Dynamics 365 | AI Updates | Microsoft AI Blogs http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/ai/blog/product/dynamics-365-2/ Tue, 18 Mar 2025 23:32:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Accelerate your journey to AI-first selling with Microsoft AI Accelerator for Sales and new sales agents http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2025/03/05/accelerate-your-journey-to-ai-first-selling-with-microsoft-ai-accelerator-for-sales-and-new-sales-agents/ Wed, 05 Mar 2025 13:00:00 +0000 We’re announcing a new program—Microsoft AI Accelerator for Sales—to help more customers rapidly transform their sales organization with Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents, as well as two new agents—Sales Agent and Sales Chat—to help scale the team’s ability to nurture and close deals.

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]]> AI transforms the way people work, the way every function operates, and the way businesses drive competition and growth. It’s also transforming the business application landscape as customers adopt Microsoft 365 Copilot as the UI for AI and agents for every business process. Nowhere is that more true than in sales. The combination of Copilot, agents, and human ambition can free time to focus on closing deals, help teams build a stronger pipeline, and drive new levels of profitability. That matters because in sales, time is money.

We’re announcing a new program—Microsoft AI Accelerator for Sales—to help more customers rapidly transform their sales organization with Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents, as well as two new agents—Sales Agent and Sales Chat—to help scale the team’s ability to nurture and close deals.

Read on for more information on each of these announcements.

AI Accelerator for Sales

We’re announcing AI Accelerator for Sales, an exclusive program designed to help more customers experience a new way of working with Copilot and agents, help transform your sales organization, and migrate off legacy CRM system vendors. This program includes:

  • Microsoft 365 Copilot to empower every salesperson with an AI assistant.
  • Prebuilt agents to accelerate time to value for common sales processes, including the Sales Research Agent, new to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, that uses deep research to help drive strategic decisions.
  • Custom agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio to automate bespoke sales processes.
  • Model fine-tuning by Microsoft AI experts, further tailoring AI models and agents to your unique business needs.
  • Dynamics 365 Sales to manage customer accounts and drive sales from lead to close.
  • White-glove engagement, working hand in hand with Microsoft’s AI experts.

This program will be available for eligible customers on April 1, 2025. Contact your Microsoft representative to learn more.

Customers are making the change

Customers are already realizing the transformative impact of Microsoft’s platform within their sales organization. Lenovo, a global powerhouse in technology solutions, has experienced a streamlined and shortened sales cycle and improved customer service and responsiveness, boosting productivity—and profitability.

 “We’re seeing the benefit of having one standardized system and a global view to all geographies’ activities. This is the foundation for Lenovo’s sales digital transformation—enabling better connections and an increase in sales productivity and actionable insights.”  

—Wei Bi, Business Strategy Senior Manager, Lenovo

Lexmark, a global leader in innovative, cloud-enabled printing, imaging, and Internet of Things (IoT) products, software, solutions and services set out for a sweeping transformation, looking to replace their legacy Salesforce system. With Lexmark’s migration to Microsoft’s platform, the company now has a unified, omnichannel platform that centered the customer experience, standardized service delivery systems, offered user-friendly interfaces, streamlined sales and account management and reporting, and increased efficiency.  

“There is magic in a single source of truth with standardized data. Data analytics, coupled with operational excellence, provides the level of service that only Lexmark can offer to customers, allowing real-time access to actionable data and insights to increase revenue generation and customer satisfaction.”  
—Billy G. Spears, Senior Vice President and Chief Product Delivery Officer, Lexmark 

New sales agents to help close more deals, faster

We’re also announcing two new agents that can free sellers’ time to focus on higher-value activities and help close deals.   

Sales Agent can research and prioritize leads, set up meetings, and reach out to customers. Sales reps can focus time on closing the biggest deals while the agent ensures that no lead is left behind. Sales Chat provides actionable takeaways from CRM system data, pitch decks, meetings, emails, and the web—so sales reps can spend less time digging and more time selling.

Both of these agents, which will be in public preview in May 2025, work with first-party and select third-party CRM systems and integrate with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Learn more about the capabilities of these agents on the Microsoft 365 blog.

In addition, Customer Intent, Customer Knowledge Management, Case Management, Scheduling Operations, and Sales Order agents for Microsoft Dynamics 365 will be available in March 2025. Please note that use of these agents during public preview will require Copilot Studio capacity packs.

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]]> AI-powered sales journeys: Personalization at scale for exceptional customer experiences http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2025/03/03/ai-powered-sales-journeys-personalization-at-scale-for-exceptional-customer-experiences/ Mon, 03 Mar 2025 16:00:00 +0000 Personalizing customer journeys requires a more proactive approach assisted with AI.

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]]> Personalized customer engagement is no longer just an advantage; it’s an expectation. Sales teams are increasingly tasked with delivering real-time, tailored interactions across multiple touchpoints, all while managing a growing number of prospects and customers. The challenge is maintaining that high level of personalization without overwhelming the team or losing the quality of engagement. 

We see that many businesses encounter significant challenges when attempting to scale personalized interactions to meet the needs of a diverse and growing customer base. Traditional methods that worked well with smaller datasets and pipelines simply can’t keep up with the demands of a modern, fast-paced sales environment. Companies are looking for better ways to manage and orchestrate customer journeys to deliver relevant, personalized experiences at every stage. 

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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

Elevate your customer experiences by personalizing them at scale. 


Learn more

The complexity of personalizing at scale 

Using outdated CRM systems or doing things manually often means sales teams have to send out generic messages that don’t really connect with individual customers. This makes the engagement feel off, and opportunities slip through the cracks. 

The main issue here is that most systems don’t provide real-time insights into what customers are doing. Without up-to-date data, sales teams end up reacting to customer actions instead of anticipating them. As the number of leads grows, it’s nearly impossible to maintain the kind of deep engagement needed to really connect with customers at every stage. 

Orchestrating seamless customer journeys with Microsoft AI-driven insights 

AI helps companies take a proactive approach to personalizing customer journeys. By analyzing customer behaviors in real-time and delivering actionable recommendations, AI gives sales teams the insights they need to anticipate customer needs and offer solutions before prospects even ask for them. 

Beyond insights, AI orchestrates the entire customer journey, helping to ensure that interactions across channels are cohesive and relevant. Whether a prospect first interacts with a brand through email, social media, or a sales meeting, AI helps to ensure that their journey is connected, personalized, and moves them further down the funnel. 

Dynamics 365 optimizes every step of the customer journey 

Let’s explore how AI-powered insights optimize key stages of the sales journey, enabling sales teams to focus on high-value tasks while still delivering tailored customer experiences.

Enhancing customer interactions with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Effective customer interactions are built on understanding the customer’s history, preferences, and current pain points. However, gathering that information can be tedious and fragmented when done manually, leading to inconsistent and incomplete preparation. 

With AI-generated opportunity summaries, sales teams can walk into every meeting fully prepared. Real-time insights about the customer’s journey—including previous interactions, product interests, and engagement history—help to ensure that each interaction is tailored to the customer’s needs. Instead of scrambling to piece together information, sales teams can focus on building relationships and delivering value from the outset. 

Investec is a great example here. By using Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, they have been able to improve their client relationships while saving about 200 hours a year. This allows them to redirect efforts from routine tasks towards providing a personalized customer experience. 

Streamlining post-sale engagement and follow-ups 

Maintaining customer satisfaction post-sale is critical for retention, but many organizations struggle with post-sale engagement. Inconsistent follow-ups or delayed CRM system updates lead to disengaged customers and missed upsell opportunities. 

AI-powered systems automate the process, ensuring timely follow-ups and engagement reminders. For example, sales reps can receive real-time notifications when a customer interaction is needed—whether it’s a check-in call, a product recommendation, or a renewal reminder. This automation helps to ensure that no opportunity falls through the cracks, supporting teams to strengthen customer relationships and increase long-term value. 

Just look at the work that Lynk & Co is doing to transform car usage by offering flexible options for customers to buy, borrow, or subscribe to vehicles. Using Microsoft Dynamics 365 customizable tools, they were able to quickly build an infrastructure that could create unique processes and drive highly personalized experiences. 

Creating a cohesive, multi-channel experience 

We know that customers engage across multiple channels—email, phone, social media, webinars, and more. Managing these touchpoints individually often results in a fragmented customer journey. Customers can feel disconnected from the brand if interactions on different platforms don’t align. 

AI-powered tools help orchestrate seamless interactions across channels, ensuring that customers receive consistent messaging regardless of how they choose to engage. Whether it’s a follow-up after a demo, a personalized offer via SMS, or an email post-webinar, AI helps to ensure that the message is both relevant and timely. Sales teams can manage more channels without sacrificing personalization, improving the customer experience and keeping prospects engaged. 

An interesting story here is Zurich Insurance Group. To optimize processes and handle increasing customer data, they chose Microsoft solutions, including Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, to help them find new ways to reach customers and shape customer journeys. As a result, they’ve been able to increase their lead quality by over 40%. 

AI’s role in optimizing customer journeys 

By continuously analyzing real-time customer behavior, AI provides sales teams with recommendations on what to do next—whether that’s sending a follow-up email, scheduling a demo, or offering a personalized discount. 

For sales leaders, this means moving beyond surface-level engagement to deep, data-driven interactions that anticipate customer needs. Rather than reacting to each customer interaction as it happens, AI supports proactive strategies that keep prospects moving smoothly through the sales funnel. 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Copilot: Delivering personalization at scale 

The challenges of scaling personalization can be daunting, but solutions like Dynamics 365 and Copilot allow businesses to turn customer data into actionable strategies, delivering relevant, personalized interactions from the first touchpoint to post-sale follow-up.  

With Dynamics 365 and Copilot, organizations are experiencing the following benefits: 1 

  • 15% increase in revenue per customer journey. 
  • 75% time savings on customer journey development.
  • 50% reduction in physical marketing spend.

Here’s how Dynamics 365 addresses the key challenges of scaling personalized engagement: 

  • Natural language data exploration. Sales teams can instantly access customer insights by asking questions in simple language, such as “Which customers are nearing their renewal date?”. This streamlines data access and empowers quick, targeted action.1 
  • Segment creation with Query Assist. Easily create customer segments by describing desired traits, helping sales teams target high-value groups with precision.2 
  • AI-assisted journey creation. Define customer journey goals in plain language, and Copilot builds personalized journeys across channels, boosting engagement and conversions.3 
  • Content generation and refinement. Quickly draft messages or emails with Copilot, using tone and key point inputs to tailor content. This speeds up customer response and helps to ensure alignment with brand goals.4 

AI can scale personalized customer engagement  

When talking to customers, it is recommended that businesses consider personalizing engagement across their large pipelines. This can indeed be a major challenge, but with AI-powered tools like Dynamics 365 and Copilot, sales teams can effortlessly maintain meaningful, personalized interactions at every stage of the customer journey. By turning data into actionable insights, AI empowers companies to create proactive and tailored experiences that drive both loyalty and growth. Using AI allows you to scale engagement without sacrificing the personal touch, making it a valuable investment for enhancing customer relationships.  

Access the resources below to get started on your AI journey today. You can also stay connected on LinkedIn with more information about innovation and AI transformation. 

Learn more about how to personalize at scale with Microsoft Dynamics 365. 

Sources:

1 “Dialog with Data.” Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Documentation. Microsoft, Inc., 2024.  

2 “Copilot Overview.” Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Documentation. Microsoft, Inc., 2024. 

3 “Use Copilot to Create a Journey.” Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Documentation. Microsoft, Inc., 2024. 

4 “Content Rewrite.” Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Documentation. Microsoft, Inc., 2024. 

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]]> 2025 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Role-based Copilot offerings http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2025/01/23/2025-release-wave-1-plans-for-microsoft-dynamics-365-microsoft-power-platform-and-role-based-copilot-offerings/ Thu, 23 Jan 2025 17:00:00 +0000 We’ve published the 2025 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and role-based Copilot offerings. These plans are a compilation of the new capabilities planned to be released between April 2025 and September 2025.

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]]> We’ve published the 2025 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Role-based Copilot offerings. These plans are a compilation of the new capabilities planned to be released between April 2025 and September 2025. With advancements in agents, automation, intelligence, and seamless integrations, this release is designed to address the evolving needs of modern enterprises while driving efficiency and innovation across industries.

Key areas of focus include expanding AI capabilities and agents to automate routine tasks, provide actionable insights, and improve decision-making at every level. This wave introduces enhancements to user experiences, enabling more intuitive workflows, smarter resource management, and greater collaboration. Businesses can benefit from intelligent tools that optimize operations, improve customer engagement, and support strategic growth initiatives.

In addition to productivity and efficiency, this release prioritizes security, governance, and extensibility, helping to ensure businesses can scale confidently while maintaining compliance and control. With these advancements, organizations can take advantage of the full power of AI and agents to transform their operations and deliver exceptional value to their customers. Watch a summary of the release highlights for 2025 release wave 1.

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Dynamics 365 release wave 1

Check out the release wave 1 Dynamics 365 features.


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Highlights from Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales brings the power of AI to help sellers meet their targets while boosting seller productivity. Copilot and agents enhance performance and simplify tasks, to help grow your pipeline, sharpen strategies, and accelerate deals. A reimagined user experience ensures sellers never miss the best move. Automated research, ongoing follow-ups, and prioritized tasks provide continuous guidance, allowing you to focus on the right actions to drive success and grow your business. Watch this video to discover the new and enhanced features included in this release wave.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service will enable agentic capabilities for case and knowledge management, as well as AI-driven routing, while extending Copilot capabilities for customer service representative and supervisor experiences, with a focus on productivity improvements. Watch this video to discover how the latest enhancements to Customer Service can benefit your business.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center will transform service experiences with new features to deliver effortless self-service, accelerate assisted service, and drive efficiency. The 2025 release wave 1 introduces Copilot and agent capabilities to automate intent determination for evergreen self-service and autonomous knowledge management.  Additional key features include multi-modal support in customer intent agent, enhanced unified routing features, and new workforce and quality management capabilities.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service introduces Copilot-first experiences that enhance service operations and deliver exceptional customer experiences in 2025 release wave 1. Key features include automated inspection generation from templates, actionable insights for schedulers, quick access to vital information for frontline workers and managers, plus seamless integrations with Microsoft Teams and Outlook.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance capabilities are designed with a copilot-first experience, delivering enhanced automation and agentic capabilities. This release focuses on simplifying complex tax management and regulatory compliance, automating account reconciliations with agents, improving bank reconciliation processes, and adding intelligence to planning, along with extensibility and data refresh updates for business performance analytics. Discover how the latest enhancements to Finance can benefit your business in this video.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management advances autonomy by integrating intelligence, automation, and analytics to improve productivity and organizational adaptability. This update enhances operational efficiency by automating supplier communications, improving demand planning accuracy with cell-level explainability and generative insights, and taking advantage of AI in manufacturing to align production data with actual processes.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations is focused on enhancing usability, performance, and scalability in key areas such as project planning, contract management, invoicing, time and expense entry, and core transaction processing. The spotlight is on AI-assisted core functionality improvements in what-if analysis, proposal generation, time and expense and approvals. This release will introduce a mobile app for time management and deliver scale improvements to support larger projects and handle higher invoice volumes.

Finance and operations cross-app capabilities will continue enabling AI and autonomous enterprise resource planning (ERP) with capabilities that support ERP application suite in Dynamics 365, including Dynamics 365 Finance, Supply Chain Management, Commerce, Human Resources, and Project Operations. We’re infusing agent experiences across applications, including chat, embedded AI, and intelligent process automation, and enabling extensibility for agent scenarios along with enterprise-grade security and compliance at scale.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Human Resources enhances intelligence, automation, and analytics across the hire-to-separate process to boost productivity and enable business agility. We’re advancing recruiting with AI-driven assessments and integrations with external job boards, including LinkedIn. Additionally, we’re improving benefits and people management experiences for employees and HR business partners through AI-first solutions and automation. View this video to learn more about the features releasing in this wave.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce advances in-store experience by providing a mobile-first point-of-sale that reduces store hardware footprint and boosts sales conversion. The improvements to the payment connector allow modern payments methods, further reducing hardware requirements and offering more purchasing options for customers. Additionally, omni-channel unified pricing enables retailers to establish more intricate pricing structures, helping them remain competitive.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central introduces intelligent AI agents to enhance efficiency and automation for small or medium sized businesses (SMBs). These agents seamlessly integrate to execute complex tasks, generate reports, automate processes, and optimize order creation using natural language processing. This release focuses on manufacturing, sustainability, and electronic document capabilities, along with enhanced Shopify and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service integrations.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data powers Copilot and agents with the latest customer insights, enabling your teams to take advantage of this data directly within their daily workflow. Enriched with the latest marketing behavioral interactions and streamlined data ingestion, your business can access up-to-date customer profiles without delays to build each experience upon the last.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys brings the power of AI to engage your customers on new channels so you can create new scenarios and business opportunities. Thanks to advanced journey capabilities, you can optimize interactions with your customers, helping to ensure that each touchpoint is meaningful and impactful. The new forms and event management features not only streamline the lead generation process but also help ensure that high-quality leads are captured and nurtured effectively.

Female developer leads impromptu meeting while working in a shared space.

Microsoft Power Platform

Check out the 2025 release wave 1 Microsoft Power Platform features.


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Highlights from Microsoft Power Platform

Microsoft Power Apps changes how software solutions are built with the plan designer where makers can provide a business problem, and a set of agents helps them build a Microsoft Power Platform software. Apps created using Power Apps are intelligent, powered by a set of extensible agents that support most common tasks like exploring, entering, and summarizing data. Makers can automate common tasks by creating agents from existing apps and deploying them to take care of work autonomously. With integrated ability for users to understand and monitor agent actions, and easy ability to resolve issues when agents hit roadblocks, Power Apps is accelerating the shift to intelligent AI-driven solutions at scale. Watch this video to discover the exciting features launching in this release wave.

Microsoft Power Pages enables businesses to build secure, data-driven portals effortlessly. Recent updates include AI-driven features like Web Agents for multi-platform engagement (email, Teams, WhatsApp), AI-assisted form filling for improved productivity, dynamic list visualizations for better insights, and enhanced governance policies to strengthen security and streamline site deployments.

Microsoft Power Automate is transforming how enterprises automate complex business processes through new human-in-the-loop experiences, including advanced approvals and AI native capabilities, such as generative actions and intelligent document processing. A comprehensive suite of governance, observability, and security controls coming to the automation center and Microsoft Power Platform admin center help to manage complex automations at scale. Watch this video to learn about the new features releasing in Power Automate in this wave.

Microsoft Copilot Studio brings new autonomous agent capabilities; extension of Microsoft 365 Copilot with Custom Agents; new capabilities for the Copilot Studio embedded builder in Microsoft Copilot including support for actions, new enterprise knowledge sources, and the ability to upgrade a declarative agent to Copilot Studio custom agent to access additional capabilities and new conversational channels for custom agents including WhatsApp and SharePoint. Watch this video to discover how the latest enhancements to Microsoft Copilot Studio can benefit your business.

AI Builder in Copilot Studio brings the power of advanced automation to routine processes like email handling, document processing, and image management, helping businesses run smarter and more efficiently. AI Builder has multi-modal content processing capability, which allows businesses to handle various data types—including text, document, and images—within a single natural language instruction. Enhanced Prompt builder tools empower makers to customize AI actions with diverse inputs, expanded data sources from Microsoft Dataverse, and support for generating multiple content types, including documents.

Dataverse is continuing to extend maker experiences by enriching app and agent building capabilities across the platform. Dataverse can seamlessly connect all your data together with an ever-expanding set of external data sources. And with your data together, Dataverse can convert your enterprise data into knowledge, which you can use to customize and extend agents that are built in Microsoft Copilot Studio and the agent builder experience in Microsoft 365 Copilot. These investments are aimed at grounding AI-driven experiences with enterprise knowledge across Microsoft Power Platform.

Microsoft Power Platform Administration and Governance continues to provide enhanced tools and insights for admins to get the most from Microsoft Power Platform. In this wave. We’re focusing on security, easing adoption and governance of Copilot and agents, and helping enterprises boost the adoption of Microsoft Power Platform at enterprise scale with a modernized admin center experience and a new admin connector for automating admin tasks.

Highlights from Role-based Copilot offerings

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Role-based Copilot offering release wave

Check out the 2025 release wave 1 Role-based Copilot offering features.


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Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales continues to drive innovation with advanced generative AI capabilities designed specifically for sales-focused roles. In this release, we’re enhancing our assistive features by surfacing further CRM platform insights and recommendations to the sales team across the Microsoft 365 product suite. We’re also streamlining SalesChat™ experiences and driving new agent workflows to put organizations in control of automation experiences and notifications.

Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service continues to deliver and enhance cutting-edge generative AI capabilities for agents within their flow of work. In this release, we’ll be introducing connectivity with any CRM system and inline email summary and drafting.

Microsoft 365 Copilot for Finance enhances efficiency for finance professionals by providing insights that aid strategic decision-making and reduce manual tasks. The 2025 release wave 1 focuses on intelligent automation of variance analysis in Excel, access to external data sources, extending functionalities through Copilot Studio, supporting collections calls in Teams, and taking advantage of generative AI to summarize macroeconomic conditions. Visit the release planner to learn more about upcoming features.

Early access period

Starting February 3, 2025, customers and partners can validate the latest features in a non-production environment. These updates include user experience enhancements that will be automatically enabled in production environments by April 2025. Take advantage of the early access period to test these updates and effectively plan for your customer rollout. Explore the 2025 release wave 1 early access features for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform or visit the early access FAQ page for more information.

For a complete list of new capabilities, please refer to the Dynamics 365 2025 release wave 1 plan, the Microsoft Power Platform 2025 release wave 1 plan, and the Role-based Copilot offerings 2025 release wave 1. We also encourage you to share your feedback in the community forums for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform.

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]]> Explore what’s new for Copilot and Dynamics 365 at the Business Applications Launch Event http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2024/10/16/explore-whats-new-for-copilot-and-dynamics-365-at-the-business-applications-launch-event/ Wed, 16 Oct 2024 15:00:00 +0000 Register today for this virtual event on Tuesday, October 29, 2024, where we will showcase highlights from release wave 2.

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]]> As Microsoft Copilot features continue to roll out across Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, it can be easy to get overwhelmed and lose track of critical new capabilities. Thankfully, the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event is just around the corner.  

Register today for the virtual launch event on Tuesday, October 29, 2024—a showcase of new and enhanced capabilities releasing between October 2024 and March 2025. Packed with demos and a live Q&A chat with Microsoft experts, you’ll get a sneak peek at innovation that can empower your workforce, optimize business processes, and enhance customer engagement.   

Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event

Explore the future of your business.


Register here

Explore the future of business with Copilot

Microsoft product leaders and engineers will be live at the event to give you an in-depth look at the latest Copilot capabilities for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, including new ways to automate business process across your organization and scale your team. Our team will also showcase organizations across industries using new Copilot and Dynamics 365 features to drive transformation.

Top 4 reasons to attend the launch event

Twice a year, the Business Applications Launch Event gives you a sneak peek at product news, demos and insights into upcoming features and capabilities across Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Copilot. Here are four top reasons to attend the October 2024 event:  

  1. Get a sneak peek at highlights from the 2024 release wave 2. Discover what’s new and improved in Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform. Hear from Charles Lamanna, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Business and Industry Copilot, and other leaders as they guide you through dozens of new Copilot and core platform capabilities releasing over the next six months.  
  2. Personalize sales and service experiences. Learn how to elevate customer experiences with demonstrations of new capabilities across Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales. You’ll also discover how Sweden-based automotive company, Lynk & Co, is using Dynamics 365 to drive highly personalized experiences.
  3. Transform business operations with AI-enabled enterprise resource planning (ERP) processes. Get a sneak peek at the enhancements that improve both core functionality and autonomous capabilities across ERP applications like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central through the lens of our customer Lifetime Products, as well as the latest features for Business Central.  
  4. Exploring the future of Microsoft Power Platform. Learn how Copilot is transforming how you build, what you build, how you automate, and get a first-hand look at how Applied Information Sciences is innovating business solutions using the newest capabilities for Microsoft Power Apps, Microsoft Power Automate, and Microsoft Copilot Studio.

That’s not all. You’ll also hear from other Microsoft leaders about their roadmap for the future of AI, customer service, and operations and how to use these new technologies to take on your organization’s most time-consuming tasks.  

The Business Applications Launch Event streams live on Tuesday, October 29, 2024 starting at 9:00 AM Pacific Time and then available on-demand. Be sure to register for updates and reminders as the event day approaches. We’ll see you there!    

Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event 

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 
9:00 AM-10:00 AM Pacific Time (UTC-7)  

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]]> How generative AI in customer relationship management emphasizes human skills to drive sales http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2024/09/25/how-generative-ai-in-customer-relationship-management-emphasizes-human-skills-to-drive-sales/ Wed, 25 Sep 2024 15:00:00 +0000 Successful sales is and always will be about human interactions, and the building of familiarity, comfort, and trust. But getting to those moments—all the searching and compiling and preparation—can take a lot of drudgery. Ensuring that an entire team of sellers has the time and capacity to strengthen those human relationships can be an enormous feat.

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]]> Successful sales is and always will be about human interactions, and the building of familiarity, comfort, and trust. But getting to those moments—all the searching and compiling and preparation—can take a lot of drudgery. Ensuring that an entire team of sellers has the time and capacity to strengthen those human relationships can be an enormous feat.

Sales also is and always will be competitive. Catching a change in the tone of a customer’s voice, sensing some enthusiasm for a feature your product offers that others don’t, anticipating a pain point and solving it before it comes up—these are all small advantages that can create big wins. Your competitors know this, too.

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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

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That’s where generative AI changes the game. For sales—and the customer relationship management (CRM) systems or platforms that drive them today—forgoing AI is not an option anymore. Implementing AI in ways that fit naturally with your business puts your sales teams at a competitive advantage. Forrester Research expects businesses that invest in enterprise AI initiatives to boost productivity and creative problem solving by 50 percent this year.1 This expectation is predicated on the involvement, commitment, and understanding of leadership. Without leadership’s involvement in the planning and implementation of AI, organizations face difficulties realizing the technology’s potential and their own.  

While it’s true that most sellers are deep in digital debt, struggling to sip from a fire hose of data, emails, meetings, and notifications, AI should not be seen as merely a productivity tool. Rather, it’s a driver of growth, an enablement engine that transforms enterprises and primes them for innovation and future evolution. AI accelerates problem-solving by enabling data-driven decision making in real time, with far greater visibility at any moment in time. It also creates opportunities for unprecedented levels of personalization, creating the understanding among customers that you know them and their challenges.

By now you’ve probably heard about how AI can automate mundane tasks and allow employees to focus on higher level activities. In this blog post, we’ll show you specific use cases where AI can empower the innate skills of sellers to make CRM systems even more powerful and effective sales tools.

How generative AI lets sellers be more human

Prompt: “What are the pain points [Company] faces in the [industry] sector?”

In previous blog posts, we’ve pointed out how AI punches up personalization in the marketing and sales process, automating the production of tailored email templates and social media messages.

But AI personalization is not limited to content creation. It also means parsing data to ensure that a proposal is fine-tuned to address the specific customer pain points. Using information that might previously have taken hours to search, AI can test exactly which phrases and words resonate with specific sets of customers or sales segments. In essence, AI can make your customers feel heard. 

In part, that’s because you can spend more time listening. At its best, AI allows us to be more human. With Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales, for instance, AI automatically collects and summarizes all pertinent details of sales calls and meetings in real time so sellers can be fully present during those valuable one-to-one conversations.

During a call, Copilot collects a wide range of information—pertinent pain points, customer sentiment, and action items triggered during the call—so sellers don’t have to be distracted by note-taking. Instead, they can bring to bear their situational awareness, focus on reading the moment, and react to context clues. Copilot creates the call summary and makes it available immediately, complete with action items triggered by the discussion.

But it’s not just about freeing sellers to be their best professional selves in those critical one-on-one conversations. AI can help sellers at every point it takes to get to those meetings—and well afterward, too.

Before the call: Bringing sales targets into sharper focus

Prompt: “Which of my accounts are most likely to close this quarter?”

The sales process in a nutshell involves knowing who to sell to, then knowing how to sell to each account identified. AI accelerates and enhances both processes.

Most sales leaders would agree that sellers spend too much time on non-selling activities. Research commissioned by Microsoft that included 31,000 workers across 31 markets found that sellers spend less than a third of their time actually selling. The same study indicated sellers spend more than 66 percent of their day managing email and other menial administrative tasks.2 Their bosses support these findings.

Built to aggregate and refine massive amounts of data, AI can help from the very earliest stages of the sales process to investigate potential targets, providing data that sellers would take hours to collect on their own. And it’s not just time—AI creates utility by providing information sellers might fail to consider. Data that is already in a CRM system is continually augmented with relevant input from market research databases, news from the marketplace, or recent developments involving customers or their key decision makers.

This enriched information allows AI to help sellers score their prospect list based on a likelihood to convert historical engagements and other organizational data. With the right connected data source, a simple query like: “Which of my accounts are most likely to close this quarter?” generates accurate rankings that allow sellers to more effectively prioritize their efforts.

In addition to ordering target lists, AI provides valuable details about each specific account in a preparation brief, equipping sellers while slashing research time. Using natural language prompts, sellers can surface key details about new potential customers like pain points and purchasing patterns. In the case of existing customers, AI can populate account and opportunity summaries with names and titles of meeting participants, pending tasks, and highlights from recent meetings, email threads, and service or support tickets—so sellers come to each call primed with effectual information. AI can even predict the most optimal time to contact a customer and suggest the best channel for connecting. 

The presale time savings and utility of AI are significant. As per Gartner®, “By 2026, B2B sales organizations using generative-AI-embedded sales technologies will reduce the amount of time spent on prospecting and prepping for customer meetings by over 50 percent.”3

Optimal calls: Bringing persuasive information to every interaction

Prompt: “What does the [industry] say about our competitor’s products?”

AI’s ability to summarize and transform content allows AI-enabled CRM systems to process countless transactions and recommend approaches that work best. Sellers using AI can quickly accumulate compelling information, guided by best practices that help create a winning approach.

As we’ve noted, time is a limiting factor for sales teams. CRM systems enabled with AI, like Dynamics 365 Sales, can create dozens of pertinent, opportune introductory emails in seconds—a chore that used to take hours. 

But time-savings is only part of the picture. The quality of the emails produced by AI may include elements—active verbs, clear sentence structure—that not every seller excels in. For example, a seller from Company A might prompt an AI program to: “Draft a personalized email to [Company B] congratulating them on their recent product launch and suggesting a meeting to discuss how our solution can enhance their new product’s market performance.”

The resulting email can be personalized, note a recent development in the market, speak directly to an initiative that the customer is excited about, arrive at an opportune moment, and highlight features of the seller’s product tailored to address the customer’s pain points.

Furthermore, a simple query like: “What does the [industry] say about our [competitor]’s products? Once you collect that information, please provide me with five bullet points on how our [product] is differentiated”, would provide differentiating points to use at an appropriate moment in a sales call. In preparation for an important one-to-one, AI can surface key talking points, identify needs and pain points, and generate similar use cases and success stories.

Dynamics 365 Sales, for instance, tailors sales pitches with industry-specific insights, then personalizes, reviews, and refines them. But the utility doesn’t end in preparation. During a sales call, the system can identify sentiment triggers and suggest next-best actions, helping to close more deals.

After a meeting, thoughtfully composed follow-up emails build trust and goodwill, and open a door for further communication. In the past, writing these emails and making them specific enough to be valuable has eaten a huge chunk of sellers’ time.

Create a greater customer impact with Dynamics 365 Sales

These examples only scratch the surface of the ways AI can allow sellers to lean into the intuitive capabilities that allow them to excel at their jobs. The more you work with generative AI as a team, the more efficiencies you can find in your processes.

Automating menial tasks returns potential to where it belongs—to the human in the loop. Seamless integration into your CRM system and tools that your teams already use enables more opportunity for innovation and sales acceleration. Your teams can grow their skills even as the process of selling becomes easier and more human—which means each interaction can create greater impact with your customers.

Learn more about Dynamics 365 Sales.

Sources:

1Forrester 2024 Predictions: Exploration Generates Progress, Forrester Research, Inc., October 2023.

2Microsoft Work Trend Index Annual Report, Microsoft, Inc., May 9, 2023

3Gartner, Multidimensional CRM: How GenAI Will Revolutionize Sales Force Automation Platforms, By Adnan Zijadic., 13 July, 2023. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc.
and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with
permission. All rights reserved.

The post How generative AI in customer relationship management emphasizes human skills to drive sales appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

]]> Transforming ERP, and the speed of business, with generative AI http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2024/08/29/transforming-erp-and-the-speed-of-business-with-generative-ai/ Thu, 29 Aug 2024 15:00:00 +0000 Enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms were designed to help integrate the fragmented processes that comprise the operation of a large enterprise. But the way we do business keeps fundamentally changing. New business models disrupt the way companies sell products and services, blurring industry lines and transforming customer experiences.

The post Transforming ERP, and the speed of business, with generative AI appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

]]> Enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms were designed to help integrate the fragmented processes that comprise the operation of a large enterprise. But the way we do business keeps fundamentally changing. New business models disrupt the way companies sell products and services, blurring industry lines and transforming customer experiences.

Business complexity continues to intensify, and the rise of data as a driver of business—plus the attendant proliferation of data streams—means reaping the full promise of comprehensive ERP platforms can still be elusive.

In fact, according to a Gartner® Research report, “by 2027, less than 30% of customers who adopted new solutions from ERP platform mega-vendors will have proven their original adoption business case.”1

The arrival of generative AI brings hope of renewed promise. AI is elevating performance and creating advantages for those who understand how to apply it to data-centric systems like ERP platforms. By 2027, according to the same Gartner report, at least 50 percent of ERP systems with AI-enabled features will be enabled through generative AI capabilities.1

People often think of generative AI as a tool to automate routine tasks, but its capabilities are so much broader. Improved decision-making is an area where AI becomes a valuable tool. In fact, a report from the market research firm IDC found that, by mid-2024, 30% of global organizations will take advantage of human-like interfaces in their enterprise applications to gain more insights quickly, improving decision velocity.2

While AI can inform and enhance any number of operations across an enterprise, it’s worth looking at some specific processes in detail to see how much AI can elevate ERP solutions. Learn more about current trends in ERP platform modernization in the age of generative AI in this webinar.

How AI creates a better plan-to-produce process

Most manufacturing firms implement a plan for how they will schedule production runs to meet materials capacity, deliver quality products on time, and maintain cost-effectiveness.

Sometimes, though, this plan-to-produce process becomes an accretion of good ideas at the time, a fragmented assemblage of tools and strategies trying to work together to paint the big picture of what’s happening on the production floor. This can lead to quality control issues, and manpower and equipment shortages that fail to meet production surges, or inaccurate forecasts that waste resources or leave customers high and dry—among other issues.

Generative AI integrated with a robust ERP system can aggregate data from across an enterprise—even data residing in multiple clouds—in real time, so managers have a clear picture of the state of play at any given moment, allowing them to reduce lead times necessary to plan or alter production runs.

The complicated interdependence of tasks on a manufacturing floor—for example, Part A must be installed before Part B can be attached—is a perfect puzzle for AI to help solve. The predictive analytics capacity of generative AI allows it to better forecast demand and synch production with supplies, and then optimize timing to match resource availability with manpower. AI can also forecast and build scenarios for supply chain disruption or changes in demand.

Whether a manufacturer needs to increase production volume to meet increasing demand or build whole new facilities, AI excels at building scalable networks, finding efficiencies, and reducing costly interventions.

Learn more about how Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and other applications optimize the plan-to-produce process.

Optimizing the procure-to-pay process

Another process most large organizations seek to optimize is the integration of procurement with accounts payable. When you need to spend the money, it’s good to know that you have the money. IDC reports that, by mid-2025, 70% of global businesses will use embedded financing to collect and make payments.2

More than most industries, healthcare organizations must reckon with a complex field of myriad payers, purchasers, and suppliers. Healthcare organizations face layers of challenging regulatory compliance and the need to control ever-rising costs. Many organizations in this field still rely on antiquated, paper-based invoicing and payables.

Fragmented processes and siloed data make regulatory issues more fraught, while also increasing attack surfaces to create security risks. AI can remove complexities by integrating processes in one ERP platform, helping to reduce vulnerabilities. By mapping operations to standards, AI supports compliance efforts, efficiently creating the audit trails and tedious reports that often take staff hours to produce.

AI streamlines procurement, reducing the potential for human error present when ordering supplies and equipment from a diverse range of providers. It tracks expenses to help control costs, providing easily accessible price information about competing products and services so the organization can continually find cost efficiencies.

An ERP solution enhanced with AI allows planners to automate the maintenance of inventory with both real-time and predictive information, reducing the risk of stockouts or overstock situations and more effectively communicating with suppliers.

Quicker quote-to-cash with personalization and automation

AI integrates and improves the sales, finance, and supply elements of an ERP platform by increasing automation in negotiations, contract lifecycles, production, order management, billing, and delivery. For businesses with retail components, making the quote-to-cash cycle faster and more accurate creates efficiencies—which can help keep customers happier.

Automating price and quote information speeds up the resolution of even highly complex deals. The same is true once a quote is accepted—an accurate, automatically generated proposal follows immediately. AI-generated purchase orders and invoices free sellers to spend more time interacting with customers and accounting teams to focus on tasks that increase the organization’s productivity.

AI’s predictive analytics ensure on-time delivery of products but also allow firms to quickly identify current and future trends and make data-driven decisions about ordering and pricing. Automating invoicing tracks payments accurately and creates a real-time picture of cash flow. AI can continually improve cash flow forecasts by comparing projections with results and adjusting from the outcomes over time. And analytics enabled by AI offer suggestions for improving sales performance and strategic decisions.

Learn more about how Copilot for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance optimizes the quote-to-cash and other retail business processes.

Get more from your business data with AI-enabled ERP processes

Across the organization, optimizing finance and supply chains can create a connected enterprise that allows enterprises to infuse AI, automation, and analytics into ERP processes. Today, companies can confidently move to the cloud with AI-powered ERP solutions, modernize business processes, and unlock the agility needed to lead the way in today’s rapidly evolving marketplace. 

A recent Forrester Research study interviewed IT leaders and professionals who had experience using Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP software.3 Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization that has 5,000 employees and generates USD1 billion in annual revenue. Forrester found that, over a three-year period, the value added to the composite included:

  • USD1.2 million in increased profitability from real-time visibility and enhanced decision-making.
  • USD8.9 million in increased productivity from unified data access, streamlined processes, automated workflows, and other gained efficiencies.
  • USD3.9 million in reduced infrastructure and IT operations spend from cloud migration.
  • USD8.9 million in productivity improvements in finance/accounting, supply chain/logistics, and other personnel.

The study estimated a net present value of USD8.1 million and an ROI of 106%, as well as additional benefits like an improved cybersecurity posture and enhanced employee experiences. The composite organization would pay back its investment in Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP software in 17 months.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP software

Learn more about the total economic impact of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP software


Read the report

AI-enabled ERP platforms allow you to protect, connect, and get more from your business data while gaining security. With the right ERP solution, you can scale globally to drive business expansion and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) while ensuring regulatory compliance, supercharging productivity, and realizing the business impacts of generative AI even faster.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Virtual Training Day

Join us at a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Virtual Training Day to gain the skills needed to help your organization sell, service, and deliver on the customer expectations of tomorrow. Register for free, in-depth training events, where you’ll uncover new efficiencies of scale, discover smarter connections, and utilize built-in intelligence for deeper insights into your business.


Register now

Sources

1 Predicts 2024: ERP Evolves Planning With Automation and AI, Denis Torii, Gartner Research, April 5, 2024

2 IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Intelligent ERP 2024 Predictions, doc #US51300923, October 2023

3 The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP, Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Dynamics 365 ERP, a Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study commissioned By Microsoft, April 2024

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

The post Transforming ERP, and the speed of business, with generative AI appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

]]> Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center is now generally available  http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2024/07/01/microsoft-dynamics-365-contact-center-is-now-generally-available/ Mon, 01 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000 Today, we are excited to announce that Dynamics 365 Contact Center is generally available, offering a complete but fully-composable solution for contact centers.

The post Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center is now generally available  appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

]]> On June 4, 2024, we introduced the latest milestone in our journey towards modernizing customer engagement: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center, a Microsoft Copilot-first contact center solution that delivers generative AI to every customer engagement channel. This standalone Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solution enables customers to maximize their current investments by connecting to preferred customer relationship management systems (CRMs) or custom apps.  

Dynamics 365 Contact Center

A complete solution for contact centers


Learn more

Today, we are excited to announce that Dynamics 365 Contact Center is generally available, offering a complete but fully-composable solution for contact centers. Organizations will benefit from new native capabilities such as generative AI, technology from Nuance, and much more all built from the ground-up to power mission-critical service operations with extensive scale and reliability on the hyperscale cloud platform of Azure.    

Key benefits of Dynamics 365 Contact Center

Dynamics 365 Contact Center key capabilities include: 

Effortless self-service 

  • Customers have the freedom to engage in their channel of choice across voice, SMS, chat, email, and social media apps.
  • Sophisticated pre-integrated copilots for digital channels drive context-aware, personalized conversations for rich self-service experiences. 
  • Provide a frictionless conversational interactive voice response (IVR) experience in real time through natural, human-like interactions. 

Accelerated human-assisted service 

  • Intelligent unified routing steers incoming requests that require a human touch to the agent best suited to help, enhancing service quality and minimizing wasted effort. 
  • Agents gain a 360-degree view of customers and AI tools for real-time sentiment analysis, translation, transcription, and more to help streamline service. 
  • Let Copilot automate repetitive agent tasks such as conversation summary, drafting emails, suggested responses, and knowledge search. 

Operational efficiency 

  • Generative AI based real-time reporting allows service leaders to optimize contact center operations across all support channels including their workforce. 
  • Maximize Copilot by connecting it to an organization’s existing data and business applications using more than 1,200 pre-built connectors that eliminate the need for expensive IT integration. 
  • Empower employee helpdesk and human resources functions using Microsoft Teams as a secure, integrated engagement channel. 

Dynamics 365 Contact Center customer stories

We’re thrilled to see the initial impact that our early adopter customers and partners are having with Dynamics 365 Contact Center:  

“With Lenovo’s Premier Support Plus and Dynamics 365 Contact Center, we’ve established a transformational partnership that strives for customer satisfaction, alongside operational excellence”

Lishuang Xu, Executive Director, Customer Engagement Center, Lenovo.  

“Sales and marketing thrive on smooth customer interactions. With Dynamics 365 Contact Center, early adoption means we’re ahead, modernizing our approach with AI for increasing effectiveness and improving customer satisfaction”

Ian Au-Yeung, Chief Revenue Officer, Synoptek 

“With Dynamics 365 Contact Center powered by Copilot, we see tremendous potential for significant enhancement in contact center staff productivity, ensuring quicker and precise responses that elevate our customer service and affirm our leadership in the insurance industry.”

Ritu Thakur, Head of Group Operations, AIA Group   

Take the next step 

Available now for $110 per user/month, Dynamics 365 Contact Center includes digital and voice channels as well as individual channel options for purchase.1   

Additionally, we are introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service Premium—a new offer combining Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise with Dynamics 365 Contact Center for customers seeking to consolidate on an integrated, generative AI-powered contact center and CRM service solution that delivers personalized customer journeys. Dynamics 365 Customer Service Premium is available now for $195 per user/month.2 Customers with existing Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise licenses adopting Dynamics 365 Contact Center will have the ability to move to Dynamics 365 Customer Service Premium. 

Learn more about Dynamics 365 Contact Center. 

1,2 Pricing is accurate as of June 2024. For additional pricing information, see here.

The post Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center is now generally available  appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

]]> Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center is now generally available  http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2024/07/01/microsoft-dynamics-365-contact-center-is-now-generally-available/ Mon, 01 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000 Today, we are excited to announce that Dynamics 365 Contact Center is generally available, offering a complete but fully-composable solution for contact centers.

The post Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center is now generally available  appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

]]> On June 4, 2024, we introduced the latest milestone in our journey towards modernizing customer engagement: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center, a Microsoft Copilot-first contact center solution that delivers generative AI to every customer engagement channel. This standalone Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solution enables customers to maximize their current investments by connecting to preferred customer relationship management systems (CRMs) or custom apps.  

Dynamics 365 Contact Center

A complete solution for contact centers


Learn more

Today, we are excited to announce that Dynamics 365 Contact Center is generally available, offering a complete but fully-composable solution for contact centers. Organizations will benefit from new native capabilities such as generative AI, technology from Nuance, and much more all built from the ground-up to power mission-critical service operations with extensive scale and reliability on the hyperscale cloud platform of Azure.    

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Key benefits of Dynamics 365 Contact Center

Dynamics 365 Contact Center key capabilities include: 

Effortless self-service 

  • Customers have the freedom to engage in their channel of choice across voice, SMS, chat, email, and social media apps.
  • Sophisticated pre-integrated copilots for digital channels drive context-aware, personalized conversations for rich self-service experiences. 
  • Provide a frictionless conversational interactive voice response (IVR) experience in real time through natural, human-like interactions. 

Accelerated human-assisted service 

  • Intelligent unified routing steers incoming requests that require a human touch to the agent best suited to help, enhancing service quality and minimizing wasted effort. 
  • Agents gain a 360-degree view of customers and AI tools for real-time sentiment analysis, translation, transcription, and more to help streamline service. 
  • Let Copilot automate repetitive agent tasks such as conversation summary, drafting emails, suggested responses, and knowledge search. 

Operational efficiency 

  • Generative AI based real-time reporting allows service leaders to optimize contact center operations across all support channels including their workforce. 
  • Maximize Copilot by connecting it to an organization’s existing data and business applications using more than 1,200 pre-built connectors that eliminate the need for expensive IT integration. 
  • Empower employee helpdesk and human resources functions using Microsoft Teams as a secure, integrated engagement channel. 

Dynamics 365 Contact Center customer stories

We’re thrilled to see the initial impact that our early adopter customers and partners are having with Dynamics 365 Contact Center:  

“With Lenovo’s Premier Support Plus and Dynamics 365 Contact Center, we’ve established a transformational partnership that strives for customer satisfaction, alongside operational excellence”

Lishuang Xu, Executive Director, Customer Engagement Center, Lenovo.  

“Sales and marketing thrive on smooth customer interactions. With Dynamics 365 Contact Center, early adoption means we’re ahead, modernizing our approach with AI for increasing effectiveness and improving customer satisfaction”

Ian Au-Yeung, Chief Revenue Officer, Synoptek 

“With Dynamics 365 Contact Center powered by Copilot, we see tremendous potential for significant enhancement in contact center staff productivity, ensuring quicker and precise responses that elevate our customer service and affirm our leadership in the insurance industry.”

Ritu Thakur, Head of Group Operations, AIA Group   

Take the next step 

Available now for $110 per user/month, Dynamics 365 Contact Center includes digital and voice channels as well as individual channel options for purchase.1   

Additionally, we are introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service Premium—a new offer combining Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise with Dynamics 365 Contact Center for customers seeking to consolidate on an integrated, generative AI-powered contact center and CRM service solution that delivers personalized customer journeys. Dynamics 365 Customer Service Premium is available now for $195 per user/month.2 Customers with existing Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise licenses adopting Dynamics 365 Contact Center will have the ability to move to Dynamics 365 Customer Service Premium. 

Learn more about Dynamics 365 Contact Center. 

1,2 Pricing is accurate as of June 2024. For additional pricing information, see here.

The post Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center is now generally available  appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

]]> Work smarter with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2024/05/13/work-smarter-with-microsoft-copilot-in-dynamics-365-business-central/ Mon, 13 May 2024 15:00:00 +0000 In the quickly changing world of AI, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is leading the way with innovations that have equipped more than 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses to succeed. Powered by next-generation AI, Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central introduces new ways to streamline workflows, boost productivity, and unlock creativity.

The post Work smarter with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

]]> In the quickly changing world of AI, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is leading the way with innovations that have equipped more than 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses to succeed. Powered by next-generation AI, Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central introduces new ways to streamline workflows, boost productivity, and unlock creativity. At a time when nine out of ten people want simpler ways to automate daily tasks, Copilot helps to free time so employees can focus on their most meaningful work.1

Copilot in Business Central is your everyday AI companion, helping you to speed through tasks, build momentum, and improve the way work gets done. With Copilot, you can:

  • Get answers quickly and easily using natural language.
  • Spark creativity with creative content ideas.
  • Save time by automating tedious, repetitive tasks.
  • Anticipate and overcome business challenges.

Reclaim time for important work

In a small or medium-sized business, there is often a lot to do and not enough people to get it all done. Everyday activities like tracking down documents and bringing new employees up to speed can drain your valuable time. Conversational chat using Copilot in Business Central helps you answer questions quickly and easily, locate records faster, and even learn new skills—all using natural language. Save time and effort by navigating to documents without having to use traditional menus, and rapidly onboard new users with answers to questions on how, when, or why to do things.

Unlock creativity with marketing text suggestions

Copilot in Business Central helps product managers to banish writer’s block and drive sales with compelling AI-generated marketing text suggestions. Using key attributes already in Business Central like color and material, Copilot can create product descriptions in seconds tailored to your preferred tone, format, and length. Once you’ve made any adjustments, you can easily publish to Shopify or other ecommerce platforms with just a few clicks.

Simplify the sales order process

Creating or updating customer orders can be a tedious process, often requiring repetitive lookups or navigating through extensive product catalogs. To quickly add items to a sales quote or order, Copilot enables you to describe the goods or services needed, paste in relevant details from an email, or reference a previous order. Based on your prompt, Copilot then suggests line items from your product catalog. By streamlining the order taking process, Copilot frees time for sales teams to focus on building relationships and delivering exceptional customer experiences. 

Automate workflows quickly and easily

Streamlining business processes is easier than ever with Copilot helping to create Microsoft Power Automate flows using natural language. Users can simply express their needs directly in Business Central, and Copilot drafts an initial automation flow for you. You can continue refining the flow in Power Automate with Copilot by your side, streamlining the process of tailoring best-practice workflows to your business.  

Nine out of ten people want simpler ways to automate daily tasks so they can focus on the work that matters.1

Streamline month end with enhanced bank reconciliation

Reconciling bank transactions has traditionally been a time-consuming monthly task, especially with complex scenarios where multiple charges consolidate into a single transaction. Copilot in Business Central makes bank reconciliation easier by analyzing bank statements that you import into Business Central, matching transactions, and proposing entries for transactions that weren’t auto-matched. By comparing and interpreting transaction descriptions, amounts, dates, and patterns across fields, Copilot can help you improve the accuracy of your financial records while reducing manual effort.

Keep finances organized with e-invoice matching

Say goodbye to hours spent manually merging incoming e-invoices with outstanding purchase orders. Using rule-based matching and assistance from Copilot, you can quickly compare and map incoming e-invoices to your open orders. Save time and keep your accounts payable current, all while building positive supplier relationships with on-time payments. 

Make data-driven decisions with analysis assistance

Business Central has powerful built-in capabilities to create analytical views of data, but manually constructing those views requires time and skill. Copilot simplifies analysis by transforming raw data into clear views with totals, grouping, pivots, and filters—all from simple text instructions and without ever leaving Business Central. Prompted by just a simple sentence, Copilot can identify trends and anomalies in your data, helping you make data-driven decisions that propel your business forward.  

Boost customer service with inventory forecasting

Effective inventory management is crucial in a competitive business environment as it can significantly influence a company’s success and customer retention. This process involves balancing customer service with cost control. Maintaining low inventory reduces working capital, but risks missing sales due to stock shortages. Using AI, the sales and inventory forecast extension uses past sales data to forecast future demand, helping to prevent stockouts. Once a shortfall is identified, Business Central streamlines the replenishment process by generating vendor requests, helping you keep your customers happy by fulfilling their orders on time.  

Reduce risk with late payment prediction

Managing receivables effectively is vital for a business’s financial wellbeing. With the late payment prediction extension, you can reduce outstanding receivables and refine your collections approach by forecasting if outstanding sales invoices are likely to be paid on time. For instance, if a payment is anticipated to be delayed, you could modify the payment terms or method for that customer. By proactively addressing potential late payments and adapting accordingly, you can minimize overdue receivables, reduce risk of non-payment, and ultimately improve your financial performance.

Improve financial stability with cash flow analysis

Powered by AI, Business Central can create a comprehensive cash flow analysis to help you monitor your company’s cash position. Cash flow is a critical indicator of a company’s solvency, and cash flow analysis is an important future-focused planning tool that helps you maintain control over your financial health and make proactive adjustments to meet your financial commitments. With insights from Business Central, you can pivot quickly to safeguard your company’s fiscal wellbeing, such as by obtaining loans to cover cash shortfalls or cutting back on credit when you have surplus cash.

Transform the way work gets done with Copilot in Business Central

Copilot gives your company an edge with AI-powered innovations that are a catalyst for unleashing human potential, fostering creativity, and driving efficiency in ways previously unimaginable. The integration of AI into everyday business processes is not just about staying ahead in a competitive market, it’s about redefining what’s possible in the workplace. With Dynamics 365 Business Central, your company is empowered to navigate today’s complex business environment with agility, precision, and a renewed focus on what truly matters.

A person sitting at a desk talking to another person

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Work smarter, adapt faster, and perform better with Business Central.


Download the guide

Sources

1  Four Ways Leaders Can Empower People for How Work Gets Done, January 2023

The post Work smarter with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

]]> Work smarter with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2024/05/13/work-smarter-with-microsoft-copilot-in-dynamics-365-business-central/ Mon, 13 May 2024 15:00:00 +0000 In the quickly changing world of AI, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is leading the way with innovations that have equipped more than 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses to succeed. Powered by next-generation AI, Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central introduces new ways to streamline workflows, boost productivity, and unlock creativity.

The post Work smarter with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

]]> In the quickly changing world of AI, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is leading the way with innovations that have equipped more than 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses to succeed. Powered by next-generation AI, Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central introduces new ways to streamline workflows, boost productivity, and unlock creativity. At a time when nine out of ten people want simpler ways to automate daily tasks, Copilot helps to free time so employees can focus on their most meaningful work.1

Copilot in Business Central is your everyday AI companion, helping you to speed through tasks, build momentum, and improve the way work gets done. With Copilot, you can:

  • Get answers quickly and easily using natural language.
  • Spark creativity with creative content ideas.
  • Save time by automating tedious, repetitive tasks.
  • Anticipate and overcome business challenges.

Reclaim time for important work

In a small or medium-sized business, there is often a lot to do and not enough people to get it all done. Everyday activities like tracking down documents and bringing new employees up to speed can drain your valuable time. Conversational chat using Copilot in Business Central helps you answer questions quickly and easily, locate records faster, and even learn new skills—all using natural language. Save time and effort by navigating to documents without having to use traditional menus, and rapidly onboard new users with answers to questions on how, when, or why to do things.

Unlock creativity with marketing text suggestions

Copilot in Business Central helps product managers to banish writer’s block and drive sales with compelling AI-generated marketing text suggestions. Using key attributes already in Business Central like color and material, Copilot can create product descriptions in seconds tailored to your preferred tone, format, and length. Once you’ve made any adjustments, you can easily publish to Shopify or other ecommerce platforms with just a few clicks.

Simplify the sales order process

Creating or updating customer orders can be a tedious process, often requiring repetitive lookups or navigating through extensive product catalogs. To quickly add items to a sales quote or order, Copilot enables you to describe the goods or services needed, paste in relevant details from an email, or reference a previous order. Based on your prompt, Copilot then suggests line items from your product catalog. By streamlining the order taking process, Copilot frees time for sales teams to focus on building relationships and delivering exceptional customer experiences. 

Automate workflows quickly and easily

Streamlining business processes is easier than ever with Copilot helping to create Microsoft Power Automate flows using natural language. Users can simply express their needs directly in Business Central, and Copilot drafts an initial automation flow for you. You can continue refining the flow in Power Automate with Copilot by your side, streamlining the process of tailoring best-practice workflows to your business.  

Nine out of ten people want simpler ways to automate daily tasks so they can focus on the work that matters.1

Streamline month end with enhanced bank reconciliation

Reconciling bank transactions has traditionally been a time-consuming monthly task, especially with complex scenarios where multiple charges consolidate into a single transaction. Copilot in Business Central makes bank reconciliation easier by analyzing bank statements that you import into Business Central, matching transactions, and proposing entries for transactions that weren’t auto-matched. By comparing and interpreting transaction descriptions, amounts, dates, and patterns across fields, Copilot can help you improve the accuracy of your financial records while reducing manual effort.

Keep finances organized with e-invoice matching

Say goodbye to hours spent manually merging incoming e-invoices with outstanding purchase orders. Using rule-based matching and assistance from Copilot, you can quickly compare and map incoming e-invoices to your open orders. Save time and keep your accounts payable current, all while building positive supplier relationships with on-time payments. 

Make data-driven decisions with analysis assistance

Business Central has powerful built-in capabilities to create analytical views of data, but manually constructing those views requires time and skill. Copilot simplifies analysis by transforming raw data into clear views with totals, grouping, pivots, and filters—all from simple text instructions and without ever leaving Business Central. Prompted by just a simple sentence, Copilot can identify trends and anomalies in your data, helping you make data-driven decisions that propel your business forward.  

Boost customer service with inventory forecasting

Effective inventory management is crucial in a competitive business environment as it can significantly influence a company’s success and customer retention. This process involves balancing customer service with cost control. Maintaining low inventory reduces working capital, but risks missing sales due to stock shortages. Using AI, the sales and inventory forecast extension uses past sales data to forecast future demand, helping to prevent stockouts. Once a shortfall is identified, Business Central streamlines the replenishment process by generating vendor requests, helping you keep your customers happy by fulfilling their orders on time.  

Reduce risk with late payment prediction

Managing receivables effectively is vital for a business’s financial wellbeing. With the late payment prediction extension, you can reduce outstanding receivables and refine your collections approach by forecasting if outstanding sales invoices are likely to be paid on time. For instance, if a payment is anticipated to be delayed, you could modify the payment terms or method for that customer. By proactively addressing potential late payments and adapting accordingly, you can minimize overdue receivables, reduce risk of non-payment, and ultimately improve your financial performance.

Improve financial stability with cash flow analysis

Powered by AI, Business Central can create a comprehensive cash flow analysis to help you monitor your company’s cash position. Cash flow is a critical indicator of a company’s solvency, and cash flow analysis is an important future-focused planning tool that helps you maintain control over your financial health and make proactive adjustments to meet your financial commitments. With insights from Business Central, you can pivot quickly to safeguard your company’s fiscal wellbeing, such as by obtaining loans to cover cash shortfalls or cutting back on credit when you have surplus cash.

Transform the way work gets done with Copilot in Business Central

Copilot gives your company an edge with AI-powered innovations that are a catalyst for unleashing human potential, fostering creativity, and driving efficiency in ways previously unimaginable. The integration of AI into everyday business processes is not just about staying ahead in a competitive market, it’s about redefining what’s possible in the workplace. With Dynamics 365 Business Central, your company is empowered to navigate today’s complex business environment with agility, precision, and a renewed focus on what truly matters.

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Dynamics 365 Business Central

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Sources

1  Four Ways Leaders Can Empower People for How Work Gets Done, January 2023

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