From providing superior customer service to staying on top of operational costs, running a business is a contact sport. The decisions made, which inform your management style, ultimately determine whether you win or lose.
But what if you had the business data that could enable you to make smarter, more well-informed decisions? With Microsoft Dynamics 365, you do.
What is Dynamics 365?
Originally released in November 2016, Microsoft Dynamics 365 are comprehensive customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning solutions that, as its official website puts it, enables organizations large and small to evolve from timid, reactive business decisions to confident, proactive business solutions. These solutions can help companies like yours make smarter use of data by peeling back the curtain on all-important business processes, including supply chain management, human resource management and back-office operations. It can also offer a sneak peek into what your customers most want, which may be discoverable through their shopping habits and purchase selections.
In short, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a technological powerhouse that can make all-important business processes run much smoother and more seamlessly. Microsoft Dynamics 365’s includes two accounting/ERP solutions, which can be confusing for people. Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is their Enterprise solution and Dynamics 365 Business Central is their SMB solution. SMB is an abbreviation for small to medium-sized businesses. Small businesses are those with 100 or fewer employees, while businesses with 100-999 employees are medium-sized.
What is the difference between Dynamics 365 and Office 365?
In some ways, this end-to-end solution is a metamorphosis of its former self, after Microsoft combined its previously released ERP Dynamics Enterprise and SMB suites with its Dynamics CRM platform, forming the hybrid Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM and ERP application suites. These functionalities were paired with the usability and seamless interface of Office 365. The blending of these unique business management capabilities and Office 365’s intuitive design, helps users more readily obtain actionable insights about their customers, employees and supply chain in real time. They can then apply those insights accordingly. This Dynamics product is particularly useful for customer relationship management.
Ask any business owner, and they’ll likely tell you some variation of the same thing: The sun rises and sets on your customers and their level of satisfaction. If they don’t feel like they are getting the most bang for their buck – whether in the products they purchase or the services they obtain – they’ll take their business elsewhere. According to polling conducted by Accenture, more than 60% of customers say they’ve switched to buying from a different company due to their expectations not being met.
While this cloud-based business applications platform can’t guarantee you a larger customer base, it can provide you with better business management data that can be used to inform how you approach customer retention and engagement.
What are the features available in Dynamics 365?
You name the product or service, there’s a business out there that can provide it. But, because companies come in all shapes and sizes, some of the functionalities in the Dynamics platform may not be as relevant to you as they would be to others. As such, this cloud-based software system can be customized so you only buy the application germane to your needs. They are grouped in several suites of options: Business Central for SMB ERP and Finance and Operations for Enterprise ERP, and Customers Engagement for CRM capabilities. Here is a partial list of the apps available for purchase on a per month, per user basis:
-Business Central for SMB accounting/ERP
-Finance and Operations for enterprise accounting/ERP
-Sales
-Field Service
-Customer Service
-Professional Services Automation
-Marketing
These apps are available in both as suites or individual applications and pricing varies accordingly. For example, the Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise or Sales Enterprise suites are both $95 per user per month, while Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials is $70 per user per month and Finance and Operations is $180 per user per month and has a 10 user minimum. Both the Enterprise ERP solution Finance and Operations and the SMB ERP solution Business Central have several of the same capabilities and functionalities, but Dynamics 365 Business Central may be the better bargain if your company has an employee base of 250 staff members or less. If you’re significantly larger than that already or anticipate it to grow, Enterprise Edition may make more sense. If you’d prefer a program that incorporates the business processes more typical to a SMB organization and working with an application such as Dynamics NAV, Dynamics GP, or Dynamics SL, then Business Central may be more in line with your needs and wants. This isn’t to suggest that its more souped-up contemporary Enterprise is complex, but because it can do more, there’s a larger learning curve and implementation cost and timeline.
What are the newest updates in Dynamics 365?
Nearly four years and counting since its inaugural launch, Dynamics 365 isn’t the new kid on the block any longer. Since then, it’s received several state-of-the-art updates in recent months. Wave 2, which dropped in late 2019, includes all of the same apps (e.g. Sales, Marketing, Customer Services, Supply Chain Management, etc.), only with more capabilities that are leveraged by machine learning and artificial intelligence. Wave 2 also has more business applications than its predecessor, adding Enterprise Human Resources and Commerce. The former offers greater transparency into operational expenses and how those align with your company’s strategic goals. The latter pairs well with Dynamics 365 Retail through omnichannel back-office and call center tools. If you’re looking for a partner that can help your company solve your business problems and make the most of Microsoft Dynamics 365, contact The TM Group. We put the TM in team.