Each small to midsize business faces unique challenges, but perhaps most widespread is a SMB’s struggle to find software that works well for their needs. Often technology SMBs use are made for enterprise-sized businesses, and are therefore inefficient, too expensive, or missing important functionalities the SMB needs. Businesses shift as time passes, and its technology needs to be able to do the same. Let’s take a look at six ways Microsoft Dynamics 365 benefits SMBs.

What is Dynamics 365?

Dynamics 365 is a suite of cloud-based business applications created by Microsoft. Each app can be used on its own, or it can integrate with other Dynamics 365 apps. When used together, these applications are a unified, seamless business solution.

Historically, one of the largest barriers to start or expand a business is large initial costs that a company cannot afford or sees as too much of a risk to invest in. Dynamics 365 products are cloud-based, which means infrastructure and IT costs are low. There are no upgrade or maintenance fees because the company does not implement upgrades or do their own maintenance. Because cloud-based services are hosted by Microsoft, all of these things are taken care of without the company needing to worry about them. And of course, the ever-growing value of cloud-based products is the flexibility of being able to work anywhere, anytime.

Benefit 1: Pay for what you need

Dynamics 365’s payments are a la carte. There’s no one-size-fits-all mentality here: each SMB needs different functionalities, and those needs evolve as time goes on. So, a company only pays for the apps they need out of what Dynamics 365 has to offer. If a company needs Dynamics 365 Marketing and Business Central, but not Sales, that’s fine!

And if you need other Dynamics 365 apps in future, you can add them as needed.

Benefit 2: Flexible licensing, easy to scale

There are no huge upfront investments to get started with Dynamics 365 applications when licensed via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) method. To allow flexibility and easy scalability, user licenses can be added or removed for any application, for any employee from month to month. An employee gets promoted and needs access to a new application to perform their new duties? No problem.

With monthly licensing adaptable to fit the SMB’s need at that given moment, the business has transparency and control over their costs.

Benefit 3: Integrates with other Microsoft products, like Office 365 and Teams

When technology is piecemeal and siloed, efficiency declines while redundancy and frustration skyrocket. However, Dynamics 365 products are designed to work together. In fact, they integrate seamlessly with other Microsoft products, too. Like an outfit put together by a stylist, each add-on, app, or extension is perfectly aligned with other Microsoft products. For instance, when Microsoft Teams integrates with Dynamics 365 Sales, an employee can call a prospect or join a meeting all within the same screen while still being able to take notes and see the prospect’s information in Sales and a live transcript of the current call. By using Teams and Sales together, the transcript, recording, and highlights from the Teams call will be saved in Dynamics 365 Sales, as well as any notes the employee took from the call. This means that any past interaction information is available to an employee before they make another call.

Benefit 4: Customize apps or use out-of-the-box

Dynamics 365 applications can be used immediately out-of-the-box, lending agility to a company’s functions. However, the true beauty of Dynamics 365 applications is that they are customizable to the unique business needs and/or role of any given employee or user. Syvantis works with clients to truly understand their business and customize their applications to fit specific needs.

The Unified Interface (UI) in Dynamics 365 model-driven apps create a consistent user experience across devices such as tablets, phones, and computers. No matter where a user logs into a Dynamics 365 app with United Interface, they will see a similar and optimal display. UI can be customized for the needs of any SMB. For instance, Syvantis can create a UI app in Dynamics 365 Sales that will streamline the Sales app by limiting what on-the-go sales representatives see on their mobile devices, making it easier to input sales notes and quotes while they are in the field.

Benefit 5: Security and compliance

A SMB has the added stressor of needing the same level of security and compliance of an enterprise-sized business, but with fewer resources and a lot less money to put towards it. If a company wants to be global, the security and compliance shifts based on location, adding further complications. SMBs make up 28% of security breaches, and over half of businesses who experience a data breaches end up closing. Perhaps it goes without saying: for a SMB, security and compliance is a constant concern and area of need.

But when you use Microsoft cloud applications, your security is their security. Data is consistently and automatically backed up (and this is customizable by admins) and updates are implemented on schedule. SMBs don’t have to worry about compliance based on location, and they don’t need to spend money on protecting or staffing on-premises servers.

Benefit 6: Transparency and transfer of data via Dataverse

Transparency and consolidation of information reduces redundant and time-consuming data entry and helps a company make informed decisions. Most Dynamics 365 applications—such as Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service—share the same database, so when data is added or updated in one application, that addition or update is instantly available in all applications sharing that database. For instance, add information to a lead record in Dynamics 365 Marketing, and that data will immediately appear on the lead record in Dynamics 365 Sales.

Get started

Businesses that can adapt and shift are most resilient and successful. Dynamics 365 affords SMBs the immense flexibility they need to both hit the ground running and scale as needed. Add or remove any application licenses in the amounts needed monthly and customize them for optimal use. Integrating Dynamics 365 applications with other Microsoft business products is seamless and will enhance the company’s efficiency, and the Dataverse will aid transparency of information across many Dynamics 365 applications.

Schedule a call with our Dynamics 365 team to dive into how specific Dynamics 365 apps can improve your business processes and integrate with other applications.