That’s right, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is finally here and we couldn’t be more excited about the capabilities this product can offer.
Dynamics 365 brings many new features which help growing businesses to work more efficiently. We like great features like the Outlook App, which enables you to track Outlook contacts and link them to Dynamics 365 accounts; and editable grids, which instantly enable field values to be edited directly from within the view.
So, what is Dynamics 365?
Dynamics 365 is Microsoft’s new approach to end-to-end intelligent business applications in the cloud.
Broadly speaking it brings together two leading online cloud systems, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics AX (the Enterprise Resource Planning platform) to enable the following:
- Start with what you need: Separate Dynamics 365 Apps for sales, service, finance, operations, projects and more, mean you pay only for the functionality you need, when you need it
- Productivity where you need it: Deep integration between Dynamics 365 and Office 365 to structure business workflows across systems and to help your team collaborate
- Ready for growth: Adapt and innovate in real time by extending the functionality of Dynamics 365 with new and modified processes. The Common Data Model across the platform empowers users to create advanced workflows, apps, and report across the data model
What happens with Dynamics CRM Online functionality?
Dynamics CRM screens, forms, fields, workflows, business rules, processes and other functionality will continue to work and be supported. We’ve been testing the system and this functionality remains unchanged for existing customers.
Customers have up until their next renewal date after 1 November 2016 to transition to Dynamics 365, i.e. anytime up to 31 October 2017.
Once you transition you can take advantage of the full range of functionality resulting from combining Dynamics CRM plus Office 365 plus Dynamics AX:
- CRM: Sales, Service, Field Service, Project Service
- Office 365: Exchange, Office, Email Yammer, OneNote, Groups
- AX (ERP): Operations, Finance
What additional benefits will Dynamics 365 bring?
Additional benefits provided by transitioning from Dynamics CRM Online to Dynamics 365 include:
| Portal included | Create a customer self-service portal (priced at approx.£315/month prior to Dynamics 365) |
| Additional cloud storage | 10GB instead of the standard 5GB (priced at approx.£30/month prior to Dynamics 365) |
| Non-production instance included | Create a development system to test configuration changes before implementing on your live system (priced at approx.£94/month prior to Dynamics 365) |
What happens with licencing and pricing?
The Enterprise, Professional, Basic and Essential licences of Dynamics CRM covered a sometimes confusing mix of application functionality (e.g. Professional users cannot access Voice of the Customer Survey) and application permissions (e.g. Essentials users cannot access/write to certain data).
These are being replaced with Full and Light (Team Member) licence types which handle permissions, and are then applied to the different Dynamics 365 Apps – Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Project Service Automation, Marketing, Operations.
When more than one app is required e.g. Sales plus Project Service, Plan 1 is the best value. Plan 1 includes the Apps for Sales, Field Service, Customer Service, Project Service Automation, and Marketing (TBD)
There is a Business Edition of Dynamics 365 being released by July 2017 and we will provide an update on this as further information is released.
Transition pricing
Transition pricing is available for existing Dynamics CRM customers prior to 31 October 2016.
- By transitioning to Dynamics 365 at or before your renewal date, you get all the functionality of Dynamics 365 at discounted prices
- After up to 3 years of transition pricing, you’ll then move on to the standard Dynamics 365 pricing
There are complexities in the transition structure but the example above is a typical scenario.
Contact us if you’d like to know how Dynamics 365 can help your business.
