Dive Brief:
- Microsoft is working to combine its current CRM and ERP cloud solutions into one platform called Microsoft Dynamics 365, the company announced Wednesday.
- Available this fall, the platform allows businesses to pay for the solutions they need in a single platform, including financials, sales, operations, marketing and customer service, among others.
- To assist in workplace productivity, the platform will also seamlessly integrate with Office 365 as well as Power BI and Cortana Intelligence, Microsoft’s personal assistant software.
Dive Insight:
By merging diverse business offerings into one suite, Microsoft is streamling its solutions, addressing the overwhelming burden of having an independent piece of software for every department.
The company has a vast wealth of solutions to draw on. Now, as many other companies have done, Microsoft is merging its distinct capabilities to better support users’ needs. For example, users can employ Cortana to help predict products or services a customer will need, the company said. The company’s move is to put business solutions in the cloud allowing for easy access, without the traditional siloed approach to department offerings.
Integrating the Office 365 suite will also allow organizations to “connect the structured workflow of business apps with the unstructured work of collaboration and productivity.” Meaning, for example, while in their email, a sales person could access information from Finance or Sales applications and quote pricing or discounts without ever leaving Outlook, the company said. The move is not unlike what Slack has done to allow third-party services to integrate and allow users to complete tasks without ever leaving the app.
As part of a lengthy announcement, Microsoft also debuted AppSource, its business SaaS applications store to help find industry or department specific solutions. More than 200 apps are currently available, and developers can build their own solutions for the platform.
