Top 10 Reasons to Invest in a Dynamics 365 Portal

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While each Organization must find its own trigger, I’ve laid out some common underlying set of reasons which resonate across Organizations 

1) Productivity

  • Repeated and redundant Tasks of creating, updating and maintaining data, especially when it is worked on by multiple groups within and outside the organization is done away with.  
  • Setting notifications and alerts on relevant Portal activity, ensures users are informed of updates pertaining to their concerned areas. 
  • Effective use of Dashboards can showcase synopsis of updated information 
  • Allowing external users to create, update and view requisite information – data and documents, using inbuilt application validations and security, saves the Organization time and effort consumed to update it on the System from the shared location

2) Cost-effective 

  • Did you know that you have a free portal? * Every Organization who has 10 Enterprise licenses has a Portal which can be used for Collaboration and Service 
  • Its hosted for free on the Microsoft cloud – which means that there is no monthly hosting charge 
  • It comes with an inbuilt SSL certificate and a domain name– so no hassle of any purchase or renewal there too 
  • The only cost is what it takes to build and configure it. Provided that the required skillsets on Html, JavaScript, and Liquid are available, adding pages and content are completely do-able tasks

3) Inherent Integration

  • The Portal has seamless Integration with all CRM objects and entities. No external tools or services are needed for the communication
  • Real-time data updates and transfers make it an extended arm of the core CRM application.  

4) Secure sharing 

  • Multiple authenticating options – LinkedIn, Facebook, Azure AD, etc. are available along with the ability to implement Single Sign-on with O365 enable sharing data from secure CRM   
  • Being equipped with SSL, data transfer over the web transfer over an Encrypted pipe which is backed up with Microsoft certifications  

5) Real-time 

  • While the Organization can easily only surface specific data which it wants to from within CRM, real-time updates make it seem like working on the same database with 2 front ends.   

6) Choice of interaction 

  • The portal allows Organizations to provide an alternative mode of communication to its Customers, Employees and Partners. Take an example of a Customer Service department being able to service not merely through Email, Chat and Phone, but now through the web too.
  • Time can be booked for Field Service Visits and Pre–Sales meetings from within the Portal itself and directly integrate with the CRM Resource Board and Target achievements, making it a great choice or Self- servicing 

7) Transparency 

  • Being real-time, Sales and Customer Service Organizations are benefitted. Be it the closure of Opportunities or meeting and beating SLAs, everything can be easily recorded and shared transparently. 

8) Always on 

  • Portals come in build with the Microsoft assurance of being 99.99% on. 

9) Marketing, Analytics, and Insights 

  • Quickly link your Portal web pages to Google Analytics to understand adoption and effectiveness.  
  • Link to the Portal from your corporate website for users to Login to create a seamless experience of viewing secure information pertaining to their engagement only 
  • Display Events and Announcements on your Portal to inform your niche audience about the most important happenings, achievements, and Offers 
  • Understand if your Portal draws an audience to your knowledge base, your Shared Invoices, Project Status/ timesheets, or available field service schedules.

10) Choose your Audience and Content 

  • Send invitations to your niche clients and partners and let them view and add to your data store. You can roll out the portal in phases and expose data as its ready. 
  • Grant roles in CRM to your Portal Users and allow them to access only to specifically surfaced data

If you are an organization using Dynamics 365, and you have identified that the time is right to invest in a Dynamics 365 portal *– do it now. Your free to use Portal is lying wasted!

*Check the blog “Introduction to the Dynamics 365 portal” 

**check the blog “The right time to invest in the dynamics portal”