On Nov. 1 Microsoft will launch the second major cloud suite in Dynamics 365, a suite that combines enterprise resource management and customer relationship management functions.
In a blog today the company said Dynamics 365 is “designed to help improve manufacturing and supply chain execution, make field service operations more efficient, sell more effectively and ultimately deliver exceptional customer experiences.”
Microsoft emphasizes that the suite’s apps includes intelligence capabilities such as sentiment and intent analysis, preemptive service, relationship insights, lead and opportunity scoring, product recommendations and pointers for up-and cross-sell.
Among the apps is one announced today, Dynamics 365 for Customer Insights, which connects and analyzes data from Microsoft, and other widely used CRM, ERP, web, social and IoT sources — to it to give marketing and sales execs a fuller view of customers, with automatic suggestions to improve engagement.
Dynamics 365 uses a new common data model that allows customers or independent developers to extend functionality and build custom apps using PowerApps, Microsoft Flow or other developer solutions. Some will be found in the Microsoft AppSource store. The company says that since July it has added 100 new apps. Solution integrator (SI) partners also also being added to AppSource so organizations can find implementation and deployment partners.
The suite will come in Enterprise (for large firms) and Business (for SMBs) Editions. Pricing details aren’t yet available, but Microsoft says Dynamics 365 will offer subscriptions per app/per uses. While organizations get a holistic subscription, organizations can create roles for users that have access to all the apps and functions employees they need rather than separate subscriptions for each user. Microsoft believes this could save as much as five times the cost of traditional CRM providers.