Imagine there is a business organization working in 5 different cities. This organization has a manufacturing wing which obtains raw material via sea shipments and then develops products using different machines. The final products are stored in warehouses from where they are transported to various stores. Furthermore, the financial matters are managed by the headquarters along with marketing, sales and customer service. How can such a vast organization perform these diverse functions, consolidate data and ensure all processes are working in harmony? The answer is Microsoft Dynamics 365, a complete ERP and CRM solution designed to fit the needs of all businesses. Let's dive into what this platform is and what it's capable of.
Dynamics 365, a software suite completely compatible with Office 365 today, was not originally developed by Microsoft. It went by the name of Dynamics and was developed by Great Plains in the early 1990s.
The history behind the name Dynamics takes us back to two Stanford University roommates; Doug Burgum and Steve Ballmer. Doug founded an accounting software company called Great Plains and became the governor of North Dakota later. Steve, on the other hand, went on to replace Bill Gates as the CEO of Microsoft.
Great Plains started with a nongraphical interface, but when Windows OS was introduced, the company launched Dynamics, a graphics-based software that ran on Macintosh and Windows. The fate of Great Plains required it to be acquired by Microsoft through a billion-dollar deal and this was the start of Dynamics 365.
If you have been wondering about the number "365”, it simply signifies the days in a year. You can use this software every day and even on the 366th day of a leap year.
Dynamics 365 is a software suite of intelligent applications that digitalize operations and automate tasks. It allows businesses to break silos by connecting data, processes, and people through user-friendly interfaces. The software allows businesses to manage multi-country, multi-language, multi-company, and multi-currency complexities, easily.
Dynamics 365 empowers organizations with all the necessary tools to boost sales, integrate digital touchpoints, and create seamless shopping experiences. It grows with your business and allows you to adapt and innovate by giving you a hybrid deployment model and intelligent business apps.
Whether you're a grocery retailer, a low-shelf-life product manufacturer or just a wholesale distributor, Dynamics 365 can easily help you meet all your customer demands by giving you a bird's-eye view of your supply chain including cross-channel inventory, vendors, production processes and logistics.
Below are major Dynamics 365 CRM and ERP applications streamlining workflows and easing decision- making on an enterprise-wide level for multiple organizations.
Combining customer data from all digital sources, this module features actionable insights helping businesses deliver personalized customer service. The customer insights module further includes Power BI (Business Intelligence), an intuitive application for analytics and data visualization. This module is compatible with artificial intelligence tools and can find consumer behavior patterns and develop predictive data reports.
This module aids businesses in reducing the time required to close customer requests through AI-powered insights and omnichannel communication platforms. Organizations can use this module to engage customers, develop customer portals and add value to every customer interaction.
The supply chain component of Dynamics 365 creates a smooth journey of business operations from procurement to sales. It helps businesses in streamlining shipping operations, scheduling production machines, managing inventory, improving risk vindication, and reducing overhead costs.
The finance module of Dynamics 365 offers tools to automate business finances, augment cash flow, maximize productivity, and make data-driven decisions to spur growth beyond expectations. Using the reporting and analytics tools you can control budgets, improve payables, manage costs efficiently.
The retail component allows businesses to create personalized and seamless retail commerce experiences on multiple channels. Whether you are serving customers in physical stores or planning to make online sales, Dynamics 365 for retail allows you to offer customers modern store experiences, improve operations, better resource management, and gain complete customer insights.
Dynamics 365 comes with just the right tools to execute the perfect marketing campaigns to crush competition and gain a favorable edge over the market. The AI-powered analytics allow you to develop personalized and targeted marketing messages for your diverse clientele. It does not matter which industry you are from, the data powered marketing tools will know precisely what appeals to your clientele.
Leads are only as good as the information that comes with them. Dynamics 365 sales module brings you all the right tools to make informed decisions using customer insights and close deals efficiently. The software empowers your sales team to build strong relationships with customers, track pipelines efficiently and personalize messages according to individual customers.
When it comes to talent hunting and finding the right people for the jobs, nothing can be more daunting than going through rows of irrelevant job applications. Dynamics 365 comes with a cloud-based, LinkedIn-connected human resource module to manage all HR (Human Resource) matters. Think about attracting the right candidates, interviewing professionals, and onboarding extraordinary talent through a single software solution.
Dynamics 365 allows businesses from all industries to become more agile and serve customers better. It combines Dynamics ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to provide you with just the right tools to achieve operational excellence. These intelligent business applications further empower businesses with engaging customer experiences, allowing them to create a diverse and strong customer-base.
All tools of Dynamics 356 can be customized to fit the needs of multiple industries and provide ease in numerous supply chains. Businesses looking to customize the apps and tools can use the services of official Dynamics 365 gold partners. These companies help in consultation, implementation, data migration and maintenance.
The businesses in the textile industry face economic fluctuations and must keep up with short-lived fashion trends. Keeping the major pain points in the supply chain in consideration, the engineers at Microsoft have added just the right features for the textile industry to manage their operations.
This software suite can be further customized to ease all processes in the textile factories be it warping, sizing, weaving, garments, dyeing, processing, finishing, retail, merchandising, procurement, production planning, and costing. Dynamics 365 for textile industry brings you control over product designing, production, scheduling machinery, quality checks, store distribution, and merchandise management.
Manufacturing businesses manage production processes at the factories and official documentations at the headquarters. These two working zones have different workflows and workers. Owing to the accelerated growth of the global economy and the ever-increasing demands of consumers, manufacturing businesses can only stay in business if they manage all processes from a single software solution.
At Confiz, we customize Dynamics 365 applications so our manufacturing clients can gain a competitive edge over competitors. From raw material procurement to inventory management, everything is digitalized, and you get comprehensive reports on all the processes. This gives you all the information you need to make the right business decisions and spur growth across all channels.
Retail businesses always have to offer the best shopping experiences to their customers. Since most of the customers are online today, retail businesses must digitalize operations and offer intuitive shopping journeys to customers. Dynamics 365 for the retail industry comes with all the necessary features to get the job done.
The software solution combines retail industry ERP with a specialized CRM to help retail businesses streamline operations and understand customers better. Dynamics 365 takes a data-driven approach so retailers can understand how their clientele interacts with the products for sale. This information can further help in creating omnichannel shopping experiences and making loyal customers.
The wholesale and distribution industry has experienced mushrooming growth ever since e-commerce giants like Amazon and Alibaba took over the industry. Due to the online nature of these businesses and the ease they have brought for international wholesale and distribution processes, relevant businesses in the industry have to upscale their processes to keep up with the developing market.
Dynamics 365 for wholesale and distribution is a combination of just the right tools and applications to stay buoyant in the current market. It allows businesses to manage procurement processes, inventory, scheduling shipping and featuring digital catalogs to clients. Customers can order online, and relevant staff members can control business processes from anywhere and at any time.
In this blog, we tried to cover and explain the basics of what Microsoft Dynamics 365 is, and its applicability for various industries. This suite of business applications is a power-house - which would require far more than just one blog post to cover. However, we hope that you learned something from this. To summarize the key takeaways here are a few ending points:
Both the ERP and CRM sections facilitate the sharing of information across the organization. This information helps decision makers to foresee issues and take a preemptive approach to solve them. The data collected from every single operation in the company can be displayed in easy-to-understand formats and give businesses a bird’s-eye view of the organizational progress.
The modular nature of Dynamics 365 allows it to be easily customized according to the needs of businesses from any industry. Businesses can consult a trusted Microsoft Dynamics Gold Partner such as Confiz and they will take care of everything related to implementation and data migration. Click here to talk to an expert and learn more about how Dynamics 365 can be implemented in your business operations and work effortlessly with your current software solutions.
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