Announcing new innovations for the Microsoft customer data platform

Know your customers like never before

In every industry, we hear about the struggle to transform from a reactive to proactive organization that can respond to changes in the market, customer needs, and even within their own business. When we talk to customers who have rolled out Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, the conversation shifts to the breakthrough outcomes they’ve achieved, often in very short time frames.

Customers talk about Microsoft’s unique ability to connect data holistically across departments and teams with AI-powered insights to drive better outcomes. This is precisely the business need that we identified and addressed with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Microsoft’s customer data platform (CDP).

Customer Insights has resonated with organizations across industries and, as a result, it’s the fastest growing application in the Dynamics 365 portfolio. Customers such as Walgreens Boots Alliance, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Campari Group, and Dayton Children’s Hospital recognize Customer Insights as a trusted platform to realize business outcomes.

Transforming vision into reality

At this time last year, I described our vision for Microsoft’s CDP, which has become reality for a number of our customers. For example, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights is helping Tivoli Gardens, one of the world’s longest-running amusement parks, personalize guest experiences across every touchpoint—on the website, at the hotel, and in the park. American Electric Power Energy is using Customer Insights to better understand its customer needs, identify gaps in product offerings, and ensure delivery of efficient and sustainable energy solutions. Marston’s has onboarded Customer Insights to unify guest data and infuse personalized experiences across its 1,500-plus pubs across the United Kingdom.

Earlier this year, we announced that Customer Insights expanded its availability to the Microsoft Government Cloud, an environment built to meet the higher compliance needs of United States government agencies. The Microsoft Government Cloud meets the demanding requirements of the United States Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), enabling United States federal agencies to benefit from the cost savings and rigorous security of the Microsoft Cloud.

New capabilities to help customers drive business outcomes

Today, we’re meeting this growing customer demand for the Microsoft CDP by announcing new capabilities in Customer Insights to:

• Deliver the most comprehensive view of their customers with the new engagement insights capability, currently in preview, that enables deeper understanding of customer intent and behavior with cross-channel analytics from their websites, mobile apps, and connected products. We bring yet another dimension to customer profiles though integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Voice. Organizations can automatically augment profiles with survey responses to truly uncover sentiment and drive detailed segmentation of customers, empowering agile actions that build brand loyalty and driving detailed understanding of customers. Furthermore, organizations can enrich customer profiles with proprietary audience intelligence on brand affinity and user interests or using third-party enrichments such as Experian and Leadspace.
• Unlock powerful AI-driven insights through limitless analytics with deep integration with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics. Organizations can leverage a library of prebuilt AI templates for churn prediction, product recommendations, and customer lifetime value, giving business users the ability to run AI/ML-based analytics on their data for quick insights without having to involve data scientists and IT.
• Drive meaningful actions across the customer journey with turnkey integrations that make it easier to share insights with any application, be it Microsoft or third-party platforms. Customer Insights is designed and built to be vendor-agnostic, from ingesting data from any source to activating insights on multiple destinations including AutopilotHQ, Bing ads, dotdigital, Facebook, Google Ads, HubSpot, LiveRamp, Marketo, Mailchimp, SendGrid, and more.
• Build on our commitment of unmatched data privacy and security by enabling organizations to better control and secure sensitive data with data classification and permissions from Microsoft Information Protection. This allows organizations to configure policies to classify, label, and protect data based on its sensitivity.

Real customers, real insights, real value

Across the world, so much has changed since last year. The global COVID-19 pandemic has impacted almost every organization and its customers. We’ve been inspired to see how many organizations are using Customer Insights to not only survive but thrive through this challenging environment.

In the healthcare space, Dayton Children’s Hospital uses Customer Insights to build a deep understanding of patient interactions across digital applications and in-person visits, and curate a secure single source of truth that complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other essential regulations. This enables healthcare providers to improve the patient experience across every channel and touch point, helping transform the end-to-end healthcare journey. We are now scaling this use case through the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare solution.

The pandemic has also had an outsized impact on nonprofits who are facing difficult fundraising environments and reduced government aid; however, the demand for services from nonprofits has never been greater. Innovative organizations such as UNICEF Netherlands are leveraging Dynamics 365 applications such as Customer Insights, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing to increase engagement with high-value donors through personalized experiences and communications. Ultimately, they can raise more funds with precise segmentation and AI-driven insights.

Further, these demands are exactly why we’re launching Fundraising and Engagement for Dynamics 365 Sales, built with MISSION CRM. Nonprofits, schools, hospitals, and research institutions can utilize Fundraising and Engagement to uncover new funding sources, strengthen existing relationships, and drive fundraising efficiency. Dynamics 365, Common Data Model, and Microsoft Azure, bring the most modern digital platform to nonprofit organizations to engage with their donors, design campaigns, manage recurring giving programs and events. Learn more about our commitment to help nonprofits tackle the worlds’ biggest challenges.

Like many other fast moving-CPG companies, Campari Group is using Customer Insights to connect consumer and bartender engagement by integrating bespoke marketing and sales data into a single repository. Campari Group has grown rapidly through acquisitions, each bringing in another IT landscape to assimilate including more than seven martech vendors in the marketing domain. They chose Customer Insights for several reasons, including compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Campari Group’s trust in Azure. Customer Insights unifies all the consumer and business partner data, across regions and brands, to gain a 360-degree customer view. They can now take one standardized approach to calculate CLTV and personalize marketing campaigns that support end-to-end customer journeys across marketing, sales, and customer service.

Learn more about the industry’s top-rated CDP

The Microsoft CDP empowers every organization to gain the most comprehensive view of their customers allowing any business professional the ability to learn from interactions and optimize engagement for delivering personalization at scale. For more information about Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, please visit us online or contact your Microsoft representative.

Watch the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event today at 9:00 AM Pacific Time to learn about the incredible innovation across Dynamics 365 and Power Platform to help keep businesses moving forward. With updates, insights, and demonstrations from our experts, you’ll learn how to best leverage innovations to strengthen resiliency across your organization. Be sure to review the release plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform for details about the hundreds of new features and updated capabilities that will be released as part of this wave.