Microsoft Dynamics 365 Updates: What it Means for Your Business

Microsoft has unveiled its plans for the 2023 Release Wave 2, which includes a range of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Power Platform updates. These new capabilities are set to be released between October 2023 and March 2024, showcasing Microsoft's commitment to driving digital transformation for its customers and partners.

Dynamics 365 Updates for Sales and Customer Engagement

One of the key highlights is the introduction of Microsoft Sales Copilot. This tool is designed to boost seller productivity, reduce workloads, and save time by providing AI-generated lead and opportunity summaries. Sellers can now make informed decisions based on real-time insights, enhancing their sales processes.

Capabilities and Features

• AI-Generated Sales Proposals

  Dynamics 365 for Sales will introduce AI-generated sales proposals using existing data. These proposals will maintain a consistent style and format, and they will be output in PowerPoint format for easy editing and sharing. This feature expedites the proposal creation process, allowing sellers to focus more on closing deals.

• Sales Reply Automation

  Dynamics 365 Copilot can automatically create sales replies to customer e-mails, reducing response time and improving customer satisfaction. Soon, it will offer the ability to propose meeting dates and times with e-mail replies, utilizing the seller's Outlook calendar for optimal scheduling.

• Sales Call Recaps and Action Items

  Copilot offers the capability to create recaps of sales calls and generate action items based on CRM and meeting data. Sellers will receive recommended tasks to follow up on incoming emails directly within the Up-Next Dynamics widget and the Copilot pane. This feature simplifies task management and ensures that important actions are not overlooked, improving overall productivity.

• Transition from Sales Accelerator to Sales Engagement

  Microsoft is rebranding the Sales accelerator as Sales engagement. This feature empowers sellers to engage with customers using AI-driven insights to accelerate and standardize the selling process, leading to improved customer relationships and increased sales efficiency.

• Streamlined Follow-Ups with Repeated Evaluations

  Sales engagement will streamline follow-up with prospects and customers by allowing repeated evaluations of sequence steps until exit criteria are met. The system will automatically keep track of the steps needed to follow up with each person, and it will keep evaluating whether those steps have been completed. This way, the sales team can keep trying to connect with customers until certain conditions are met or until a successful outcome is achieved. This automation will save time and effort for the sales team and ensure that important interactions with customers are not overlooked or forgotten.

• Enhanced Notifications for Incoming Leads and Opportunities

  To help sellers seize opportunities promptly, Sales engagement will introduce new notifications that alert sellers to incoming leads and opportunities upon successful assignment. This feature ensures that no potential business is overlooked, leading to faster response times and enhanced lead management.

• Conversational Bots with Power Virtual Agents

  Copilot seamlessly integrates with Power Virtual Agents, enabling conversational bots to access company data and offer personalized assistance to customers. This level of automation enhances customer interactions and streamlines support processes.

• AI-Powered Assistance in Customer Service

  In Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Copilot provides "24/7 AI-powered assistance" to customers, resolving issues efficiently and effectively. This round-the-clock support boosts customer satisfaction and improves service operations.

• AI-Generated Product Descriptions in Business Central

  Copilot for Dynamics 365 Business Central generates AI-written product descriptions that align with specific tones and lengths. These descriptions can be easily edited and uploaded to online stores, saving time and effort for businesses.

• Proactive Issue Flagging in Supply Chain Management

  In Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Copilot proactively identifies external issues, such as weather events, financial news, and geo-political updates, that may impact key supply chain processes. This foresight enables businesses to make informed decisions and maintain smooth operations.

Combining Dynamics 365 Marketing and Customer Insights

Microsoft is bringing together the power of Dynamics 365 Marketing and Customer Insights to offer a unified and comprehensive solution called Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. This new solution provides a range of tier options to suit your unique usage needs and requirements.

By combining Customer Insights - Data (formerly known as Dynamics 365 Customer Insights) and Customer Insights - Journeys (formerly known as Dynamics 365 Marketing), businesses can now elevate their customer experiences with two independently adaptable apps.

Customer Insights - Data: Building a Unified 360-Degree Customer Profile

With Customer Insights - Data, you can create a real-time 360-degree profile of your customers, empowering you to gain a comprehensive understanding of their preferences, behaviors, and interactions.

Customer Insights - Journeys: Delivering Personalized Experiences

Customer Insights - Journeys allows you to act on the valuable customer understanding obtained from Customer Insights - Data. This enables you to deliver highly personalized experiences that resonate with your customers.

Power Platform Updates with Copilot Generative AI Capabilities

• Building and Editing Apps with Natural Language

  App makers can now utilize Copilot's generative AI capabilities in Power Apps to build and edit apps using natural language. This feature simplifies the app development process, as Copilot can handle tasks such as adding screens, editing properties, and linking to data, all through natural language commands.

• Writing Formulas with Natural Language

  Copilot enhances the formula-writing experience in Power Apps by enabling app makers to write formulas from natural language. This replaces earlier functionality through Power Apps Ideas and streamlines the process of creating app logic and functionality.

• Expanding Power Virtual Agents Bot Capabilities

  Power Virtual Agents benefit from Copilot's abilities to evolve bot capabilities. This includes enabling actions for a website Copilot, which allows the bot to complete actions for users, making interactions with bots more seamless and efficient.

• Leveraging Data Sources for AI Generative Answers

  Investments in Power Virtual Agents expand the sources that bots can use, including Dataverse and SharePoint content. Bot makers can now connect a SharePoint directory, site, or library to retrieve relevant information for AI generative answers, making bots more knowledgeable and valuable.

• Preview Feature for Importing Language Understanding Resources

  A new preview feature allows bot makers to import existing conversational language understanding resources and use them within Power Virtual Agents. This enables the bot to better understand and respond to user queries.

• Microsoft 365 Business Chat with Dataverse Backing

  Microsoft 365 Business Chat utilizes information backed by Dataverse, enabling sellers to gain insights about their customers and prospects effortlessly by directing questions to the Microsoft Teams Copilot. This integration combines the power of large language models with data in Dataverse to deliver valuable insights.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Updates or Upgrades, We’ve Got Your Back

Microsoft Dynamics, like many other platforms, undergoes frequent upgrades and updates to continuously enhance its capabilities and deliver an exceptional user experience. The dynamic nature of the business landscape demands constant evolution, and Microsoft remains committed to staying at the forefront of technological advancements.

Are you worried about how to leverage these add-on capabilities and incorporate them into your business? Well, at Nalashaa Digital, we provide Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation, integration, upgrade, and support services to help you make the best use of the application.

Get in touch with us to know more.