Microsoft has announced a host of updates to the relationship between Teams and Dynamics designed to deliver a more integrated experience.
The vendor broke the new features and functionality into five categories: sales; marketing; customer and field services; and human resources.
We’ve pulled together the key innovations from each category.
Sales
Microsoft said that Teams and Dynamics 365 now use artificial intelligence to “put collaboration in context by providing actionable next steps using AI-driven insights”.
A new side panel in Dynamics 365 will show chats and channels related to the customer record that the user is viewing.
Microsoft has also integrated Teams voice and video meetings directly into the CRM platform. These come complete with transcriptions from any calls, while Microsoft’s Conversational Intelligence detects and possible actionable points that have been discussed.
Sellers can also do this via the Dynamics 365 app for Microsoft Teams, which can be found in the Teams app store.
Marketing
The updates to marketing through the two platforms centres on turning virtual event attendees into loyal customers.
Users can now set up, promote and report on Teams events from within Dynamics 365 Marketing and export data on the event’s attendees.
At Ignite, Microsoft announced that Microsoft E3 and E5 will soon be eligible for six months of Dynamics 365 marketing for free.
Customer Service
Microsoft said that the new embedded Teams functionality will also provide benefits from a customer service perspective.
Teams is now integrated with the Dynamics 365 Customer Service desktop which allows agents to communicate directly with customers and solve cases faster.
This avoids the added complications of having to switch applications. Recorded conversations are also displayed next to customer records for added context, while agents can manually link chats to records.
Field agents can take advantage of the same functions, and also collaborate with Teams and Dynamics through Microsoft’s HoloLens headset.
Human Resources
A new Dynamics 365 Human Resources app allows employees to view their holiday allowance and submit holiday requests directly from Teams. The app is now generally available.
Microsoft said that employees can use the feature by typing in a keyword or phrase into a conversation with a chatbot which will respond with the relevant information.
Managers can then review and respond to the requests in a few clicks.
Employees are told via a Teams notification as soon as their leave requests are approved or denied. Employees can then share these approved requests with other Teams users in chats and channels.
