Empowering everyone to collaborate as one business, everywhere.

Across industries, businesses are undergoing a once-in-a-generation shift in how, when, and where people work. This shift to flexible, hybrid work modelswith some workers on-site, others remoteis forcing many businesses to rethink how people digitally engage and collaborate with colleagues, partners, and customers in the flow of work.

As we talk to business leaders about the new era of hybrid work, a resounding theme is the need for new ways for people across business functions to collaborate as one business, everywhere. Collaboration needs to empower anyone to find and connect with people across the businessmaking it easier to exchange ideas, information, and expert guidance.

We checked in with two companies reinventing how people collaborate, enabling a new era of work that engages people everywhere across the business. These leaders in their industriesinsurance and legendary music brandsshared how Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Teams are helping them bring people, information, and processes togetheracross physical locations, departments, and time zones.

The “expert” approach to a collaborative sales culture

In the world of hybrid work, sales teams need access to experts across the organization to build proposals and service that fits the unique needs of each customer. Sales teams can now invite anyone across the company to collaborate on Dynamics 365 sales records right within the flow of a Teams chat or channel.

Insurance and advisory company Willis Towers Watson (WTW) needed to centralize sales data and processes into one platformin its case, across sales teams around the world. Formed by a merger in 2016, nearly 90 percent of client-facing staff are using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales to centralize all engagement into one platform and Power BI to add powerful analytics capabilities. The result: a boost in sales leads thanks to better visibility into data, an increase in actionable insights, and more personalized services.

WTW now wants to build even more structure around how it manages clients with a consistent set of tools to enable better collaboration across account managers and sellers and a full 360-degree view of clients. The company plans to tie its Microsoft Teams channels in closely with Dynamics 365 so that staff can store individual records in Dynamics 365 but have the option to edit them in Teams. By putting Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales in the hands of the whole company, they will enable anyone from sellers to service agents to share and collaborate from within Teams or Dynamics 365 Sales without switching apps.

“We tested this Teams functionality with some operational leaders recently, and it went really well,” says Amanda Duffield, Director, Corporate Risk and Broking, Great Britain, Willis Towers Watson. “It’s early, but staff understands the bigger-picture possibilities with collaboration from anywhere and how easy it is to connect another Microsoft product and maintain that continuity.”

Connecting conversations and customer experiences across the organization

Every day, employees at a typical organization carry out hundreds, if not thousands, of conversationssharing ideas, information, and insights that move business forward. In the new world of hybrid work, businesses need ways to bring conversations together, so that separate, disjointed work efforts can contribute toward the shared goals and visions. At one of the most beloved and recognized music brands, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Teams are enabling cross-organizational collaboration to take center stage.

Gibson Brands, the world’s most iconic guitar brand, transitioned to Dynamics 365 Commerce, Dynamics 365 Finance, and Microsoft Teams to simplify internal processes and provide a more immersive experience for customers. The combination has improved communications and cross-functional collaboration within the company, helping to transform retail sales by providing a platform to meet customers everywhere they arethrough retail, direct sales, or a dealer network.

The result has broken down siloes between teams, from production to sales to operationsa level of transparency that lets everyone understand how each team impacts the customer experience.

Cheryl Morgan, Business Analyst at Gibson Brands, explains, “When we decided to go with Dynamics 365 and implement across the business, we were forced to start working together as a collaborative team. We’ve all learned so much about how production works, how that affects sales and how that affects our customers. Dynamics 365 creates the accountability between the different business units. Everybody is having to work together. It’s been a real eye-opener.”

When the Gibson workforce shifted to remote work during COVID-19 lockdowns, the seamless integration with Microsoft Teams ensured no one missed a beat. As Morgan added, “we would not have made it through COVID-19 had this not been a cloud-based environment. Everything I do is Dynamics 365 and Teams and Outlook, which has been pivotal.”

One business, everywhere. Create your own story

These examples are just a snapshot of organizations reinventing collaboration with the tightly integrated capabilities of Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365. Catch up on the four essential capabilitiesbuilt into Dynamics 365 and Teamsto help everyone across your business work together from anywhere in a more seamless and natural way. Then, learn more ways to bring together people, data, and processes in the flow of work.

The post Top companies share how Dynamics 365 and Teams empower employees to collaborate like never before appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Has your perception of the cloud kept up with advancements in technology? Economic and logistic disruptions from COVID-19 have compelled most organizations to reassess whether their legacy systems can deliver on modern goals and priorities. While shifting market conditions have accelerated cloud adoption, some are still weighing the benefits. These businesses have allowed on-premises nostalgia to take hold and determine their cloud strategy.

Don’t allow misconceptions to dictate your journey. Get expert help through the Microsoft Dynamics 365 migration program to move from Dynamics AX or Dynamics CRM to Dynamics 365.

Addressing misconceptions about cloud migration

Moving to the cloud is no small decision. Dynamics 365 on-premises customers historically point to cost, timing, and complexity as reasons to delay or not to migrate. Cloud innovation and process advancements will only continue to erode these inaction arguments, further widening the gap with on-premises solutions.

Cost is always a decision factor. Are the benefits gained greater than the expense? Migrating, like anything, requires funding and resources. However, the hidden costs of remaining on-premises and maintaining your current solution are growing. Consider the graveyard of customizations you’ve built over the years that are no longer in use. Organizations need to weigh the total cost of ownershipinfrastructure costs, support costs, and upgrade coststo make a true cloud and on-premises comparison.

Migrating to the cloud should be a business priority. While customizations and data can make the process time-consuming, few business investments can provide similar efficiency gains. Microsoft engineered the On-Premises to Online Migration Factory to help Dynamics CRM customers. This end-to-end migration process provides a guided way to move on-premises instances without the need of reimporting the datathus reducing time and costs.

Customizations often hold on-premises systems together, allowing to adequately function in our modern environment. This can make knowing how to untangle your solution or what to migrate difficult. The Dynamics 365 migration program offers technical assessments to guide our Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM customers through this process. Want to identify organization-specific benefits or optimize the transition process? Our Standard Migration Assessment can help you identify goals, understand migration benefits, and reduce outlay as you transition.

Adding value with Dynamics 365

The gap between on-premises and the cloud solutions is growing, and there’s a good reason. Innovation among cloud now outpaces on-premises development. With end-of-support dates nearing, this gap will only continue to grow, limiting productivity gains and configurability an organization might see with Power Apps, Power Automate, or Power BI functionality. Data centralized in one source only enhances the potential. Knowing usage patterns, adoption rates, and performance metrics, we can continuously update the cloud service without significant business disruption. When it comes to providing updates, Microsoft’s priority is the cloud because it’s the most efficient way to innovate, ideate, and provide value to customers. Customers no longer need to:

• Host and secure software
• Build a data center
• Handle identity management
• Manage connections to other systems

Instead, the cloud platform empowers an out-of-the-box mentality that allows users to get started with no expertise or additional tools.

The cloud is the future

As businesses continue to prioritize remote work and collaboration, the cloud will continue to be the fiber that connects employees, systems, and resources regardless of time zone. Reducing your physical footprint today is a great way to reduce costs and prepare for tomorrow. Migrating to Dynamics 365 will ensure your organization is prepared to meet future needs and challenges. To see how other companies have made this transition, visit our Dynamics 365 migration community.

The post Confront the misconceptions slowing your move to Dynamics 365 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

A decade ago, marketing was focused on guiding the customer through predictable stages of awareness, consideration, and purchase. We were relatively assured that if we reached x number of eyeballs, we could expect y number of responses and z number of conversions.

That world no longer exists. Eighty-one percent of consumers¹ want to purchase from brands that get to know them, but nearly three-quarters² are frustrated by tons of irrelevant content which makes them feel so disconnected. That feedback exposes how the customer experience is falling short and reminds us that it’s no longer enough to employ tactics that focus on volume, or even segmentation. Traditional approachescampaigns, offers, and adsexist in siloes. The customer journey doesn’t. It doubles back, skips forward, and spans digital and physical channels. The marketer’s approach should likewise cut across traditional siloes of existing functions, roles, or channels.

Brands should recognize these fundamental shifts and look for solutions that keep up with surging expectations. Customer journey orchestration in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing delivers an individualized, end-to-end experience to every customer, across all touchpointsat scale. Each individual travels a unique path, based on evolving needs. The result is a refreshing two-way conversation that’s customer-centric, rather than brand-centric. Where one customer may need additional education and proof points, another may be ready to select among different models. In the past, they would both receive the same, predefined, offer after signing up on the brand’s website. This traditional approach falls flat, failing to take into account key contexts like previous interactions and intent. With customer journey orchestration, brands can harness everything they know about the customer, across all channels, and mobilize the organization to engage in the moment to deliver a fluid and seamless experience. For an organization with thousands or millions of customers, optimizing individual experiences at scale can have an enormous impact on growth through increased acquisition and retention.

According to BCG, organizations implementing customer journey orchestration have achieved³:

• Revenue gains of 10-20 percent
• Cost reductions of 15-25 percent
• Customer advocacy score improvements of 20-40 points

Optimizing customer experiences with customer journey orchestration might seem daunting, but it helps to focus on three areasdata, decisioning, and delivery. Most organizations already have a lot of customer data, but they need to bring together the data to gain a 360-degree view of the customer. Then they can turn the data into actions with real-time decisioning to determine which offer to surface or what content to display or what kind of communication to send. Next is the delivery of the actions through alignment and integration with the MarTech stack.

Building a resilient data foundation

Journey optimization begins with a strong data foundation. With help from a customer data platform, organizations can create unified profiles to gain a single view of customers. Savvy organizations go a step further and consider the ever-changing nature of datafrom new data sources to regulatory and compliance requirements that seemingly spring up overnight. Adapting by identifying and bringing in new data sources like digital behavior, customer sentiment, third-party enrichment, or emerging channels contribute to a resilient data foundation that easily flexes to the ever-changing environment. With always up-to-date rich and adaptive profiles, organizations maintain an edge by gaining a deeper understanding of customersas long as it’s built with a privacy-first approach. Growing mistrust over data privacy has promoted big changes like the sunsetting of third-party cookies and data reform. A future-proof customer data platform needs to be designed from the ground up to be consent-enabled, allowing the organization to automatically honor customer consent and privacy across the entire journey.

Scaling with real-time decisioning

Decisioning enables organizations to automatically determine the next best action for an individual customer. The real-time nature of decisioning ensures immediate action, converting an expression of interest (or dissatisfaction) into continued engagement. Based on signals that reveal customer intent, decisioning determines, at the precise moment, the exact interaction to optimize the customer experience. Decisioning goes hand in hand with customer journey orchestration, mobilizing data and AI to decide how best to design and adjust individual journeys to increase customer lifetime value while decreasing cost to serve through intelligent automation and scale.

Delivering connected experiences

The focus on the longer journey, instead of a single touchpoint, is the key to elevated experiences. This end-to-end approach requires continuity and contextevery time. Decisioning works in tandem with customer journey orchestration to move analytics outputs and insights through the MarTech and AdTech stack, informing activation in the application layer, resulting in a cohesive journeybubbling up the next best offer, content, conversations, and experiences seamlessly for each customer, regardless of the place or time.

Looking ahead

Brands that recognize the fundamental shift in customer expectations are boosting their customer experience capabilities. Learn how the new customer journey orchestration capabilities in Dynamics 365 Marketing can make one-to-one experiences a reality. Visit the Dynamics 365 Marketing website and sign up for a free trial.

1-“From me to we: The rise of the purpose-led brand,” Accenture, Dec. 5. 2018

2-“Harness change to create 360 value,” Accenture

3-“Customer Journey Programs Are Hard to Get Right,” Bharat Poddar, Yogesh Mishra, and Prateek Tandon, BCG, Jan. 29. 2020

The post Customer journey orchestration: The next frontier of connected experiences appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.