Microsoft Introduces Updates in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016

Microsoft today unveiled the new capabilities that it will deliver later this year in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016. The upgrades are designed to make the software more user-friendly and include even deeper integrations with other Microsoft business applications, including Office 365, Word, Excel, OneDrive, Cortana, and Delve.

Microsoft is already calling this the most comprehensive upgrade ever for Dynamics CRM, highlighting advancements in intelligence, mobility, and service and significant productivity enhancements.

"Microsoft's obsession with customer success is rooted in our ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes," said Bob Stutz, corporate vice president of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, in a statement. "Dynamics CRM 2016 is designed from the ground up to deliver core capabilities all in a single system to eliminate distractions, to make it easier to get things done, and to dramatically increase productivity so our customers can spend more time serving their customers."

In a recent blog post, Stutz also pointed out that Microsoft will be making significant investments in Microsft Marketing (which it built following its acquisition of Marketing Pilot) and Microsoft Social Engagement. The company will also be adding SMS "as a marketing channel to our multichannel campaigns, increasing the sources and sentiment languages for social, and introducing the concept of intelligent social with social selling, automated triage, and adaptive sentiment," Stutz wrote.

The new release will allow organizations to manage their customer-facing activities in a single experience. Through enhanced Excel integrations within Dynamics CRM, complete with new Excel templates for various tasks, functions and scenarios, users can now toggle between functions. Users will also have access to their documents within Dynamics CRM via integration with OneDrive for Business and new document generation capabilities.

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 release also introduces and fine-tunes Delve functionality into the application. Powered by Office Graph, Delve helps users surface key trending content.

The new Dynamics CRM release includes data management and advanced analytics capabilities powered by Cortana Analytics Suite. This includes Azure Machine Learning that can enable business insights. The Cortana personal assistant will also be integrated into Dynamics CRM 2016 to help users surface core deals, accounts, and activities.

Also included will be full offline capabilities for sales and service professionals on mobile phones and tablets. The release also allows users to create task-centered mobile apps to streamline the completion of sales-related activities on the go.

The next version of Dynamics CRM will also deliver an end-to-end solution for customer service across self-service, assisted service, and field service.

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