The New Features and Capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform

Are you using Microsoft Dynamics 365 or Microsoft Platform? Microsoft announced the start of release wave 1 in April, featuring new applications and hundreds of new capabilities and updates across Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform. Whether you have this software or are considering implementing it for your business, we break down the latest updates and capabilities that will help your business processes.

Here are the key changes to keep you in the loop:

Provide a Seamless B2C Customer Journey

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, along with Microsoft’s customer data platform (CDP), has been updated to include first and third-party data connections. This will enable businesses to update and activate customer profiles in real-time, hence, provide valuable customer data at your fingertips. Your business will be able to accurately predict customer behaviour through the of use AI templates for churn, customer lifetime value and provides recommendations on what should be your next action. These updates will further help your business gain a better understanding of your customers and drive engagement.

Enhanced B2C and B2B Buyer Journey in Sales and Marketing

Dynamics 365 Sales will have the capabilities to predict sales forecasting and provide inside sellers with a new sales acceleration hub. This will enable you to gain insight into your customer’s buying habits and gauge their interest in your products or services. Hence, you can better plan your supply to meet demand. This will further assist with your budgeting.

Your business can utilise new customer engagement capabilities to create personalised experiences throughout the buyer journey. Additionally, businesses can create personalised and appealing email campaigns. Through using Microsoft Forms Pro, you can integrate surveys and gain data from Customer Insights. Service Centres will benefit from centralised scheduling capabilities for dispatchers to technicians, and omnichannel capabilities, helping businesses reach consumers on their preferred channels.

Omnichannel Retail Experiences to Enhance Customer Service

With developments in technology impacting the retail industry, consumers expect and desire an omnichannel experience. This is a multi-channel approach to marketing, selling and serving customers whereby your platforms and channels are integrated, cohesive and consistent. No matter whether your customer shops online or in a brick-and-mortar store, the experience should be seamless and well-integrated. Dynamics 365 Commerce has adapted to meet these demands by including advanced e-commerce capabilities, intelligent product recommendations and enhanced customer service abilities to help organisations deliver personalised, omnichannel experiences.

Intelligent Supply Chain Management

From your planning, information, production, inventory, warehouse, transportation through to the return of goods, having an efficient supply chain management system is vital. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management will be able to deliver predictive insights from AI, loT and mixed reality to enhance all aspects of your supply chain management. loT capabilities will also allow manufactures to proactively manage shop floor and equipment operations with a real-time view of their production and stock levels. Thus, improving uptime, throughput and quality. Dynamics 365 Field Service and Guides will be integrated into the Supply Chain Management to automate field service operations and reduce time spent training the workforce.

Enhanced Processes through Automation

Power Platform will feature new ways to analyse, act and automate your processes with the new robotic process automation (RPA) in Microsoft Power Automate. Whilst this already assists businesses with automating their processes, RPA will enable automation of organisation’s legacy apps and manual processes through UI-based automation. This will provide businesses with an intelligent understanding of data, converting paper-based invoices to images. Power Automate now provides one solution for end-to-end automation for on-premises systems and the cloud.

New capabilities in Power BI and Mixed Reality Experiences

Power Apps is one of the first low-code no code platforms that enables you to build mixed reality applications. It makes it easier to digitise workflows in the physical space using new and innovative technology.

You can further expect to see improvements to Power BI, building on its existing data exploration experiences. It will enhance customers’ experience through driving a data culture.

Do you want to learn more about how Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Platform can benefit your business? Get in touch with us for an obligation free demo or chat.