Meet the Contact Center Champions Driving the Future of Customer Experience

Meet the Contact Center Champions Driving the Future of Customer Experience

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Behind every modern contact center transformation is a group of passionate practitioners: people who don’t just adopt technology but shape how it’s used, challenged, and improved.

The Contact Center Champions Community brings together these practitioners from around the world. As customer advocates, they are deeply hands‑on with Dynamics 365 Contact Center. They actively influence product direction and share real‑world insights with peers and Microsoft engineering teams.

Below, we’re spotlighting those champions whose journeys reflect diversity, ambition, and impact. Bookmark this page to stay updated on new champion stories.

Please visit Customer Success Stories | Microsoft for more curated organizational stories.


Sachin Patel
Sachin Patel
Head of IT Operations,
Sage Homes

As Head of IT Operations at Sage Homes, Sachin Patel leads the organization’s end‑to‑end journey with Microsoft Dynamics 365, supporting a rapidly growing social housing portfolio of nearly 22,000 properties across England. As Sage Homes brought tenant services fully in‑house, the contact center became a critical hub—requiring a platform that could handle high volumes, protect sensitive interactions, and give agents immediate context across customers and properties. Dynamics 365 Contact Center provided the foundation to unify voice, case management, and data into a single operational experience.

Rather than rushing adoption, Sachin’s team focused on building trust in the system, simplifying routing, designing experience‑based skill handling for agents, and reducing friction through a true 360‑degree view of tenants and properties. With Copilot‑powered summaries now embedded into daily workflows, agents can quickly understand long and complex interaction histories. Meanwhile, AI‑assisted chat handles high‑volume inquiries, reducing escalations to human agents by around 30%. Strong governance, reporting, and access controls ensure the platform scales responsibly as Sage Homes expands its use of AI and digital channels. Sachin’s approach reflects what it means to be a Contact Center Champion. He leads with pragmatic adoption, measurable outcomes, and AI deployed only where it delivers real operational value.

We recently built a new contact center and we’re expecting to get 10,000 virtual customers overnight. We could not have met that demand without the omnichannel capabilities we have in Dynamics 365 Contact Center.

Read the Sage Homes Story

Loren Corrradini
Lorenz Corradini
Head of Center of Competence for Low Code/No-Code (Coc LCNC)
SIAG – Südtiroler Informatik Ag – Informatica Alto Adige Spa

Lorenz Corradini is leading a major transformation in how public services are delivered in South Tyrol, Italy. As the in‑house IT provider for regional public administration, SIAG supports more than 350 services across 23 domains. It serves citizens through healthcare, education, housing, and digital administration.

Facing over 40 siloed legacy systems and a looming workforce shortage, the team at SIAG adopted Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center to create a unified, data‑driven citizen engagement platform. Early results include 30% AI‑assisted resolution within weeks, faster service delivery, and rapid development of new digital services using Power Platform. Lorenz and team are laying the foundation for a more accessible, multilingual, and scalable model of public service delivery.

We used to lose valuable citizen data across dozens of disconnected systems. That’s over. With Dynamics 365 Contact Center and Power Platform, every interaction is captured, connected, and actionable. The citizen is finally at the center, and we use that data to get better every single day.

Read the SIAG Story

Kamal Pandey
Kamal Pandey
Lead Develop, Dynamics CRM
Sandvik Coromant

Kamal Pandey plays a key role in scaling a global, B2B contact center supporting manufacturing customers across industries such as automotive, aerospace, mining, and heavy engineering. Based in Sweden, Kamal leads CRM and contact center development for an organization with 3,000+ Dynamics users. In addition, it has four global customer service hubs spanning Europe, the Americas, India, and China.

Sandvik’s contact center runs fully on Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Contact Center, handling chat, voice, and email in a multilingual environment. The majority of capabilities are delivered through out‑of‑the‑box configurations. Kamal’s team is actively adopting AI‑driven features—such as quality evaluation agents for scalable coaching. It also takes a thoughtful, trust‑first approach to Copilot adoption. His focus on maintainability, scale, and agent experience shapes Contact Center adoption in complex enterprise B2B environments.

At a global scale, customer operations demand systems that stay reliable under pressure, and complexity is the default. With Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform, we’ve created a sustainable architecture that supports thousands of users while using AI to enhance, never replace the human touch. For me, great customer experience starts with solid architecture and ends with people empowered to do their best work.”

Read the Sandvik Coromant Story
Watch the Sandvik Coromant demo at Microsoft Ignite.

Rosa Lohman
Rosa Lohman
Business Analyst
GVB

Rosa Lohman supports customer service operations for Amsterdam’s public transport network, including trams, buses, metros, and ferries across the city. Working with a lean team, Rosa oversees how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Contact Center are used to manage voice, email, and web‑based inquiries for approximately 30 customer service agents.

Her team embraced Copilot‑powered call summaries and transcriptions to reduce manual effort and improve efficiency. They are exploring AI‑driven knowledge and case management agents to further optimize service delivery. With a strong focus on insight‑driven improvements, such as identifying automation opportunities for low‑value cases and evaluating digital channels like WhatsApp, Rosa brings a practical, user‑centered perspective to modernizing customer service in the public transportation sector.

Read the GVB Story

The post Meet the Contact Center Champions Driving the Future of Customer Experience appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

Introducing Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Introducing Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

A new way to bring service workflows, insights, and actions directly into Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot is becoming the primary interface for how people get work done. As more teams rely on Microsoft 365 Copilot to retrieve information, reason over data, and take action, the need for domainspecific intelligence, especially for customer service, has never been greater.

On March 9th, we announced the frontier transformation, where we introduced a new type of business application integrated with Microsoft 365 Copilot. Today, we’re excited to introduce Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot: a purpose‑built agent that brings customer service context, insights, and actions directly into the Copilot experience employees already use every day.

Service Agent enables service teams to move faster, stay focused, and resolve issues with greater confidence, without switching tools or losing context.

What is Service Agent?

Service Agent is a declarative agent that runs inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, designed specifically for customer service scenarios.

It combines:

  • The reach and familiarity of Microsoft 365 Copilot
  • The depth of Dynamics 365 Customer Service data
  • The power of agents that can reason, retrieve, and take action

With Service Agent, service professionals can interact with cases, knowledge, and service workflows using natural language—grounded in both Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 Customer Service system data—right from Copilot.

Why this matters for IT and service leaders

For years, service professionals have had to juggle multiple tools: CRM systems, knowledge bases, emails, internal chats, and reports, often switching context.

Service Agent changes that model by making Copilot the primary system of engagement for service work.

This approach delivers three key benefits:

1. One Copilot experience, across all applications including within Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Service Agent brings service workflows into the same Copilot surface used for everyday productivity, reducing friction, training overhead, and context switching.

2. Faster resolution through richer context

By grounding Copilot in both Microsoft 365 data (Outlook, Teams, SharePoint) and Dynamics 365 service data (such as cases, emails, knowledge, customer history), service professionals can build case understanding in seconds—not minutes.

3. Action, not just answers

Service Agent doesn’t stop at reading and synthesizing data. It can help service professionals prioritize cases, update records, draft responses to customers, and trigger workflows—all through natural language.

What Service Agent can do in Public Preview

In its initial release, Service Agent enables scenarios such as:

  • Case understanding and summarization
    Quickly generate rich summaries of customer cases, including context from prior interactions and related knowledge.
  • Case prioritization and workload awareness
    Ask Copilot what needs attention now, based on customer signals and service data.
  • Service knowledge retrieval
    Get relevant answers grounded in Dataverse and SharePoint knowledge, directly within Copilot.
  • Make data updates and initiate workflows
    Make updates to service records, add case notes and initiate workflows such as child case creation without leaving Copilot.
  • Crossapp continuity, shared history, shared memory
    Move seamlessly between applications such as Teams, Outlook, and Dynamics 365 Customer Service while maintaining shared memory and chat history.

Figure 1: Getting answers from Dataverse and SharePoint in Copilot Service Workspace

Figure 2: Customer interactions summaries across Dataverse, Teams and Outlook in Microsoft 365 Copilot app

Built for enterprise requirements

Service Agent is designed with enterprise IT needs in mind:

  • Grounded in Microsoft 365 Copilot with enterprise‑grade security and compliance
  • Aligned with existing Dynamics 365 Customer Service investments
  • Extensible, Service Agent will extend to supporting additional skills, apps, and workflows over time
  • Admin‑friendly, building on familiar Copilot and Dynamics management models

Service Agent acts as an intelligent layer on top of existing service systems, bringing the right information and actions to users, when and where they need them across the application ecosystem.

Getting started

Service Agent is now available in public preview, with several ongoing enhancements planned as we expand capabilities, performance, and extensibility.

To learn more:

Looking ahead

Service Agent is a significant step toward a future where Copilot is the primary way people engage with business systems—not just to ask questions, but to get work done.

We’re excited to partner with customers and IT leaders as we continue to evolve Service Agent and bring more service capabilities into Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Stay tuned for more.

The post Introducing Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

Enable accelerated growth with confidence: A Forrester TEI study projects more than 200% ROI over three years and six-month payback using Dynamics 365 Business Central

Enable accelerated growth with confidence: A Forrester TEI study projects more than 200% ROI over three years and six-month payback using Dynamics 365 Business Central

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Growth is exciting—but it introduces complexity. 

As small and midsize businesses scale, finance and operations become harder to manage. Transactions increase, reporting requirements expand, and disconnected systems start to strain visibility and margins. What once worked becomes a constraint. 

A newly published Forrester Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study helps quantify what many organizations are already experiencing: modernizing on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central delivers measurable financial impact.

Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the potential return on investment organizations may realize by deploying Business Central. Based on interviews with four business decision makers, which were aggregated to model a fictitious composite organization1, the study projected that the composite organization could potentially realize: 

  • More than 200% return on investment (ROI) over three years 
  • An estimated $460K net present value (NPV) over three years 
  • Potential payback in six months 

Across finance productivity, enterprise resource planning (ERP) consolidation, improved profitability, and reporting efficiency, the composite organization modeled by Forrester realized more than $680K in three‑year, risk‑adjusted present value benefits

These outcomes reflect the potential impact of modernizing finance and operations on a single, integrated cloud ERP platform—while also establishing the foundation for AI‑powered experiences like Microsoft 365 Copilot and intelligent agents. 

Where the value comes from 

The Forrester TEI study highlights several areas where organizations can potentially realize tangible, risk‑adjusted benefits when using Business Central. 

Support faster, more efficient finance operations 

Manual processes often slow growing organizations. Interviewed customers reported meaningful efficiency gains across accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR), billing, and financial close. 

By year three, the composite organization was projected to potentially achieve: 

  • Up to 30% reduction in monthly close time 
  • Up to 50% time savings for AP, AR, and billing activities 

These improvements translated to more than $210K in present value over three years in finance productivity alone for the composite organization—allowing teams to shift focus from reconciliation to higher‑value analysis. 

Standardizing data and workflows in Business Central also creates the conditions necessary for AI‑enabled automation. While AI benefits were not independently quantified in this study, interviewees noted that unified processes accelerate the adoption of Copilot‑supported approvals, variance analysis, and exception handling. 

Lower total cost of ownership through ERP consolidation 

Interviewees reported operating aging on‑premises ERP systems alongside spreadsheets and disconnected point solutions. Consolidating onto Business Central reduced infrastructure complexity and IT overhead. 

The study projected the following potential benefits for the composite organization over three years: 

  • More than 10% reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO) 
  • More than $170K in present value savings from retired systems and reduced maintenance 

Beyond direct savings, simplification can reduce operational risk and improved scalability—allowing organizations to grow without layering on new systems to compensate for gaps. 

Enable improved profitability through better visibility 

Unified, real‑time visibility across finance and operations enables faster, more informed decisions. 

By year three, the composite organization was modeled to potentially experience: 

  • Up to 3% improvement in net profit margins 
  • More than $240K in present value from improved profitability 

Better insight into costs, projects, and performance enables earlier course correction. AI‑powered experiences such as Copilot can further assist by surfacing cost variances, project overruns, or unbilled work sooner. While AI alone does not drive margin improvement, modern ERP data and standardized processes strengthen an organization’s ability to act with precision. 

Fast reporting and audit readiness 

Business Central’s integrated data model and native Microsoft Power BI capabilities streamlined reporting and audit preparation. 

Based on modeling by Forrester, by year three, the composite organization was projected to potentially reduce: 

  • Audit preparation time by up to 30% 
  • Time spent creating internal and executive reports 

These projected improvements were valued at nearly $50K in present value, while also enabling increased confidence in data accuracy and consistency. 

Beyond the numbers: Building an AI-ready foundation

In addition to quantified financial outcomes, interviewees highlighted broader operational improvements, including enhanced customer experience, reduced days sales outstanding (DSO), better warehouse management, and a more intuitive user experience. 

Just as importantly, Business Central provides an AI‑ready ERP foundation. 

By unifying finance and operations data and aligning processes to best practices, organizations are better positioned to leverage Copilot, Power BI, and intelligent agents to: 

  • Help reduce time-to-insight—not just report creation
  • Surface anomalies and trends quickly 
  • Enable more proactive, data‑driven decision‑making 

While AI‑driven outcomes were not directly measured in this TEI, the study reinforces a critical principle: realizing AI value at scale depends on clean data, integrated systems, and standardized processes. Business Central delivers that foundation. 

Read the full study 

For SMB‑focused organizations and partners evaluating ERP modernization, the full Forrester TEI study provides a detailed financial framework to help quantify potential projected value—grounded in customer interviews and risk‑adjusted modeling. 

Join us at Directions North America 2026 

The Forrester TEI study highlights the potential value organizations may realize with Business Central—from faster financial processes to improved profitability and lower total cost of ownership. 

We’ll continue these conversations at Directions North America 2026, where partners, Microsoft engineering, and product leaders come together to discuss what’s next for the Business Central ecosystem and the future of AI-powered ERP. 

Join me for the keynote, where I’ll explore how Business Central is evolving into an AI-powered system of action with Copilot and intelligent agents. 

Attendees will: 

  • Gain insight into the Business Central roadmap 
  • Prepare for upcoming AI-powered capabilities 
  • Connect directly with Microsoft engineering and product experts 
  • Engage with partners across the Business Central community 

  1. Composite organization assumption: Results are based on a Forrester modeled composite organization derived from customer interviews, with $50M in annual revenue, 300 employees, 15 core finance and accounting users, and 100 light users, using Dynamics 365 Business Central in a cloud deployment. All quantified benefits represent the three-year, risk-adjusted present value for the composite organization.

The post Enable accelerated growth with confidence: A Forrester TEI study projects more than 200% ROI over three years and six-month payback using Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

Better Collaboration, Better Care: All Consult Capabilities in Dynamics 365 Contact Center

Better Collaboration, Better Care: All Consult Capabilities in Dynamics 365 Contact Center

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

In modern contact centers, not every customer question can be resolved by a single representative. Complex interactions often require quick collaboration—bringing in subject matter experts, supervisors, or external partners—without breaking the flow of the conversation or forcing customers to repeat themselves.

Dynamics 365 Contact Center addresses this challenge with powerful consult capabilities, enabling service representatives to collaborate in real time while keeping conversations seamless across voice and digital channels.

To see how these capabilities come together in practice, let’s step inside Contoso Health, a multi‑specialty healthcare provider delivering patient support at scale.

Inside Contoso Health: Coordinated Care Without Disruption

Contoso Health serves thousands of patients every day through its Patient Access and Care Coordination teams. Representatives handle a wide range of interactions—appointment management, referral validation, insurance questions, post‑discharge follow‑ups, and care plan clarifications.

Their goal is simple: connect every patient to the right expertise instantly, without transfers, repetition, or uncertainty.

Here’s how consult capabilities in Dynamics 365 Contact Center make that possible.

Consult with a Representative: Real‑Time Peer Collaboration

Some situations require a quick second opinion before responding to a patient. Rather than transferring the interaction, representatives can consult another service representative or supervisor while keeping the patient on hold.

Contoso Scenario: Referral Eligibility Check

A patient calls to reschedule a specialist appointment and asks whether their referral is still valid. The Patient Access representative initiates a consult with a Scheduling Specialist, who can see the conversation context and confirm referral rules in real time.

What the patient experiences:
  • A short, informed hold.
  • No handoff or repetition.
  • A confident, accurate response from the same representative.
Consult to Queue: Access to Specialized Expertise

When the required expertise isn’t known upfront, representatives can consult an entire specialist queue. Dynamics 365 Contact Center uses routing logic to connect the representative with the most appropriate expert based on skills and availability.

Contoso Scenario: PreProcedure Instructions

A patient asks detailed questions about preparing for an upcoming procedure. The representative consults the Nursing queue, allowing the system to route the consult to an available clinician.

Why it works:
  • No manual searching for the right person.
  • Faster access to clinically accurate information.
  • Safer, more reliable guidance in high‑stakes interactions.
Consult with External Numbers: Coordinating with Healthcare Partners

Healthcare interactions often depend on information outside the organization—insurance providers, labs, or partner clinics. Representatives can consult external PSTN numbers directly from the communication panel.

Contoso Scenario: Insurance Coverage Verification

A patient wants to confirm coverage for a diagnostic imaging procedure. The representative consults the insurance provider via an external number, verifies eligibility, and returns to the patient with confirmed details—without ending the call.

Outcome:
  • Verified information in a single interaction
  • Fewer callbacks and follow‑ups
  • A seamless, unified patient experience across organizations
Consult with Microsoft Teams Users: Bridging Contact Center and Care Teams

Many clinicians and care coordinators work primarily in Microsoft Teams, not the contact center. Dynamics 365 Contact Center allows representatives to consult Teams users directly.

Contoso Scenario: Post‑Discharge Medication Question

A recently discharged patient calls with concerns about medication timing. The representative sees the assigned Care Coordinator is available in Teams and initiates a consult to confirm instructions before responding.

Benefits:
  • Faster access to care teams
  • No context switching or manual follow‑ups
  • Better alignment between service and clinical teams
Filtered Consults: Connecting to the Right Expertise with Confidence

In complex service environments, not every expert, team, or specialist should be available for every consult. An unfiltered list can slow representatives down and increase the risk of engaging the wrong resource. Dynamics 365 Contact Center supports filtered consult experiences, ensuring representatives see only the most relevant queues and users based on organizational rules and roles.

Contoso Scenario: Targeted Consults in Care Coordination

A customer interaction is routed into the Care Coordination queue based on intent. Once the conversation lands in the queue, consult options are filtered. Representatives see only approved specialist queues and users aligned to Care Coordination roles and policies. This ensures consults stay within the correct domain, prevents accidental misrouting, and helps Contoso resolve complex requests efficiently after work enters a specialized queue.

Why it matters:

Filtered consults help Contoso Health maintain clinical accuracy, reduce decision fatigue for representatives, and ensure collaboration happens within the right care boundaries—supporting safer, more confident patient interactions.

Confident Collaboration, Better Outcomes

Great customer experiences depend on confident, well‑informed conversations. Dynamics 365 Contact Center enables representatives to stay in control while collaborating in real time with the right experts—peers, specialist queues, external partners, or Microsoft Teams users.

The primary representative remains the single point of contact, preserving continuity while bringing in additional insight when needed. Customers experience faster resolutions, fewer handoffs, and clearer answers—without repeating themselves or losing context.

Learn more 

To explore the consult capabilities in detail, visit the official documentation: 

The post Better Collaboration, Better Care: All Consult 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.