What Is Dynamics 365?

Dynamics 365. What is it? Dynamics 365 isn’t one thing; in fact, it is a collection of business applications created by Microsoft.

What is Dynamics 365? Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based enterprise software platform containing applications that can help you enhance your sales, customer service, and finance management.

Dynamics 365 is the ultimate collection of enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management applications. The applications can help your business to operate more effectively and provide a better customer experience.

In this blog post, I will explain what Dynamics 365 is, the applications that you get, and how your business could benefit from using the Dynamics suite.

As I said, Dynamics 365 is Microsoft’s cloud-based enterprise software platform with applications that improve your business’s processes. There are a range of applications available. You can choose which of the applications you want, so you only have the software that you actually need.

Dynamics 365 is designed so that you can purchase what you need now and then grow in the future. Here are the applications that are available within the Dynamics 365 platform:

Dynamics 365 for Sales: Dynamic 365 for Sales is a piece of software that “enables salespeople to build strong relationships with their customers”, according to Microsoft. It provides you with a guided process for rapidly concluding sales, customer management functionality, and real-time analytics on the performance of your sales team.
Dynamics 365 for Customer Service: Dynamics 365 for Customer Service gives you all the functionality you need to deliver an excellent customer service experience. Dynamics 365 for Customer Service lets you:
- Track customer issues through cases.
- Add important information to the built-in knowledge base so that your colleagues can find the information and handle customer queries quicker.
- Create service levels for your customers according to the deals that you have agreed with them.
- Assess the performance of your team because of the real-time statistics that are available.
Dynamics 365 for Field Service: Dynamics 365 for Field Service is a piece of software that enables you to provide a proactive service to your customers. Furthermore, the Field Service element of Dynamics 365 enables you to seamlessly schedule site visits and dispatch the right resource for the appropriate jobs.
Dynamics 365 for Human Resource: Dynamics 365 for Human Resource gives your employees easy-to-use self-service HR tools. Employees can book leave, manage their benefits, and access important documents.
Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations: With Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, you can decrease the complexity of monitoring and managing your business’s finances. You can automate certain elements of your billing and make use of insights to increase your profits and reduce your costs.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management: Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management gives you a host of tools for supply chain management, enabling you to resolve issues quickly and ensure you meet customer demands.
Dynamics 365 for Commerce: With Dynamics 365 for Commerce you can streamline and optimise your retail operations, reducing costs and increasing your income. You can give your customer exactly what they want, making it easier for them to purchase from your business.
Dynamics 365 for Marketing: Combine Dynamics 365 for Marketing and Dynamics 365 for Sales for a more effective approach to gaining new customers. With marketing automation, a host of crucial insights, and customer journeys, you can ensure your customer pipeline stays full.

There are numerous applications available, all of which have different purposes. It’s possible that your business could need one or two or all depending on what your business does.

Because all of the applications are created by Microsoft, they all work really well together. Dynamics 365 is based on Azure, meaning you can access them all through a web browser rather than just a desktop application. This is advantageous in numerous ways, but one notable point is that it allows you to access the platforms everywhere as long as you have an appropriate device and internet connection. Consider the fact that all updates will be done in the cloud and you’ll never be sat around waiting for the latest update to download with Dynamics.

Next, let’s consider why you should use Dynamics 365.

Why you should use Microsoft Dynamics 365

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications are used by a lot of large businesses, such as HP, Virgin Atlantic, and UPS. But the Dynamics range of applications can be of use to businesses of any size.

Here are the main reasons that you should use Microsoft Dynamics 365:

The applications adapt to the unique requirements of your business
A variety of useful analytics and insights in all of the applications
Available for use no matter where you are as long as you have a compatible device and an internet connection
All the Dynamics 365 applications integrate with each other and other Microsoft applications for a unified solution
Scalability as you can add new Dynamics 365 applications as you need them

The applications can be adapted to the unique requirements of your business

Dynamics 365 is a suite of applications that are very adaptable. The applications work straight out of the box, so to speak, but you can adapt them so that they meet your requirements perfectly. For example, in Dynamics 365 for Marketing, you can set your own goals for your marketing efforts and also customise your dashboard to give you all the information of most importance to you.

This is just one example, of course. All of the applications are very flexible to the requirements of your business. For instance, you can create your own sales process in the Dynamics 365 for Sales tool so your salespeople know the exact procedure to follow when closing a sale.

If you want the ready-made, out-of-the-box solution, you still get a very capable set of tools. However, because the Dynamics 365 applications are so malleable, your business can truly benefit from using them.

A variety of useful analytics and insights in all of the applications

Through machine learning, the Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite of applications can offer you a number of insights that can be very useful to your business. For example, Dynamics 365 for Marketing can give you insights on how you can improve your campaigns. Furthermore, all of the Dynamics 365 applications have a dashboard containing tons of useful analytics that help you to accurately track how your business is performing.

All of the Dynamics 365 applications offer analytics or utilise machine learning in some way. For example:

Dynamics 365 for Sales: The Sales application gives you analytics that demonstrate how your salespeople are doing. For example, you can see how many deals they are closing and how happy their customers are. Further, you can quickly see emerging trends with AI-driven insights.
Dynamics 365 for Marketing: Dynamics 365 for Marketing gives you AI-driven insights on how you can improve your automated marketing. Furthermore, the tool contains ‘lead scoring’ functionality, that will give you a good idea of how ‘hot’ a lead is.
Dynamics 365 for Customer Service: Through machine learning, Dynamics 365 for Customer Service can give you accurate insight on how to rapidly resolve a customer’s issue when they contact your business. Furthermore, get AI-driven insights that identify which areas of your customer service you can automate.

Available for use no matter where you are as long as you have a compatible device and internet connection

As long as you have a compatible device and an internet connection, you can access any of the Dynamics 365 applications and use them no matter where you are.

The Dynamics 365 applications are cloud-native applications, meaning that they’re designed for the cloud and you don’t need to download anything onto your computer. This is what enables you to access and use the applications no matter where you are. If you have team members working all over the place, this is a big advantage.

Remote workers can access the Dynamics 365 applications and make use of them on the road. One example of where this is really important is the Dynamics 365 Field Service application. It’s important that your field service agents can access the application no matter where they are and check their schedule.

The Dynamics 365 applications integrate with each other and other Microsoft solutions for a unified system

Once you’re part of the Microsoft ecosystem, you will reap the benefits. You will have a brilliant unified solution on your hands where all of the applications integrate so that your team can work more effectively.

The Dynamics 365 applications integrate well with other applications created by Microsoft. For example, the Field Service application integrates with Outlook and Excel, so you can easily flick between applications to perform tasks effectively.

If you use a range of Microsoft products, they all work together very well.

Scalability as you can add new appliances as you need them

Embrace Dynamics 365 and you will have applications that can grow with your business. Dynamics 365 is a SaaS product and as such will scale with your business as your needs grow.

Dynamics 365 is built in such a way that you only pay for what you need. So if you only need Dynamics 365 for Sales, then that’s all you’ll get. If you need all of the Dynamics 365 applications, then you will pay for them all.

As your needs grow in the future, you can add new Dynamics 365 applications as you need them. For example, if you need Dynamics 365 for Marketing as of next month, you can add the application whenever.

I hope this blog post has helped you to learn more about Microsoft Dynamics 365. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask away in the comments!