Use Cases for Dynamics 365 Portals
Microsoft made a strategic move with the transition to the Dynamics 365 product by dividing the previous modules into standalone apps – Customer Engagement– henceforth referred to as CE Apps.
Organizations, whether we are using one or even all the apps on CE, are constantly engaging with the customer, building the data in the App or sharing the output from it.
Documents and data for Customers go through different organizations from Marketing to Billing. Sales department create quotes, Accounts and Finance create and share Invoicing details or Customer Service Desk share statuses on Cases resolutions, and Project teams share Plans, Tasks, Milestone updates.
All this Process Redundancy, Email Clutter and Dual Data Entry can be streamlined by sharing data directly with the end customers through the Microsoft CRM – Dynamics 365 Portal for the Customer Engagement and Custom applications.
The Dynamics 365 Portal is the tool to surface specific entities and records from within the Customer Engagement apps to enable processes with external collaborators and stakeholders like your customers and partners.
On the Dynamics 365 Portal, the Organization can define the audience it wants to invite, define the data it wants to be exposed, define the Role of the User logging in and define the entire User Experience.
Also, read – Top 10 Reasons to Invest in a Dynamics 365 Portal
Dynamics 365 Portals Use Cases
Customer service
Customer Service departments receive inbound calls and emails every day to request help. These interactions can often result in cases, incidents or trouble tickets that need to be resolved for the customer. In case of Organizations using CE Apps when cases are surfaced via a portal, users can create, update, add attachments or even comment on cases themselves, bypassing the need to Search/Speak directly with people in the organization, just use the inherent routing rules.
Exposing Knowledgebase articles helps deflect a lot of repetitive cases and prompts customers towards Self–Servicing. The Analytics on time spent, Entitlements remaining and consumed, Service-related invoices are data points that can be made available on the Portal. An added dimension of Live Chat can be added for a more focused service.
Finance and Accounts
Invoicing is another common use–case for customers with Recurring or consumption-based billing. Work 365’s recurring invoices are automatically made available for customers to view and download from the self-service portal. Enabling integration to an E–Commerce portal and a Payment Gateway can make the experience 360 degrees complete for the Customer.
Sales and Marketing
Partners and Sales Consultants can access Marketing collateral – flyers, decks, etc. from CE Apps using secure access to the Portal.
They can add/ update the Accounts, Leads, Opportunities* and Contacts using the well–defined Dynamic Role Matrix. Working directly on the same CE application, the Sales Pipeline is always updated and information, correct.
The Marketing department and New product team can use the Portal Dashboard to announce upcoming events and Product Launches to the Customer/ Partners. Customers can request new Products and services and schedule meetings with the Account Manager.
Projects
Teams can Collaborate on projects not only for sharing Proposals, Kick–off decks, Scope documents, etc., but also to get approval on Time Spent, discuss and escalate Risks, surface Upcoming Tasks and share Invoices from the Portal
As a closing note – The key to any successful engagement is delivering the right information to the right users at the right time. Since Portals are device-agnostic, Organization business operations can extend from the back (and front) office to the smartphones, tablets, and desktops of customers – always available and always on!