Until today, Microsoft’s range of business tools like Dynamics CRM and Dynamics NAV (along with other ERP products) lived in silos. They’re all powerful as individual systems, but much stronger together.
On the 11th November 2016 Microsoft will be making Dynamics 365 available to the world, and there’s a lot to get excited about.
Microsoft Dynamics 365: what you need to know
Announced earlier this year, Dynamics 365 takes the features found in its CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and different ERP products, throws in some Artificial Intelligence, Business Intelligence and Work Flow to combine them all into a single offering that will start at just $40 per user per month.
Here’s what Takeshi Numoto, the corporate vice president of Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise, had to say: “Powered by advanced analytics and machine learning – what we call Intelligence – Dynamics 365 will usher in a new era of business agility for you, our customers”. “Across Microsoft we’ve invested billions, over multiple decades, into cutting-edge AI research to help every person and organization achieve more. Office 365, Bing Predicts and Skype Translator are just a few examples of how we have put these investments to work for our customers. We are also bringing those investments to you through Dynamics 365.”
Being based solely in the cloud, on a true SaaS platform, Microsoft Dynamics 365 will not only come at a lower cost but will also be faster to deploy. They have also seamlessly integrated this solution with their other productivity tools like Office 365.
Two core offerings
Microsoft has split Dynamics 365 into two core offerings: The Dynamics NAV based Business Edition, and the Dynamics AX based Enterprise Edition.
Their Business edition is aimed at companies with 10-250 employees and includes Financials, Inventory, Sales and Marketing modules out of the box. Move onto the larger Enterprise edition and you’re talking about 250+ employees and increases in functionality in Operations, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Field Service and Project Service Automation.
Both solutions are modular so you have flexibility in choosing what you want to start with, and can subscribe to additional functionality when your business is ready for it.
Making sense of the LinkedIn purchase
If you ever wondered why Microsoft bought LinkedIn, this is probably your answer. Microsoft Dynamics 365 has the ability to trawl through data stored in your documents, the core system and indeed LinkedIn itself to provide insights for your marketing campaigns.
Think about that; LinkedIn data for use in CRM and Marketing. Useful isn’t it?
Availability with CBIZ
The UK launch of Dynamics 365 will be at Microsoft Future Decoded on the 1st and 2nd November 2016. The 1st November will be especially brilliant as Stephen Hawking will be the headline speaker.
Once the Business Edition is live and available in the UK we will be offering this as an alternative to our private cloud and on premise offerings.
