1.  What is the real purpose of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement? 

The goal and purpose of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement is to organize everything that you know about any given customer and all of their related contacts while also managing every touchpoint with each contact. Many people also track the relationships between each customer and other customers so that they can find additional opportunities throughout your network for successes and growth.

• There are also the new budding seeds of relationship where a new "lead" might become a potential prospect that then grows into a new customer.
• If you then layer in the AI features via Copilot, you can also use the intelligence engines of AI to find opportunity from this data. Opportunity to create more for your customers, opportunity to solve more issues or opportunity to sell more solutions.
• and given that we are never really starting from scratch, you also get the ability to communicate your well tested processes to those who might not be masters and once communicated, why not automate eliminating human rework.

2) What does it mean to be a Platform? 

We often think of Customer Engagement in terms of sales or customer service or even project management, but Microsoft has built the Power Platform to meet hundreds of different needs. All Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement apps are Model-Driven Apps, but there are thousands of more possibilities for the platform and millions of solutions in the market. If you need to capture data, organize that data, relate that data to other data, filter the entry of the data against business rules, report on the data, visualize the data, predict future data, use AI (Copilots) to do amazing things across data. The Power Platform has some incredible tools.

• Configure - Answer the questions that developers have embedded into the Model Driven apps to fine tune the choices and features that fit your industry and company.
• Customize - Add fields, data entry forms, business rules, charts, dashboards, lists/views, related and unrelated tables supported by the Power Platform and expected by the continuous development team.
• Extend - Develop on the Power Platform using high code or low code to do even more with the platform. Create custom solutions within a framework of expected patterns (aka following the software developer recommendations and kit (SDK)) All with the ability to tap into or use even more of the Microsoft Framework and stack of awesome or to interact with third party options.

And questions from ChatGPT with my answers in Spring Green.

1. "How customizable is the system to match our unique processes?"

Clients often have distinct workflows and want to know how well the CRM can be tailored without heavy coding. They may also ask about what’s configurable out of the box versus what requires development.

The Power Platform is BUILT to be customized and configured and integrated too.

2. "How do we ensure user adoption?"

Resistance to change is common. Clients want strategies to get buy-in from their team—often asking about training, ease of use, and how to align the CRM with existing habits to increase engagement.

Adoption is driven by a need and a product that solves pain points. Sometimes when we take the first step (MVP) there are still pain points. Given great configuration, good listening, long term scheduling for growth with the platform and organization, the Power Platform solves pain points and provides organization.  You also have tools in the Power Platform Administration to see who is using the system providing even more opportunity for user communication, training and listening. 

3. "Can it integrate with our other systems?"

This includes ERP systems, marketing platforms, customer service tools, and third-party applications. Clients are especially interested in real-time data flow and avoiding silos.

Yes, Integrations are expected with 100s of "API" connectors and the entire Microsoft Stack of options for connecting. There are also out of the box integrations to applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Word and Microsoft Sharepoint and Teams and more of the Modern Workplace.

4. "What reports and dashboards can we get out of the box?"

Decision-makers want visibility and insights. They usually ask if the CRM can provide actionable reports without requiring a developer or BI specialist for every update.

The ability to get data out of the Dataverse is part of the heartbeat of the application. Quick views of related data easily seen in a view or a quick click to Excel.  User created charts or dashboards and tight integration with Embedded Power BI.

5. "How long will the project take and what will it cost?"

Even with agile approaches, clients want estimates. They are concerned about scope creep, unexpected expenses, and when they’ll start seeing value from their investment.

The sweet spot would be that a first project run between 3 and 6 months with a team of experts who can extract the business wants, needs and requirements and translate them into the right choices based on the hundreds of different choices. This team would also bring to the table, "been there and done that" in many different situations, so that the choices are easily refined by knowledgeable fit / gap discussions. Consider that 100s of millions of people are using the Power Platform and the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement apps. After the first project, new apps and continuous improvement can be .. well continuous.