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.

The post Enable accelerated growth with confidence: A Forrester TEI study projects more than 200% ROI over three years and six-month payback using Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

We’re entering a new era of AI-powered business applications, and today we’re excited to publish the 2026 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and role-based agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, outlining a broad set of capabilities slated for release between April 2026 and September 2026. These updates reflect our ongoing commitment to making AI an essential partner in how organizations operate, innovate, and grow.

Dynamics 365 leads this wave with AI-powered, agentic innovations across sales, service, finance, supply chain, human resources (HR), and commerce—helping organizations unify data, automate processes, and elevate customer and employee experiences. Microsoft Power Platform continues to expand modern app development, intelligent automation, and enterprise-grade governance to empower makers and developers to innovate with confidence. Role-based agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot further evolve into intelligent daily command centers, helping to deliver richer, data-grounded insights and extensibility that help teams work smarter across every role.

To help you stay current on the most important and innovative capabilities, we’re moving beyond bi-annual launch events to lighter, more frequent business applications updates, featuring expert insights and demonstrations from Microsoft product leaders and engineers.

• Watch on demand: Dynamics 365 Business Applications Update
• Register for the Power Platform and Copilot Studio update April 15 at 9 AM PDT

Be sure to stay updated on the latest features and create your personalized release plan using the release planner.

Highlights from Dynamics 365

2026 release wave 1 updates for Dynamics 365 deliver AI-powered, agentic experiences across sales, service, finance, supply chain, commerce, HR, projects, sustainability, and enterprise resource planning (ERP)—bringing deeper Copilot integration, intelligent automation, unified customer and operational data, and enhanced cross-app capabilities to help organizations drive efficiency, elevate customer and employee experiences, and operate with greater agility and confidence.

Dynamics 365 Sales

Dynamics 365 Sales brings the power of AI to help sellers build their pipeline, enrich opportunities, and accelerate deal closure, while helping sellers easily access accurate, up-to-date information and recommending high-impact actions that sellers can take. Copilot experiences in Dynamics 365 Sales can draw on data spanning customer relationship management (CRM) and Microsoft 365 signals, like email and meeting recaps, to deliver actionable insights across Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 experiences.

Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Dynamics 365 Customer Service will continue to enhance agentic capabilities across case management, email, customer intent, quality evaluation, and knowledge management. AI-infused admin and supervisor help to provide more transparency and quicker time-to-value. These investments strengthen end-to-end service orchestration, from helping identify customer intent to driving autonomous workflows that elevate service quality and responsiveness.

Dynamics 365 Contact Center

Dynamics 365 Contact Center advances the agentic contact center in 2026 release wave 1 with new AI-powered capabilities that improve self-service, support accelerate assisted service, and help organizations run contact center operations more intelligently in 2026 release wave 1. It expands to include emerging channels, supervisor insights, and extensibility, giving organizations a unified, AI-powered system to elevate the customer experience.

Dynamics 365 Field Service

Dynamics 365 Field Service strengthens service execution across technician productivity, resource scheduling, and work order management. Investments focus on mobile usability and reliability, intelligent scheduling through the Scheduling Operations Agent, and end‑to‑end execution across assets, projects, and financial operations in this release wave. Together, these updates help organizations manage service complexity and deliver consistent service outcomes.

Dynamics 365 Sustainability

Dynamics 365 Sustainability introduces more intuitive reporting navigation, advanced calculation versioning, and granular data‑locking to reinforce governance and regulatory confidence in this wave. Expanded finance integration, streamlined workflows, and updated templates and factor libraries will further empower organizations to make informed decisions and support progress toward their sustainability goals.

Dynamics 365 Finance

Dynamics 365 Finance delivers continued global scale enhancements that drive greater financial automation, strengthen global regulatory compliance posture, and enhance financial planning and analytics—helping organizations operate more efficiently and achieve their financial and operational goals with confidence.

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management’s 2026 wave 1 enhances supply and demand planning with price-demand correlation and capacity-to-promise (CTP) date protection. Supplier communication and engagement are streamlined, while warehousing gains AI-powered picking, inventory rebalancing, and hands-free scanning—driving supply chain efficiency.

Dynamics 365 Project Operations

Dynamics 365 Project Operations brings rich capabilities in 2026 release wave 1—from change order support and smarter project planning to smoother quoting, budgeting, and contract workflows. New enhancements streamline item consumption, mobile expense management, subscription billing, and modern-architecture migration—delivering connected project experience.

Dynamics 365 Commerce

Dynamics 365 Commerce strengthens business-to-business (B2B) with multi-outlet ordering, unified sign-in, outlet-specific catalogs, and built-in credit management to help reduce friction and protect cash flow. It modernizes order management and assisted-selling workflows in retail stores, helping to improve associate productivity, and customer experiences across channels. It also enables cross-legal-entity inventory lookup and flexible, attribute-based pricing to help accelerate mass updates and help drive higher sales.

Dynamics 365 Human Resources

Dynamics 365 Human Resources continues to advance in areas such as recruitment, onboarding, reporting, and integrated workforce management. By merging enhanced user experiences with broader ecosystem integration and expanding regional payroll collaborations, the platform enables organizations to optimize employee engagement, support operational accuracy, and confidently achieve their workforce objectives.

Finance and operations cross-app capabilities

Finance and operations cross-app capabilities will introduce new enhancements that strengthen the foundation for AI experiences across Dynamics 365. These updates include improvements to Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, as well as the general availability of immersive home, which is an AI-powered workspace designed to help users stay focused and prioritize what matters most.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data acts as the grounding layer for CRM copilots and AI agents, delivering real‑time, unified customer profiles that help power accurate decisions. With enriched data, teams can act on insights directly in their workflow to deliver timely, personalized experiences that deepen engagement and drive better outcomes. The result is an AI-ready data core that elevates agents and helps deliver more connected, intelligent CRM experiences.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys empowers end-to-end, agentic customer engagements across sales, marketing, and service, allowing businesses to proactively react to customer behavior using Copilot and AI agents. With smarter orchestration tools, teams can deliver impactful campaigns at scale to drive stronger relationships, higher efficiency, and revenue growth. Part of Dynamics 365, every interaction within your organization benefits from shared data and consistent intelligence across Microsoft CRM applications.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Dynamics 365 Business Central accelerates the move to agentic ERP with enhancements to our AI‑powered agents that automate sales and purchase scenarios in 2026 release wave 1. Alongside new business capabilities, we invest heavily in developer productivity to support extensibility—improving advanced language (AL) testing, debugging, Copilot extensibility, and agent design.

Highlights from Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Copilot Studio

2026 release wave 1 updates for Microsoft Power Platform deliver modernized app experiences across Power Apps and Power Pages, AI-powered automation and agent innovation in Power Automate and Copilot Studio, enhanced Dataverse intelligence and programmability, and strengthened governance, security, and cost management capabilities to help organizations build, scale, and manage intelligent solutions with confidence.

Power Apps

Power Apps continues to modernize app experiences with a refreshed model-driven user interface (UI), improved mobile and offline capabilities, streamlined search, and expanded AI features. This release brings standardized modern theming to everyone, real-time Dataverse access for offline-first canvas apps, enhanced search in grids and lookups, and broader availability and extensibility of generative pages to help teams build and scale intelligent apps faster.

Power Pages

Power Pages will further empower pro-developers and low-code makers to build intelligent business portals for your employees, customers, citizens, and partners through better integration with market leading AI tools. Additionally, enhanced security agent features will further support low-code makers, pro-developers, and admins with actionable insights and abilities for securing their websites.

Power Automate

Power Automate is Microsoft’s comprehensive automation platform for cloud flows, desktop flows, and process mining. This release introduces AI agent authoring, optimization, and self-healing capabilities for desktop flows, Copilot Studio-powered actions in cloud flows, enhanced maker and collaboration tools across both, general availability of object-centric process mining, and consolidated governance reporting.

Microsoft Copilot Studio

Microsoft Copilot Studio continues its journey to make agent and agentic workflows even easier to build and more powerful. Now you can further customize agents built with Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot, and power your automation with high value AI actions. Deeper governance, multi-agent orchestration, and evaluations enable further scaling. With connections to Microsoft Foundry and Work IQ, your agents can use the latest AI technology in coordination with your organizational data.

Microsoft Dataverse

Microsoft Dataverse continues to invest in enterprise-ready agentic and low-code data platform capabilities. The spotlight is on Work IQ and Copilot integration, delivering organization-specific decisions with adaptive learning and full auditability. We’re also enhancing agent programmability with Dataverse APIs, MCP servers, and Python SDK, plus new storage management tools for enterprise-grade compliance at scale.

Microsoft Power Platform governance and administration

Microsoft Power Platform governance and administration introduces admin controls for agent security, real-time risk assessment in Copilot Studio, and AI-powered governance agents that automate tenant monitoring and remediation in this release. Enhanced visibility into usage patterns, granular Copilot credit consumption with pay-as-you-go (PAYG) caps, and connector dependencies help you optimize costs, demonstrate return on investment (ROI), and enforce compliance with organizational policies using features within the Power Platform Admin Center. GitHub integration and deploy from Git mature your application lifecycle management (ALM) practices with full audit trails.

Business Applications Update

Power Platform &

Copilot Studio edition

Register now

Updates to role-based agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot

2026 release wave 1 updates for Microsoft role-based agents transform Sales Agent and Finance Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot into intelligent daily command centers, helping to deliver richer, data-grounded insights, enhanced chat and mobile experiences, contextual support across Outlook and Teams, and strengthened governance and extensibility to help organizations drive productivity and scale AI responsibly.

Sales Agent

Sales Agent becomes the seller’s daily command center with richer Sales Chat and Sales Home experiences across desktop and mobile in 2026 release wave 1. Sellers will gain streamlined access to deal and account insights through configurable record summaries, contextual support in Outlook and Teams, and improved email and meeting intelligence. New governance and extensibility controls will also help organizations scale AI responsibly.

Finance Agent

Finance Agent helps finance professionals and their stakeholders interact with financial information from their ERP within the flow of work. In 2026 release wave 1, we continue expanding how this financial assistant supports common finance tasks such as reconciliation, variance analysis, and data preparation in Excel, as well as customer communications in Outlook. By bringing financial insights and assistance directly into familiar productivity tools, the Finance Agent helps teams investigate issues faster, respond to stakeholders more efficiently, and spend less time manually preparing or reconciling data so they can focus more on financial analysis and decision support.

For a complete list of new capabilities, please refer to the Dynamics 365 2026 release wave 1 plan, the Microsoft Power Platform 2026 release wave 1 plan, and role-based agents 2026 release wave 1. We also encourage you to share your feedback in the community forums for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform.

Business Applications Update

The Business Applications Update offers an early preview of new capabilities coming in the months ahead. This refreshed structure is designed to reflect the reality of our time: innovation does not happen twice a year; it is constant. Whether you are a strategic leader or a hands-on practitioner, this new cadence is built to get you quickly up to speed.

• Watch on demand: Dynamics 365 Business Applications Update
• Watch on demand: Power Platform and Copilot Studio Business Applications Update

The post 2026 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Copilot Studio offerings appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The way we work is transforming. Generative AI and agentic business applications are catalysts for a profound shift in how we create, collaborate, and make decisions. What once took hours now happens in moments. Ideas move faster, insights surface sooner, and the boundaries between human creativity and machine capability are blurring. This isn’t the future—it’s unfolding now, and it’s changing the very fabric of how businesses operate.

It’s a move from systems of record to systems of action. In this new era, AI agents go beyond support—they help interpret signals, uncover patterns, and initiate actions and continuously optimize processes on your behalf. At Convergence 2025, December 9–12, we’ll explore how organizations can build an AI-first autonomous enterprise powered by data, copilots, and agents working together across Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Microsoft Cloud.

From automation to autonomy: The AI-first organization

Businesses have long pursued automation to streamline operations. The next leap is autonomy—systems that interpret signals across the business, adapt workflows in real time, and anticipate decisions. Autonomous enterprises go beyond efficiency—they are driven, adaptive, and human-centered, with intelligent systems that understand context, collaborate across processes, and deliver measurable outcomes.

We believe the recognition of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Leader placement in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ and IDC MarketScape reports reinforces our ability to connect front-end and back-end operations into one intelligent ecosystem. Our leadership is grounded in the breadth of the Microsoft Cloud, the depth of our data estate, and our ability to bring AI, analytics, and business applications together as a unified platform to accelerate end-to-end AI transformation.

Agentic business applications are built on three connected pillars: data, Copilot, and agents—working together to change how work gets done.

1. Data: The foundation of agent autonomy

Most business processes begin with data. Finance close, order-to-cash, customer insights, case resolution, supply chain planning, field service, HR workflows—each depends on complete, connected, trusted information. When this data is fragmented across systems, agents can’t act with autonomy, and AI can only answer questions instead of accelerating outcomes.

Dynamics 365 spans both front-office and back-office operations—customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP)—providing a continuous, end-to-end view of customers, employees, finances, supply chain, and operations. This structured, governed, and auditable data is the backbone of business processes—how work flows, how controls are enforced, and how organizations maintain compliance at scale.

As business model innovation becomes even more important, we continue to invest deeply in these core applications. We’re expanding capabilities across ERP and CRM, investing in bringing Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Copilot Studio, and Microsoft Power Platform closer to Dynamics 365 than ever before. From connected frontlines to adaptive supply chains, business applications are becoming composable, intelligent, and outcome-driven—helping customers innovate more quickly while maintaining trust, security, and governance, adapt faster, redesign workflows, and build the operational integrity required for agent-powered processes. At Convergence 2025, you’ll see how Dynamics 365 continues to evolve as the operational engine of AI-first organizations.

At Microsoft Ignite 2025, we announced major advances in how agents connect with ERP systems. The Dynamics 365 ERP Model Context Protocol (MCP) server is evolving from static actions to a dynamic, configurable framework that adapts as business needs evolve. A new analytics MCP server extends this capability to structured metrics and insights, supporting agents to reason over governed operational and financial data—not snapshots or exports, but live business signals. Together, these updates unify data, logic, and actions into a common protocol that can simplify integration and accelerate automation.

And with MCP designed for massive scale—including support of millions of ERP actions—organizations gain the performance and extensibility required for agent-powered business processes at enterprise scale.

The entire Microsoft data and application stack—Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM, Dataverse, Fabric, and more—forms the operational engine of agentic transformation. It provides the structure, governance, and adaptability required to support AI-powered business models and next-generation workflows.

2. Microsoft 365 Copilot: Your strategic productivity partner

Copilot continues to help transform productivity across many roles. It helps sales teams move deals forward, finance teams accelerate reconciliation, and service teams resolve issues before they escalate. But Copilot is more than an assistant—it’s the connective layer that links people, data, and systems, understanding intent, orchestrating workflows, and guiding decisions across Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Microsoft 365.

3. Agents: Plan, decide, and act

We expect AI agents will be core to how businesses operate—planning, deciding, and acting across systems to accelerate outcomes. These agents will interpret signals, identify patterns, and initiate actions to keep the business in motion.

Microsoft’s strategy spans the full agent ecosystem: first-party embedded agents inside Dynamics 365, agents for specialized industries that can be customized and extended by partners, specific partner-built agents, and custom agents created by organizations through Microsoft Copilot Studio. All share the same security, governance, and identity foundation.

For small to mid-sized businesses, Dynamics 365 Business Central brings agents directly into everyday finance and operations. The Sales Order Agent creates, validates, and updates sales orders which can help improve accuracy and speed by reducing manual entry and exception management. The Payables Agent automates vendor invoices and reconciliations, improving control while freeing finance teams from repetitive tasks. Together, these agents help Business Central customers modernize core processes with governed, AI-powered actions that keep work flowing across purchasing, sales, and accounting.

Across Dynamics 365 finance and operations, embedded agents are transforming core processes—from time and expense entry in Project Operations, to supplier outreach in Supply Chain Management, to reconciliations in Finance and technician scheduling in Field Service. These agents help reduce manual effort and bring greater precision and autonomy to everyday operations.

At Convergence 2025, we’re also thrilled to announce the public preview of the Product Change Management Agent Template—an AI-powered solution that transforms how manufacturers manage the process of change across equipment, products, and processes changes. Built on Copilot Studio, the agent automates workflows and connects critical systems, helping teams cut approval times from weeks to days, reduce errors, and bring innovations to market, faster. Learn how customers like Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) are using this agent template to optimize their manufacturing operations.

Partner-built agents that extend industry workflows

Partners are building agents that extend domain workflows and connect directly to Dynamics 365 through the MCP. These solutions show how agent-to-agent coordination and cross-system reasoning will define the next era of enterprise automation.

Shop Floor by RSM helps manufacturers gain real-time visibility across production by bringing job details, quality checks, and operational signals into one experience. It can surface issues as they occur and support teams in resolving them quickly, helping to reduce disruptions and maintain consistent output. By connecting workers, data, and actions on the floor, the agent can support more resilient, adaptive manufacturing operations.

The PayFlow Agent by HSO helps finance teams manage vendor payment inquiries with greater speed and accuracy. It analyzes incoming emails, retrieves live payment data from Dynamics 365, and responds with up-to-date status information—which can reduce manual effort and help vendors receive clear, timely communication. The agent streamlines payment cycles and can improve transparency across accounts payable.

The Quality Impact Recall Agent by Cegeka helps organizations identify product quality issues and trace their impact across inventory and customer shipments. It coordinates notifications, guides corrective steps, and streamlines recall preparedness, which can help teams act quickly when risks emerge and maintain trust in the products they deliver.

Factorial connects to the Dynamics 365 Business Central MCP Server to deliver a new agent-to-agent experience. You can use a single Copilot interface to pull, exchange, and act on data across the systems. For example, within expense workflows, Factorial’s agent can request, validate, and reconcile financial data directly with Business Central.

Zensai’s agent integrates with Dynamics 365 Business Central to transform an organization’s operational signals into aligned goals and check-ins inside Microsoft 365. Built in Copilot Studio and connected through MCP for Dynamics 365, the agent converts finance, compliance, HR, and sales insights into structured, cascaded goals within Perform 365. At Convergence 2025, you’ll see how these first-party, partner, and custom-built agents form a connected ecosystem—and how organizations are already using them to move from automation to autonomy.

Convergence 2025

Convergence has always been where our community comes together to learn, connect, and imagine what’s next—and this year we’re reigniting that tradition at a moment of extraordinary change.

Throughout the event you’ll see how organizations are moving from systems of record to systems of agency, and how you can apply these ideas to accelerate your own AI transformation. I’m excited for you to experience everything we’ve been building.

• Learn more about Convergence
• Explore agentic business applications and agentic ERP solutions
• Sign up to receive 2026 Convergence updates

The post The era of agentic business applications arrives at Convergence 2025 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Frontier Firms put Copilot, agents, and agentic business applications at the core of their operating model to enrich employee experiences, reinvent customer engagement, reshape business processes, and bend the curve on innovation. Today, we’re announcing several new agentic capabilities to help customers move to the Frontier—read on to learn more.

Transforming sales with Sales Development Agent

Earlier in 2025, we introduced our vision for how AI agents will transform critical sales processes like building pipeline and qualifying leads. Today marks the next milestone in that journey with the Microsoft Sales Development Agent, available through the Frontier Program in December 2025. Many sales organizations are under pressure to deliver more revenue with limited resources, and the Sales Development Agent helps sales teams scale their impact. This allows sellers to focus on nurturing customer relationships and closing deals.

Features include:

• Revenue and pipeline growth: The agent continuously researches prospects, crafts personalized outreach, and automatically follows up to ensure no lead is left behind.
• Scalability: Fully independent, yet collaborative, the agent acts as a teammate, with the ability to hand off leads to human sellers when needed.
• Security and governance: Built on Microsoft’s trusted security and compliance foundation and when enabled with Agent 365, the agent adheres to robust policies and access controls to ensure user data and workflows are protected.

Sales Development Agent connects with leading CRM systems like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365, and the Microsoft 365 apps your teams already use like Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams.

The Microsoft sales team is among the first to use Sales Development Agent to reinvent the sales engagement process. With the use of Sales Development Agent, there was a 15.1% increase in the lead-to-opportunity conversation rate. ¹

Sales leaders want to help sellers act on more leads, reach more customers, grow faster, and improve revenue per seller. Microsoft Sales Development Agent can make that possible by creating an infinitely scalable sales organization, so no lead is left behind. Accenture plans to pilot Sales Development Agent across our global inside sales-as-a-service business—which helps clients sell to customers around the world—to boost their reach and revenue while maintaining cost to serve. We’ll use what we learn to help clients leverage Sales Development Agent, scale their teams, and unlock new growth.

—Chris Hergesell, Sales Reinvention Lead, Accenture Song

Learn more about Sales Development Agent with Accenture

From System of Record to System of Action

In October 2025, we shared our vision for agentic business applications—built on agents, Copilot, and unified data. These components are what define Dynamics 365 as a system of action.

Today, we’re taking that vision further with updates to Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers across Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, strengthening the foundation for agentic capabilities across your entire business. MCP servers are configurable bridges between the business data within your line-of-business (LOB) apps, and the agents you build using tools like Microsoft Copilot Studio. It serves as a universal intermediary, unlocking a unified platform agnostic access to app data, modernizing how AI agents are interoperable with your apps.

For customers of Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service, we’ve used MCP to simplify integration between agents in Dynamics 365 and the platforms used by sellers and service reps to execute complementary workflows, like lead research, engagement, and qualification, as well as case management and case resolution, available in public preview on November 21, 2025.

For customers of Dynamics 365 ERP, we are announcing the public preview of the MCP server that unlocks hundreds of thousands of ERP functions for real-time use. We are also introducing a new analytics MCP server in public preview starting in December 2025. These two servers provide a secure, standardized foundation to connect ERP data with AI-powered analytics, helping customers make faster, more accurate decisions and innovate without sacrificing governance.

We are also announcing the Power Apps MCP server in public preview that enables agents to seamlessly trigger app capabilities such as approvals, form submissions, and data retrieval. This makes every Power App a composable, reusable building block in your organization’s AI ecosystem empowering both citizen and professional developers to expose app functionality to agents with confidence and control.

Lastly, the Dataverse MCP server, now generally available, allows people to benefit from natural language interactions, receiving real-time answers grounded in Dataverse data, while makers and admins gain powerful, built-in tools for data operations, search, and prompt execution.

We see tremendous excitement from customers and partners for agentic Dynamics 365 applications. Take Ramp, a financial operations platform designed to save companies time and money. Ramp built an agentic solution, currently in preview, using Microsoft Foundry that integrates with Dynamics 365 Business Central and Teams to streamline employee expense management.

Join the movement to the Frontier with Copilot, agents, and agentic business applications

We know that moving to the Frontier isn’t just about technology. That’s why we’re partnering with Harvard Business School to collaborate on research and executive education to help you put this into practice at your own company. We’re also sharing new resources for leaders on their journey to the Frontier Firm with Frontier Function Guides for Sales, HR, and IT and a look inside our learnings at Microsoft–including three ways to turn insight into action. We’re committed to helping you transform—we’ll see you at the Frontier!

If you’re interested in learning more:

• Explore the Microsoft Ignite 2025 sessions to see agents and agentic business applications in action.
• Register for our year-end webinar to learn about more agents in Dynamics 365 (December 2, 2025)
• Join us at the Convergence ERP Conference (December 9-11, 2025).

¹ Internal Microsoft sales team data based on time period January 1 to November 7, 2025. Total customers outreach by the agent: 61,734. Lead-to-opportunity ratio (sales qualification): 15.1%.

The post Microsoft Ignite 2025: Powering Frontier Firms with agentic business applications appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Forward-looking organizations of all sizes that are looking to grow, scale, and accomplish more with the tools that they have today understand that managing financial data alone is not enough. These businesses need tools that centralize, manage, and optimize business processes from end to end.

Most teams looking to “graduate” from simplistic accounting software or outdated systems of record turn to cloud-first, and increasingly AI-powered Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to deliver on this end-to-end vision.

If you’re thinking about end-to-end business management, and your business runs on Microsoft applications already for things like email, productivity, and business intelligence, there’s a Microsoft solution tailor-made for you: Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Connect finance, sales, service, and operations.

Learn more

We believe that Business Central is a rock-solid ERP solution in its own right, helping over 45,000 small and medium businesses (SMBs) worldwide manage finance, operations, sales, and service in one solution—but it doesn’t end there. On top of that rock-solid foundation, you get the muscle of Microsoft AI, the extensibility of thousands of apps on AppSource, and, yes, native connectivity to the Microsoft 365 services and applications you’re already using.

Here’s a taste of what that means in practice:

• Data connectivity: Business Central synchronizes financial, operational, and customer data with Microsoft 365 apps, enabling users to access up-to-date information and edit that data in familiar interfaces like Excel without the need for middleware.
• Workflow automation: With Microsoft Power Automate, users can create automated workflows that bridge Business Central and Microsoft 365, streamlining processes such as approvals, notifications, and document management. Tools like Agent Builder and Microsoft Copilot Studio are enabling businesses to deliver powerful, AI-first workflows that run through Microsoft systems and beyond.
• Embedded experiences: Users can interact with Business Central data from within Microsoft 365 apps. For example, they can view and edit Business Central records in Excel, manage invoices and quotes in Outlook, and collaborate on business data in Microsoft Teams—all without switching contexts.
• Security and identity: Both platforms share Azure Active Directory for authentication and authorization, ensuring secure access and unified identity management across the integrated environment.
• AI and insights: The integration enables AI-powered features such as Microsoft Copilot and both prebuilt and custom agents, leveraging combined data from Business Central and Microsoft 365 to provide intelligent recommendations, automate routine tasks, and deliver actionable insights within daily workflows.

This architecture empowers SMBs to streamline operations, accelerate decision-making, and enhance customer experiences by leveraging unified data, automated processes, and AI-powered tools—all inside the applications teams use every day.

The nuts and bolts of seamless systems

Let’s take a deeper look at how these integrations can work in practice, the value that it can offer businesses, and the steps needed to manage these processes.

Outlook: Business Central can be made available in Outlook’s sidebar, and administrators even have the option to make finance, customer, and inventory insights available to users without a Business Central license. Advanced tools like Sales Order Agent in Business Central take this interconnectivity even further. With Sales Order Agent, inbound order requests can be fulfilled in Business Central automatically, taking into account inventory and customer preferences. All of this saves time and allows staff to focus on growth, not busy work.

Excel: Business Central allows users to view and edit business data—such as financial reports, budgets, or inventory lists—directly in Excel. The two-way synchronization means that changes made in Excel are instantly reflected in Business Central, and vice versa. This eliminates manual data exports and imports, reduces errors, and empowers finance teams to work with live data in a tool they know well. AI again can take these synergies a step further through Back Reconciliation with Copilot, saving hours of time and effort on month-end operations.

Teams: Collaboration is enhanced through Teams, where users can share Business Central records, discuss transactions, and make decisions together without switching apps. Teams’ chat and meeting features combine with Business Central’s business data—enabling sales, finance, and operations teams to work together in real time. This boosts transparency and ensures everyone is aligned on the latest information. With tools like Copilot Studio, you can create AI-powered agents in Teams that automatically update customer information, generate sales quotes, and centralize operational and engagement data in one place.

These connections work so well that you won’t even think about them, enabling better customer experience, faster growth, and a future-ready foundation for innovation.

Customers reaping the benefits of end-to-end connectivity

This of course isn’t a hypothetical—customers are seeing the benefits of unifying Business Central within the broader Microsoft ecosystem every day.

You can read many of these customer stories right now.

We see in many of these case studies how customers benefit significantly from the integration of Microsoft 365 and Business Central thanks to the seamless ease of use across familiar tools. By embedding business insights and workflows into applications like Outlook, Excel, and Teams, users are empowered to complete daily tasks without constantly switching between different systems. This intuitive experience minimizes the learning curve, reduces manual data entry, and ensures that employees can access real-time information within the environments they use every day. As a result, even those without a Business Central license can gain valuable insights, making financial and operational data more accessible and actionable for a broader range of users. 

The interconnectivity between Microsoft 365 and Business Central creates a unified digital workspace where data flows freely and processes are automated. Teams can collaborate in real time, make informed decisions together, and maintain alignment across departments through shared records and synchronized updates. This shared digital language eliminates silos and fosters transparency, allowing everyone in the organization to speak the same “data language.” Ultimately, these capabilities drive efficiency, enable faster innovation, and support growth by creating a future-ready foundation where technology adapts to business needs rather than standing in the way. 

A future-ready foundation

Integrating Business Central with Microsoft 365 is more than a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic shift. By unifying data, automating workflows, and embracing AI, SMBs gain the agility, resilience, and speed to grow confidently.

Whether you’re a manufacturer optimizing your supply chain, a finance team closing faster in Excel, or a partner building vertical solutions, Business Central + Microsoft 365 gives you a future-ready platform ready to tackle today’s challenges and set you up to own the future.

The post Tackle the future of business operations with the combined power of Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

IRS 1099 reporting is a critical compliance process in the United States, requiring businesses and financial institutions to report various types of non-employee income—such as payments to freelancers, interest, dividends, and rent—to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This ensures transparency and helps the IRS track income that may not be captured through traditional employment reporting. 

For years, Dynamics 365 Business Central has supported 1099 reporting through a familiar and straightforward process. Users could configure 1099 form boxes, designate vendors as 1099-liable, and manage reporting through the purchasing and payment workflows, culminating in year-end printing on preprinted IRS forms. However, due to frequent and often last-minute changes from the IRS—typically released in October or November—Microsoft had to delay updates, creating a stressful and unsustainable cycle for partners, customers, and users alike. 

Recognizing the need for a more resilient and modern approach, Microsoft has introduced a completely new 1099 reporting experience. This is not a redesign of the existing functionality, but a brand-new solution delivered as a preinstalled, standalone IRS Forms app in U.S. Business Central environments. This shift brings a fresh architecture and process flow, from setup to submission, with the most significant change occurring at the end of the reporting cycle. 

What does this mean to you? 

You can stop ordering preprinted 1099 forms from IRS. The new IRS Forms app no longer supports printing on preprinted forms. 

This change is driven by two key factors: 

1. Regulatory Compliance: In this moment, businesses filing 10 or more information returns, including all 1099 forms, are required to file electronically. This threshold means that even small businesses are now likely subject to e-filing requirements. 

2. Technical Simplification: Supporting preprinted forms is complex and error-prone, as even slight variations in form layout can cause misalignment. It also meant customers had to wait for Microsoft to release updates each year to unblock you. With digital files, updates are easier to manage, and the submission process becomes more reliable and efficient. 

But we haven’t forgotten about your vendors. The new app allows you to generate substitute 1099 copies with the same content as the official forms, which can be printed or emailed automatically. These reports are also configurable, enabling you to add new form boxes without needing support from Microsoft or a partner. 

We won’t cover all the new features here—there are many productivity enhancements worth exploring. We encourage you to review the full documentation: : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/localfunctionality/unitedstates/introduction-to-the-irs-forms.  

Get Ready Now 

Before this change becomes mandatory, we strongly recommend enabling the new IRS Forms app in your sandbox environment and testing it alongside your upgrade process as soon as possible. This will ensure a smoother transition and help you adapt to the new workflow with confidence. To do so, just enable new 1099 forms on the Feature Management page. 

Stay tuned. Based on early feedback from partners and MVPs, we’ll be rolling out additional improvements before the end of the year. 

The post Business Central and IRS 1099 Reporting in the USA: An Important Shift Ahead  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

We’re entering the age of AI agents, a transformative moment reshaping the landscape of business applications and platforms. AI agents aren’t just making incremental improvements, they’re helping to redefine productivity and can fundamentally change how work gets done.

Published today, the 2025 release wave 2 for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Copilot offerings introduces new and improved capabilities that help organizations to harness the full potential of this new era. These plans compile new capabilities slated for release between October 2025 and March 2026.
Integral to the wave 2 plans, AI assistants and agents not only help humans with day-to-day tasks, but also act as proactive partners to drive better business outcomes. Our upcoming release brings that vision to life, helping to make AI not just accessible but an essential component in daily operations. Whether it’s enabling sellers to close deals faster, providing service teams real-time trusted knowledge, or empowering finance professionals with AI-driven reconciliation and analysis, these enhancements can be transformative to the way we all work.

Be sure to stay updated on the latest features and create your personalized release plan using the release planner.

Highlights from Dynamics 365

The 2025 release wave 2 for Dynamics 365 brings new innovation to transform functions across your business.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data enhances Microsoft Copilot and agents with real-time, unified customer profiles, enabling teams to act on insights within their workflow. With enriched data, seamless platform integration, and faster processing, businesses can deliver timely, personalized experiences that boost engagement and conversions.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys empowers businesses to craft personalized, AI-driven customer experiences across all touchpoints. With Copilot, agents, and enhanced orchestration tools, teams can engage the right audiences at scale, streamline lead generation, and accelerate growth.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales brings the power of AI to help sellers achieve their targets and automate busywork. Microsoft Copilot delivers actionable insights in the flow of work, while AI agents research and engage leads, drive purchase intent, and proactively bring key insights and emergent deal risks—helping sellers close more deals faster. A reimagined interface reorients sellers from data to insights. Watch this video to discover the new and enhanced features in this release wave for Dynamics 365 Sales.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service continues to enhance agentic and Copilot capabilities for case and knowledge management, as well as AI-driven routing.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center continues to enhance agentic and Copilot capabilities to automate the service journey across digital and voice channels, along with the introduction of new omnichannel and supervisor capabilities in the 2025 release wave 2.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service will deliver AI agents, enhanced scheduling tools, mobile usability improvements, and deeper Microsoft 365 integration in the upcoming release wave. With innovations across inspections, vendor coordination, and connectivity with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Field Service empowers organizations to deliver smarter, faster, and more seamless service at scale.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance brings global-scale finance and agentic operations to our customers, including agents that can lead to faster financial close, and provide additional automation and optimization across large scale operations, as well as enhancements to business performance analytics and planning solutions.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management can enhance demand planning with event and promotion forecasting, and help improve quality management for sample handling; and the Supplier Communications Agent will automate vendor interactions. New supplier engagement tools and warehouse app upgrades will also be introduced to further streamline operations and boost efficiency.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations will continue to deliver powerful enhancements across the project lifecycle. These include improved mobile and browser experiences for time and expense, better project planning with enterprise custom fields, streamlined billing and invoicing workflows, and expanded support for stocked items, investment projects, and migrations to the modern architecture.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Human Resources can enhance the hire-to-retire journey with Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft Viva Connections integration to help reduce duplication. New agentic capabilities will be introduced to streamline onboarding with guided experiences and automation. Recruiter assist will also now support job description generation and interview assistance, helping to improve efficiency across hiring and onboarding.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce advances in-store experiences by providing a mobile-first point-of-sale that provides business continuity even during a business outage. Improvements to the Adyen payment connector allows modern payments like Pay by Link across channels, offering more purchasing options for omnichannel customers. Additionally, omnichannel unified pricing enables retailers to establish more intricate pricing structures, helping them remain competitive.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central introduces AI agents to enhance efficiency and automation in the 2025 release wave 2. These agents seamlessly integrate to execute complex tasks, generate reports, automate processes, and optimize order creation using natural language processing. Additionally, this release focuses on quality management, subcontracting, sustainability, and e-document capabilities.

Highlights from Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Copilot Studio

2025 release wave 2 updates for Microsoft Power Platform bring new and updated ways for organizations to analyze, act on, and automate data to digitally transform their businesses.

Microsoft Copilot Studio continues its journey to make agent creation and operation even easier and more powerful with autonomous agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, the ability to build complete teams of agents that work seamlessly together, and improved governance for enterprise scalability. Copilot Studio will offer even deeper integration with Azure AI Foundry and the Microsoft Graph, helping to ensure your agents can use the latest AI technology in coordination with your data in Microsoft Graph. Watch this video to discover how the latest enhancements to Copilot Studio can benefit your business.

Microsoft Power Apps enhances human and agent collaboration with a new agent feed to supervise the work of agents and extensible built-in agents for common tasks like enter, explore, visualize, and summarize data. Bring business problems to Plan Designer and a team of agents will help you build enterprise solutions, including apps, agents, Microsoft Power BI reports, and more. Vibe code with the App Agent to create data-connected experiences—just describe what you need or provide an image, and it can be done.

Microsoft Power Pages enables businesses to build secure, data-driven portals effortlessly. In this wave, we will further expedite site building for low-code makers and pro developers to help build intelligent sites for your employees, customers, and partners. The introduction of enhanced security agent features will further empower low-code makers, pro developers, and admins with actionable insights and abilities for securing their websites.

Microsoft Power Automate is transforming how enterprises automate complex business processes through new human-in-the-loop experiences, such as advanced approvals and AI-native capabilities, such as generative actions and intelligent document processing. To manage complex automations at scale, a comprehensive suite of governance, observability, and security controls will be introduced to the Automation Center and Power Platform admin center.

Microsoft Dataverse continues to serve as a trusted low-code data platform, enabling the creation of scalable agents, Copilot applications, and automations. This update introduces enhancements to core agentic capabilities, including Dataverse for Agents and Dataverse Search to support smarter, AI-ready experiences. New features such as Dataverse Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server and AI-powered business logic tools further expand the ability to build dynamic, intelligent solutions grounded in enterprise data.

Microsoft Power Platform governance and administration will become the unified governance hub for managing intelligent agents, agent-driven apps, and automated workflows across the Microsoft ecosystem in this release wave. This will provide a secure, governable, reliable platform for agent development.

Updates to Copilot offerings

Agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot help maximize business impact across sales, service, and finance. Learn more about the 2025 release wave 2 updates for Copilot offerings. Agent updates for sales will help sellers work smarter, engage strategically, and close deals faster. Agent updates for service will expand CRM connectivity and enhance email insights and drafting—all within the tools reps use daily. Updates for finance will offer easily customizable agents that can be launched from familiar tools like Excel, boosting efficiency and insight.

Early access period

Starting August 4, 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 October 2025. Take advantage of the early access period to test these updates and effectively plan for your customer rollout. Explore the 2025 release wave 2 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 2 plan, the Microsoft Power Platform 2025 release wave 2 plan, and Copilot offerings 2025 release wave 2. We also encourage you to share your feedback in the community forums for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform.

The post 2025 release wave 2 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Role-based Microsoft Copilot offerings appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

As Microsoft continues innovating and investing in cloud solutions and technologies that help customers enhance productivity and streamline business processes, we are announcing updates to Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL product availability.

Dynamics GP 

After more than 40 years of availability, in September 2024 we announced that Dynamics GP’s product enhancements, regulatory (tax) updates, and technical support will end on December 31, 2029, with security updates available until April 30, 2031. The following related changes will be effective April 30, 2031: 

• Service Plan coverage ends for Dynamics GP products. 
• Subscription licenses for Dynamics GP (via Solution Provider Agreement (SPA)/Dynamics Price List (DPL)) are no longer renewable.
• Additional perpetual users on existing Dynamics GP systems can no longer be added.
• Subscription use of Dynamics GP via Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) licensing (not to be confused with SPA program) is expected to end.

As a reminder, the final day for new customers to license Dynamics GP subscriptions is April 1, 2026. 

Dynamics SL 

Similarly, after serving customers for 30 years, mainstream support for Dynamics SL ended July 11, 2023, and its extended support (such as security updates) period will end on July 11, 2028. The following related changes will be effective January 15, 2030: 

• Service Plan coverage ends for Dynamics SL.
• Last day to license more perpetual users on existing Dynamics SL systems.
• Expected last day to use Dynamics SL via SPLA subscriptions (this is not to be confused with the SPA program).

These dates may seem far off, but full cloud migration is not something that can be accomplished overnight, and forward-thinking organizations should begin the conversation today.

Why migrate to Business Central today?

Recently, we provided an in-depth review of the reasons, steps, and benefits of moving from Dynamics GP to Business Central. Here are some of the many reasons why customers running either Dynamics GP or Dynamics SL should consider migrating to Business Central today:

• Future-proof your business. Business Central is a comprehensive solution for SMBs, covering sales, finance, project management, manufacturing, supply chain, and service—all on a single, AI-ready platform.
• Use AI now. With built-in Microsoft Copilot capabilities and customizable AI agents, Business Central helps you automate and optimize operations today—not someday.
• Reduce technical debt. Modernizing from legacy on-premises systems eliminates redundancies, cuts costs, and improves visibility into business performance.

How to migrate to Business Central

Microsoft provides a number of tools to help support the efficient and comprehensive transfer of business data from both Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL to Business Central. The first step in a migration process is to consult with your partner on the scope of migration and implementation timeline. If you need additional support or don’t know where to start, you can engage with a Microsoft representative.

The technical steps, whether you’re migrating from either Dynamics GP or Dynamics SL, will be largely the same.

Initially, the preparation phase helps to ensure that the on-premises environment meets all prerequisites for migration. This includes planning the migration timeline, verifying data integrity, and setting up the cloud migration environment. The data replication phase follows, where data is securely copied from the on-premises Microsoft SQL Server to the Microsoft Azure SQL Database using Azure Data Factory. This phase involves creating pipelines to manage the flow of data and checking that the data is accurately replicated in the new environment.

Once data replication is complete, the data upgrade phase begins, where the replicated data is upgraded to match the Business Central online environment. This step is crucial to facilitate compatibility and functionality. Finally, the completion and follow-up phase involves optimizing the new environment, setting up user access, and decommissioning the old on-premises system. Throughout the process, validation and troubleshooting are performed to address any issues and help to ensure a smooth transition.

Transition support

You may be wondering how the transition to Business Central will impact your workflows, operations, and reporting. Our engineering team is prepared with comprehensive overviews of how each capability functions to help you get started. Here are some videos that show direct companions for common workflows:

• Compare Dynamics SL to Business Central
• Compare Dynamics GP to Business Central

Migrating from Dynamics GP or Dynamics SL to Business Central marks a pivotal step toward modernizing your business operations. This transition not only streamlines financial and operational processes but also unlocks the power of cloud-based scalability, real-time data access, and seamless integration with the broader Microsoft ecosystem.

By moving to Business Central, organizations gain a unified platform that supports remote work, enhances collaboration, and delivers actionable insights through AI and analytics. The migration also reduces the burden of maintaining legacy systems, offering improved security, automatic updates, and lower total cost of ownership.

While the journey may involve careful planning and change management, the long-term benefits far outweigh the initial effort. Whether you’re looking to future-proof your business, improve agility, or align with evolving customer expectations, Business Central provides a robust foundation for growth.

As you consider your next steps, remember that success lies in choosing the right migration strategy, engaging stakeholders early, and using expert guidance. With the right approach, your move from an on-premises solution to Business Central can be more than a system upgrade—it can be a strategic transformation that positions your organization for long-term success in the digital era.

The post Explore migration options for Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics SL customers appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Today at Microsoft Build 2025, we’re excited to announce the new Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers for Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM business applications. These MCP servers will help remove the tedious work of connecting systems together to build agents and accelerate the ability for our customers and partners to build AI-powered agents to drive business processes quicker, accelerating their journey to the Frontier Firm in the era of the autonomous enterprise.

To provide some context, generative AI is fundamentally reshaping the way organizations work, introducing a new way of interacting with technology—using natural language to simplify and accelerate tasks. This innovation is driving unprecedented productivity gains, streamlining complex processes that once required manual effort and specialized tools. As this technology matures, we’re entering the next phase: the autonomous enterprise, where organizations and people use technology, particularly AI and automation, to operate and adapt in an age of rapid transformation and innovation. Where there once was “an app for that,” there will now be “an agent for that”.

This transformation isn’t just about automation—it’s about people. By putting intelligent agents in the hands of every employee, organizations are empowering individuals to focus on higher-value work, make decisions faster, and drive innovation. Sales teams can deepen customer relationships without being bogged down by administrative tasks. Finance professionals can move from manual reconciliation to strategic forecasting. Marketers can go from idea to execution, and product managers can orchestrate complex workflows with clarity and speed.

The autonomous enterprise is the future of business. Business applications will work with agents built by Microsoft and our partners. In this new era, organizations aren’t just streamlining operations, they’re amplifying human potential and accelerating their journey to the autonomous enterprise.

This is why we’re so excited about the Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM MCP servers. These servers help eliminate data and application silos, allowing agents to work seamlessly across processes and help enable new autonomous scenarios for improved business functionality and productivity.

Dynamics 365: Agent-ready business applications

Agentic AI is an AI system that can take actions generated by the system, with very limited or even no direct human intervention. Autonomous actions built into agents operating across various business processes, industries, and segments, can make businesses more efficient and responsive. Designed not just to support tasks, but to operate autonomously, AI agents can intelligently orchestrate workflows and make context-aware selections. But how do you create a context-aware agent when data, information, and processes are ever-changing?

MCP standardizes how applications provide context to language models, helping enable seamless integration with different data sources and tools. This open standard connects AI assistants and agents to various systems where data resides, such as content repositories, business tools, and development environments. An MCP-compliant agent uses rich contextual information to act efficiently, unlike a non-MCP-compliant agent, which lacks necessary context.

Using the MCP server, makers can easily connect agents to existing knowledge sources and APIs, helping enable them to interface directly with Dynamics 365 applications. Actions and knowledge synchronize automatically, facilitating real-time updates and the evolution of functionality. This model significantly simplifies agent development and minimizes ongoing maintenance efforts.

Central to this innovation is Microsoft Copilot Studio, which provides a standardized protocol for agents to seamlessly interact with Dynamics 365 applications, helping to ensure consistency, reliability, and scalability. Security and governance are also prioritized from the start as Dynamics 365 MCP servers require authentication and enforce authorization. Agents that access Dynamics 365 through the MCP server must authenticate as a valid Dynamics 365 user, helping to ensure the benefits of Entra ID identity protection. This also prevents escalation of privileges, meaning the agent will only be able to perform the MCP actions that they’re authorized to do. The MCP servers are also made available to Microsoft Copilot Studio using connector infrastructure. This means they can employ enterprise security and governance controls such as data loss prevention controls and multiple authentication methods. 

For partners and customers, MCP standardization dramatically reduces complexity, accelerates development, and increases time to value.

MCP-compliant agentic AI

At Microsoft, we bring a deep understanding of critical business processes for small and medium business (SMB) as well as large enterprise organizations through our market-leading Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM business solutions—combined with our industry-specific expertise delivered through our Microsoft Cloud for Industry solutions. This combination of experience and expertise uniquely positions us to deliver on the needs of customers across size, business process, industry, or region.

Our newly introduced set of MCP servers help enable multiple scenarios across business processes. Below are a few examples of what’s possible with Dynamics 365, Microsoft Cloud for Industry, and our broad ecosystem of partners.

Sales and service

Custom agents and AI assistants can now be connected to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central applications through MCP servers. Agents can retrieve and update CRM data, create quotes, and complete orders. They can also get order/case summaries and email drafts. These MCP servers open endless possibilities in automating tedious jobs in sales and service functions, irrespective of company size or industry.

For example, telesales representatives can use intelligent assistants, such as Claude, connected to Dynamics 365 MCP servers to prioritize leads, qualify them, generate quotes, and send personalized emails—without needing to switch contexts or rely on complex integrations. And when customers encounter an order issue, service representatives can resolve it quickly by using Dynamics 365 Customer Service data to retrieve/update case information and create replacement orders in real time.

Supply chain and finance

The AI procurement agent illustrated below efficiently validates purchase requisitions against company policies, existing inventory, and delivery records to identify a suitable supplier that meets the criteria for cost, speed, sustainability, and reliability. It further consolidates multiple items from the same supplier into one purchase order and sends it for purchase. The agent can significantly enhance efficiency in procurement processes, where timely and budget-conscious supply delivery is critical.

Business Central

For small and medium size businesses, for example, looking to optimize sourcing information and vendor compliance, the custom agent demonstrated here can quickly identify shipments containing materials that require compliance checks. The agent provides guidance on recycling requirements and updated sourcing standards, reads supplier contracts, and suggests next steps like confirming vendor certifications and updating shipment checklists. A solution like this could streamline the compliance process, which can help customers gain a competitive advantage.

Partners using the Dynamics 365 MCP server

Our partners play a crucial role in driving innovation and delivering value to customers. We’re dedicated to making Dynamics 365 MCP servers accessible, helping enable our customers and partners to develop diverse agent scenarios across industries and business processes, regardless of their business application vendor.

With MCP server becoming the standard of the future for agents, partners can use it to more quickly and efficiently orchestrate headless business services in ERP and external systems. It turns simple intent into action, automating procurement for faster, efficient, and resilient supply chain operations. Our ecosystem of partners has started using MCP server for Dynamics 365 to create a host of industry-specific agents.

• Avanade, an early adopter of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales and a leading Microsoft partner, is excited to use MCP servers for Dynamics 365 to enrich their AI-powered request for proposal (RFP) Insights agent. This agent helps sellers summarize, evaluate, and respond to RFPs using historical Dynamics 365 data, further streamlining proposal generation. While initially for internal use, Avanade is exploring deployment for clients in engineering, construction, and professional services.
• Emission AI agent by Fellowmind will use AI and MCP servers for Dynamics 365 to automatically classify and organize purchase transactions to prepare it for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission accounting purposes by categorizing spend-types (such as office supplies, raw materials, and travel expenses) through data extraction, classification, algorithms, taxonomy mapping, and real-time feedback and learning. The agent provides support to procurement and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) professionals, helping them streamline their processes and achieve more accurate results.
• HSO’s PayFlow Agent improves invoice payment efficiency in accounts payable. Streamlining timely payments and reducing inquiries that require manual intervention leads to faster resolutions and enhanced supplier relationships. Using MCP server for Dynamics ERP MCP, PayFlow processes seller payment inquiries, identifies invoice statuses, matches them against buyer receipts, and retrieves tracking information to notify responsible parties to either remit payment promptly or set an expectation of when payment can be received.  
• JourneyTeam is enriching its Strategic Account Manager agent that accesses MCP servers for Dynamics 365 to optimize lead engagement. The agent summarizes historical services and projects, compares lead summaries and interests, compiles recommendations, then, after manual reviews, will initiate next steps by utilizing MCP servers, Microsoft Azure AI Search, and Document Intelligence. 
• MCA Connect is building a smart sourcing agent that accesses MCP servers for Dynamics 365 to automate requisition processing, supplier assignment, and workflow submission. The MCP servers give the agent access to actions like getting open requisitions, approving vendors, and assigning suppliers based on supplier performance metrics without the need to create new APIs and integrate with Dynamics 365.
• Publicis Sapient Hummingbird is building an agent to improve lead management using MCP servers for Dynamics 365 to access data that will streamline the process of managing business-to-business leads. This agent automates lead qualification, scoring, and personalized engagement, accelerating hot leads to quotes faster and nurturing warm leads through a series of targeted emails. This innovative approach enhances efficiency, improves customer experience, and drives higher conversion rates and revenue growth.                               
• RSM is building intelligent, secure, and context-aware agents that accelerate workflows, improve decisions, and expand capabilities by embedding them directly into real-world business processes. These agents, developed using Microsoft Copilot Studio, will access MCP servers for Dynamics 365 to support humanitarian logistics by coordinating critical supply chains, helping to ensure timely delivery of life-saving equipment, and automating procurement tasks. 
• TTEC Digital is building a post-service upselling agent that accesses MCP servers for Dynamics 365 to prospect for warranty plans after a purchase, turning each sale into an upsell opportunity. The agent will help drive personalized sales and service conversations at scale by using the knowledge, tools, and actions from the MCP server. 

As we look ahead, the convergence of intelligent agents, standardized platforms, and deep domain expertise will define the next frontier of business transformation. The ability to harness autonomous capabilities will define tomorrow’s market leaders. Businesses that act now will gain a decisive competitive edge and chart a course toward sustained success. The autonomous enterprise is no longer a vision of the future—it’s here, built with Microsoft and its partner ecosystem.

Join us at Microsoft Build 2025 to explore how MCP servers are transforming Dynamics 365 and the broader Microsoft Cloud–MCP server focused sessions at Microsoft Build 2025. 

Let’s shape what’s next, together.

The post The autonomous enterprise: How generative AI is reshaping business applications appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Today, we’re announcing the first price increase for Dynamics 365 Business Central in more than five years. Since our last pricing update, Business Central has supported our customers’ ambitions with hundreds of new features across finance, analytics, supply chain, manufacturing, and beyond. And each year, we release new structural and functional updates, all with the goal of helping small- and medium-sized businesses manage end-to-end business processes on a single, powerful platform.

Microsoft Copilot in Business Central

Perform day-to-day work with the assistance of cutting-edge AI by your side.

Learn more

While a lot has changed over the years, our mission with Business Central remains the same: help our customers scale operations without compromise. We’ve delivered on this through key product enhancements, including:

• Copilot in Business Central.
• Real-time AI-powered financial analysis.
• AI-powered account reconciliation.
• Deeper and more adaptable financial and manufacturing analytics.
• Better interoperability with Microsoft Power Platform.
• A dedicated sustainability module.
• Master data management.
• Stronger, deeper localizations.

In addition to the value that we’ve added to the product thus far, we want to help ensure that our updated pricing offers even more benefits for our customers. To coincide with the price increase, we are increasing the storage entitlement included with each per user license.

The changes will be effective November 1, 2025, and the products will be priced comparably across different currencies. Business Central will be available for purchase at its current price before November 1, 2025.

Below, you will find the list of online products for which prices are being updated, as well as the increased storage allocation.¹

The updated prices apply to new cloud subscriptions and to existing cloud subscriptions upon their first renewal on or after November 1, 2025.

Be sure to explore the release details for Business Central to see the many new features recently released, and the Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release planner to check out those that are planned for release in upcoming months.

Notes:

¹ Prices (and storage, where applicable) are per user, per month (or per device, per month where noted). 
² Prices shown are for informational purposes only and may not be reflective of actual list prices due to currency, country, region, and variant factors. Contact a Microsoft partner for additional information on pricing. Pricing in currencies other than US dollars will also vary for any Microsoft currency conversion rate adjustments that occur prior to November 1, 2025, if any.

The post New Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing effective November 2025 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.