In September 2024, Microsoft announced the end of product support and updates for Dynamics GP on December 31, 2029. Microsoft is incredibly grateful to existing GP customers, and is committed to facilitating a stable, supported, and smooth migration for GP customers to a cloud solution.

As a follow-up to that announcement, I wanted to discuss the advantages of beginning the migration process now and review the many resources that Microsoft and our partner community have to support you.

Why migrate to Business Central today?

Microsoft has made sure to provide a lengthy runway so customers currently running Dynamics GP can comprehensively prepare for migration to a new system, but there are clear benefits to moving now, rather than waiting.

Here are a few key considerations.

• Don’t wait to future-proof your business. Business Central is the leading comprehensive business management solution, designed for small and medium businesses, and engineered for Microsoft Copilot. On a single platform, it includes harnessing sales, finance, project management, manufacturing, supply chain, and service on a single platform, today. Migrating on your timeline means more time to help ensure you’re realizing value at every input.

• Get ahead of the curve with AI. Most business leaders are curious about what AI will allow their business to achieve. With Business Central, you don’t need to wonder—you’ll benefit from what AI can do today with new use cases, prebuilt agents, and updated workflows. With the AI-powered agents, both prebuilt as well as customized, Business Central capitalizes on and offers a foundation that will put you ahead when this technology quickly becomes a “need-to-have”.

• Avoid technical debt and realize time and operational savings. Waiting means sitting on a legacy on-premises tech stack than can and should be modernized. Migrating to modern Business Central today can help eliminate redundancies, save money, and offer more visibility into business health and areas for improvement.

Realizing big value for businesses of all sizes

The material value of upgrading is clear: In 2024, Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to create a benchmark for the value-add to companies upgrading from an on-premises solution to Business Central. The results of the Total Economic Impact™ study were based on a combination of primary research, customer interviews, and methodological analysis.

Forrester aggregated the data collected into a composite organization with USD15 million annual revenues, 150 total employees, and 28 Business Central users across finance, supply chain, operations, and sales.

An organization of that size saw:

• Realization of payback in less than six months.
• 265% return on investment in three years.
• Net Present Value (NPV) of USD529K over three years.
• Productivity improvement of 12.5% for operations staff, 15% for sales staff, and 15.6% for finance staff.
• More than USD80,000/year in third-party fee avoidance.

They achieved these savings through the move to Business Central from on-premises, which allowed:

• A clear reduction in manual operations.
• More direct access to systems and data remotely.
• Clearer and more consistent access to data across the Microsoft ecosystem.
• Significantly lower infrastructure, maintenance, and personnel costs, as well as upgrade fees.

So don’t treat this upgrade as an obligation, but as an opportunity to control the operational headwinds of your organization, virtually eliminate technical debt, and build a strong, repeatable operational framework that will require very minimal intervention in the months and years ahead.

In addition to these smart business reasons, many existing Dynamics GP customers are eligible for substantial promotional discounts offered by Microsoft when upgrading to an online Dynamics 365 Business Central solution. Promotional offers also allow eligible customers to avoid the need to simultaneously spend money on certain Microsoft on-premises fees while migrating. Be sure to ask your Microsoft systems consultant or reseller about your eligibility for Business Central migration offers.

These migration offers are intended to provide GP perpetual-license customers with a strong runway towards the cloud, driving business productivity, while reducing capital spending and costs of maintaining your on-premises applications while deploying Business Central.

The cloud migration process

With the business case clear, let’s discuss the technical steps in migrating your data and transitioning from Dynamics GP to Business Central.

The first step in a migration process is to consult with your partner on scope, costs, and timing. If your migration requirements go beyond need assistance outside of what your Dynamics GP is able to provide, you can engage a Microsoft representative​.

Here’s an overview of the different stages of migration:

1. Migration Assessment, evaluating the readiness of the on-premises deployment for migration using the migration assessment tool.
2. Preparation, developing a migration plan, verifying prerequisites, and checking data is in the best state possible for migration.
3. Cloud Migration Setup, establishing the connection and pipeline between the on-premises database and online tenant database.
4. Data Replication, migrating data from on-premises to online and verifying the migration.
5. Data Upgrade, upgrading the replicated data in the online environment.
6. Completion and Follow-Up, optimizing the new Business Central online environment, setting up user access, and going live.

What data is migrated

When you’re ready to migrate, Microsoft offers a comprehensive set of tools for migrating company data from Dynamics GP. The cloud migration tool typically migrates the following data:

• System and company setup (for example: payment terms, shipping methods, sites)
• Master data for accounts, customers, vendors, and items
• Transactional data
• Vendor 1099

See the detailed overview of data migrated to Business Central.

As mentioned previously, the on-premises environment will remain the active system until the migration process is complete.

Once the cloud migration is set up and underway, data entry in the Business Central online tenant is limited to data not included in the migration from on-premises.

How do Business Central processes differ from Dynamics GP?

It’s natural to have questions about how Dynamics GP compares to Business Central operationally, and Microsoft is here to support with common workflow comparisons available for review here, and on the Business Central YouTube channel. Additionally, we discuss many more of the implications and benefits of migration in this on-demand webinar.

Even with this powerful technology, though, there will naturally be some manual processes. Both Microsoft and your partners are here to support your transition with best practices, documentation, and support. The goal is not just a seamless transition, but an end-to-end enhancement of operations.

With these guides, you will have the tools you need to migrate from Dynamics GP to Business Central with confidence. Reach out to your partner to learn more.

The post Why migrate now: The benefits of moving from Dynamics GP to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

We’re continually improving Dynamics 365 Customer Service to help organizations deliver faster, smarter, and more efficient customer experiences. Today, we’re excited to announce that administrators will now be able to maintain routing rules in bulk. This enhancement empowers administrators to update routing configurations across the board with just a few clicks—a game-changing update for teams leveraging unified routing.

Unified routing is an intelligent, scalable routing system that sends work items to the right queues to ensure quality customer service. Administrators can set up unified routing across channels in Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Contact center. Routing rules classify and assign work items based on the type of request and organizational data.

Save time by administering routing rules in bulk

Bulk management enables administrators to create routing ruleset templates for queues and workstreams, eliminating the need for multiple versions of the same routing rules. With a few clicks, apply prioritization, assignment, or work classification ruleset templates to multiple queues and workstreams. Administrators can manage rules centrally—any template update instantly applies to all instances in queues or workstreams, removing the need for individual ruleset maintenance. 

By simplifying routing configuration, service teams can devote more time to addressing customers’ needs and less time on administrative tasks. This operational efficiency helps boost overall team productivity.

The ability to maintain routing rules in bulk is now generally available for Dynamics 365 Customer Service customers.

Learn more

To learn more, read the documentation:

• How to set up unified routing
• Manage ruleset templates

The post Transform routing rule administration with bulk management appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Project quotations in Dynamics 365 Project Operations help you create and manage detailed estimates for your customers before a project begins. A project quotation includes the estimated scope of work, roles, effort, timelines, pricing, and terms, providing a clear understanding of the proposed services and associated costs. 

Within the Quote, quote lines represent the high-level components of work being delivered, while the quote line details capture granular estimates, tying in scheduling, cost, and revenue details. Each quote line is also linked to contracting models and chargeable components, allowing for accurate modeling of revenue spread, project spending, and profitability, both at the quote level and also for each individual component.  

We designed the recent update around three key goals: 

• Elevating the overall user experience 

• Leveraging new platform capabilities 

• Simplifying user interactions when creating and managing quotes 

A Closer Look: Quote Form Improvements in Dynamics 365 Project Operations

A significant change is the reduction of tabs within the Quote form, centralizing your quote management experience. Let’s explore the enhanced tabs: 

Summary Tab: One View for All Critical Financial Insights 

All related tabs for quotes are now consolidated under the Summary tab. This tab gives you a comprehensive view of your quote’s financial health, including: 

• Customer budget 

• Profitability 

• Scheduled delivery date 

• Detailed cost and revenue breakdowns over time 

With this unified view, you can confidently track and manage quote details to ensure alignment with your project’s financial goals and customer commitments. 

Project Lines Tab: Detailed Control Over Quote Lines and Estimates 

The Project Lines tab has seen a substantial transformation and deserves special attention. As a result, this powerful workspace enables you to manage both project quote lines and their detailed estimates within a single, easy-to-use grid view. Here’s everything you can do: 

• Consolidated View with Nested Grids: View project quote lines at a glance and expand each line to see its associated quote line details in a nested, expandable grid format. 

• Comprehensive Details for Every Quote Line: For each quote line, you can view critical information such as billing method, invoice schedule, associated project, and budget performance metrics (transaction classes, discounts, fees, margin percentage, and extended amount). 

• Drill-Down into Quote Line Details: Expanding a quote line reveals all underlying quote line details, allowing you to closely monitor and manage granular estimates tied to the high-level component. 

• Direct Actions from the Grid: 
  • Create new quote lines or delete existing ones without navigating away. 
  • Import project estimates to automatically generate quote line details. 
  • Manually create quote line details for custom estimates right within the tab. 

• Full Editing Capabilities: Select any quote line detail to edit or delete it as needed. For deeper financial insights, use the Open cost detail action to view the specific cost breakdown of each line. 

• Apply Price Overrides with Ease: Need to adjust pricing for time transaction line details? Simply: 
  • Select the desired line detail. 
  • Use the Price override button to make the price change, click save, and accept recalculate. 
  • Apply price overrides within both the Quote and Quote Line forms, ensuring flexibility and control. 

• Access Quote Line Details for Sales and Cost Prices: 
  • The Quote Line Detail tab now provides two form views–Line details and Line details: Cost , though which you can analyze both sales and cost prices over time. 
    • Line details: This view displays each quote line detail along with its associated sales price, with time-phased sales prices broken down by specific periods. The Open cost detail button is still available on selecting the quote line detail and shows the related cost rate and amount for the selected quote line detail in an expanded view. 
    • Line details: Cost: This view gives you insight into the cost price associated with each quote line detail. The subgrid displays time-phased cost prices, helping you to easily assess the cost structure of each quote line. 

These enhancements provide greater visibility into both sales and cost prices, enabling more accurate pricing assessments for each quote line. 

This comprehensive functionality empowers your sales and delivery teams to build accurate, competitive quotes faster while maintaining visibility into the financial levers of every project component. 

Time Phasing of Project Estimates 

Complementing the quoting enhancements, we are also introducing Time Phasing of Project Estimates. This critical feature allows you to spread estimated costs and revenue over time, reflecting project duration and delivery milestones. 

The Time phasing of prices feature provides visibility into price fluctuations over time within Project quote lines. Now, nested quote line details display price changes phased out on a weekly basis. This allows you to track adjustments due to price overrides or multiple price lists.

Throughout the duration of a quote line detail, the system distributes the quantities and prices for each week, making it easier to identify pricing adjustments. The parent quote line detail reflects the weighted average price of all child time-phased lines. You can create role price overrides on a quote line detail that is then reflected in the nested time-phased lines. Each week in the nested Quote Line detail line retains the price applicable on the first day of that week. 

What Does This Mean for You? 

With these enhancements, Dynamics 365 Project Operations offers: 

• Simplified workflows for faster quote creation 

• Full visibility into financial details at every stage 

• Better forecasting with time-phased estimates, enabling accurate tracking of sales and cost price fluctuations and role price adjustments over time 

• Increased efficiency with fewer clicks and a modern UI 

• Smarter decision-making with real-time KPIs 

These improvements to project quotes in Dynamics 365 are designed to help you win more deals, deliver more predictable project outcomes, and maximize profitability. 

Call to Action

We encourage you to explore them and see firsthand how they can transform your project sales and estimation process. Experience the streamlined quoting process in Dynamics 365 Project Operations and unlock better control over your project estimates. Start building detailed, accurate, and customer-ready quotes with ease. Dive into the enhanced Quote form, explore time-phased estimates, and empower your teams to make informed, confident decisions. Ready to elevate your quoting experience? Explore the new capabilities today! 

Learn More

We are making constant enhancements to our features. To learn more about Project quotations, visit Project quotations new experience and to learn more about Time phasing of estimates, visit Estimate a project quote line 

The post Reimagine Project Quotes with Enhanced Experience and Time Phased Estimates in Dynamics 365 Project Operations  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Recurring maintenance, inspections, or repairs are common use cases for service-based organizations. Agreements in Dynamics 365 Field Service help streamline recurring operations consistently. You define the terms and conditions of your service contracts, such as frequency, duration, resources, products, and services involved–automate recurring work orders in Field Service. Through agreements, you can automate work order and booking generation, eliminating the need for manual creation and reducing administrative overhead. Providing services proactively can lead to better experiences for your customers and offer simple renewal and upsell opportunities. 

In this blog post, we’ll expand on the documentation about customer agreements  with a practical scenario setting up a Field Service agreement. We’ll discuss some best practices to help you maximize the benefits of automated, recurring service delivery. 

Sample scenario: Monthly service contract with a hospital 

Contoso provides maintenance services for hospitals. One of our customers wants us to recharge fire extinguishers quarterly and replace the filters for dialysis machines every month. Let’s have a look at how we can use agreements to automate recurring work orders in Field Service to address this scenario. 

Create an agreement 

Before creating an agreement, we need to consider who owns the agreement. We recommend using a system user or team user because agreement processes run with the permissions of the owner. In case it’s set to an individual and that person leaves the organization, the agreement will break. 

Fill in the agreement details such as start date, end date, service account, and price list. Then, we need to define the work orders to be generated and set up the corresponding agreement booking setup. For this scenario, we’ll create one work order every three months for fire extinguishers and one work order per month for each of the two dialysis machines at the hospital. Hence, we need to set up three agreement booking setup records which are tied to the same agreement. 

Set up quarterly work order generation 

An agreement booking setup record defines the recurrence and properties of the work orders that the system will generate. In this example, we create the work order a week ahead of the month they need to be performed in. This proactively load balances work each month. Set Generate Work Order Days in Advance to 7 days in the Work Order Settings section instead of using the agreement booking setup’s recurrence. This way we separate the terms of the agreement from when we need the work orders generated by for planning. 

We can also choose to have bookings automatically created against the generated work orders by enabling the Auto Generate Booking option. This creates the booking for the preferred resource according to the other options set in the booking settings of the agreement booking setup record. Keep in mind that these bookings don’t consider any other logic like the resource’s availability or working hours.  

The pre and post booking flexibility and time window fields help set up the work order to be scheduled via the schedule assistant. By setting the Post Booking flexibility to 30, we are setting the promised time window on the work order from the first of the month to 30 days later. The promised time window of generated work orders will always stay within the agreement start and end date, regardless of the booking flexibility window. 

Next, we need to set the Booking Recurrence to make sure we honor the terms of our service contract. For the quarterly fire extinguisher maintenance, we set the recurrence pattern to repeat monthly and create work orders on the first weekday of every third month. The start date corresponds to the start date of the agreement and has no end date defined.  .  

Monthly work order generation for assets 

The agreement booking setup details will be like the fire extinguisher maintenance.  

The filter maintenance for the dialysis machines needs to happen every month, so we set the recurrence pattern to the first day of every month for both agreement booking setup records. Like the quarterly recurrence, we set the start date to the start of our agreement contract with no end date. 

Because the dialysis machines exist as customer assets in our Field Service database, we use an incident type to apply a template with the right services, products, or characteristics for the work. Defining the incident type helps us set up recurring work orders for that asset. We will create two agreement booking setups, one for each asset. 

Activate and manage the Agreement 

With the fire extinguisher and dialysis machine maintenance in place, the agreement is ready for activation. Monthly and quarterly work orders will generate automatically, keeping the hospital’s critical assets up to date without manual intervention. 

When using many agreements to generate thousands of records, stagger their generation times to optimize the load on the system. You can use the Record Generate Time field to coordinate the timing or schedule of the load outside of business hours. 

To manage this agreement effectively: 

• Monitor and Adjust: Regularly review the work orders generated to ensure they meet contract terms and adjust as needed. 

• Prepare for Renewals: Use the regular touchpoints created by this agreement to assess additional client needs, preparing for renewals and potential upselling opportunities. 

Field Service agreements offer a powerful way to automate recurring work orders and other services, ensuring consistency and reducing administrative strain so businesses can deliver reliable service and focus on client satisfaction. 

As you try out agreements, we would love to hear how you think agreements should work and what you would like to see next in the product! Please connect with us on our community Ideas Portal! 

The post Use agreements in Field Service to automatically generate recurring work orders  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

An update is coming to the closed conversation form in Dynamics 365 Contact Center.  If the administrator has enabled the option, service reps can view the recordings and transcripts at the end of the conversation. They can also view sentiment analysis, key metrics, AI summary, post call survey results, and sessions in the conversation journey. Users can also access the AI summary for voicemails. Note that it will be a summary of the entire transcript (not just the voicemail). 

The Conversation Journey card provides comprehensive information regarding the number of agents in the call and other participants involved. It also provides the duration, date, and time for each segment of the conversation. A new session begins whenever a primary agent is reassigned to the conversation. Each session header displays the start time and total duration. Within each session, the primary agent is identified, including the time they were assigned and their participation status. When the primary agent exits the session, the session concludes, and the system records the closure reason along with the time of occurrence.  

To view Conversation Summaries, enable summaries in Copilot Service admin center by going to Insights and then Summaries. If a summary was generated when the call ended, it will be displayed. Otherwise, a new summary will generate when the transcript viewer loads.  

Admins can enable the Post-conversation survey tab in the conversation form in Copilot Service admin center under Voice call experiences. It displays CSAT scores, textual customer feedback, First Contact Resolution outcomes, and Net Promoter Scores. If admins don’t enable the tab or customers don’t complete the survey, service reps won’t see the tab in the UI. Calls with surveys go to the survey Microsoft Copilot for Service Copilot Bot after they end, not the agent. Specific entities set by Copilot Studio pull the survey data, and if any values are missing, their header does not appear. 

Learn more about AI summary

Watch a quick video introduction.

To learn more about the AI summary for conversation in Dynamics 365 Contact Center, read the documentation: View call recording and transcripts for voice channel | Microsoft Learn

The post Use the Contact Center AI summary for call quality management appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

We’re pleased to share that the previously announced Sales Order Agent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is now available for customers in paid public preview.

The first prebuilt agent in Business Central represents an important milestone in the changing landscape of business operations. As Microsoft Copilot begins to replace app-centric user interfaces, agents will automate process flows allowing businesses to save time, minimize repetitive tasks, and do more with fewer resources.

Let’s dig into what Sales Order Agent does.

What is Sales Order Agent in Dynamics 365 Business Central?

The Sales Order Agent is an autonomous tool for addressing, clarifying, and fulfilling customer requests received via email.

Here’s what the Sales Order Agent does in very basic terms:

1. Customer request: A customer sends an email requesting a sales quote.
2. Agent action: The agent processes the email, reviews the request, and finds the customer and requested items.
3. Quote creation: It verifies item availability, creates the sales quote, and prepares an email response.
4. User review: The agent engages with an end user to approve the quote before sending it to the customer.
5. Customer confirmation: The customer reviews the quote and requests an order.
6. Order conversion: The agent converts the quote to an order and sends a confirmation email to the customer.

Want to see what this looks like in action? Watch this video:

Pre-AI, this would be a reasonably straightforward workflow, but adding each sales line individually can be a laborious and error-prone task, and the workflow could bread down as soon as there were any bumps in the road, for example: What if a customer’s message is vaguely-worded? What if customers don’t approve the quotes? What if the customer isn’t recognized in the system?

The good news is that with the power of Copilot, Sales Order Agent has been meticulously engineered to proactively address these issues. Read more about scenarios and limitations.

Passing the power to the user

Sales Order Agent is engineered to take away the manual processes of simple order-taking from the end user, allowing them to spend more time on more strategic elements of managing a growing business, offering a faster turnaround for customers, and quicker realization of value. But the end user ultimately has control over Sales Order Agent operations:

• Users are, by default, notified to approve any outbound correspondence from the agent for accuracy and to ensure that appropriate actions have been taken.
• Users can at any time see a full picture of the task’s context and history (“timeline” view), including the key steps displayed in the Copilot pane.  
• Users will see a detailed review of each entity the agent created (such as sales quotes or sales orders), review all changes and suggestions the agent makes for a specific task, and adjust appropriately.
• Users have the power to discard the steps performed by the agent, adjust the quote or order as needed, and ask the agent to proceed with the flow.

All these actions (and more) provide users with the ultimate oversight, and over time, will improve the Sales Order Agent’s accuracy and usability.

Learn more about how this works in practice.

The business value of autonomous sales orders

So, in a world where you’ve taken away the mundane tasks of cross-referencing customer discounts and terms, double and triple-checking inventory, and fumbling through procurement systems to generate purchase orders, there are naturally repercussions throughout your business.

Outside of the binary gains that have been mentioned already, let’s talk about what this next step in autonomous ERP processes can help enable:

• Scale your business without the traditional friction that accompanies growth: Traditionally, scaling up a business was a resource balancing act: How do we ensure that we’re able to meet the product, relationship, and personnel needs to increase operations? While the Sales Order Agent certainly doesn’t erase the full scope of challenges inherent with a growing business, it can help eliminate some of the friction by automating the systems that work within your current install base.
• Sales spends more time doing what sales does best: Rather than getting sidelined with lengthy order evaluations and wasting time on guaranteed revenue, sales reps can focus on building client relationships, generating net-new business, and evaluating ways to expand existing customer relationships with the knowledge that transactional interactions are managed automatically, with their oversight, when needed.
• Enjoy greater data accuracy across all systems of record: Business Central has always allowed finance, supply chain, and CRM systems to work in harmony with one another, and by further eliminating the prospect of human error, this is extended even further. This positive feedback loop will be further enhanced by prebuilt agents in the future, along with the custom agents that partners and end users build to help minimize clicks to complete and realize the goal of end-to-end ERP automation.

Sales Order Agent

Now available for customers in paid public preview

Learn more

Agents: The next frontier of AI

Our Dynamics 365 Business Central team is pleased and proud to bring this first agentic experience to market, but this is—of course—only the first. With our Payables agent launching later this year, along with the ability for partners and customers to design their own agentic workflows into Business Central, now is the time to begin this journey toward end-to-end business process automation.

If you’re a current Business Central customer, be sure to talk to your partner about how you can easily activate Sales Order Agent and accelerate your time to value in every inbound sales interaction today.

New to Business Central? See how partnering with Microsoft can accelerate your growth and unlock a new level of operational oversight and efficiency.

The post Sales Order Agent in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: Now in public preview appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

In today’s rapidly evolving manufacturing landscape, staying ahead of the curve is not just an option—it’s a necessity. A new white paper titled “The Business Value of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Manufacturers” analyzes how manufacturers are using Dynamics 365 to enhance their operations, drive innovation, and achieve significant cost savings. A treasure trove of insights and data, it’s an essential read showing how Dynamics 365 is revolutionizing operations and driving innovation for manufacturers.

“There are many benefits of Dynamics 365, but the largest for my organization has been using task automation and process automation to improve productivity, streamline workflows, and reduce manual errors. Another large benefit is that the software has become a single source of truth for data. Having centralized data has enabled my organization to have more actionable insights through dashboards and reports. The real-time data visibility has made it easier to steer and improve our customer interaction.” 

Dynamics 365 Customer

Why this analysis matters 

The white paper is a result of extensive research by IDC, which conducted in-depth interviews with seven organizations that have implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 to evaluate the value that Dynamics 365 brings to the manufacturing sector. The study provides a clear picture of the financial, operational, and strategic benefits of adopting Dynamics 365. With the increasing complexity of manufacturing operations and the need for digital transformation, it’s crucial for organizations to understand how Dynamics 365 can help them meet the challenges they face.

The findings from the study aren’t just theoretical. They’re backed by real-world data and experiences of companies that have realized tangible benefits from using Dynamics 365. Here are some highlights from the white paper: 

1. Significant financial benefits: The research reveals that organizations that use Microsoft Dynamics 365 achieve an average annual benefit of $20.6 million each, which translates to $7.4 million per 1,000 active users. The return on investment is substantial, with a three-year ROI of 301%. 

2. Enhanced operational efficiency: Dynamics 365 lead to a 27% increase in manufacturing process automation, a 15% boost in production floor team productivity, and an 85% reduction in unplanned asset downtime. These improvements translate to quicker order and product delivery times, reduced scrap costs, and more productive supply chain and procurement teams. 

3. AI-powered business processes: One of the standout features of Dynamics 365 is its integration of AI and machine learning. The platform’s AI agents can autonomously coordinate complex workflows, turning insights into action. With this capability, organizations can anticipate and mitigate disruptions, driving business performance in today’s dynamic landscape. 

IDC’s key discoveries about Dynamics 365 

The white paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the key benefits and capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365. Here are some of the key points that IDC found: 

1. More efficient manufacturing: Dynamics 365 enhances team performance, minimizes downtime, and optimizes supply chains and product delivery operations. This leads to significant improvements, revolutionizing operations and driving innovation in overall manufacturing efficiency. 

2. Cost savings: Dynamics 365 improves scrap utilization, enhances quality management, and provides better project cost estimates, with substantial cost savings for organizations. 

3. Enhanced financial operations: Dynamics 365 reduces the time needed to close monthly accounting books and improves the performance of inventory finance and accounts payable teams, leading to more efficient financial operations and better financial management. 

Maximizing the value of this analysis  

The white paper isn’t just a collection of data points—it’s a roadmap for manufacturers looking to transform their operations. Here are some of the benefits for readers: 

1. Informed decision-making: The detailed analysis and real-world examples can help business leaders make informed decisions about investing in Microsoft Dynamics 365. Financial metrics such as the average annual benefits provide a clear picture of the potential returns on investment. 

2. Operational insights: The white paper offers valuable insights into how Dynamics 365 can streamline manufacturing processes, improve inventory management, enhance financial operations, and optimize supply chains. These insights can help organizations identify areas where they can achieve significant efficiency gains. 

3. Strategic planning: The white paper discusses the broader implications of digital transformation in the manufacturing sector. It emphasizes the importance of connecting multiple data models across the organization to ensure consistent synchronization of go-to-market, R&D, production, supply chain, and service initiatives. Such a holistic approach is crucial for achieving a true life-cycle approach to innovating, producing, and delivering products to customers. 

4. Future-proofing operations: The analysis demonstrates how manufacturers can position themselves for future success by adopting Microsoft Dynamics 365. The platform’s AI-powered capabilities and cloud-based infrastructure enable organizations to grow faster, deliver meaningful impact, and drive business performance. The white paper also discusses the importance of building economies of intelligence to collate, analyze, and consume business data, critical for manufacturers looking to the future. 

Discover the benefits

MANUFACTURING BENEFITS 

• 15% more production floor team productivity 

• 85% less unplanned asset downtime 

• 40% quicker order/product delivery time 

• 10% reduction in scrap costs 

• $467,000 in annual scrap cost savings 

• 20% more productive supply chain and procurement teams 

• $2.8 million in revenue generated from improvements in the accuracy of project costs 

INVENTORY AND SALES BENEFITS 

• 20% more productive inventory management teams 

• $3.5 million in annual inventory related cost savings 

• 14% more productive sale and marketing teams 

FINANCE BENEFITS 

• 29% less time required to close end of the month books 

• 18% more productive invoice, finance and accounts payable teams 

Conclusion 

“The Business Value of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Manufacturers” is an invaluable resource for business leaders looking to transform and future-proof their manufacturing operations and drive meaningful business performance. It not only highlights the significant benefits of adopting Dynamics 365 but also provides a clear roadmap for achieving these benefits. Discover for yourself how Dynamics 365 is revolutionizing operations and driving innovation for manufacturers.

“Dynamics 365 helps to automate a lot of processes to reduce transactional work for the business, especially for the sales and purchasing departments. We have really shifted the focus of these people to do more business with their suppliers and customers rather than spending time in transactional business.” 

Dynamics 365 Customer

Learn more 

Not yet a Dynamics 365 customer? Take a tour and start a free trial. 

Source 

¹IDC White Paper, sponsored by Microsoft, The Business Value of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Manufacturers, doc #US53226425, March 2025 

The post Transforming manufacturing with Microsoft Dynamics 365: A comprehensive analysis  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

We’re thrilled to introduce the public preview release of Scheduling Operations Agent, a feature for Dynamics 365 Field Service enabling dispatchers to improve technician schedules quickly and efficiently. Transform dispatching in Dynamics 365 Field Service today!

In field service organizations, scheduling is not just an operational task, it is a promise to customers about when their issues will be addressed. Traditionally, this complex process requires dispatchers to juggle numerous factors including technician skillsets, travel time, and promise windows. As conditions change throughout the day, such as traffic delays or appointment cancellations, dispatchers spend a lot of manual effort with time-consuming and intricate workflows to update schedules. 

The Scheduling Operations Agent allows dispatchers to quickly and easily optimize technician schedules within seconds, ensuring that your customers receive timely and efficient service. You can enable this agent to transform dispatching in your Dynamics 365 Field Service environment using the instructions here. 

Optimizing technician schedules with custom settings 

Wherever you are in the Dynamics 365 Field Service application, reviewing work orders or analyzing the schedule board, you can use Copilot to bring up the Scheduling Operations Agent. After specifying the technician for whom you want to optimize the schedule, you can select among the optimization goals: 

• Maximize utilization: suggest a schedule so that the technician completes more work orders, taking priority and promise windows into consideration while minimizing travel time. 

• Front-load high priority work: prioritize the inclusion of more high priority work orders, at the expense of more travel time.  

When optimizing the schedule, the agent considers existing bookings as well as additional unfulfilled requirements. You can influence the schedule generated by the agent by crafting requirement views according to business objectives. For example, if you are trying to compensate for cancelled bookings, you may want to select requirements which have promise windows which are soon to expire. 

You can optimize the schedule over a time range that can be up to 72 hours in duration. 

Also, you can further influence how the agent produces a suggested schedule by specifying whether or not it should: 

• Match the characteristics of the bookings and requirements with those of the technician. 

• Match the territory of the bookings and requirements with those of the technician. 

• Consider the time constraints of the bookings and requirements. 

• Consider the historic traffic information (e.g. rush hour patterns) when calculating travel time.  

Read our documentation to learn more about adjusting the behavior of the agent. 

Optimize with confidence

When there are dozens of jobs to be scheduled, dispatchers need to have confidence in the optimization result. With each autonomous scheduling recommendation, dispatchers can delve into the details to review and approve, combining the efficiency of AI with the crucial oversight of experienced eyes. This collaboration ensures that every schedule is optimized and locked in with confidence. 

When using the Scheduling Operations Agent, the dispatcher can compare the original schedule with the suggested schedule in a Gantt chart and compare the travel routes. 

Learn more 

The Scheduling Operations Agent is now available in preview to customers with Dynamics 365 Field Service. Its use requires Copilot Studio capacity packs. To learn more about enabling the agent and using it, read the documentation. 

The post Transform dispatching in Dynamics 365 Field Service with Scheduling Operations Agent  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Today, we’re introducing updates that will help centralize user license management and provide clarity for administrators. Starting April 30th, administrators will have access to license usage reporting that shows seats available and seats assigned. For users that have not yet been assigned a license, they will start to see an in-product notification asking them to contact their administrator to request license assignment. Beginning August 30th, users will require an assigned license to access the Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations applications. We are giving customers time to prepare with tools and training to support any action needed. For users that already have licenses assigned, there will be no disruption, and no action needed from their administrator.   

Key Dates and Actions for Simplified License Management 

Starting April 30, 2025, we will introduce enhanced license reporting in the Power Platform admin center, offering comprehensive insights into license usage across all security roles. Users who do not meet license requirements will receive proactive notifications directly within the Dynamics 365 application, instructing them to request proper licensing through their administrator. This improvement supports your efforts to maintain precise control and ensures compliance while reducing administrative overhead. 

Beginning August 30, 2025, all Dynamics 365 customers will be required to assign user licenses directly through the Microsoft 365 admin center for the following applications: 

• Finance 

• Finance Premium 

• Supply Chain Management 

• Supply Chain Management Premium 

• Commerce 

• Project Operations (in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations) 

• Human Resources 

This shift toward centralized license assignment underscores our commitment to simplifying administrative processes, providing greater visibility and governance, and enhancing the overall licensing experience across the Microsoft Cloud. 

To maintain continuous access and avoid disruptions in the future, we recommend organizations proactively review and assign licenses in advance.  Users without assigned licenses will no longer have access to these applications and will instead receive prompts to request the appropriate licenses from their administrator.  

Preparing for a Smooth Transition 

As we approach this important milestone, we encourage you to: 

1. Review the “Finance and Operations User license level overview report” in the Power Platform admin center. 

2. Begin assigning your Dynamics 365 licenses in the Microsoft 365 admin center today. 

Taking these steps will help ensure a smooth transition before August 30, 2025, and position your organization for success in managing licenses across Microsoft Cloud solutions. 

Take control of your license reporting: 

Now, administrators can better understand and govern licenses with the improved license reporting capabilities available in both the Power Platform admin center as well as in Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS). We have also introduced in-product reporting to provide further control. 

1) In the Power Platform admin center 

Within Power Platform admin center (PPAC), administrators will have access to comprehensive license reporting for required seats. This report also reflects the number of assigned seats from the Microsoft 365 admin center and provides recommended actions to help remediate assignment gaps.  

2) In Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS) 

Similarly, in LCS we will be directly integrating the same reporting information from PPAC as part of our admin unification efforts.  This ensures that administrators from both the customer and their system implementation partner will have access to the same reporting details and actions as administrators in PPAC. 

3) In-product reporting 

User Security Governance is also now in Public Preview with Dynamics 365 version 10.0.43, providing administrators with even greater visibility and control. General availability for these features is targeted for July 2025 with version 10.0.44. Customers can opt into these features through Feature Management and test them in sandbox environments ahead of broad deployment. 

Learn More 

Ready to get started with a centralized license assignment? Learn how to assign Dynamics 365 licenses through the Microsoft 365 admin center or explore the recent FastTrack Tech Talk | User Security Governance Overview. 

Microsoft remains dedicated to empowering your organization with the tools and resources needed to thrive in today’s complex business environment. These license management improvements are just one more way we’re working to simplify your experience and help you focus on what matters most—delivering value to your customers and driving operational excellence. 

The post Simplifying License Management for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations: Improved User License Validation appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.