FAQ

Microsoft Dynamics CRM seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Outlook including your appointments, tasks and emails.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 combines ERP and CRM functionality into a single cloud offering with specific apps for each key business process – such as Finance, Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Operations and Marketing.

Power BI, Powerapps, Microsoft Flow and Microsoft Azure industry and role based applications will also be provided by Microsoft partners such as Prodware via Microsoft Appsource, to extend the functionality for built-in business insights, workflow and data analysis.

An agile, cost effective and easy to use solution, Dynamics 365 apps can be deployed independently. Organisations pay for what they need at that time, or the applications can work seamlessly together, supporting business growth as relevant.

Because it is a cloud based business solution, users buy apps and licences based on their role which provides organisations with flexibility to match the best practice of Dynamics 365 with the structure of their company and how they work.

Here are just a few other things that set Microsoft Dynamics 365 apart from other similar products:

Office 365 integration for improved productivity – Microsoft Dynamics 365 seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office, which means you can get more of your work done from within Outlook, Word and Excel (the Office programs you’re already familiar with), and spend less time switching between applications. Additionally, the common data model that Dynamics 365 is built upon makes it easy to share data and insight between Office 365 and Dynamics 365.
Superior flexibility – Traditionally, when you purchase an ERP or CRM system you must buy the whole thing up front. But, because Dynamics 365 is cloud-based and its features are grouped into apps that match the functional areas of your business, you can start by just purchasing one or two single apps – whatever you need right now. Then, as your business grows and your requirements change, you can easily add new apps, or purchase one of the available plans for enhanced functionality
Business intelligence baked right in – Managers and business owners alike dream of having beautiful dashboards and user friendly analytics that make it easy to see what’s happening right now and what their next steps are. However, if your business management solution was not built from the ground up to include these types of analytics, it can be very difficult to get the complete view of your business you were hoping for.
But, that’s where Dynamics 365 is different. All the system’s applications offer built-in insights, workflow optimization and predictive analytics delivered via an easy to use web-based, mobile friendly user experience. Thanks to the cloud and machine learning, it connects you to what matters and helps turn insight into action.

Unmatched growth potential – Dynamics 365 allows you to build, adjust and grow your business processes in real time. No matter how large your business becomes, Dynamics 365 has what it takes, including a catalog of third-party apps designed to meet unusual or industry specific requirements. In short, it allows your business to grow and evolve without all the complexity, added cost and inflexibility you often run into with other systems.

In a nutshell, the Business Edition of Microsoft Dynamics 365, also sometimes referred to as Dynamics 365 for Financials, is built for businesses with fewer than 250 employees and who mainly need to manage their business finances. Sales and marketing apps will be available for the Business Edition later this year, but have not yet been released. On the other hand, the Enterprise Edition of Dynamics 365, sometimes referred to as Dynamics 365 for Operations, is built for businesses with over 250 users, or those who have more complex needs and want to manage additional business functions such as supply chain, customer service, or field service.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is mainly sold through partners like Intelligent Technologies Inc. If you are interested in this solution, but do not yet have a Microsoft partner, please reach out to us.

As for the licensing, when Microsoft reimagined the ERP with Dynamics 365, it also redesigned the licensing structure. This new licensing model is designed to give users much greater flexibility, and allow them to realize the greatest value from the product for the lowest cost.

Basically, there are three licensing options to choose from. Companies may mix-and-match these different options to find the perfect mix for their business needs and budget. And, to keep payments simple, all licenses you buy are included on a single monthly bill.

Application only – Available right now, this is the more traditional way to buy Dynamics 365. You purchase user licenses for a particular application (section of the system) like finance or sales and marketing. While these are reasonably priced, if you find yourself needing access to more than one application within Dynamics 365, your cost savings potential is much greater if you choose one of the other licensing options.
Plans – Currently available with the Enterprise Edition and coming this year for the Business Edition, plans are one of the new licensing options available to Dynamics 365 users. Designed for heavy (Full) users, plans grant you access to multiple applications within the system, give you read/write permissions and allow for improved extensibility.
Team members – Available currently for both the Business and Enterprise editions, team member licenses (or light users) offer somewhat reduced, but still significant functional capabilities at a much lower cost than the other two licensing options described previously. The main difference between team members and full users on one of the plans, are read/write permissions. With a team member license, you have read access to almost everything in the system and a very specific set of write capabilities. Whereas, with the full user license offered by the plans, you have much more write access.

No, Dynamics 365 is only available in the public cloud. It is not available on premise, in a private cloud or a hybrid of the two. However, for those companies that need, or would prefer an on premise solution Microsoft will continue to offer and update Dynamics AX, and other on premise solutions along with connectors that make it possible to use a hybrid deployment model.

You may have heard of a product called Dynamics 365 on premise. This is basically a renamed version of Dynamics AX 2012 R3, and is a completely different product than the new Dynamics 365 product. That said, if you do not absolutely need and on premise or private cloud system, we strongly suggest that you look at Dynamics 365. For most of our customers, this will be the last ERP they will ever need, because it will be constantly and automatically updated by Microsoft, freeing you from the expense and headache of major upgrades down the road.

The common data model is the backbone of Dynamics 365, basically the cloud database that it’s built upon. Engineered based on Microsoft’s years of experience with its enterprise customers, this database includes hundreds of business applications, including Dynamics 365, Office 365 and more. To users like you, this means it will much cheaper, faster and easier to integrate and deploy new software in the future.

Although they are designed to integrate with Dynamics 365, Office 365, Power BI and Adobe Marketing Cloud are all separate purchases. As of November 1, 2016, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing is no longer being sold to new customers. If you require a marketing automation program that integrates with Dynamics 365, we recommend Adobe Marketing Cloud, which will be available for this purpose in this spring.

For organizations already using a Dynamics cloud solution, such as Dynamics AX online or Dynamics CRM online, Microsoft has carefully designed the transition process to be a seamless one. If you are currently using an on premise solution, but are ready to make the move to the cloud with Dynamics 365, please contact us so that we can help you with the migration. For businesses that must keep their ERP system on premise or in a private cloud, we will continue to offer and fully support the popular Dynamics GP and SL solutions our business was built upon.

The flexible licensing of Dynamics 365 improves ROI as companies pay for access to the capabilities they need regardless of which application it resides in. This is unique in a market where most software vendors require customers to buy licenses for different applications and modules – resulting in 2-3x increased cost. And where other vendors fall short, Dynamics 365 Enterprise licensing includes built-in analytics with Power BI, and full usage rights to PowerApps and Microsoft Flow to compose new apps and easily extend, modify, and integrate with existing ones.

The best feature of Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the ability to select from many different apps to customize to your specific needs. You may choose what best fits and pay only for those. One umbrella contains everything: ERP, CRM, and all relevant components. So now it is easy to integrate and get optimum value and functionality.

Microsoft has embedded two very powerful tools, Power BI and Cortana Intelligence for analytical insights and prescriptive guidance to help decide the best course of action.

There are five levels of access to security roles:

None – No access in this level.
Basic (User) – Access is limited to records the user owns or objects shared with the user and objects shared with members of the user’s team.
Local (Business Unit) – Access to records in the user’s business unit.
Deep (Parent: Child Business Units) – Access is limited to records in the user’s business unit and all business units under the user’s business unit.
Global (Organization) – Access to all records in the organization, regardless of the hierarchical level of user or instance of the business unit.

There are eight different record level privileges:

Create – Create privilege allows creation of records.
Read – Read privilege allows opening and viewing records.
Write – Write privilege allows record edits and changes.
Delete – Delete privilege allows permanent record removal and should be given with high caution.
Append – Append privilege allows record association with the current record.
Append To – Allows association of the current record with another record.
Assign – Assign privilege gives ownership of a record to another user.
Share – Share privilege gives access to a record to another user and retains the original owner’s access.

It was not possible in earlier versions to do a query of ‘Does Not Contain Data’ for linked entities. But with new Dynamics 365, you can do this. Here’s how:

Go to advanced find and select an entity (e.g., ‘account’) and filter ‘select a related entity.’
You will find a new attribute added, and you can apply additional filters on opportunities.
Select ‘Contains data’ or ‘Does not contains data.’ View your desired results.

Dynamics 365 will include Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Business Edition, a comprehensive accounting and business management solution for SMBs.

Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM have come together to create the Enterprise edition of Microsoft Dynamics 365.

BI tools need no longer be separate from business management solutions. Embedded Power BI can surface contextual information on role based workspaces and dashboards in Dynamics 365, and providing next best action recommendations on the analysis discovered. This has two major benefits – it boosts productivity and best practice in a timely manner, but also opens up data collection and visibility to the entire business rather than just senior management – leading to better quality data going in and decisions coming out.

Via the ecosystem of Microsoft AppSource, customers can pay for the functional apps they need in the short to medium term and then extend the functionality and/or add more users as their business grows. Because the business applications share a common data model, users maintain a consistent experience with the apps working seamlessly together.

You may have seen this expressed as Software as a Service or “on demand” software. Software is licensed on a subscription basis, centrally hosted and accessed via the internet. SaaS is often the choice for those organisations who opt for a capex rather than opex investment model for their business solutions and want additional flexibility and predictability as they scale their business.

This is the public cloud based licence and delivery model that Dynamics 365 uses.

Yes as long as there is an app for that. While there is convenience and flexibility that comes with cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology in particular Dynamics 365, the technology requires applications or Apps to deliver some of the functionality once given by Value Added Resellers. Let me explain further, if your business needs customizations, the code could be changed in AX by your VAR or Microsoft Partner. Dynamics 365 on the other hand is encapsulated, and any desired changes are made through apps. Clients First is AppSource Developer.

Compared to other ERP competitors, Dynamics 365 has an lower than average implementation time of 10 months, lower cost of implementation, and lower risk in implementation due to Life-cycle Services.

Information access is an essential part of an ERP solution and represents a significant portion of the user engagement with the system. Consider the numerous methods of capturing information related to daily activities and the level of investments required to manage the data. Employees depend on logical interpretations of massive amounts of data to stay on top of their daily tasks. Out of the box the Dynamics 365 for Operations platform provides mainstream reporting solutions to address the various information access needs of an ERP solution such as Excel, SQL Reporting Services (SRS) as well as Power BI.

Power BI features drag and drop reporting functionality available based on role within company. Your Dynamics 365 CSP Partner can develop customized dashboards for your employees, or you can experiment with it yourself.

Absolutely! While Dynamics 365 is the most technologically advanced ERP, there are reasons an On-Premise ERP may still be favorable. The top 4 are listed below:
1) Your business model needs control of your: data, data residency, and data isolation.
2) Your business information fluctuates faster than the stock market so dependency on speed and connectivity is extremely high to ensure business continuity.
3) The business processes require the ability to customize the service infrastructure of the ERP system to meet specific business needs.
4) Your company has recently invested in data center resources.