Moving to Microsoft Dynamics 365 in 2021

As organizations will undoubtedly be looking for ways to increase efficiencies, lower costs, and improve productivity for 2021, one of those initiatives to consider should be Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Over the years, many businesses have purchased CRM and/or ERP systems to manage their business operations, while others are still relying on spreadsheets and word documents.

With Dynamics 365, businesses can manage, drive, simplify, optimize and streamline their business processes much more efficiently while enabling a true vision for digital transformation to come alive. Dynamics 365 also allows a company to break down silos, connect disparate systems, integrate stand-alone apps and consolidate them as one unified, intelligent suite.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Did your business face productivity challenges either before or during the lockdown?
2. Are you spending too much time and too many resources collecting data from all of your various systems to try to get a clear picture of your business?
3. Are you using multiple applications to manage your different business processes? Are some in the cloud while others remain on-site?
4. Do you spend a lot of time collecting and organizing customer and sales data?
5. Does your company have spreadsheets and other documents that are used to track and manage tasks and activities?

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you could be an ideal candidate for Dynamics 365. People who use documents, spreadsheets and multiple versions of business productivity software to manage their business have a big challenge on their hands. For example, let’s consider a company that uses a CRM and an ERP system to oversee its business.

With CRM, you could create a customized view of all your related information such as marketing, sales, customers and service offerings. And with your ERP, you could monitor HR, commerce, projects, inventory, accounting, finance, and supply chain. Okay, these traditional methods sound good so far.

However, there are many challenges with this approach:

1. 1. First, these are isolated systems that operate with disconnected business code and logic.
   2. Second, these platforms are complex, slow, cumbersome, and very expensive to deploy and integrate — especially if they are not cloud-based.
   3. Third, they are also difficult and costly to operate, maintain and update.

The good news is that Dynamics 365 accounts for all these challenges as it eliminates complexities and unifies disparate systems. It eliminates the need to operate and maintain all of these local systems individually. It removes the challenge of trying to get a holistic view of all your business data.

Instead of living in a world that is spread out throughout your business in various documents, calendars, different contact lists, schedules, emails, forecasts, inventory, and so much more, why not take advantage of enterprise-grade-level cloud technology? If the price is your concern, these world-class technologies are quite affordable nowadays.

Dynamics 365 can bring together and unify your CRM and ERP systems and their respective capabilities. This will enable you to streamline your business, break down silos, connect intelligent services, join business apps, establish a digital transformation roadmap and reduce costs for deployment, upgrades and maintenance. You’ll achieve a 360-degree view of your operations as all of your business data flows seamlessly within one platform and across your enterprise – it uses a common database so that all entities and data are tightly connected.

Next, let’s consider the cloud. With Dynamics 365, you can take advantage of one central cloud-based, intelligent business app that is all-in-one. The SaaS model (Software as a Service) is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses to take advantage of an enterprise-grade technology that has traditionally been cost-prohibitive to them and enjoyed exclusively by larger-sized organizations. With SAAS, strategies, people, processes, systems, apps and data are tied together. And you pay for only what you use with the “pay-as-you-go” model. In summary, this becomes your business management solution to run your entire ecosystem, and with the cloud, you could provide approved users access at any time from any location.

Another advantage of Dynamics 365 is that it provides extensibility with Microsoft Power Platform to extend its capabilities and functionality even further; specifically:

• Microsoft Power Apps is a low code app that helps you modernize your processes. You can integrate third-party apps right inside Dynamics 365.
• Microsoft Power Automate provides digitization and robotic process automation of workflow to eliminate repetitive and manual tasks.
• Microsoft Power BI enables you to receive real-time analytics, easy-to-understand visualizations, infographics, dashboards and reports that can be shared with all business levels to make informed decisions.
• Microsoft Power Virtual Agents allows you to utilize plug and play virtual chatbots to address internal and external customer needs.

One of the issues that companies often ask about is security. What’s great about Dynamics 365 is that it’s all unified so that an administrator only needs a single sign-on to access it. It has a full security model that restricts non-access once inside. For example, someone from shipping viewing delivery information would not have access to HR records. Dynamics 365 also has multi-level approvals that can be defined within the system to enable approval at every appropriate stage – this is also supported by email notification.

Another advantage of Dynamics 365 is that you can start small and grow as desired. For instance, you could start by utilizing the technology to manage your field service operations, projects, or marketing effort.

With the new year upon us, this could be the right time to consider this powerful business management solution. With the flexibility to start small and scale, and with the advantages as outlined, such as lower costs, unification, and ease of use, why not?

2. Does your company have spreadsheets and other documents that are used to track and manage tasks and activities?