Microsoft Shares More CCaaS Wins, Reveals Growth In Copilot for CRM & ERP

Microsoft has secured numerous wins with international brands for its Dynamics 365 Contact Center.

Launched in July, the “copilot-first” CCaaS platform layers voice, unified routing, and workforce engagement management (WEM) over any CRM.

It also boasts several other noteworthy features, including pre-integrated copilots across digital channels to empower agents with generative AI (GenAI).

For Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, that’s critical. When sharing examples of new CCaaS wins – which add to a customer base already including 1-800-Flowers, Mediterranean Shipping, and Synoptek – he stated:

Our Dynamics 365 contact center is also winning customers like Currys, Le Creuset, and RXO as it brings generative AI to every customer engagement channel.

Yet, it’s not only a GenAI story. Microsoft’s vision for pulling CCaaS, CRM, and GenAI together to create a consolidated customer service environment is perhaps most eye-catching.

That environment aids its cradle-to-grave ambitions for copilot, so it assists live agents from gathering pre-call insights to automating post-contact processes.

Expect Microsoft’s recently announced AI Agents to hit the CCaaS platform soon, too.

Yet, Chris Goodwill, Strategic Partner Manager and Solution Specialist at Symity, a close Microsoft partner for Dynamics 365 Contact Center, unpacks other motivations for switching to the platform.

Discussing the new customer wins, he said: “With a high volume of daily retail interactions, Curry’s will benefit from the unification of customer data across channels, providing a 360-degree view of each customer’s journey.

“A premium brand, Le Creuset will leverage the platform to build stronger customer relationships with more personalized communications instilling loyalty.

As a logistics company. RXO will draw on the platform’s real-time analytics to monitor service trends and proactively address issues before they impact clients.

Another possible motivator for switching to the Dynamics 365 Contact Center is its ground-up cloud infrastructure design that bolsters the platform’s scalability, reliability, and security.

Finally, the tech giant may have an advantage in its close relationship with OpenAI and in-house AI innovation, which means it’s not waiting on releases from other tech providers to inform its strategy.

However, as Microsoft will likely find, scaling the growth of a CCaaS platform is onerous, requiring an extensive, global partner network, which the tech giant must still build-out.

As such, Microsoft is unlikely to enjoy the same rapid growth it has in other markets as it also builds on the domain expertise it acquired via its 2022 Nuance roll-up.

In the meantime, it should also consider sharing more customer wins and stories to build confidence in its vision and ability to execute.

Finally, the enterprise tech juggernaut can perhaps go further to clarify its widespread contact center portfolio and help Microsoft-centric organizations scope the best option for them.

After all, it also offers the Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform, Teams Contact Center Integrations, and the new Queues App for Teams.

Going further to spotlight where the Dynamics 365 Contact Center fits amongst these offerings may go a long way.

Copilot Finds Increasing Success In CRM & ERP

Alongside Currys, Le Creuset, and RXO, Microsoft welcomed many more high-profile businesses to its broader Dynamics 365 portfolio. These include Evron, Heineken and Lexmark.

However, as Microsoft lands these customers, it’s also expanding on existing business, with Copilot a key enabler – especially amongst its CRM & ERP install base.

In making this point, Nadella stated:

Monthly active users of Copilot across our CRM and ERP portfolio increased over 60 percent quarter-over-quarter.

Yet, despite this uplift, Microsoft has found itself embroiled in a war of words with its chief CRM rival Salesforce over Copilot.

That discourse centers on Salesforce beating Microsoft to the punch in launching an AI Agent platform – Agentforce – and evolving its GenAI story.

However, Microsoft’s vision for Copilot and AI Agents extends far beyond CRM, covering ERP, finance, supply chain…

As such, it’s perhaps not a surprise that its agentic AI announcements came slower out of the gate. After all, it has much more to consider.

Interestingly, as it does so, Microsoft has an opportunity to leverage AI Agents to drive new efficiencies between the CRM, ERP, and its other enterprise tools.

Given this opportunity, other market rivals like SAP and Oracle – vendors also building AI Agents to automate enterprise workflows beyond CX alone – seemingly make a better comparison.