Last week one of my favorite clients gave me a call. He told me that it wasn’t until this week that he truly appreciated how Dynamics 365 keeps his business running. “My sales team of 40 went from working out of 5 offices to the entire team working from home. I can still keep an eye on my team, make sure that opportunities are moving forward and customer relationships are maintained” His business is a vital part of the construction industry, one of the few sectors of the economy that has not been highly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. His customers still need his products and he needs to keep his business running to support them.

With the sudden shift to remote working,  you might wonder how to make that happen effectively. How do you make sure everyone in your company has access to the information and insights they need to keep doing their job? You need software that can be accessed from any geographical location at any given time, that encourages collaboration and communication amongst team members. You also need a toolset that handles sales, customer service, and marketing.

How Microsoft Dynamics 365 enables remote work

Dynamics 365’s Unified interface means that your users can be trained once and use Dynamics 365 from any platform – mobile, desktop or tablet. Integration with other Microsoft tools, including Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams means your team can easily analyze data, keep in touch with clients all from an integrated environment.

As a cloud-based application, all of the data gathered in Dynamics 365 is accessible by everyone in your organization. Many companies deal with sensitive information and the high security inherent in Dynamics 365 allows users to remotely access data on phones, on desktop PCs or notebooks without fear. Another benefit is heightened security of your data. Microsoft is respected for its commitment to the security of customer data. Because of the cloud-based infrastructure of Dynamics 365, there is no need to worry about physical storage and server maintenance.

What about collaboration and communication?

So, with Dynamics 365, I can rest assured that my employees have access to the data they need to do their job, but what about collaboration and communication? Working remotely can make collaboration a challenge. Here at enCloud9, we have been working remotely since our founding in 2008. We use Microsoft Teams to keep in contact with coworkers and collaborate on projects. Microsoft Teams takes collaboration to a whole new level, but it is so much more than just another group chat application. Collaborate remotely with ease with such functions as chatting, video or audio conferencing, or sharing your screen. With more and more companies implementing work-from-home policies with spread of the COVID-19 virus, Microsoft has made its paid collaboration tool, Microsoft Teams, free for six months. Microsoft hopes that by making Teams available to all for free for six months, that they can “support public health and safety by making remote work even easier.” Learn more about how Microsoft Teams enables you to stay productive while working remotely. Use  the guidance in this article provided by Microsoft to help you get Microsoft Teams up and running quickly. We recently wrote a blog about our switch to Microsoft Teams and some of the many things you can do in the app. We have included this short video on how Microsoft Teams enables you to work efficiently from home.

Additional Resources

Since we have been working from home since our founding in 2008, we consider ourselves experts in working from home. Recently we have written a blog with 10 of our best tips for working from home. We have also created an infographic to enhance the content in the blog.

In addition, we present a monthly webinar discussing various topics and current events surrounding Dynamics 365. Our April webinar is scheduled for Friday, April 17. Join us as our topic is Sales Forecasting, one of the upcoming new features included in the April 2020 Release. Register below.

 Visit our YouTube channel to view past topics and recordings.

About enCloud9

enCloud9 uses its unique approach to help small and medium- sized businesses to increase efficiency and boost productivity through Microsoft’s powerful range of cloud-based software. Since we are experts at working from home, feel free to contact us if you need help implementing any of the programs or ideas mentioned above.