When working with a Microsoft application like Outlook, you’ll notice the emphasis on productivity throughout the entire application interface, not to mention a seamless connection between all the business applications you might need from Microsoft.

In fact, the ability for all your systems to work in sync was likely a huge draw to Business Central in the first place. Business Central can be easily integrated to an Outlook account, but did you know that there’s a way to open up and work within Business Central, right from your Outlook window?

You get the most out of your ERP when it’s a best-fit solution for your business needs, allowing you to reap the benefits of saving time, getting more work done, and building cleaner processes. Even long after your implementation, there are plenty of ways to keep building up Business Central as a highly customized system that empowers users to do more with the tools they’re provided. Working with Role Centers is another way to make Business Central work exactly how you need it to.

In CRM, the command bar is the strip at the top of page that contains a bunch of different functions for the page. Recently, Microsoft has implemented an improved functionality for customizing the command bar to the Power Apps designer for CRM apps.

On its own, Microsoft Teams give great tools like messaging, calling, file sharing, and much more. Dynamics 365 Sales, on the other hand, provides a plethora of tools for sales teams to better engage leads and customers. By combining these two products, we can expand the capabilities of both. Teams can be integrated with Dynamics 365 Sales to allow for conversations to start directly from records, initiate calls to customers, or link records into Teams channels.

In this newest rollout of features (2023 Release Wave 1), Business Central is seeing a shift to how users can customize their workspaces to serve them best. With the goal of always being able to quickly adapt to new needs to facilitate company growth. In terms of system use, being able to view and enter data quickly and efficiently is paramount. So with this wave, all table fields will be unlocked so that any user can add them to their pages and personalize their workspace without the need to use extensions, saving time and cost.

Information has never been more widely and readily available than in the hyper-fast, cloud-driven reality we have today; yet, office workers can still spend upwards of 20% of their workdays searching through digital clutter for information. Sometimes that’s due to siloed systems, departments, teams, or processes that are due for an update.

As your organization’s CRM or Power Platform system administrator, you’re responsible for overseeing the permissions, settings, and functionality available to all your users, and you want to ensure that everyone has access to what they need to do their jobs efficiently day in and day out. When new employees are added to the system, or when current users need increased permissions, each request must be reviewed and approved by you – and the faster they are approved, the faster they can get logged in and start on essential tasks.

Dynamics 365 CRM users were eagerly awaiting enhancements to grids, and this new Grid control feature is the natural evolution from the previous read-only grid control and editable grids in model-driven apps. With it, you can now edit grids and add nested grids in groupings, making it much easier to see the target data in one location. Let’s check out the other features it offers, as well.

Next up in our Business Central Add-on Spotlight series is Nodus, who specialize in secure payment processing and accounts receivable automation specifically for the Microsoft Dynamics space. Join this collaborative webinar to learn more about Nodus’ solutions, watch a demo, and ask Nodus reps all your questions.

Business Central is a leading mid-market solution for businesses of all sizes that want their financial management software to do more for them – more automation, more collaboration between teams, more connected processes, and more insight into real-time data to make better decisions.

Simplifying financial routines is one of the biggest draws of an ERP, and Business Central comes fully featured with plenty of time-saving tools and modern additions that any team will appreciate.

Often, there are too many disconnected apps at play in the workplace, so the challenge is to ensure that any additional app you add to your tech stack is multifaceted and adds tangible value to your work process. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems provide useful tools to teams who attract leads, build rapport with opportunities, and support current clients. Here are a few of the ways that CRM apps within the Dynamics 365 suite can be more than just a CRM.

Efficiency is something we all strive for, but it seems as though only a lucky few can finish their workday without feeling bogged down or sidetracked one way or another. Not everyone has that natural luck, so that’s where Power Automate comes into play. Some Flows are specific to certain Microsoft applications like Business Central, Dynamics 365 Sales, or Dynamics 365 Marketing, but others can be used to facilitate just about anything.

A plethora of no-code-necessary, pre-built Flows are out there for the everyday user just looking to get started. Here are our picks for five prebuilt Power Automate Flows that can help make your everyday a breeze:

Acquainting yourself with all the apps and technology required to perform your job responsibilities is a hefty task, let alone using your tech stack with peak efficiency. That’s why it’s so beneficial when applications work together to help you do your job. Enter Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 applications. Built to seamlessly and natively integrate with each other, these business and productivity apps make it easier to transition from one to the other throughout your workday—sometimes without having to actually open another screen.

The Dynamics 365 suite of cloud-based business applications are always being improved as user needs are identified and the cutting edge of technology advances. The coming upgrade is Release Wave 1 of 2022, scheduled from April through September. Some of the foci for these updates across applications include leveraging data, AI, and ideal timing to create better experiences throughout the sales and marketing experience, simplifying onboarding, increasing productivity, optimizing collaboration, and improving connectors and integrations. Here’s an overview of what’s coming to Dynamic 365 apps—Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, and Business Central—for this release wave.

While Power Automate is intuitive and accessible for any level of coding experience, it does include its own set of vocabulary that must be learned, as with any new business application. To help you on your journey, whether you’re new to Power Automate or becoming reacquainted, below we’ve outlined the key terms you will encounter when working with Power Automate:

Things like real-time customer journeys, recommended actions, SMS messaging, and using natural language to create targeted segments are exciting (and relatively new) features that can help you connect with customers in the ways that matter most. Now, AI has been harnessed in Dynamics 365 Marketing for a new, imaginative feature called Content ideas.

Here’s how to use Content ideas to quickly generate on-message content to create personalized customer experiences:

Without a doubt, automation is at the front of the pack, in terms of efficiency-building technology. Automating processes within your business—especially time-consuming, manual, and repetitive tasks—can free up calendars and mindpower for activities that can lend more value to a business.

Enter Power Automate, an application made to connect other apps in order to help them work together to complete your tasks faster, with less effort from you. Power Automate is included these Office 365 subscription plans: Enterprise E3, Business Premium, and Business Essentials (head to our page for pricing and further details). We’ve compiled an overview of Power Automate for those wondering the key questions: what is it, what are its benefits, and how does it work?

Microsoft Teams provides businesses with an excellent solution for managing file storage and collaboration. It has its own editor for Word and other Microsoft 365 app files that can be useful for some quick, small changes. However, for larger edits and authoring, it is usually much easier to open the file in the corresponding desktop application such as Word. The functionality is usually better and the formatting can be a bit difficult when editing in Teams itself. New in the preview release of Microsoft Teams is the ability to set the default opening behavior.

Throughout the entire manufacturing marketing and sales process—from initial contact, to lead, opportunity, and quoting—all the way to order processing, a manufacturer constantly strives to optimize their processes. This makes sense; the faster and better they do their job, the more competitive they are through lower prices and more customers with increased satisfaction. There are countless moments along the sales and production pipelines with the potential to increase efficiency, and utilizing premier business solutions is perhaps the largest area of opportunity. ERP and CRM solutions such as Dynamics 365 offer features and functionalities to optimize business processes and are highly customizable to meet the needs of any manufacturer.

It’s been a while since we’ve been to in-person events. So as Community Summit 2021 approaches, we may wonder if our conference-attending skills are a little rusty? Well, whether you’ve attended two dozen conferences or none at all, it’s a worthy task to consider your approach to the conference. What do you want to get out of Summit? How can you best achieve your goals? You can’t have it all, but you can get what you want the most. Today we’ll cover six tips for successful conference experiences you can leverage to squeeze every last drop of value out of Summit.