Make Time Entering process a breeze using the Time Entry Calendar control for Project Operations. This is a significant improvement in the way you have been doing Time Entries thus far.
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This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
If you’re in sales and concerned that AI-generated outreach email might turn customers off, you’re not alone. Many sellers worry that automated outreach can feel impersonal, potentially eroding trust and damaging relationships. But our recent study paints a different picture—one that’s surprisingly optimistic. Survey responses from 45 businesses across industries–including education, banking, healthcare and tech— a different perspective and offer fresh insights into how AI-generated B2B outreach emails are actually being received.
Before diving into AI topics in our survey, we mapped the emotional journey of customers with traditional outreach emails.
The typical experience? Overwhelming, confusing, and often frustrating. Customers scan their inboxes, wary of spam and irrelevant offers. Even when an email seems promising, unclear next steps and clunky unsubscribe processes leave them annoyed.
What they crave is simplicity: clarity, relevance, and control.
Customers want absolute control over their inboxes. They define consent as an active opt-in—not a passive assumption. They expect clear unsubscribe options with confirmation messages and, ideally, deletion of personal data.
Customers are savvy. They verify senders, research companies on LinkedIn, and judge emails by their subject lines. Trust is not just built by who sends the email—but also how it’s sent. Personalization, transparency, and a clear value proposition matter more than whether the sender is human or AI.
In fact, 33 out of 45 customers felt comfortable with AI agents doing outreach, and 5 were neutral. That’s 84% who didn’t mind—or even preferred—AI, as long as the message was relevant, concise and respectful.
Most customers said they wouldn’t treat an AI outreach email any differently than one from a human. The catch? They want the option to escalate to a human when things get complex—especially around pricing, payment, or sensitive data. As more companies use AI in outreach emails, customers may become more receptive to engaging with AI.
They’re fine with AI handling initial outreach, answering basic questions, and even creating invoices. But when it comes to trust-building moments, human touch still matters.
If you’re considering AI outreach, here’s what our research suggests:
Dynamics 365 Sales offers Sales Qualification Agent, which works around the clock to automate pipeline qualification and improve lead quality. Sales Qualification Agent proactively researches information about the lead and company, and can identify customer fit and stage in the buying journey. The agent can also engage hundreds of leads at once with personalized e-mails and follow-ups. Your organization can configure the agent to meet the needs of your business, like handoff criteria for when it’s time to pass the lead to a seller.
Customers aren’t rejecting AI—they’re rejecting bad outreach. Poorly crafted emails, pushy tactics, and irrelevant offers have set the bar low. AI-generated content, when done right, can raise that bar by being efficient, respectful, and surprisingly personable.
So yes, bots belong in the inbox. Just make sure they’re the kind your customers want to talk to.
Please Note: This is a developing area, and we will keep updating the information as we gather more information through further research. This study had a skew towards customers who have higher AI proficiency and were buying SaaS and logistics/ops products. The questions were asked strictly keeping transactional high volume low value B2B outreach in mind.
The post AI in the inbox: Are your customers ready to embrace AI-powered outreach? appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Forward-looking organizations of all sizes that are looking to grow, scale, and accomplish more with the tools that they have today understand that managing financial data alone is not enough. These businesses need tools that centralize, manage, and optimize business processes from end to end.
Most teams looking to “graduate” from simplistic accounting software or outdated systems of record turn to cloud-first, and increasingly AI-powered Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to deliver on this end-to-end vision.
If you’re thinking about end-to-end business management, and your business runs on Microsoft applications already for things like email, productivity, and business intelligence, there’s a Microsoft solution tailor-made for you: Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Connect finance, sales, service, and operations.
We believe that Business Central is a rock-solid ERP solution in its own right, helping over 45,000 small and medium businesses (SMBs) worldwide manage finance, operations, sales, and service in one solution—but it doesn’t end there. On top of that rock-solid foundation, you get the muscle of Microsoft AI, the extensibility of thousands of apps on AppSource, and, yes, native connectivity to the Microsoft 365 services and applications you’re already using.
Here’s a taste of what that means in practice:
This architecture empowers SMBs to streamline operations, accelerate decision-making, and enhance customer experiences by leveraging unified data, automated processes, and AI-powered tools—all inside the applications teams use every day.
Let’s take a deeper look at how these integrations can work in practice, the value that it can offer businesses, and the steps needed to manage these processes.
Outlook: Business Central can be made available in Outlook’s sidebar, and administrators even have the option to make finance, customer, and inventory insights available to users without a Business Central license. Advanced tools like Sales Order Agent in Business Central take this interconnectivity even further. With Sales Order Agent, inbound order requests can be fulfilled in Business Central automatically, taking into account inventory and customer preferences. All of this saves time and allows staff to focus on growth, not busy work.
Excel: Business Central allows users to view and edit business data—such as financial reports, budgets, or inventory lists—directly in Excel. The two-way synchronization means that changes made in Excel are instantly reflected in Business Central, and vice versa. This eliminates manual data exports and imports, reduces errors, and empowers finance teams to work with live data in a tool they know well. AI again can take these synergies a step further through Back Reconciliation with Copilot, saving hours of time and effort on month-end operations.
Teams: Collaboration is enhanced through Teams, where users can share Business Central records, discuss transactions, and make decisions together without switching apps. Teams’ chat and meeting features combine with Business Central’s business data—enabling sales, finance, and operations teams to work together in real time. This boosts transparency and ensures everyone is aligned on the latest information. With tools like Copilot Studio, you can create AI-powered agents in Teams that automatically update customer information, generate sales quotes, and centralize operational and engagement data in one place.
These connections work so well that you won’t even think about them, enabling better customer experience, faster growth, and a future-ready foundation for innovation.
This of course isn’t a hypothetical—customers are seeing the benefits of unifying Business Central within the broader Microsoft ecosystem every day.
You can read many of these customer stories right now.
We see in many of these case studies how customers benefit significantly from the integration of Microsoft 365 and Business Central thanks to the seamless ease of use across familiar tools. By embedding business insights and workflows into applications like Outlook, Excel, and Teams, users are empowered to complete daily tasks without constantly switching between different systems. This intuitive experience minimizes the learning curve, reduces manual data entry, and ensures that employees can access real-time information within the environments they use every day. As a result, even those without a Business Central license can gain valuable insights, making financial and operational data more accessible and actionable for a broader range of users.
The interconnectivity between Microsoft 365 and Business Central creates a unified digital workspace where data flows freely and processes are automated. Teams can collaborate in real time, make informed decisions together, and maintain alignment across departments through shared records and synchronized updates. This shared digital language eliminates silos and fosters transparency, allowing everyone in the organization to speak the same “data language.” Ultimately, these capabilities drive efficiency, enable faster innovation, and support growth by creating a future-ready foundation where technology adapts to business needs rather than standing in the way.
Integrating Business Central with Microsoft 365 is more than a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic shift. By unifying data, automating workflows, and embracing AI, SMBs gain the agility, resilience, and speed to grow confidently.
Whether you’re a manufacturer optimizing your supply chain, a finance team closing faster in Excel, or a partner building vertical solutions, Business Central + Microsoft 365 gives you a future-ready platform ready to tackle today’s challenges and set you up to own the future.
The post Tackle the future of business operations with the combined power of Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
For organizations that rely on frontline workers to service and maintain assets in the field, the offline-first experience in Dynamics 365 Field Service Mobile has long been a lifeline. Whether at factory floors, remote oil fields, or underground facilities, your teams can keep working without a network.
But what about those moments when connectivity is available? Why not take advantage of it?
We’re excited to introduce Online mode, a new capability that allows technicians to access live Dataverse data from the Offline-First application, giving users the best of both worlds: offline reliability and real-time access.
| Offline First, records are filtered by the Offline Profile. | User toggles to online mode within Offline Status page | Offline First using Online toggle, records which otherwise would have been filtered by the offline profile, are available from the server. |
Field service environments are unpredictable. A technician may have a 5G connection at 9:00 AM and no signal by lunch. Traditionally, mobile access has focused on being offline-first, locking the user in to use data stored on their local device, ensuring the app continues to function no matter what.
However, more frontline workers are working in semi-connected or fully connected environments — city rooftops, modern warehouses, customer facilities with Wi-Fi. In these situations, relying only on pre-downloaded data (defined by the mobile offline profile) can slow down workflows and limit access to up-to-date records.
With Online mode, users now have the option to tap into live data in Dataverse, allowing them to:
When working with the latest version of the Field Service Mobile app, frontline workers can now:
No more guesswork. Users always know whether they’re working from their local database or the cloud.
Enabling this feature requires only a configuration change in the Power Apps maker experience.
After enabling the configuration and publishing the App Module, users will begin seeing the online Toggle within their Field Service Mobile application.
We recommend the following steps for a smooth introduction:
With the new Online mode, your technicians don’t have to choose between reliability and real-time access — they get both.
Ready to empower your team? Update your Field Service Mobile app today and start using Online mode.
→ Learn more in our documentation
The post Go Beyond Offline: Introducing Online Mode for Field Service Mobile appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
With the latest July 2025 updates to the Customer Intent Agent, Microsoft is accelerating the journey toward fully autonomous contact centers. These enhancements empower organizations to leverage AI agents that not only understand customer intent but also automate the entire resolution process. This increases the availability of human service reps to focus on high-value interactions.
The July preview introduces powerful new capabilities for the Customer Intent Agent, building on the foundation of intent mining, dynamic interviews, and knowledge-driven automation. Now, organizations can achieve more accurate intent detection, seamless handoffs, and flexible integration with custom workflows with the same enterprise-grade control and compliance.
The Customer Intent Agent’s conversational abilities have been significantly enhanced. Natural language instructions at the organizational and intent level guide the agent’s behavior, enabling more natural, dynamic, and context-aware interactions. The system now supports instructions written in natural language. This allows for dynamic interviews, conditional logic, and seamless transitions between related intents.
Key improvements:
The Customer Intent Agent now supports voice for self-service as well as chat. It uses agentic AI techniques to provide a higher quality of self-service and lower chance of escalation by providing a natural flow of conversation, focusing on narrowing down the customer’s reason for calling and identifying the best solution.
Key improvements:
A core advancement in this release is the overhaul of intent discovery. The Customer Intent Agent now leverages business context, product hierarchies, and industry profiles to generate more relevant, manageable, and actionable intents. Fewer, higher-quality intents make it easier for admins to approve, merge, and segment them by line of business. The new analytics dashboards and semi-autonomous approval flows help organizations quickly identify and promote the most impactful intents. This streamlines the management process and ensures that intent libraries align with real customer needs.
Key improvements:
The July release introduces full and semi-autonomous learning loops. The Customer Intent Agent can continuously improve by extracting new intents and questions from completed conversations. The improved feedback loop, backed by usage data and dashboards, supports the authoring of high-ROI solutions and the creation of knowledge articles. The Customer Intent Agent closes the loop between customer interactions and organizational learning.
If your organization wants to reduce manual effort, improve resolution times, and deliver consistent customer experiences, now is the time to explore what this agent can do. Preview the Customer Intent Agent in your Dynamics 365 Customer Service environment today!
To learn more, read the documentation: Autonomous service agents in Dynamics 365 (preview) | Microsoft Learn
The post Automate intent discovery and resolution with Customer Intent Agent appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
We’re excited to announce two enhancements to Dynamics 365 Contact Center, powered by Azure Communication Services (ACS): SMS mobile numbers and SMS short codes. These capabilities significantly expand our global SMS footprint. Moreover, they provide businesses with more flexibility and control over how they engage with customers through real-time, two-way messaging.
With the introduction of SMS mobile numbers, ACS-based SMS in Contact Center is now available in ten additional countries: Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
This expansion enables businesses in these regions to:
Whether it’s resolving a billing question, confirming an order, or assisting with a service issue, mobile numbers allow customer service representatives and bots to engage customers in real time—right from the same unified platform.
We’re also pleased to introduce ACS SMS short codes. These are short, memorable numbers (e.g., 12345) that are ideal for high-throughput, compliant messaging. Short codes are now available in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
With this release, organizations can:
This capability strengthens the Contact Center SMS offering by enabling businesses to scale their customer engagement strategies with secure, carrier-approved messaging, all within a unified Microsoft environment.
You can provision both mobile numbers and short codes through Azure Communication Services and integrate them directly into your Contact Center SMS workflows. This streamlines setup and management, allowing your teams to focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences.
To learn more about acquiring and configuring SMS numbers with ACS, read the documentation:
The post Expanding SMS capabilities in Dynamics 365 Contact Center appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
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