You Should Know About Microsoft 365 Business Apps – Part 2 appeared first on CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365.
