To understand Dynamics 365, let's first understand Microsoft Cloud competencies and the overall cloud vision. Microsoft Cloud has numerous offerings and services; Microsoft categorizes these offerings into four broad categories, namely Modern Workplace, Business Applications, Application and Infrastructure, and Data & AI. Each of these categories comprises of multiple applications and services.
The following are the visual highlights of these four categories:
As shown in the preceding visual, Modern Workplace combines Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility and Security, and it is offered as Microsoft 365. The Business Applications category is a combination of ERP and CRM business applications and is offered as Dynamics 365. The third category is Cloud Application and Infrastructure, which is powered by Azure. The last category, Data & AI, deals with data, AI, and analytics.
Turning our focus back to the Business Applications category, in the business application word, business leaders are looking for greater business process automation to achieve digital transformation. What gets in the way today is monolithic application suites, which try to solve business process automation as a single application; you need modular applications built for a specific purpose, but at the same time, you need these applications to talk to each other and produce a connected graph of data that can be further used for AI and analytics. Microsoft, from the past several years, has been focused on building modern world purpose-built modular, integrated applications infused with AI and analytics capabilities.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the next generation of intelligent business applications in the Cloud. Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a unification of the current CRM and ERP Cloud solutions into one Cloud service, delivered by purpose-built applications. It enables end-to-end business processes driven by unified navigation, has a core user experience in how they look and feel, and also allows seamless integration with each other. Microsoft Dynamics 365 further extends Microsoft's commitment of being a cloud-committed company bringing in world-class business apps together in their overall cloud offering. The Dynamics 365 applications can be independently deployed. A customer can start with what they need, and as the business demands, the customer can adopt additional applications.
Many of you may be new to Microsoft Dynamics 365, and it would be a good idea to register the logo/brand image of this solution from Microsoft. The following is a common symbol that you should expect to gain a lot of traction among organizations embracing business applications in Microsoft Cloud:
Let's now explore the key deciding factors for adopting Microsoft Dynamics 365 in your organization's day-to-day life, with the help of its usage benefits and salient features.