Do you work with Microsoft Dynamics 365? Or are you looking for a new way to manage your data? You can now leverage the Power Platform and Microsoft Teams to unlock all the potential of Dynamics 365 to make your data more meaningful than ever before.
The Microsoft suite of tools are built to seamlessly connect and integrate with each other, and if you have a Microsoft 365 license, then you will have access to all these tools already, often at no extra cost. So why not take full advantage of them?
Reimagining your data
Data is the beating heart of your business. It powers every decision and guides you in understanding your customers to gain real insights.
Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based application, and its data is held in the centralised Common Data Service (CDS), which means your data isn’t just tied to Dynamics. It’s accessible for people throughout your organisation – providing them with the data they need, when they need it, wherever they are. So, what are you going to do with all this data?
There’s a world of possibilities available to you to extend how you use Dynamics by utilising other Microsoft 365 tools to put your data to better use. For instance, did you know all the data you’ve spent years collecting in Team conversations can be used? Or that you can identify trends in real-time using the Power BI dashboards? Or that it’s possible to use Power Apps to deliver personal experience for users?
Using Dynamics 365 with Microsoft Teams
In the COVID-era, Teams has become more commonplace in organisations than ever before. It seamlessly connects people and lets you work collaboratively with ease.
You can access Dynamics files and data that’s stored in SharePoint through Teams. But the Teams interface also lets you chat with colleagues, view reports, run Power Apps, and even work directly with Dynamics too. The best part? Setting up the Dynamics 365 app in Teams takes almost no time at all – so you can very quickly start viewing data, insights, and relevant information about your customers on a Teams tab.
Teams is great for those people who aren’t your core Dynamics users. It lets them gain insights and see key customer or market data – without having to login to Dynamics itself. Colleagues can also have conversations within Teams about specific data or insights too, so it’ll feel just like having a quick catch-up as you pass down the corridor in the office.
Another handy element is the Dynamics Bot, which can be deployed to Teams. This lets users chat with the bot and find key information simply by asking it questions – using data from Dynamics to provide answers. You can also power-up the Dynamics bot further by installing the Insights plugin. This makes the bot far more intelligent and sophisticated as it uses a wealth of data and insights from multiple sources to provide answers.
Dynamics and the Power Platform
The different Power Platform tools all can be used to leverage Dynamics 365 further, and this brings with it a range of great benefits for you. These come at no additional cost to maintain, help improve the quality of your data, and ensure all your data is collected and stored properly within GDPR regulations. To put it simply, it makes your data work for you.
Power Automate and Dynamics 365
Creating workflows in Power Automate was designed to be straightforward using drag and drop functionality. Very often when looking at data, there’s a task that goes along with that. Almost any task you use Dynamics 365 or data for can be automated (or at least, elements of a task can be). You can create automated workflows that trigger events based on data – such as posting a message in Teams, sending an email, updating a record, creating an activity or file, arranging a meeting, updating a group membership – to name just a few.
Power Apps and Dynamics 365
The best part about Power Apps is you don’t need to have any technical or specialist knowledge to build apps with them as they are low-code apps. With your Dynamics data held in the CDS, it’s no longer tied to just the one application. This centralised approach pulls in data from several sources and lets you create tailored apps for any device using your data in a short space of time – and you don’t need a dedicated development team to do it.
Using your data to create Power Apps means you can build simple-to-use apps that save people time as they don’t have to access Dynamics directly to get the information they need. Instead, you can create hyper focused apps to do specific tasks in a specific way – which empower people to do what they need to.
Power BI and Dynamics 365
With your Dynamics data stored in the CDS, Power BI can also become a very useful tool for you. You can choose to use it for real time analytics on your reports – or to schedule refreshes of analytics, depending how up-to-date you need different reports to be. These Power BI reports and dashboards are fed by your Dynamics data, and can be embedded within SharePoint, Teams, Dynamics, and Power Apps. This lets you display your data as stunning visuals that are easy to digest – and can be created in minutes without much – if any – specialist knowledge.
Power BI also empowers you to collaborate on report building with colleagues and bring in data from multiple sources internally and externally to build intelligent dashboards. Better still, it uses powerful trend analysis to drive business decisions – and gives you an edge by quickly spotting new opportunities and flagging any areas of concern.
You can look at Power BI as self-service analytics. It provides personalised data that’s relevant for you and your role, and there’s no need to login to Dynamics or export data in order to access it. If you’re looking for quick answers, you can ask questions of your data in plain English to gain quick insights into your company data. You can also stay on top of any changes through data-driven notifications – as well as predictive capabilities that can let you know of any issues or opportunities before they even happen.
> Discover more in our Transforming Microsoft Dynamics 365 with Power Platform and Teams webinar
Are you ready to unlock the full potential of Dynamics 365? It’s time to empower your data to transform how you work and create a seamless working environment for everyone in your organisation, where they can let every business decision be based on real data and guided by powerful insights. You’ll be able to access the information quickly, from wherever you are – and using any device – without even having to login to Dynamics 365.
Our team of Microsoft 365 specialists are here to help support you in leveraging the Microsoft 365 suite of tools to help you get more from Dynamics and from your data. Get in touch with us today and see how we can help you.
