Why should you choose Dynamics 365?

In the previous Understanding CRM Systems article, you learned about CRM, why you need it, and the value of centralizing your information. If you are considering implementing a CRM system, I recommend Dynamics 365 from Microsoft. So why should you choose Dynamics 365? Let’s take a look at why you should choose Dynamics 365.

What is Dynamics 365?

Before recommending Dynamics 365 as a CRM system, let’s take a look at what Dynamics 365 is. Microsoft has released Dynamics CRM as a CRM product and Dynamics AX as an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) product, and in 2016, they were integrated and newly released as Dynamics 365.

Below is a video from Microsoft that briefly explains the Dynamics 365 product.

Why Dynamics 365 is so good

Let’s take a look at why Dynamics 365 is a great business application.

A wide range of applications that go beyond CRM

As Dynamics 365, it has CRM and ERP functions. CRM was released as Dynamics 365 for Sales and ERP as Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, but not only CRM and ERP, Dynamics 365 provides a variety of services.

• Customer Service: Used for customer service and help desk
• Field Service: Used in field services such as hardware installation, configuration, maintenance, and repair.
• Project Service Automation: Used in project management
• Talent: Used in human resources (recruitment and training)
• Retail: Used in retail
• Marketing: Used in marketing campaigns, events, webinars, etc.
• Artificial Intelligence: Provide AI-based functions in areas such as Sales and CS
• Mixed Reality: Mixing real and virtual space to allow employees to communicate with each other even in remote environments.

As you can see, Dynamics 365 is a business application that can be used in a variety of areas.

CRM may be your first introduction to Dynamics 365, but only a limited number of departments may take advantage of it. Is it some department of sales or indirect? If the marketing department next door wanted to systemize their marketing activities, would they implement a new business application that is different from CRM? Dynamics 365 can meet the needs of all these departments. Dynamics 365 can meet the needs of all these departments, and one business application can take care of the systemization of various departments, leading to the centralization of all information in the organization.

Benefit from being a Microsoft product.

This is where Microsoft products are at their strongest. You can seamlessly integrate with other Microsoft products, and Office products are the most compatible. You can enter data in Dynamics 365 in Excel, use templates to output data in Word, and use Outlook to read and edit data from Outlook without having to access Dynamics 365 in a browser.

By integrating with SharePoint, you can upload files related to Dynamics 365 data, so you can securely manage files related to many customers. With Yammer and Team, the content of your chats with members of your organization will be reflected, so your team will be able to collaborate on important content without missing anything.

Do you have to download the accumulated data, graph it using Excel, and then make a presentation using PowerPoint? With Power BI, you can visualize the data in Dynamics 365 and reduce the time and effort required to create presentation materials. Power Apps makes it easy to develop apps that minimize the amount of work that salespeople have to do every day in Dynamics. Power Apps makes it easy to develop apps that minimize the amount of work that salespeople have to enter into Dynamics on a daily basis, and Flow can automate frequent tasks and approval flows, and connect with non-Microsoft products.

In this way, as many Microsoft products can be linked together, the possibilities are endless.

Ensuring continuity of security services.

Since Dynamics 365 is built on Azure and all customer data is managed in the cloud, what about security and whether the service can be continued? You may be worried about security and whether the service will continue. You may be worried about these things. Especially if you are an organization that has been using on-premise systems by building your own servers, you may be even more concerned about the cloud.

In this regard, Microsoft has stated the following about service continuity.

Security and Service Continuity Security, data protection, privacy, and data ownership are key considerations when external service providers store and manage data in the business. At Microsoft, we take these issues seriously and have applied our years of experience in the cloud and installed base with security and privacy to the delivery of Dynamics 365 (online) services. This focus is emphasized 99.9% of the time in the terms of Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

References: Help and additional resources

Microsoft also provides customer support in case of failure or to resolve any problems or questions about use, and you can contact them through the administration center.

Why it’s a great CRM system

Now that we understand why Dynamics 365 is a great Microsoft business application, how good is Dynamics 365 for Sales as a CRM system? So, how good is Dynamics 365 for Sales as a CRM system?

All the functions you need for sales are covered.

It covers all the functions necessary for sales, from acquiring customers, managing negotiations and orders, creating quotations and invoices, to managing the goals of sales members and teams. There are not many CRM systems that offer this level of functionality. Inexpensive CRM systems may provide only the necessary functions, so they may be able to manage customers but not orders or invoices, or they may not be able to manage the stages necessary for business negotiations.

It also allows the sender to know when the recipient has opened the e-mail, and whether the attached file or link has been checked. This is essential for real-time sales. This is vital information for real-time sales.

As you can see, the features of Dynamics 365 for Sales are not just the bare minimum, but more than you can imagine.

Costs can be greatly reduced.

A business application such as a CRM system is not a direct profit-generating system, so cost is an inevitable concern. System administrators may wish to minimize the cost as much as possible, especially for salespeople who only use the system.

Dynamics 365 for Sales meets this need as well. As mentioned above, Salesforce is the most commonly compared application for sales support. (As of 05/22/2018)

If you want to allocate more licenses to non-administrative members, you can use the following license called Team Member to reduce the cost even further.

The Team Member license has some limited functionality, but is still more than enough for non-management employees.(Click here see the difference in features) The cost of Dynamics 365 for Sales can be as low as an inexpensive CRM system.

Please note that the price of Dynamics 365 can change slightly, so please refer to Dynamics 365 Pricing for details.

At the end.

I hope you can understand the appeal of Dynamics 365 and its advantages as a CRM system. The following are some of the features of Dynamics 365 that I could not describe here.

• The ability to choose between cloud and on-premise
• Codeless customization, which means that you can achieve many customizations without being able to write code.
• There is a lot of information about Dynamics 365 in the developer community, because many issues are raised every day and solutions are provided by professionals around the world.

The more you delve into it like this, the more you will notice the various features and attractions. This may be true for Microsoft products in general. I hope to take a step forward in managing and utilizing the sales data of an organization through a product that makes you feel the passion of its developers.

In the next article, I will introduce you to Dynamics 365 applications. I hope you enjoy it.