Managing customer relationships has become increasingly complex, given the multi-channel nature of the average customer journey. In this landscape, Microsoft Dynamics 365 emerges as a powerful solution, providing a versatile toolkit to effectively target, engage, nurture, and retain customers.
However, the true strength of Dynamics 365 lies in its ability to leverage the capabilities of various apps, services, and data sources within the ecosystem. In particular, the Power Platform plays a vital role in orchestrating backend processes, enabling real-time data visualizations, intelligent virtual agents, and a wide range of advanced automations that go beyond simple data syncing and email sequences.
Within this comprehensive guide, you will find a detailed exploration of the process automation tools accessible with a D365 license. Additionally, it emphasizes the integration capabilities with the Power Platform, enabling businesses to streamline operations and unleash the complete potential of Microsoft Dynamics 365.
CRM Process Automation with Power Platform
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE, as well as the newer product editions for Sales, Service, and Marketing, are built on the Power Platform.
The Power Platform is Microsoft’s flagship solution for developing apps, workflows, AI bots, and data analytics solutions with no or low-code requirements.
Within the Power Platform, various subproducts such as Power Automate, Power Apps, Power Pages, Power Virtual Agents, and Power BI offer extensive functionality. These products are developed using a low-code programming language (Fx) and rely on a common data management service called Dataverse.
Thanks to Dataverse, users can establish seamless connectivity between different Dynamics 365 applications, such as Dynamics 365 Sales or Dynamics 365 Customer Service. Additionally, they can create workflow automation scenarios and custom applications that utilize core business data without requiring additional integrations.
Benefits of Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Integration
The integration between Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform, facilitated by Dataverse, offers several advantages for organizations:
- Accelerated app development: Power Apps empowers business users with visual builders, while professional developers can programmatically interact with data and metadata, encode custom business logic, and create custom connectors to integrate external data more efficiently.
- Reusable business logic: Power Automate enables the creation of reusable business logic and rules within Dataverse. This logic can be applied across all apps and workflows developed with the Power Platform, ensuring data consistency.
- Extensive connectivity options: The Power Platform provides access to over 700 premium connectors to third-party ERP, CRM, and other business systems. These connectors enable users to create more sophisticated CRM process automation scenarios.
Examples of CRM Process Automation with Power Platform
The Power Platform offers a suite of subproducts that both business users and development teams can utilize to automate various processes in the workplace and build new digital products. Let’s explore some examples of CRM tasks that can be automated with the Power Platform.
Power Automate Use Cases for CRM
Power Automate, the successor of Microsoft Flow, is a cloud-based workflow automation tool. It comes equipped with a range of visual and low-code tools for integrating and automating different apps and services, both within and beyond the Microsoft ecosystem.
Pre-built connectors include SharePoint, Word, Power BI, Outlook, Planner, Teams, Asana, Adobe Sign, Mailchimp, DocuSign, Eventbrite, Google Drive, Trello, and FreshBooks among others.
With Power Automate, business users can create various automations to replace manual and repetitive tasks without relying on IT teams. For instance, one user leveraged Power Automate to develop a chatbot for handling HR inquiries, significantly reducing the time spent on employee verification requests.
Instances of CRM Workflow Automation with Power Automate
- Streamlined document processing: Implement custom workflows and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) stacks to expedite document processing, such as warranties, contracts, and purchase orders.
- Efficient lead management: Create (semi)automated sequences for lead assignment to sales representatives, email follow-ups, CRM record updates, and other nurturing steps.
- Automated data collection: Accelerate the processing of intelligence gathered from web form submissions, surveys, emails, and other data sources. Maintain a centralized view of all essential customer data.
- Streamlined sales order processing: Develop workflows for generating sales orders automatically, tracking order progress, updating inventory records, and managing other back-office tasks.
- Simplified invoice management: Automate invoice generation, payment tracking, and account reconciliation tasks to streamline the overall process.
Power Applications Use Cases for Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Power Applications represent a low-code application development platform that empowers users to swiftly create business and customer-oriented applications. Even users with limited experience can leverage a visual interface and pre-designed templates to construct uncomplicated business or customer-facing applications.
On the backend, Power Applications seamlessly integrate with diverse data sources and web APIs to retrieve and manipulate data. This platform offers low-code tools for creating basic backend functionalities, as well as advanced development kits for more intricate usage scenarios.
Remarkable benefits have been reported by users who have adopted Power Applications, as highlighted in a comprehensive study conducted by Forrester on the Total Economic Impact. When considering internal development efforts, professional service fees, and miscellaneous software licensing costs, Power Applications have successfully reduced average application development expenses by 74%. For instance, one of the organizations examined saved an approximate sum of $2 million in application development costs by employing Power Applications to create 33 applications.
Sample Use Cases of Power Applications for CRM
- Opportunity management: Generate custom Power Applications to manage deals and automatically update opportunity records. Incorporate Power BI analytics to predict winning probabilities automatically.
- Contextual customer insights: Deliver personalized engagement by accessing customer data from a centralized location. C.H. Robinson enhanced their Sales team’s visibility regarding customer needs and supply chain performance using a canvas application built with Power Applications and connected to Dynamics 365 Sales.
- Case management: Implement enhanced tools for customer service teams to expedite ticket processing, case escalation, and interdepartmental collaboration, thus improving issue resolution times and customer satisfaction.
- Warranty services: Provide extended care to customers through a self-service portal, enabling them to obtain additional warranty protection, insurance, or other -added services. Call2Recycle launched a nationwide e-bike battery recycling program via a Power Platform-based portal connected to their Dynamics 365.
Power Pages
Power Pages is a low-code Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) builder designed for creating, hosting, and managing external-facing business websites. With Power Pages, organizations can establish a secure and user-friendly front-end presentation layer linked to shared business data stored in Microsoft Dataverse. Microsoft Dataverse serves as a secure repository for managing and provisioning data to connected business applications. Likewise, Power Pages can be seamlessly integrated with Dynamics 365 to facilitate bilateral data exchanges for various CRM workflows.
Through Power Pages, organizations can construct self-service portals for customer service, partner portals, employee training hubs, and other shared interfaces for both external and internal usage. As an illustration, Ecolab, a provider of diverse water management and treatment solutions, developed a unified internal hub for their Sales and Marketing teams using Power Pages, Power Applications, and Dynamics 365. The newly created mobile application allows quick access to business data, such as account lists and active opportunity records, which would otherwise be confined within Dynamics 365.
Power Virtual Agents
Power Virtual Agents is Microsoft’s latest low-code chatbot builder, powered by Generative AI. Similar to other tools within the Power family, Virtual Agents offers an intuitive graphical interface for constructing intelligent assistants capable of engaging in text-based or voice conversations across multiple languages and channels, including the web, mobile, Microsoft Teams, Facebook, and other platforms supported by the Azure Bot Framework.
Leveraging the company’s advancements in AI, developed chatbots can assist human agents in a variety of tasks, ranging from processing support requests to upselling.
IT teams can facilitate chatbot development and monitor their deployment through a centralized administration panel that features built-in security, compliance, and governance tools. Professional developers also have the option to create more sophisticated solutions by combining Power Virtual Agents with Azure Bot Framework Composer to support richer interactions and complex usage scenarios. The solution relies on the low-code Power Fx language for logic and data manipulation, substantially reducing development time and costs.
Conclusion
Dynamics 365 encompasses a wide array of intelligent CRM process automation tools, catering to diverse requirements, from basic data outputs to end-to-end process automation across various business products. Power Platform serves as the vital “connecting tissue,” enabling organizations to establish seamless connectivity between disparate systems and fragmented steps in CRM process execution. By integrating intuitive, no-code tools with advanced controls for backend development, Power Platform has effectively empowered businesses to enhance customer data visibility, increase operational efficiencies, and improve overall IT governance. To explore additional services offered by Edvantis, please visit their official website.
