Growth is exciting—but it introduces complexity. 

As small and midsize businesses scale, finance and operations become harder to manage. Transactions increase, reporting requirements expand, and disconnected systems start to strain visibility and margins. What once worked becomes a constraint. 

A newly published Forrester Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study helps quantify what many organizations are already experiencing: modernizing on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central delivers measurable financial impact.

Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the potential return on investment organizations may realize by deploying Business Central. Based on interviews with four business decision makers, which were aggregated to model a fictitious composite organization¹, the study projected that the composite organization could potentially realize: 

• More than 200% return on investment (ROI) over three years 

• An estimated $460K net present value (NPV) over three years 

• Potential payback in six months 

Across finance productivity, enterprise resource planning (ERP) consolidation, improved profitability, and reporting efficiency, the composite organization modeled by Forrester realized more than $680K in three‑year, risk‑adjusted present value benefits. 

These outcomes reflect the potential impact of modernizing finance and operations on a single, integrated cloud ERP platform—while also establishing the foundation for AI‑powered experiences like Microsoft 365 Copilot and intelligent agents. 

Where the value comes from 

The Forrester TEI study highlights several areas where organizations can potentially realize tangible, risk‑adjusted benefits when using Business Central. 

Support faster, more efficient finance operations 

Manual processes often slow growing organizations. Interviewed customers reported meaningful efficiency gains across accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR), billing, and financial close. 

By year three, the composite organization was projected to potentially achieve: 

• Up to 30% reduction in monthly close time 

• Up to 50% time savings for AP, AR, and billing activities 

These improvements translated to more than $215K in present value over three years in finance productivity alone for the composite organization—allowing teams to shift focus from reconciliation to higher‑value analysis. 

Standardizing data and workflows in Business Central also creates the conditions necessary for AI‑enabled automation. While AI benefits were not independently quantified in this study, interviewees noted that unified processes accelerate the adoption of Copilot‑supported approvals, variance analysis, and exception handling. 

Lower total cost of ownership through ERP consolidation 

Interviewees reported operating aging on‑premises ERP systems alongside spreadsheets and disconnected point solutions. Consolidating onto Business Central reduced infrastructure complexity and IT overhead. 

The study projected the following potential benefits for the composite organization over three years: 

• More than 10% reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO) 

• More than $170K in present value savings from retired systems and reduced maintenance 

Beyond direct savings, simplification can reduce operational risk and improved scalability—allowing organizations to grow without layering on new systems to compensate for gaps. 

Enable improved profitability through better visibility 

Unified, real‑time visibility across finance and operations enables faster, more informed decisions. 

By year three, the composite organization was modeled to potentially experience: 

• Up to 3% improvement in net profit margins 

• More than $245K in present value from improved profitability 

Better insight into costs, projects, and performance enables earlier course correction. AI‑powered experiences such as Copilot can further assist by surfacing cost variances, project overruns, or unbilled work sooner. While AI alone does not drive margin improvement, modern ERP data and standardized processes strengthen an organization’s ability to act with precision. 

Fast reporting and audit readiness 

Business Central’s integrated data model and native Microsoft Power BI capabilities streamlined reporting and audit preparation. 

Based on modeling by Forrester, by year three, the composite organization was projected to potentially reduce: 

• Audit preparation time by up to 30% 

• Time spent creating internal and executive reports 

These projected improvements were valued at nearly $50K in present value, while also enabling increased confidence in data accuracy and consistency. 

Beyond the numbers: Building an AI-ready foundation

In addition to quantified financial outcomes, interviewees highlighted broader operational improvements, including enhanced customer experience, reduced days sales outstanding (DSO), better warehouse management, and a more intuitive user experience. 

Just as importantly, Business Central provides an AI‑ready ERP foundation. 

By unifying finance and operations data and aligning processes to best practices, organizations are better positioned to leverage Copilot, Power BI, and intelligent agents to: 

• Help reduce time-to-insight—not just report creation
• Surface anomalies and trends quickly 
• Enable more proactive, data‑driven decision‑making 

While AI‑driven outcomes were not directly measured in this TEI, the study reinforces a critical principle: realizing AI value at scale depends on clean data, integrated systems, and standardized processes. Business Central delivers that foundation. 

Read the full study 

For SMB‑focused organizations and partners evaluating ERP modernization, the full Forrester TEI study provides a detailed financial framework to help quantify potential projected value—grounded in customer interviews and risk‑adjusted modeling. 

Join us at Directions North America 2026 

The Forrester TEI study highlights the potential value organizations may realize with Business Central—from faster financial processes to improved profitability and lower total cost of ownership. 

We’ll continue these conversations at Directions North America 2026, where partners, Microsoft engineering, and product leaders come together to discuss what’s next for the Business Central ecosystem and the future of AI-powered ERP. 

Join me for the keynote, where I’ll explore how Business Central is evolving into an AI-powered system of action with Copilot and intelligent agents. 

Attendees will: 

• Gain insight into the Business Central roadmap 
• Prepare for upcoming AI-powered capabilities 
• Connect directly with Microsoft engineering and product experts 
• Engage with partners across the Business Central community 

1. Composite organization assumption: Results are based on a Forrester modeled composite organization derived from customer interviews, with $50M in annual revenue, 300 employees, 15 core finance and accounting users, and 100 light users, using Dynamics 365 Business Central in a cloud deployment. All quantified benefits represent the three-year, risk-adjusted present value for the composite organization.

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As organizations continue to seek ways to differentiate through exceptional customer service, many are turning to emerging agentic AI capabilities as a catalyst for transformation. However, the promise of agentic service—better experiences, greater efficiency, and continuous improvement—can only be realized when AI is deeply embedded and seamlessly orchestrated across every workflow and channel. This requires more than just automation; it demands a unified context and intelligence layer that travels with the work.

At Microsoft, we believe the future of customer service is one where Microsoft Dynamics 365 becomes the context and intelligence platform for Copilot and AI agents, grounding every interaction in rich customer data and business processes. With Dynamics 365 providing composable skills across the tools people already use every day, we enable intelligent, proactive self-service and augment human capabilities. This empowers service reps, supervisors, and leaders to amplify their impact, delivering more consistent, personalized, and effective service at scale.

The Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2026

Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader

Read the report

With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service, we’re already delivering on this vision, helping our customers achieve tangible business outcomes with agentic service. Dynamics 365 Customer Service combines our latest AI advances with robust core capabilities, all deeply integrated with the entire Microsoft portfolio across Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft Azure, and the Microsoft Fabric data platform.

​Today, we’re excited to announce that Microsoft has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2026.

Delivering measurable outcomes with agentic service

Our customers and the industry at large recognize we’re leading the way in agentic service innovation and enterprise adoption.

In Dynamics 365 Customer Service, AI agents orchestrate context and automate workflows in simple and complex inquiries across voice and digital channels. Agents can handle routine interactions and execute actions autonomously within robust governance and compliance guardrails. Customer Intent Agent continuously discovers new intents from conversations across channels, enabling evergreen self-service.

Agents like Case Management Agent automate repetitive tasks and integrate with Copilot to surface next-best actions during human-assisted interactions, helping reps offer rapid resolutions.

Importantly, these service agents create self-learning loops, helping improve resolution accuracy and speed. This continuous improvement extends to service reps as well. Quality Evaluation Agent monitors service quality in AI-powered and human-assisted interactions to enhance agent performance and recommend coaching opportunities for reps. Meanwhile, Customer Knowledge Management Agent adapts knowledge bases, updating content and generating new articles based on fresh insights or recurring issues.

This powerful combination of agentic and human service is orchestrated through Agent Hub, which routes tasks to the most appropriate AI agent or service rep and optimizes task distribution based on real-time KPI results.

Customers like Visa are saving time by using the Customer Knowledge Management Agent to turn customer conversation data into knowledge articles.

Auto-knowledge generation reduces article creation time by 88%, from four hours down to 30 minutes per article. And by mining 7,000 cases, we’ve been able to produce 700 knowledge articles, just for one line of business and we continue to accelerate knowledge creation at scale.

Lidia Daldoss, Vice President, Service Digitization & AI Acceleration, Visa

Accelerating successful AI adoption

Despite the numerous benefits on offer, navigating the AI adoption journey can be extremely complex for many organizations. Sometimes there’s uncertainty about where to start, or a lack of clarity about how to get a measurable return on AI investments.

Microsoft simplifies AI adoption, enabling organizations to quickly realize significant efficiency and productivity gains in customer service operations. We offer structured guidance and proven methodologies to help accelerate adoption success for organizations at every level of AI maturity.

Our customers particularly value the FastTrack for Dynamics 365 program, which is built on our Success By Design framework that paves the way for effective solution design, deployment, and operation. With proactive, expert guidance, organizations can confidently implement an agentic service platform based on advanced technologies that are already delivering tangible business outcomes for enterprises worldwide.

Enhancing core customer service capabilities

While AI agents automate and orchestrate workflows, and Copilot provides contextual guidance for reps, Dynamics 365 Customer Service also offers a strong set of core capabilities.

Intelligent, omnichannel routing, for example, is a cornerstone of effective service, directing inquiries to wherever customers will find the fastest path to resolution. Similarly, Microsoft’s longstanding strengths in business intelligence, process management, and forecasting and scheduling provide an essential foundation for efficient operations.

Integration with Microsoft Teams also enables seamless collaboration across service, sales, and marketing, streamlining issue resolution and highlighting opportunities to enhance the end-to-end customer experience.

Another notable strength of Dynamics 365 Customer Service is its extensibility, both within Microsoft’s suite of business applications and productivity tools, and across our extensive partner ecosystem and third-party marketplace.

The biggest impact of Dynamics 365 is that the customer information is more centralized, which saves time and gives us a 360-degree view of the customer.

Petra Velten, Business Expert Customer Service, Lufthansa Cargo

With Dynamics 365, our team has a single pane of glass with all customer information and tasks in one place. The Rheem knowledge base within Dynamics 365 Customer Service also gives [reps] fast, easy access to specific product information during customer calls.

Jordan Bond, Senior Manager, Product Owner, Dynamics Service, Rheem

Amplify your impact with Dynamics 365 Customer Service

We’re delighted to be recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™, but this is just the beginning of the agentic service era that Microsoft and our partners are shaping. We’ll continue to make significant R&D investments that help accelerate AI breakthroughs and work alongside our pioneering customers to define the future of service.

Explore how you can boost efficiency and enhance service in every channel:

• Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• Dynamics 365 Contact Center

Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity here.

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In today’s economy, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have evolved far beyond traditional back-office functions. They are now strategic drivers of growth, agility, and resilience. Modern business leaders require ERP solutions that deliver more than transactional processing; they need intelligence, insights, and automation at scale. Selecting a platform with embedded AI today helps set your organization up for tomorrow’s competitive advantage.

We’re excited to announce Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a Leader in three Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ reports:

• Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises
• Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises
• Cloud ERP Finance

We believe the recognition of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Leader placement in all three Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ reports shows our commitment to delivering end-to-end coverage for modern organizations. Our expertise is especially critical as most businesses today need the flexibility to manage both products and services, backed by the trust and security of a robust financial backbone. With embedded AI capabilities at the core of Dynamics 365, enterprises can confidently unify operations, adapt to evolving market demands, and help ensure their financial systems are secure, scalable, and future-ready.

Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises

The ERP landscape is evolving rapidly. Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for service-centric enterprises predicts “by 2027, 62% of ERP application spending will include AI capabilities, a significant leap from just 14% in 2024.”¹ Dynamics 365 is at the forefront of this transformation, helping businesses harness AI to drive efficiency, agility, and growth.

Dynamics 365 is a software as a service (SaaS) ERP, delivered from Microsoft Azure data centers worldwide. It combines natively developed ERP components with a robust partner ecosystem to deliver industry-specific functionality. Serving midsize to large service businesses across EMEA, the Americas, and APAC, Dynamics 365 is designed for scale and flexibility.

Our core competencies

• AI-powered innovation: Embedded AI through Microsoft Copilot delivers actionable insights and automates finance, operations, and service processes. Tasks like account reconciliation and cash flow forecasting can become simpler and smarter.
• Connected ecosystem: Smooth integration with Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Power Platform, and Azure enables unified data and workflows across the enterprise.
• Industry-specific capabilities: Our partner ecosystem extends Dynamics 365’s functionality for specialized industries, supporting flexibility and scalability.

Key strengths driving leadership:

• AI-powered capabilities: Advanced AI empowers organizations with actionable insights and automation to enhance critical business processes.
• Integrated business management: Core financial and operational systems seamlessly connect with productivity and collaboration tools, enabling holistic visibility and informed decision-making.
• Cloud platform advantage: Built-in integrations with enterprise-grade cloud services provide scalability, security, and a unified data foundation for innovation and growth.

Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises

Microsoft is also recognized as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Supply Chain Management and Finance solutions, which in our opinion underscores our commitment to helping upper-midsize and large enterprises transform operations with intelligent, connected systems.

Dynamics 365 integrates with the broader Microsoft ecosystem. Azure provides scalability and security; Microsoft 365 enables collaboration, and Power BI delivers actionable insights. When data flows freely and tools work together, businesses can operate faster, smarter, and with greater confidence.

Key strengths

Three core strengths for driving enterprises success:

• AI-powered automation: Advanced AI and Copilot technologies enable intelligent automation and empower organizations to create custom agents for streamlined and tailored workflows.
• Unified cloud platform: Seamless integration across Microsoft’s cloud ecosystem delivers a secure, scalable, and unified foundation for business operations.
• Global capabilities: Comprehensive localization and language support helps ensure Microsoft solutions meet the needs of organizations worldwide.

Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP Finance

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance has been recognized as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP Finance for its Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute. In an era where CFOs face mounting pressure to deliver agility, transparency, and predictive capabilities, Dynamics 365 Finance stands out as a transformative solution.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance is a robust platform designed for enterprises operating across multiple geographies. It offers extensive financial dimensions, user-defined tags, and a global chart of accounts, enabling organizations to manage complex, multi-entity environments in over 50 countries. These capabilities support compliance with diverse regulatory frameworks while maintaining operational efficiency.

One of the most innovative features is Microsoft Copilot Studio, which empowers users to build AI agents using natural language. This functionality allows finance teams to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up time for strategic decision-making.

Key strengths driving leadership

1. AI automation
   Microsoft Dynamics 365 leverages Copilot and embedded AI agents to deliver advanced automation across core business processes. These capabilities support predictive analytics, automated transaction processing, and real-time insights, empowering finance leaders to:
   • Enhance forecasting accuracy by analyzing both historical and live data.
   • Minimize manual reconciliations, freeing up valuable time.
   • Identify anomalies in transactions to help reduce compliance risks.
2. Customer-driven innovation
   Microsoft’s product development is guided by direct customer feedback, gathered through surveys, advisory boards, and innovation hubs. This approach has resulted in:
   • Low-code automation tools that enable teams to build workflows without developer support.
   • Enhanced dispute resolution features, streamlining interactions between organizations and their customers.
   • Capabilities that optimize cash flow management, supporting business business resilience in dynamic markets.
3. A global partner ecosystem
   Transformation is a collaborative journey. Microsoft’s extensive global partner network brings specialized expertise in cloud migration, industry-specific solutions, and deployment support. Whether operating in manufacturing, retail, or professional services, organizations benefit from:
   • Tailored implementations that help accelerate time-to-value and mitigate risk during transitions from legacy systems.
   • Co-development opportunities that foster innovation and deliver best-in-class solutions for unique business needs.

Why this matters for CFOs

The role of the CFO is evolving from financial steward to strategic advisor. Today’s finance leaders must deliver insights that drive growth, manage risk, and enable agility. Dynamics 365 equips CFOs with tools to:

• Predict outcomes using AI-powered analytics.
• Automate routine tasks, freeing resources for strategic initiatives.
• Collaborate seamlessly across global teams through integrated workflows.

Looking ahead: The future of finance

As we approach 2026, the finance landscape will continue to shift toward intelligent automation and predictive capabilities. Microsoft’s vision for agentic AI promises a future where finance teams operate with unprecedented efficiency and foresight. From managing exceptions autonomously to delivering real-time scenario planning, these innovations will redefine what’s possible in enterprise finance.

Organizations that embrace these technologies today will be better positioned to navigate uncertainty, capitalize on opportunities, and maintain a competitive edge.

Your path to a smarter future

Microsoft Dynamics 365 exemplifies how technology empowers business leaders, including CFOs, operations executives, and IT strategists, to move beyond transactional processes and become architects of enterprise strategy. We believe being recognized as a Leader in three Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ reports: Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises, Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises, and Cloud ERP Finance, Dynamics 365 sets the standard for modern ERP solutions.

With its combination of AI-powered automation, customer-centric innovation, and global scalability, Dynamics 365 delivers intelligent, adaptable solutions for organizations across industries and geographies. Whether optimizing operations, transforming supply chains, or streamlining finance, Dynamics 365 offers a clear path forward—one that blends intelligence, agility, and trust.

As organizations embrace the opportunities of an AI-powered future, Microsoft remains dedicated to empowering enterprises with solutions that are intelligent, seamlessly connected, and built to scale. Discover how we are positioned by Gartner and read the full Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ service-centric, product-centric, and finance reports for deeper insights. 

See how organizations using Dynamics 365 are enhancing operational efficiency, boosting flexibility, and unlocking intelligent insights throughout their business processes.

• Dynamics 365 drives Cat® dealership into the 21st century
• Camfil harmonizes processes with Dynamics 365 bolster sustainability and profitability
• Alltech fortifies business operations with Dynamics 365

1. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises, Robert Anderson, Johan Jartelius, Tomas Kienast, Sam Grinter, Denis Torii, Chaithanya Paradarami, 13 October 2025.
2. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises, Greg Leiter, Tomas Kienast, Johan Jartelius, Denis Torii, Dennis Gaughan, 13 October 2025.
3. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Finance, Mike Helsel, Irmina Melarkode, Nick Duffy, Nisha Bhandare, 27 October 2025.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designations. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s Research & Advisory organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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

The post Microsoft Dynamics 365 named a Leader in three Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ reports: Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises, Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises, and Cloud ERP Finance appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Across the globe, pioneering organizations are harnessing the power of AI and agents to enable smarter, faster decisions, and take action to deliver meaningful business outcomes. The rise of AI and agents is especially apparent in customer service, where automation, productivity tools, and access to insights have the potential to improve customer experiences and boost operational efficiency.

Now, Frontier Firms are building on past successes to create the foundations for agentic service. They’re reimagining how work gets done by using agents to continuously monitor, analyze, and execute key processes across self-service and human-assisted interactions.

As agentic service continues to gain traction in the customer service world, we’re delighted to announce that Microsoft has been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for CRM Customer Engagement Center.

Microsoft is named a Leader in 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for CRM Customer Engagement Center

Read the report

We believe this placement recognizes the successes our customers are achieving with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service. To take just one example, Rheem Manufacturing is seeing remarkable efficiency gains—and customer satisfaction improvements—with Dynamics 365.

“Our goal is to continually improve average call-handling-time and we’re seeing those times reduced with Dynamics 365. We’re on track for a 14% total improvement in average call-handling-time and we are starting to see CSAT scores trending up in some of our contact centers.”

—Adam Schuster, Director, Customer Experience at Rheem Manufacturing

What’s truly exciting to see is the Gartner evaluation of our completeness of vision. We believe it’s a testament to the continuing strategic investments we’re making across the service category—including Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Contact Center—as well our broader Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 portfolio.

Rather than following the market, our approach is to deliver innovative agentic capabilities that will revolutionize the way people work and how customer service teams deliver value.

Gartner defines CRM customer engagement center (CRM CEC) as a cohesive set of software built around core case management tools used to provide customer service and support by engaging with customers, while intelligently orchestrating the processes, data, systems, and resources of an organization. CRM CEC applications also offer workflow management capabilities and may be used as a system of record for customer interactions.

We’re entering the era of agentic service

Our recognition as a Leader coincides with the general availability of a suite of agents for Dynamics 365 that span the service lifecycle:

• The Case Management Agent simplifies and streamlines case management by creating cases, updating details, following up with customers, and enabling timely closures.
• The Customer Knowledge Management Agent keeps knowledge content current by autonomously creating or updating articles based on insights from cases, conversations, emails, and notes.
• The Customer Intent Agent supports evergreen self-service and assisted service by analyzing customer interactions to understand how to identify and resolve issues as they emerge.
• The Quality Evaluation Agent gives supervisors real-time insights into service quality across AI-led and human-assisted interactions, along with proactive recommendations for improvement.

At yourtown, a charity that provides children’s services, agents are already having an impact.

“By adopting agents in Dynamics 365 service solutions, we’re making every interaction faster and more empathetic. In a service where demand exceeds capacity, this can be a game changer. Agents help gather information, route contacts based on need, and streamline resolution—enabling counselors to focus on direct support to young people.”

—Helen Vahdat, Chief Information Officer at yourtown

Similarly, California State University, San Marcos (CSUSM) is using agents to help support its students.

“Providing individualized support across multiple channels is central to our student philosophy. Service Agents for Dynamics 365 have the promise to both help us enable personalized 24/7 self-service capabilities and provide our staff with the necessary information to ensure continuity of support.” 

—Tasos Lazarides, Ph.D., Director of Digital Transformation at CSUSM

Many of our customers are also creating bespoke agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio. At Vera Bradley, for example, a customer support agent integrated with Dynamics 365 Customer Service automates more than 2,000 monthly support cases, significantly improving efficiency and easing the burden on the customer service team.

“The use of Microsoft Copilot Studio for autonomous chat-based self-service has reduced live agent chat escalations by 25%, allowing our agents to focus on more complex issues. By offloading routine inquiries, our agents report feeling more empowered and engaged in solving meaningful customer challenges. The AI-powered agent has been especially valuable during peak retail seasons, handling increased case volume without additional staffing.”

—Susan Campbell, Director, Customer Experience at Vera Bradley

Shaping the future of customer service

We’re proud to be recognized again as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™. Alongside our trailblazing customers, we’ll continue to pioneer AI-fueled innovation that supports amazing customer experiences.

Next steps

Read the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for CRM Customer Engagement Center report.

Join us at Microsoft Ignite 2025 to connect with industry leaders, explore hands-on demos, and delve deeper into how agentic business applications are reshaping the future of work—including my session on agentic CX and how organizations are evolving toward frontier service models.

¹ Gartner, Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement Center, Pri Rathnayake, Drew Kraus, Francesco Vicchi, Jim Robinson, October 27, 2025

*Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.  

**This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Microsoft.  

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For decades, growing revenue in business-to-business (B2B) sales meant expanding the sales team. More sellers, more deals. But AI is providing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine customer relationship management (CRM), and business leaders are keen to use its potential to boost sales outcomes and do more with less. Organizations are building the sales teams of the future by investing in generative AI and autonomous AI agents that can empower sales teams to deliver faster, hyper-personalized buying experiences—deeply understanding customer intent and proactively guiding decisions to influence pipeline.

Autonomous agents can handle the manually intensive parts of a typical sales workflow; for example, researching sales leads while allowing reps to spend more time in front of the customers selling and closing revenue. This is what we call agentic sales—where humans guide agents through fully autonomous workflows, transforming the sales journey and delivering meaningful customer engagements. Becoming an agentic sales organization is top mind for leaders, but many don’t know where to start.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

Close more deals and increase seller efficiency with an AI-powered CRM solution.

Get started today.

The pressure to deliver on customer expectations is higher than ever. Buyers want faster responses and better customer experience and are willing to walk away if those needs are not met. But with data barriers and organizational silos teams globally are struggling to meet these demands. In the face of these challenges, yesterday’s CRM systems are taking time away from what matters—building relationships and delivering personalized interactions across the sales journey. Sales leaders now rely on AI to provide sales insights and recommend next best actions from their customer data; and they are increasingly looking to agents to automate and augment work like researching, qualifying, and drafting outreach. Gartner predicts that by 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be autonomously through agentic AI, up from 0% in 2024.¹

We’re excited to share that Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant* for Sales Force Automation for the fifteenth consecutive year.

How Microsoft is making selling easier

Reimagine resource-intensive workflows across the sales pipeline

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales enables sellers to boost sales outcomes and improve customer experience powered by a CRM system that embeds AI and agents throughout the key stages of the deal cycle. Sellers can develop, prioritize, and close pipeline faster by adopting a consistent cadence across teams with autonomous AI agents and Copilot. Dynamics 365 helps sellers stay on top of their deals and deliver high-quality customer engagements across touchpoints with AI-powered engagement guidance and real-time action recommendations. With conversational intelligence built-in, sellers get real-time call transcriptions, sentiment analysis, and actionable insights that help them stay focused and responsive. Sales managers are able to use these insights to scale winning teams and grow their business with intelligent forecasting. Sales operations leads are able to tailor the agentic sales solution to meet the needs of the business and deliver sales efficiency with trust and accountability.

Integration with an expanded ecosystem 

Organizations can harness the breadth of the Microsoft Cloud to empower their sales teams with intelligent, connected experiences—easily integrating data, collaboration, and AI-powered insights. Integrated collaboration tools that streamline communication and drive accountability across marketing, sales, and service departments. Embedded Microsoft Teams chat within Dynamics 365 enables real-time discussions through dedicated teams and channels, fostering cross-functional alignment. With Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales sellers can easily share opportunities, leads, and account information plus set up deal rooms directly in Teams with automatic sharing of data and files from Dynamics 365 Sales. Copilot in Power Apps makes it easier than ever to tailor the sales experience. Whether it’s customizing dashboards, building forms, or automating workflows, sellers can use natural language to optimize the user interface around how you work. It’s a smarter, faster way to extend Dynamics 365 Sales—without needing to write a single line of code.

Our customer’s success 

Ricoh Japan drives digital transformation with Dynamics 365 Sales incorporating generative AI for enhanced sales capabilities and seamless integration with Microsoft 365.

Among the most significant benefits of implementing Dynamics 365 Sales for Ricoh was their new access to generative AI technology. As an example of how Ricoh Japan is using generative AI, product recommendations from four sources appear when users access the new system: from daily reports entered in Dynamics 365 Sales, from industry information on the web, from purchase history, and top-selling products by customer segment. “These all appear automatically,” says Kazunari Sakai, CRM Promotion Group Leader in the CRM Planning Office, Marketing Center, Digital Service Sales Division at Ricoh Japan. “Microsoft 365 Copilot is used to summarize Outlook emails as well as chats and meetings conducted using Teams.”

There are many strengths in our sales process that we have honed over a 20-year period and hope to carry forward. Dynamics 365 Sales integrates with Power Platform, a line of products facilitating low-code/no-code development and able to meet our Fit to Standard framework.”

—Makoto Nagai, General Manager of the CRM Promotion Office, DX Promotion Center, Corporate Planning Division, Ricoh Japan

As organizations continue to begin adopting AI agents, Microsoft is here guiding each team as they become an agentic sales organization built on trust and security in leading products like Dynamics 365 Sales.

¹Gartner®, Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2025, October 2024

²Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation Platforms, Adnan Zijadic, Guy Wood, Steve Rietberg, Wendy Butler-Mafuz, 21 July 2025.

*The report was titled Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation from 2007-2008. Microsoft was recognized as Microsoft Dynamics CRM from 2011-2014 and as Microsoft (Dynamics CRM Online) in 2015-2016. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

**This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Microsoft.

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2025’s Gartner® CFO & Finance Executive Conference featured sessions and hands-on product demonstrations from finance and operations providers covering growth strategies, cost management tools, and of course, AI in finance. I’ve had the pleasure of attending for a few years now, and what struck me this year was the excitement and enthusiasm for not just learning about but applying agents and generative AI to financial processes. Based on the conversations I had with customers at the event, here are the three things finance leaders should know about getting started with agents and AI.

Automate high-impact processes first

The journey to AI-powered finance doesn’t require a complete overhaul—it can start with targeted, high-impact steps that build momentum and deliver measurable value. Start with areas that are ripe for automation and deliver immediate impact to your team and bottom line. Financial close, account reconciliation, and supplier communications are ideal entry points using prebuilt agents available from Microsoft, like the Supplier Communications Agent in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, which can automatically respond to vendor emails, assess supply chain disruptions, and update purchase orders—helping to ensure continuity without manual intervention.

The breadth of agent possibility doesn’t stop with what’s available today as a prebuilt solution. Microsoft empowers finance professionals to build custom agents for ERP processes, applying automation and intelligence to critical processes, like the process at the heart of finance: record to report. Imagine the impact agents can have helping your team update tax strategies in a complex macroeconomic environment or surfacing real-time financial audits. Microsoft Copilot Studio agent builder provides a simple interface to quickly and easily build agents like the Financial Insights Agent, a tool designed internally for Microsoft to help finance professionals quickly surface and analyze key financial metrics. By using Azure OpenAI and semantic search, this agent allows users to ask natural language questions like “What’s my total operational expenditure (OPEX) as a percentage of expenses?” and receive instant, contextual answers. It can significantly reduce time spent on manual data retrieval and analysis while enhancing decision making with real-time insights. This agent exemplifies how AI can transform planning and analysis workflows, helping make finance teams more agile and strategic. Build your own agent here.

Establish a Center of Innovation to upskill your finance team

Create a dedicated team or initiative to explore, test, and scale AI use cases across finance. This “Center of Innovation” can serve as a hub for experimentation, governance, and best practices—helping ensure that AI adoption is intentional, secure, and aligned with business goals. Creating space for experimentation and testing means giving finance teams the freedom to test new tools, workflows, and ideas without the pressure of immediate perfection. It involves setting up low-risk environments, like sandboxes or pilot programs, where teams can trial AI agents, automate processes, and iterate quickly. This approach fosters a culture of curiosity and continuous improvement, allowing teams to scale what works and learn from what doesn’t.

Establishing a Center of Innovation was central to the growth and success of Microsoft’s own AI adoption. Microsoft Director of Modern Finance, Cory Hrncirik, joined the Microsoft session to share tangible examples of both AI adoption and the structures put in place to get us there.

As team members begin to shift from transactional to strategic roles, it’s imperative to equip your team with the skills required to work alongside AI. This could include training on prompt engineering for your function, data literacy, and how to manage and monitor AI agents.

Microsoft Copilot Studio offers a low-code environment where finance professionals can build and customize agents without needing deep technical expertise.

Work with IT to define your human-agent operating models to scale what works

As agents take on more operational tasks, CFOs must define how humans and AI will collaborate. This includes setting clear roles, responsibilities, and oversight mechanisms. Think of your team as a hybrid workforce—where agents handle the repetitive and analytical, and humans focus on judgment, strategy, and innovation. Due to the sensitive nature of financial material, early collaboration on security and permissions with IT will be crucial to implementation and driving outcomes.

Getting started with Microsoft and Microsoft Dynamics 365

If you’re ready to start reimagining ERP processes with agents, learn more about the pre-built agents announced in April 2025, explore how the new Model Context Protocol servers for Dynamics 365 will accelerate the ability for customers to build agents, and visit “AI-Powered ERP Solutions” for more product information.

Want to dig deeper? Learn how your organization can benefit from using Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management in a three-year projection window¹:

• 106% return on investment (ROI).
• USD8.9 million in productivity gains from unified data access, streamlined processes, and automated workflows.
• USD1.2 million in profitability improvements from real-time visibility and enhanced decision making.
• USD3.9 million in infrastructure savings by moving from legacy on-premises systems to the cloud.

These benefits are grounded in real-world outcomes and are explored deeper in a Forrester Total Economic Impact study, commissioned by Microsoft. The study’s composite organization is modeled after interviews with Dynamics 365 customers, and the report explores how teams reported significant improvements in operations.

Source:

¹The 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.

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Customer expectations continue to grow, with rising demand for seamless, connected, and personalized experiences across sales, marketing, and service. However, meeting these demands can be a complex and expensive undertaking, and legacy applications accessing siloed data cannot keep up. This is why we are seeing many organizations move from point solutions and fragmented application stacks. To further improve customer experiences and operational efficiency, organizations are also looking for ways to harness the transformative potential of generative AI.

The Forrester Wave™: Customer Relationship Management, Q1 2025

Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader

Read the report

​To help organizations accomplish these goals and deliver better business outcomes, Microsoft Dynamics 365 brings together a complete customer relationship management (CRM) platform driven by our latest advancements in generative AI. Today, we’re delighted to announce that Microsoft has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Customer Relationship Management, Q1 2025.

A unified platform for marketing, sales, and service

The industry and our customers recognize that we’re developing an integrated and autonomous CRM platform that reduces the complexity of meeting customer expectations and uses groundbreaking generative AI to transform sales and service experiences—for customers and employees alike.

​Dynamics 365 CRM applications (consisting of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights) are underpinned by a common data layer in Microsoft Dataverse, which reduces the integration burden and serves as the foundation for Microsoft’s generative AI leadership. Data from across sales, marketing, and service engagements fuels Microsoft Copilot and AI agents, allowing them to deliver more personalized and effective self-service experiences and automate tasks to assist human reps.

Investing in next-generation AI with Copilot and agents

We’re helping organizations improve customer experience and support reps to be more productive by infusing generative AI in the places where it will have the greatest impact in sales, marketing, and service journeys.

Copilot is fully integrated into Dynamics 365, allowing marketers to target the right prospects, empowering sellers to close more deals, offering customers engaging self-service interactions, and supporting service reps to accelerate issue resolution.

As part of our continuing investment in helping our customers achieve more with AI, we’ve recently augmented Copilot with AI agents. Copilot acts as the interface for AI, working as a personal AI assistant, with agents functioning like apps, automating common tasks or autonomously completing entire business processes.

Microsoft has announced 10 agents across the Dynamics 365 portfolio of business applications, including agents for sales qualification, deep research in sales, intent determination, knowledge management, and case management. These agents are designed to streamline workflows, reduce manual effort, and enhance decision-making by providing intelligent insights and recommendations. It’s also fast and easy for organizations to build their own agents using the generative AI and low-code tools in Microsoft Copilot Studio. With these tools, businesses can create custom agents tailored to their specific needs, allowing them to automate unique processes and improve overall efficiency.

A secure CRM platform built on responsible AI principles

Importantly, the AI capabilities in Dynamics 365 are developed with a steadfast commitment to trustworthy AI, guided by our responsible AI principles of fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability.

In addition, generative AI features in Dynamics 365 utilize Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, which offers the highest levels of data privacy and security. By developing AI that is responsible and secure by design, we’re furthering our mission to help every person and organization on the planet achieve more.

First West Credit Union accelerates issue resolution

One of the organizations achieving more with Dynamics 365 is First West Credit Union. As one of Canada’s largest credit unions, it aims to forge authentic connections with its members, but this mission was hampered by a patchwork of legacy CRM platform deployments across different parts of the business.

With Dynamics 365, First West Credit Union now has a single platform to help it engage members more effectively while meeting federal regulatory requirements for complaints management. Because Dynamics 365 functionality mapped so closely to the needs of users and the business, First West Credit Union saw 100% adoption within seven weeks of launching the system. What’s more, member complaints are now being resolved well within the federally required timeline, with 87% resolved in 14 days or less, compared to 49% before the implementation.

“One of the key value points of the Dynamics 365 platform is that, need for need, the capabilities are there. We were able to map the functionality to the business needs very well, right out of the box. That really helped us fast-track this initiative.”

Darrell Jaggers, CIO and Chief Transformation Officer, First West Credit Union

Lexmark boosts sales and service efficiency and productivity

Another organization that emphasizes building strong customer relationships is Lexmark, a global leader in printing and imaging products, software, solutions, and services. However, a reliance on disparate legacy solutions meant tracking customer journeys was a complex and inefficient process.

By replacing Salesforce and Siebel solutions with Dynamics 365, Lexmark now has a unified CRM platform for delivering outstanding customer service and operational efficiency. By working more efficiently in Dynamics 365, Lexmark has increased order accuracy by 43% and boosted contact center productivity by 23%.

“We’ve been on the journey with Microsoft after moving from Salesforce to Dynamics 365 Sales. We’re excited to be one of the first customers to use Sales Qualification Agent and look forward to the ability to scale our sales team with agents and provide an exceptional experience to our customers.”

Kyle Farmer, Vice President, Global Sales and Strategy, Lexmark

Learn more about Dynamics 365 CRM platforms

We’re excited to be recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™ and we will continue to invest in creating a state-of-the-art-CRM platform, allowing our customers to constantly enhance experiences for their own customers and empower their employees to achieve more. 

Learn more about: 

• Dynamics 365 
• Dynamics 365 Contact Center
• Dynamics 365 Sales
• Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

Contact your Microsoft representative to learn more about what you could achieve with Dynamics 365.

Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity here.

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Delivering amazing customer experiences and rapid issue resolution across multiple engagement channels is immensely challenging. Without advanced AI and automation—across voice and digital channels—customer journeys meet friction and service reps struggle to work efficiently, leading to spiraling costs and dwindling customer loyalty. 

However, when customers and service reps are supported with AI-powered automation and contextual guidance, the experience is smoother for everyone, whether it’s in self-service or assisted service. 

2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement Center 

Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader.

Read the report

As we enter this new era of AI-fueled customer service, we’re proud to announce that Microsoft has been named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant* for CRM Customer Engagement Center.

We believe this placement recognizes our comprehensive AI-powered omnichannel capabilities, our continued commitment to rapid AI innovation, and the successes our global customers are achieving with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service.  

Gartner defines CRM customer engagement center (CRM CEC) as a cohesive set of software built around core case management tools used to provide customer service and support by engaging with customers, while intelligently orchestrating the processes, data, systems, and resources of an organization. CRM CEC applications also offer workflow management capabilities and may be used as a system of record for customer interactions. 

AI fuels customer service excellence 

Customer service leaders understand that resolving customer issues is not the sole measure of success. Long-term customer loyalty depends on the ability to deliver fast, personalized experiences in every engagement channel. That’s why it’s so important that Customer Service provides comprehensive, AI-enhanced capabilities across omnichannel customer journeys and throughout service processes—on a global scale.  

By delivering intelligent self-service and giving service reps the tools and insights to boost productivity, fuel collaboration, and strengthen customer relationships, we help service organizations transform operations and increase customer satisfaction. What’s more, with Microsoft Copilot in Customer Service, organizations can now take their service capabilities to new heights. 

Since Microsoft introduced Copilot into the applications millions of people use every day, its generative AI capabilities have empowered people to achieve more—and that’s especially true in customer service. 

Copilot is one of the capabilities that sets Customer Service apart. It provides an AI assistant to help service reps onboard faster, accelerate resolutions for even the most complex cases, and free up time to build stronger customer relationships. 

Service reps worldwide now rely on Copilot to handle routine tasks—such as accessing knowledge, summarizing, and drafting personalized emails—releasing them to focus on delivering high-value engagements that build customer satisfaction and loyalty. 

Lenovo increases service rep productivity by 15% and reduces average handle time by 20% 

One organization that is seeing the benefits of Copilot in its customer service operations is the global technology company Lenovo. The company’s Premier Support services give customers access to thousands of advanced technicians to resolve issues and minimize downtime.  

To keep pace with growing demand, Lenovo needed automated, AI-based solutions that could streamline operations, automate repetitive tasks, and boost customer satisfaction. The company uses Customer Service and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center to enhance the support experience for customers and service reps. 

When a customer reaches out for support, they interact with Copilot in an AI chat assistant to explain their issue in natural language. Copilot then offers service reps suggestions for optimal solutions, based on millions of historical customer interactions, so reps spend less time finding information and can focus on resolving the issue. Copilot also completes post-call summarization, saving reps even more time. 

The results are a 15% improvement in service rep productivity, a 20% reduction in average handling time, and record-high customer satisfaction. 

“Our Premier Support service reps are seeing a boost to their productivity and seamless service delivery…average handling time has fallen by 20% and agent productivity is up 15%.” 

Chen Lu, Director, Services IT Delivery, Lenovo 

Apollo helps customers have smoother journeys 

It’s a similar story at Apollo, a major tour operator in the Nordic region, which is using Copilot to help enhance the customer experience for more than one million travelers a year.  

The company has built a chatbot in Microsoft Copilot Studio that it expects to respond to up to half of its customer inquiries, providing tailored answers in seconds in Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, and Dutch. When cases need to be escalated to a human service rep, Copilot can assist by surfacing relevant information at the right time and completing routine administrative tasks such as call summarization. 

“It is always our goal to provide our customers with the journey of a lifetime. Thanks to [Microsoft] Dynamics 365, we can offer each customer personalized experiences with the details that matter most—and we can do it quickly, which is a win for our customers and our business.” 

Glenn Bisgaard, Sales Director, Apollo 

Copilot and Agents: The next evolution of AI-fueled customer service 

Building on the capabilities of Copilot, we’re now introducing AI agents in Copilot, as well as empowering organizations and individuals to create their own agents in Copilot Studio. These agents help transform operations by executing business processes, working alongside or on behalf of a person, team, or organization. 

Copilot agents range from simple information retrieval and summarization agents to fully autonomous agents capable of working independently, planning, and orchestrating other agents. 

Over the next few months, we’ll be releasing several autonomous agents specifically for enhancing customer service: 

• The Customer Intent Agent continuously discovers new intents from customer conversations and keeps self-service tools and service reps updated with new customer issues and how to resolve them. 
• The Customer Knowledge Management Agent uncovers insights from human-assisted case notes, transcripts, summaries, and more to update existing knowledge articles or draft new ones, keeping self-service tools evergreen and empowering service reps with up-to-date knowledge and guidance. 
• The Case Management Agent reduces reps’ administrative burden and shortens handle times by automating key tasks, including case creation, updates, wrap-up, summary, follow-up communications, and closure. 

We’re thrilled to be recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, and we’re equally excited about what the future holds as we continue to advance the capabilities of Customer Service. But most importantly, we look forward to seeing the results as we work alongside our pioneering customers to help them deliver even more efficient and effective customer service. 

Next steps 

Read the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement Center report. 

Learn more about: 

• Customer Service 
• Microsoft 365 Copilot for Service 

¹Gartner, Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement Center, Pri Rathnayake, Drew Kraus, Wynn White, 11 December 2024.

*Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.   

**This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Microsoft.   

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Modern enterprises that offer a diverse range of products and services have equally diverse needs and challenges, including managing complex growth, optimizing costs, and ensuring profitability. These organizations require agile solutions that can adapt to evolving business needs and support smarter decision-making. Microsoft is dedicated to addressing these challenges by providing robust, scalable ERP solutions through Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Transform your ERP processes with agents in Dynamics 365

Join us for an exciting session on the future of ERP systems with Dynamics 365.

Watch now

Microsoft being recognized as a Leader in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud ERP for Service-Centric and Product-Centric Enterprises*, from our perspective, highlights the ability of Dynamics 365 to deliver flexible, composable ERP solutions that meet these diverse needs of modern organizations to drive results across financial models, operational processes, and organizational structures.

For example, BDO, one of the largest accounting and advisory networks in the world, successfully unified its complex tax and accounting services using Dynamics 365 Project Operations and Microsoft Copilot. By connecting their data with AI-driven tools, BDO’s teams have gained critical insights and efficiencies with enhanced visibility across projects and clients.

With Dynamics 365 and Copilot, they have streamlined project oversight and empowered their teams with actionable insights, enhancing their service delivery and customer satisfaction. Read the full story here.

Empowering leaders with financial, operational, and organizational agility

For today’s leaders facing complex growth, cost, and profitability challenges, Dynamics 365 provides a scalable ERP system foundations that can adapt to evolving business needs—empowering faster adaptation, smarter decision-making, and optimized performance. This achievement positions Dynamics 365 as an essential partner for leaders committed to transforming their organizations to thrive in today’s rapidly changing markets. 

Financial agility to drive strategic decisions

Leaders today need financial clarity and flexibility to make bold, data-backed decisions—whether for mergers and acquisitions activity, international expansion, adaptive pricing, or new product and service offerings. Dynamics 365 can provide a financial backbone that goes beyond traditional ERP systems, enabling leaders across finance, operations, and strategy to assess complex scenarios, plan for the future, streamline compliance, and mitigate risk. Business models are shifting and hybrid revenue streams like subscription and consumption-based models are becoming more prevalent; Dynamics 365 supports organizations in navigating this complex landscape.

Through embedded analytics and AI-powered insights, like business performance planning and analytics capabilities, Dynamics 365 helps ensure that decision-makers have the financial, operational, and organizational visibility they need to stay agile. By aligning financial operations with strategic goals, leaders can pivot confidently with a product designed to support compliance, enhance audit readiness, and improve security. Dynamics 365 can also empower executives with the insights needed to support rapid, impactful financial decisions, positioning them to meet today’s demands while planning for future growth.

Operational agility to build resilient and adaptive processes

Operational agility is essential for organizations striving to deliver products and services on time, within budget, and at scale. Dynamics 365 equips leaders with tools to help develop resilient processes that can adapt to changes in supply chain dynamics, regulatory environments, and shifting customer expectations. Real-time data and predictive AI-driven insights help organizations proactively manage inventory, resources, and service delivery.

Whether focused on delivering products, services, or a combination of both, Dynamics 365 offers the flexibility to meet diverse customer needs with tailored pricing and delivery models. This scalability enables leaders to optimize operations to drive efficiency, even as market conditions fluctuate. The composable ERP approach of Dynamics 365 helps to ensure that organizations can streamline operations, enabling teams to respond to customer demands with speed, accuracy, and consistency. 

Organizational agility to empower people for strategic impact

In a modern organization, empowering people with the right data and workflows is key to driving strategic impact. Dynamics 365 supports leaders in fostering agile, cross-functional teams that can operate with autonomy, making informed decisions aligned with organizational objectives. A composable architecture—in addition to Copilot and agents—help Dynamics 365 connect employees to the insights they need, promoting a culture of proactive decision-making and collaboration.

This adaptable structure is particularly beneficial for hybrid business models that blend product and service offerings as it breaks down silos, allowing teams to work fluidly across departments. Dynamics 365 supports leaders in building an environment where empowered employees can focus on high-impact work, aligning their efforts to drive outcomes that matter.

Why recognizing Microsoft as a Leader in cloud ERP systems for product and service centric enterprises matters

Industry recognition, such as our inclusion in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report, helps support the unique ability of Dynamics 365 to serve organizations regardless of their business focus, helping to ensure leaders have the tools they need to adapt as business models evolve. For service-centric enterprises, Dynamics 365 delivers essential tools for managing timelines, budgets, and resources. Product-centric organizations benefit from advanced supply chain and manufacturing functionalities that drive efficiency and control.

By supporting evolving business objectives and complex blended business models involving both product- and service-centric operations, Dynamics 365 helps organizations scale confidently. Dynamics 365 further empowers leaders to be agile and responsive, meeting the demands of a diverse and interconnected market.

A strategic approach to ERP modernization

Gartner’s dual Leader recognition of Microsoft, in our view, underscores the strength of Dynamics 365 as a flexible, adaptive ERP solution designed to meet the needs of today’s complex business landscape. By delivering insights and tools that support transformation across financial, operational, and organizational models, including Business performance planning and Copilot, Dynamics 365 empowers leaders to align their strategies with agile, performance-driven ERP systems.

The future of business relies on AI – first business processes with autonomous agents as catalysts transforming how work gets done and how operations are managed. We recently announced new pre-built agents that become part of your workflow autonomizing execution of business processes and performing the tasks alongside your teams like confirming product orders, reconciling financial transactions, and managing time and expense reporting. Your teams can scale better and achieve better business outcomes, including the ability to:

• Consistently meet customer demand on time.
• Enhance cash flow visibility to help make faster and better business decisions.
• Promptly invoice customers and ensure projects stay on track and within budget.

Now more than ever, ERP modernization requires a strategic approach that champions agility, empowers teams, and drives impactful results across the organization. Dynamics 365 provides the foundation for leaders to turn their strategic vision into reality, supporting innovation, resilience, and sustained success in an evolving world.

We invite you to watch an exciting session on the future of ERP systems with Dynamics 365 recorded at Microsoft Ignite 2024. You’ll discover the transformative power of AI in ERP systems and how the latest advancements in generative AI are paving the way for more autonomous ERP processes and scenarios.

For more information on Dynamics 365 AI-driven ERP systems, you can request a demo or take a tour today.

*Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

**This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Microsoft.

Source: Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises,” Greg Leiter, Robert Anderson, Dixie John, Tomas Kienast, David Penny, November 11, 2024.

Source: Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises,” Robert Anderson, Denis Torii, Sam Grinter, Naveen Mahendra, Tomas Kienast, Johan Jartelius, November 4, 2024.

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As organizations globally grapple with the accelerated development and adoption of AI, business leaders are keen to use the potential of generative AI in transforming revenue-generating functions like sales. Investing in cutting-edge AI capabilities will set up sales teams to bolster customer experience, being able to understand the customer needs and delivering a highly personalized buying experience at a much faster pace.  

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

Increase seller efficiency.

Learn more

Today, many sales teams are bogged down with legacy customer relationship management (CRM) systems designed decades ago, manually entering data and dealing with interfaces built for a slower pace, all of which leaves little time for what truly matters: connecting with customers. Sales leaders are now looking for AI-powered technology that helps them build a stronger pipeline, convert opportunities quicker, and build strong relationships with customers. By using technology that reduces the amount of time spent on manual tasks, sellers gain valuable hours each day to work on opportunities that are already in motion. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2026, B2B sales organizations using generative-AI-embedded sales technologies will reduce the amount of time spent on prospecting and customer-meeting prep by more than 50%.¹ 

With this context, today, we’re excited to share that Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation for the fourteenth consecutive year.

Figure 1: Gartner Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation Platforms** (25 August 2024)  

How Microsoft is making selling easier 

Close more deals and spend less time on tasks 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales enables sellers to close more deals and increase personal productivity with a feature-rich CRM system that includes next-generation AI features out-of-box. Sellers can confidently develop and prioritize their pipeline with lead and opportunity qualification. Sales helps sellers deliver high-quality engagements with prospective customers by helping them prepare with relationship insights, next-step recommendations, and suggestions for improving their interactions. Sales managers can build high-performance sales teams with the ability to identify sellers who need coaching, monitor business health with intelligent forecasting, and scale best practices with automated sales sequences. 

Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales works as a companion for sales representatives by providing generative AI-powered features designed to reduce manual and time-consuming work for sellers. For instance, sellers can quickly get up to speed with accounts, opportunities, contacts, and leads with record summarization and recent changes in the prospective customer organizations. They can also get news updates on accounts along with answers and content recommendations for that account using access to sales documents in SharePoint. Sellers can get help summarizing long email threads and responding to threads with Copilot drafting emails with infused CRM context. Right before taking meetings with customers, sellers can ask Copilot for meeting preparation assistance as well. 

Access sales insights everywhere, no matter where you choose to work 

At Microsoft, we know first-hand that sellers often spend their time outside of their CRM in productivity apps like Outlook and Microsoft Teams. That’s why Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales seamlessly brings CRM insights right into the seller’s flow of work. Copilot for Sales brings together Microsoft 365 Copilot with a role-based agent that connects with your CRM platform to bring sales insights and generative AI into the flow of work. Sellers can simplify their daily tasks by using Copilot to draft e-mails, set up meetings, or summarize previous meetings and e-mail threads. They can save time with Copilot by generating pitch decks, meeting preparation briefs, and data visualizations in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. When it’s time for a sales call, sellers can use Copilot to get insights right within Teams, with AI-generated sales tips, related information, and answers to customer’s questions. After the call, Copilot provides a rich meeting recap that allows the seller to stay focused on next steps.  

Integration with an expanded ecosystem 

Organizations can unlock the full potential of the Microsoft Cloud to empower their sales teams with seamless integration at every step. The Sales integration with Teams fosters open communication and collaboration across marketing, sales, and service departments. With automatic data synchronization between Microsoft 365 apps and Sales or other CRM platforms, sellers can access customer and opportunity information directly within Teams and Outlook. Additionally, sales operation leads and managers can utilize Microsoft Power BI to analyze trends and generate reports. Microsoft Power Platform further enables sellers to automate workflows, develop apps, and analyze data, enhancing agility and driving innovation. 

Our customers’ success 

First West Credit Union is headquartered in Langley, British Columbia, and operates through four locally-known brands to serve members across the province. After a comprehensive request for proposal (RFP) process involving multiple vendors, First West decided to replace its earlier CRM solutions with Sales. The implementation was completed in record time.

“In my experience, these are typically 24-month journeys. The initial deployment of our Sales system was completed in just 11 months. This expedited rollout enabled us to seamlessly transition from and decommission our outdated legacy CRM systems, marking a significant achievement in our digital transformation journey.”

Darrell Jaggers, CIO & Chief Transformation Officer, First West Credit Union

The sales advisors at First West Credit Union are already realizing value. The manual reporting process used to take 20 minutes, but member discovery now takes only a few minutes with Sales, driving productivity gains of more than 75%. Within the first month of launching Sales, First West’s advisors had completed more than 2,600 member discoveries, marking a 54% surge in adoption compared to the previous approach. 

Alkemy, a specialty chemical systems company, transformed its sales operations by adopting Sales in 2019. Partnering with Intelibis, they automated customer segmentation, digitized sales processes, and integrated with Power Automate and SharePoint. This shift reduced their operational burden by 90%, generated over 2,900 reports, and significantly improved customer service. Alkemy now aims to become fully digital, using predictive controls to expand in the marketplace. 

As organizations continue to adopt AI at an unprecedented pace, at Microsoft we are focused on delivering the most cutting-edge experiences built on trust and security in leading products like Sales.

Learn more about Dynamics 365 and sales 

• Read the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation Platforms report 
• Microsoft Dynamics 365  
• Dynamics 365 Sales  
• Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales 

Contact your Microsoft representative to learn more about the value and return on investments, as well as the best way you can get started with Sales and Copilot for Sales. 

Sources:

1. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation Platforms, Adnan Zijadic, Guy Wood, Varun Agarwal, Steve Rietberg, 24 August 2024.  

*Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.  

**This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Microsoft.  

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