Over the past couple of years especially, Microsoft have been busy developing new functionality and introducing new technologies into their “Dynamics” suite of products. This refreshed drive is creative and includes rich changes to their product suite, including integrations with their other solutions.
However, there has been a bit of a downside to this – their branding.
This has caused some confusion as to what Dynamics really is, especially with the move to defining a “new” range of products which are “Dynamics 365”.
What is in the Dynamics 365 suite of products?
Dynamics 365 is a product suite that is available online as a ‘Software as a Service’ or ‘pay per month’ offering. In the same way that Office 365 relates to their growing online e-mail and office suite of products — Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc. — Dynamics 365 combines ERP & CRM functionality into a single online package.
Why the “365” moniker? Well, it’s on the cloud, so it’s available 365 days of the year.
Microsoft has created a shop (AppSource) that allows Dynamics 365 solutions to be extended via 3rd party applications — think an App Store for iOS or Play Store for Android — that integrate with Microsoft’s own business applications like Microsoft Outlook, Flow, PowerApps, PowerBI, and so on.
The various elements of Dynamics 365 are:
Dynamics 365 for Finance
Dynamics 365 for Finance is Microsoft’s core business solution for SMBs. It is agile and caters for businesses that need an easy to use Sales, Purchasing, Finance & Inventory control solution that plays well with Office 365 and Microsoft’s “power” tools. It will be kept up to date automatically while allowing you to choose when new updates are applied.
Note: this solution is in public beta in the UK, so details are subject to change.
Dynamics 365 for Sales
This is Microsoft’s powerful and flexible Customer Relationship Management solution that integrates with the other Dynamics 365 products. It enables businesses to streamline sales processes, monitor campaigns, leads, opportunities and contacts. Dynamics 365 for Sales is kept up to date while allowing you to choose when new updates are applied.
Dynamics 365 for Customer Insights
Based on Microsoft’s Power BI, Dynamics 365 for Customer Insights provides deep insights into your business with dashboards and reports that are automatically updated from the data in Dynamics 365.
Dynamics 365 for Customer Service
This extends Dynamics 365 for Sales to include customer service, so you can track any issues, SLAs, provide customers with portals to create and track issues, etc.
Dynamics 365 for Field Service
Dynamics 365 for Field Service extends Dynamics 365 for Sales to schedule and control field agents, as well as offering predictive maintenance requests.
Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation
Project Service Automation also extends Dynamics 365 for Sales to allow project based business to manage projects, resources, estimates, expenses and billing from one integrated solution.
Dynamics 365 for Marketing
This is Adobe’s Marketing Cloud that allows you to better understand how your campaigns, social media channels, touchpoints are performing and drive better customer experiences.
Dynamics 365 for Operations
A comprehensive solution for big businesses, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations brings all their operations into one solution. With modules that cover core supply chain requirements as well as retail and complex manufacturing.
Hopefully, this gives you a better idea of what Microsoft Dynamics 365 is, but if you have any additional questions feel free to email us or leave a comment below.
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