Despite both being services offered by Microsoft, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Azure are not the same.
Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based suite of enterprise applications that includes solutions for finance management, sales, service, operations, marketing, etc.
It is a set of enterprise solutions that integrates ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) functionalities through a series of business applications that help companies improve efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction by providing a comprehensive and customizable solutions for business management.
On the other hand, Microsoft Azure is a cloud infrastructure platform that allows to build, deploy, and manage online applications and services.
Basically, Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers solutions for business management, while Microsoft Azure provides a cloud platform for the development, deployment, and management of enterprise applications and services.
The interesting part is that both services are complementary and can be used together to offer a complete and personalized solution for your company’s needs.
What solutions does Dynamics 365 offer?
Dynamics 365 is known for being the suite of enterprise solutions that offers a portfolio that allows optimizing business operations and providing a better customer experience.
The combination of Dynamics 365 management applications allows you to obtain a mix of ERP and CRM-capable applications with communication and collaboration tools such as email, chat, document management, teamwork, etc.; office productivity with spreadsheets, word processing, etc.; data analytics and business intelligence with customizable reports and AI for each business and industry.
With Dynamics 365, you have applications designed to work together to provide comprehensive solutions for:
Sales and Marketing
- Helps gain greater visibility into customer needs
- Close more deals
- Streamline processes and salesperson guidance
Service
- Personalize service experiences
- Improve employee efficiency
- Optimize service operations
Finance
- Create more agile financial and business operations
- Work to drive efficiency
- Boost performance through automation
Commerce
- Create seamless shopping experiences
- Stand out with AI-powered automations
- Delight buyers anytime, anywhere
Supply Chain
- Maximize asset performance
- Transform manufacturing operations
- Address growing digital commerce needs
Dynamics 365 has two main focuses: ERP and CRM.
In these approaches, we can categorize ERP applications as:
- Dynamics 365 Business Central provides cloud availability, mobility, and scalability, with the ability to optimize operations, meet project and customer service needs, protect and automate the supply chain, market and sell more efficiently, and manage financial operations.
- Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, which has evolved into two applications designed specifically to manage specific business functions: Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management:
- Dynamics 365 Finance helps increase organizational visibility by improving financial controls and informed decision-making to drive profitability and growth.
- Dynamics Supply Chain Management complements Dynamics 365 Finance to drive organizational success through supply chain and operations management, including agile production and manufacturing, visibility, and collaborative capacity.
And in the CRM tools focused on marketing, sales, and customer service processes, complemented by applications for Dynamics 365 Project Operations and Dynamics 365 Field Service.
These CRM tools aim to organize, record, and facilitate actions with customer data.
What is Microsoft Azure?
On the other hand, Microsoft Azure is a cloud platform that offers over 200 services to build, deploy, and scale infrastructure applications and services for businesses.
The great advantage of Microsoft Azure is that it allows you to categorize the services you need easily.
Azure provides four cloud service models: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Serverless Technology.
The possibilities offered by Microsoft Azure are extensive, as it allows you to execute existing applications on virtual machines and provides services for machine learning and artificial intelligence that interact naturally with the user through voice, audio, and images.
Additionally, Azure offers dynamic storage solutions for large volumes of data.
Azure enables users to deploy and manage applications and services anywhere and at any time without the need to invest in local IT infrastructure.
Dynamics 365 + Microsoft Azure: the perfect combination
As Microsoft Azure is a cloud platform that provides services allowing users to quickly and efficiently create, deploy, and manage applications, Dynamics 365 is optimized for Azure.
This enables:
- Quick installation and complementation of Dynamics 365 ERP (Finance or Business Central) deployments with specific business requirements.
- Secure and accessible cloud storage of information.
- Role-based access control, allowing authorization only to specific information within Dynamics 365.
- Additional security measures through encrypted keys.
- Predictive solutions using Artificial Intelligence.
In summary, while Dynamics 365 offers business solutions for enterprise management, Microsoft Azure focuses on providing a comprehensive and flexible cloud infrastructure platform for the development, deployment, and management of enterprise applications and services.
Both services are complementary, and when used together, they provide a complete and customized cloud solution for any of your business needs.
At Nearcontact we can support you with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure projects. We have more than 27 years solving the business needs of our customers through knowledge, experience and technology through innovative products and services of IT, adding value and competitive advantages to our customers.
