According to our Forrester Consulting study, software that helps organizations elevate field service delivery can improve financial performance in two ways: by helping increase customer retention and expansion by exceeding service expectations, and by increasing productivity. We are pleased to share the results of a December 2023 Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact^TM (TEI) Study commissioned by Microsoft. Forrester calculates Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service delivered benefits of $42.65 million over three years to a composite organization. The total investment required was $9.5 million and provided a ROI of 346% with a payback period of less than six months. 

Methodology and purpose 

TEI is a methodology developed by Forrester Research to assist companies with technology-related purchase decisions by providing business decision-makers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of the technology on the entire organization. 

Forrester Consulting interviewed 11 representatives from seven organizations with experience using Dynamics 365 Field Service to conduct this TEI study. The characteristics of these businesses and the results of the interviews were then aggregated to develop a composite organization. The key findings of the study are based on the composite organization and are summarized below. 

Key challenges 

The organizations that were interviewed for the study shared the following challenges prior to adopting Dynamics 365: 

•  Lack of visibility into field service status
•  Communication issues among management, sales, and service teams
•  Technicians’ inability to complete work orders in a timely fashion

With these challenges top of mind, the interviewees sought to invest in a solution that could improve the productivity and efficiency of their field service teams, enable cost savings, and lead to customer retention and profitability.  

Key findings 

Dynamics 365 Field Service helps organizations deliver onsite service to customer locations. The application includes work order automation, scheduling algorithms, asset servicing, mobility, Microsoft 365 integration, and infusion of generative AI through Copilot to set up frontline workers for success when they are onsite providing service for customers. It is part of the larger Dynamics 365 portfolio of applications designed to work together to deliver efficiency and improve customer experience. 

Forrester’s study revealed seven quantifiable impact areas: increased first-time fix rate, increased field technician productivity, eliminated standard time-to-invoice delays, avoided travel time, improved dispatcher productivity, enhanced management productivity, and retired legacy solutions. 

We examine each of these areas below in more detail to understand how Dynamics 365 Field Service delivers value across field service organizations. 

Increased first-time fix rate 

Sending out field technicians to resolve customer issues is expensive even for the first visit, so many organizations want to do everything they can to avoid a second truck roll to resolve a problem. Deploying Dynamics 365 Field Service helped the organizations to increase their first-time fix rates by ensuring that technicians could quickly locate equipment, understand history and problems, tap into institutional knowledge about problems, and ensuring they had stocked the appropriate parts for service. Increasing the first-time fix rates also helped these organizations avoid 12% of second visits by additional technicians to complete a service call.  

Increased technician productivity 

Interviewees found that Dynamics 365 Field Service helped to remove many administrative tasks, so field technicians could spend more of their time focusing on addressing customer issues. Organizations were also able to use the solution to find the best field technician for each job, determine the most efficient route for getting to a customer site, and ensuring that technicians were carrying the right parts and tools to fix the problems. In addition, the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist feature helped technicians use institutional knowledge, rather than having to spend time tracking down a peer or documentation. And both managers and technicians had greater visibility into technicians’ service calls, which helped them to plan for greater efficiency when scheduling customer work orders. All of this resulted in increasing field technician productivity by up to 14% once Dynamics 365 Field Service and Remote Assist were fully implemented. 

Decreased time to invoice customers 

An inability to integrate field service applications with key applications in finance often meant considerable time gaps between when a service order was completed and a customer was billed for service. One interviewee noted that using paper-based processes for invoicing service calls meant up to a month could go by before an invoice was sent, but after implementing Dynamics 365 Field Service, customers could be invoiced for work orders on the same day. For the composite organization, eliminating standard time-to-invoice delays resulted in $2.8 million savings in interest on accounts receivable.  

Avoided travel time 

One key challenge interviewees shared was that field technicians could lose significant time due to traffic delays or inefficient job routing, which required them to go out of their way to get to customer sites. With Dynamics 365 Field Service, dispatchers could ensure that planned routes were the most efficient and economical and that technicians’ routes were updated constantly to avoid potential slowdowns from traffic or road construction. The availability of mixed reality apps like Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Dynamics 365 Guides also meant that field technicians could get assistance without subject matter experts needing to be on-site. 

By using routing algorithms and traffic updates provided by Dynamics 365 Field Service, the composite organization can create more efficient schedules for technicians and save $2.1 million over three years. 

Improved dispatcher productivity  

Service dispatchers were often relying on highly manual processes to assign field technicians to jobs. Any change in staffing or scheduling increased inefficiency, especially since schedules were shared across whiteboards, spreadsheets, and calendar apps, meaning mistakes and deletions could be made. Dynamics 365 Field Service enables service organizations to automate scheduling and rescheduling for customer service calls. It also helps service managers match the best service technician for a work order based on time or expertise. One project manager interviewed for the study stated that having everything in one place provided better visibility for schedulers that helped them understand job progress and seamlessly include everyone in the workflow. 

Overall, the composite organization saw a 40% improvement in dispatcher productivity as well as cost savings of $1.6 million. 

Enhanced management productivity 

Some interviewees had reported that field service managers spent a lot of time resolving scheduling issues, tracking missing parts inventory, and following up on incomplete jobs. With the ability to automate more processes in Dynamics 365 Field Service, those field service managers found they had more time to focus on strategic tasks that help their teams improve in other ways. Because reporting provided managers with information they didn’t have access to before, they were able to get a clearer view into technician productivity, work order status, parts inventory, and other metrics that helped them discover and address gaps so they could meet monthly targets. Service managers also had greater visibility into areas where field technicians needed more training and support, so they could improve team performance overall. 

Service managers enhanced management productivity by 100 hours per year. 

Retired legacy solutions 

In the past, participant organizations used various combinations of email, calendar and scheduling apps, spreadsheets, or third-party field service tools to manage their field service efforts. Implementing Dynamics 365 Field Service, which integrates with Microsoft 365 apps such as Outlook and Microsoft Teams, helped to reduce licensing, administration, and maintenance costs for maintaining separate applications to support field service teams.  

Other benefits 

Beyond the quantified benefits detailed above, the organizations participating in the TEI study also experienced other benefits, including:  

• Improved customer experience through increased efficiency and more accurate updates about service calls. 
•  Enhanced employee experience by enabling field technicians to use their mobile phones to complete most of their work tasks. 
• Improve service delivery speed and quality by using Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service in their field service operations.  
• Access to mixed reality applications such as Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides to help support field technicians on service calls. 

Next steps 

As we have seen here, Forrester’s study uncovered seven quantifiable impact areas along with several other significant unquantifiable benefits. When combined, these factors resulted in benefits of $42.65 million over three years for the composite organization. The total investment required was $9.5 million, leading to a 346% ROI with a payback period of less than six months.

For a closer look at the results and to understand how Dynamics 365 Field Service can help your service organization, you can download and read the full study: The Total Economic Impact^TM of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service. 

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Source: Forrester: “The Total Economic Impact^TM of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service”, Forrester Research, Inc., December 2023.

The post Forrester study finds 346% ROI when modernizing service operations with Dynamics 365 Field Service  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Microsoft is dedicated to helping organizations transform the way people work using secure, enterprise-grade AI capabilities, no matter which business applications teams depend on. Starting today, you can seamlessly integrate role-specific Copilot capabilities into Microsoft 365 applications and popular customer relationship management (CRM) and contact center systems for sales and customer service professionals.  

Now generally available, Microsoft Copilot for Sales and Microsoft Copilot for Service bring together the power of Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 with role-specific insights and actions to streamline business processes, automate repetitive tasks, and unlock creativity. Both provide flexibility to integrate with your existing contact center and CRM systems, such as Salesforce and ServiceNow, to get more done with less effort.

Transform sales productivity with Copilot for Sales

Sellers today face more challenges than ever. A recent survey revealed that 79% of sellers are supporting more customers and accounts than the previous year.¹ Gartner® research recommends that to drive better sales impact, “sellers must relinquish some control over customer interactions and give AI-powered technology—generative AI, emotion AI and digital humans—more responsibility to execute core selling activities…Let salespeople focus on where they excel: engaging buyers on a human level to understand their needs, motivations and objections, and ultimately validate that a purchase is right for them.”²

At Microsoft, we have been working hard to deliver an AI solution that would address these needs. Last fall, we announced our vision for Copilot for Sales, an AI assistant designed for sales teams to maximize productivity and close more deals. We’re excited to announce that Copilot for Sales is now generally available. Copilot for Sales builds on Copilot for Microsoft 365, enhancing it with connectivity to CRM platforms like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Salesforce Sales Cloud to bring sales-specific insights and recommendations to apps like Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Word.

Today, Copilot for Sales helps sellers and sales managers:

• Generate sales meeting preparation briefs in Word.
• Summarize emails and surface relevant buying intent and budget, authority, need, timing (BANT) analysis in Outlook.
• Generate emails in Outlook with relevant product, account, relationship, and opportunity information from their CRM system and Microsoft Graph.
• Add leads and update CRM records directly from Outlook.
• View meeting preparation notes and real-time sales insights during calls in Teams.
• View sales meeting summaries in Teams with conversation analysis, sales keywords and KPIs, and suggested tasks.
• Create collaborative deal rooms in Teams that sync with CRM data.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is also included in Copilot for Sales, providing sellers with additional productivity enhancements, like:

• Generate presentations in PowerPoint.
• Generate plans and organize team information in OneNote.
• Ask questions in natural language to catch up on customer interactions using Microsoft Copilot’s chat experience.

Late this month, Copilot for Sales will also bring CRM connectivity to the Microsoft Copilot chat experience, allowing sellers and sales managers to get quick insights on conversion and win rate, sales cycle, and pipeline. Later this year, we plan to enhance Copilot experiences in Microsoft PowerPoint and OneNote as well, tailoring them to address seller-specific needs with CRM connectivity.

Early adopter customers of Copilot for Sales are already seeing an impact in their sales organizations. Avanade employees have been previewing Copilot for Sales capabilities like updating Dynamics 365 Sales records from Outlook, summarizing email threads, generating email drafts, and summarizing meetings with conversation intelligence. These AI capabilities have helped Avanade employees show their clients that they are top of mind, while helping them work more productively.

When we interviewed Copilot for Sales users at Avanade, they reported that Copilot minimizes the need to jump between different interfaces, and the email summary feature saves them 30 to 60 minutes per week. And the impact goes beyond just time savings; Copilot for Sales is improving the quality of sellers’ interactions with their customers as well.

“When our sellers can reduce the time spent on sifting through multiple channels to find what matters with Copilot for Sales, we can be more focused so that we can deliver with clients and drive our business strategy faster.”

—Jennifer Ferrara, Global Business Lead, Avanade

Read more about Avanade’s adoption of Copilot for Sales.

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Transform the agent experience with Copilot for Service

In December 2023, we introduced Copilot for Service—the next step in our journey to help organizations realize the benefits of generative AI by extending their existing investments in CRM and contact center solutions. We are excited to announce that Copilot for Service is now generally available.

Often, an organization’s knowledge is distributed across disparate systems—customer records and case histories in one or multiple CRM systems, along with information scattered across knowledge base articles, public websites, offline files, and more. As a result, agents are tasked with navigating multiple apps to not only access critical insights, but also then manage their engagement with customers, collaborate with internal teams, and take action. According to Gartner, “43 percent of (customer service) reps reported they were overwhelmed by the number of systems and tools needed to complete work.”³

Copilot for Service unlocks an organization’s trusted knowledge to accelerate onboarding and case resolution, improve efficiency, and automate tasks for agents in their flow of work. Without costly development time, organizations can simply point to their data and, in a few minutes, unlock generative AI-powered conversations across their knowledge bases. And for agents, they can tap into this knowledge with a copilot embedded directly in their desktop software of choice such as Salesforce, as well as the other tools they already use every day like Outlook and Teams.

Today, Copilot for Service can help organizations:  

• Enable generative AI-powered conversations across all of their data with simplified point-and-click access to public websites, SharePoint, knowledge base articles, and offline files.
• Access knowledge sources with pre-built integrations for Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk.
• Embed a copilot in agent desktops from Salesforce and other channels to support agents where they work.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is also included in Copilot for Service. We will introduce additional features in Microsoft 365 apps beginning later this month that will integrate data from CRM systems like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Salesforce Service Cloud including:

• In Outlook, use Copilot to summarize and draft emails, access case summaries, browse and update CRM records, and schedule meetings informed by case summaries and other relevant information from CRM records.
• In Teams, use Copilot to browse and update CRM records during a meeting, as well as recap meetings, suggest follow-up action items, and create tasks that can all be saved to CRM systems directly from Teams.
• In the Microsoft Copilot chat experience, use Copilot to ask questions over cases and contacts, as well as summarize cases—all from CRM data.

We’re thrilled to see the initial impact that our early adopter customers and partners are having with Copilot for Service. RSM, the leading provider of assurance, tax, and consulting services for the middle market, is equipping agents with the information they need to support customers without changing applications or searching through hundreds of knowledge articles.

“Six months ago, we launched a pilot focused on leveraging Microsoft Copilot for Service and Microsoft Copilot Studio, which provides a framework to build AI-enabled business processes. We have been working to execute against use cases for our own business with a focus on practical AI, and we are thrilled to now be in a position to bring this productivity enhancing technology to help clients implement AI for their businesses.”

—Christian Hutter, RSM’s Microsoft practice leader

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Take the next step

Both Copilot for Sales and Copilot for Service are available now for $50 per user/month, which includes the Copilot for Microsoft 365 license. If you already have Copilot for Microsoft 365, you can purchase Copilot for Sales or Copilot for Service for an additional $20 per user/month.

Learn more about Copilot for Sales and Copilot for Service.

Sources:

1. Microsoft. “Sellers’ attitudes about AI.” June 2023. An Ipsos study commissioned by Microsoft. Study included 700 participants who use professional CRM systems at organizations of at least 300 people. Industries include Financial Services, Professional Services, Manufacturing, Retail, Technology, and Healthcare.

2. Gartner Article, Focus Your Sellers on the Critical Art of Being Human, September 2023, https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/focus-your-sellers-on-the-critical-art-of-being-human
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

3. Gartner Ebook, Gartner for Customer Service The Connected Rep Deliver better customer service by enabling reps with technology, 2023, https://www.gartner.com/en/customer-service-support/trends/the-customer-service-customer-rep

The post Microsoft Copilot for Sales and Copilot for Service are now generally available appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

A guide for sales managers and sellers who want to improve their customer engagement and collaboration with multiple sequences now available across Dynamics 365 Sales. 

Productivity and efficiency are important to sales teams. Improving customer engagement, as well as collaboration when multiple team members work on an account, can be key to securing deals faster, and bringing better business results. With the support of multiple sequences in Dynamics 365 Sales, this now becomes easier than ever. 

In this blog, we will show you how you can streamline parallel sales processes, coordinate your sales efforts, and optimize your customer interactions. You will also learn how to create, manage, and monitor multiple sequences in Dynamics 365 Sales. Whether you are a sales manager or a seller, we will cover some useful tips and best practice to make the most of this powerful feature. 

Ready to boost your sales performance with multiple sequences? Sign up for a free trial of Dynamics 365 Sales today and discover how it can transform your sales organization. 

What are sequences and why do you need them? 

Sequences are a series of steps that sellers can follow to engage with customers and prospects in a consistent and effective way. They help sales managers provide guidance on best practices and ensure that every customer interaction is aligned with the sales strategy. Sequences can include various types of activities, such as emails, phone calls and tasks. In addition, sellers can utilize sequences as well, to automate their successful selling formulas and reduce manual work.

But what if you have multiple team members working on the same record (for example an account)? How can you ensure that they are not stepping on each other’s toes or sending conflicting messages to the customer? How can you leverage the expertise and skills of different sellers to create a better customer experience? 

This is where multiple sequences come in handy. Multiple sequences allow you to connect more than one sequence to a record, so that different sellers can work simultaneously on the same record with different sequences. For example, you can have an account manager and a solution architect working on the same opportunity, each with their own set of activities. This way, you can optimize your customer engagement and collaboration to drive better business outcomes. 

How to connect multiple sequences to a record? 

There are two ways to connect multiple sequences to a record: manually and automatically. 

• Manually connecting a record to a sequence: Connect a record to a sequence by using the connect sequence button on the record page to launch the connect sequence dialog. You can connect multiple sequences to a record at the same time, as long as the record owner or the sequence owner has the relevant permissions to do so. You can also disconnect a sequence from a record manually, by selecting the disconnect sequence button on the record page. 
• Automatically connecting a record to a sequence: Connect a record to a sequence by using the segmentation feature. Segmentation allows you to define criteria for a group of records that qualify for a sequence. For example, you can create a segment for all the opportunities that have a high probability of closing in the next quarter. You can then associate a sequence to that segment, so that whenever a record meets the criteria, it is automatically connected to the sequence.

How to assign a sequence to a different user than the record owner? 

By default, when a record is connected to a sequence, the sequence is assigned to the record owner. However, you may want to assign a sequence to a different user, depending on their role and responsibilities. For example, you may want to assign a sequence to a specialist role for a record, such as a solution architect or a technical consultant. 

To do this, you can use the sequence assignment feature. Sequence assignment allows you to select a field in the record entity or a related entity that can be used to assign the sequence. For example, if you have a field called opportunity_rep in the opportunity entity, you can assign the sequence to the user who is specified as the opportunity rep for that record. You can also use the properties pane to assign the sequence to the account owner, or owner/access team with capability to assign the sequence to a user with a specific role in the respective team. 

How to view the connected sequences and users for a record? 

Once you have connected multiple sequences to a record, you may want to view the connected sequences and the users who are working on them. This can help you get a better understanding of the customer engagement and collaboration happening on the record and what work is left to execute. 

To see the sequences and users that are linked to a record, you can select the sequence title from the Up next widget which will take you to the preview pane that shows all the sequences that are related to the record. The sequence preview gives you a full overview of the sequence, including the progress and activities for different paths. To see a sequence, choose the name of the sequence in the Up next widget. The sequence opens in a pane showing the list of activities that have been set up within it. 

You can also use the sequence stats report to see status, progress, and performance of each sequence. In addition, you can see the number of completed, overdue, and upcoming activities, as well as each email’s open rate, click rate, and conversion rate in the sequence.  

How to view sequence steps in a record using the Up next widget? 

In cases where a record is associated with multiple sequences, you may want to efficiently plan the execution by accessing all the available steps of these sequences. The new enhancements empower you to achieve precisely that! Now, the sequence name showcased on the Up next widget transforms into a clickable link. Upon clicking, it reveals a comprehensive list of all steps associated with that specific sequence. This feature facilitates the simultaneous viewing of both executed and upcoming steps in a single pane, streamlining the planning process for the subsequent steps. 

Conclusion 

Multiple sequences in Dynamics 365 Sales are a powerful capability that can help you improve your customer engagement and collaboration:

• By connecting multiple sequences to a record, you can optimize your sales process and leverage the skills and expertise of different sellers.
• By assigning a sequence to a different user than the record owner, you can ensure that the right person is doing the right activity.
• By viewing the connected sequences and users of a record, you can get a better insight into the customer communication and collaboration happening on the record.

With multiple sequences, you can drive better business outcomes and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. 

Next steps

Learn how to Improve Sales process efficiency using sequence insights – Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog  

Learn more about sequences and how to create them:  
Sequences in sales accelerator | Microsoft Learn  

Learn more about segments in sequences:  
Create segments and connect them to sequences | Microsoft Learn 

Explore our getting started templates to quickly create sequences and try them for yourself:  
Sequence templates | Microsoft Learn  

Don’t have Dynamics 365 Sales yet? Try it out now: Sales Overview – Dynamics Sales Solutions | Microsoft Dynamics 365 

The post Support parallel working with multiple sequences in Dynamics 365 Sales  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

In today’s global marketplace, translating applications is not just a nice-to-have, it’s a necessity. Providing native language versions of your software not only enhances user experience but also ensures compliance with regional laws and regulations, including language requirements. For select products, partners have the flexibility to create their own translations in countries where Microsoft does not provide a translated or localized version. 

Dynamics 365 Translation Service (DTS): Your partner in localization 

If you’re a partner or an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) looking to expand your reach through localization and translation, look no further than Dynamics 365 Translation Service (DTS). Hosted within Dynamics 365 Lifecycle Services (LCS), DTS is a comprehensive solution that enables end-to-end translation workflows. With DTS, you can create and manage translation projects with ease. It also provides seamless integrations with Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Azure DevOps, and Power Platform. Trusted by over 1,800 companies worldwide, DTS is your reliable partner for all your Dynamics 365 translation needs. 

High-quality translations with DTS 

What sets DTS apart is its use of product-specific machine translation models. These models are custom trained with Microsoft-produced translations, ensuring high-quality outputs that match the style and terminology of the original product. For those seeking a more personalized touch, DTS offers the option to create a custom-trained machine translation models using your own translation memories. This feature allows you to obtain translations that are tailored to your business’ existing content, providing a truly customized experience. 

Web Portal 

The DTS web portal is the primary means for interacting with the service. Through the friendly interface, you can create and manage translation projects. Once a translation request is completed, DTS provides the translated native file along with an XLIFF translation memory (TM). This TM can be used to revise the machine translation output and regenerate translations with the updated content. You can also use those TMs during future requests. Matching strings will be recycled, alleviating the need to edit the known translation again whilst maintaining consistency across product versions.  

Extensibility  

DTS offers a range of extensions and an API to enhance accessibility and enable automation. With the IDE extensions, translations can be performed directly within the respective workspaces. These offerings save you time by bringing the DTS experience to your development environment along with allowing for automated translation workflows.  

	Visual Studio Extension – Translate Finance and Operations solutions from the developer environment​.	Marketplace listing
	Visual Studio Code extension – Translate Business Central AL projects from developer environment.	Marketplace listing
	Azure Pipelines tasks –  Automated translations workflow against Azure DevOps repositories.	Marketplace listing
	Power Platform Connector  – No-code automated translation workflow.	Connector Reference
	API – Design and implement custom translation solutions.	Documentation

Supported Products 

DTS supports the following Dynamics products: 

Onboard to DTS today 

In the realm of translation project management, the Dynamics 365 Translation Service (DTS) prioritizes ease of use and efficiency. The DTS web portal, along with its API and extensions streamline your translation workflow. With DTS, you can deliver fast high-quality translations with ease and at no additional cost. This service is available to Dynamics partners and ISVs. To get started, or learn more visit these pages: 

• Dynamics Translation Service Documentation 
• Dynamics Translation Service Dashboard 
• Dynamics Translation Service Learn Module 

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