Microsoft is continuously working hard on improving it’s intelligent cloud platform by further integrating it’s specific solutions. After all, in today’s business world, customers expect that every customer-facing employee has a 360 degree view on their activities and status. This is a huge challenge for many organisations when working from their offices. And even more when working from home office! The integration of business applications with collaboration tools is of great importance in the coming years. Microsoft recently decided to add several new Teams touchpoints to her Dynamics 365 applications including ERP data access.
“Microsoft has opened a new avenue of read-only access to Dynamics 365 Business Central data, launching its Teams interface for Microsoft 365 users without an ERP license. “We have made it possible for a user in Microsoft Teams to access Business Central records without a Business Central license,” Microsoft explained
Those new users, who are licensed only for Microsoft 365, will get a special read-only view of the ERP data, shared with them in a Teams chat or channel by a licensed Business Central user, with specific limits on the type and format of the information they see.
Read-only Teams access is designed for giving people specific views of data, like a particular segment of purchase orders or item data. Permissions are critical when preparing for new read-only Teams users to begin viewing Business Central data since they determine which records these users can access. Not only does this save time and improve collaboration throughout the day. But it frees up time so you can stay focused on customers and accelerate productivity. While this removes boundaries for collaboration and encourages users to share data with confidence, it also allows administrators to unlock data across the organization so departments that don’t yet use Business Central can self-serve with data they need to complete their tasks.
Customers who have updated to Business Central Online version 21.1, which became available early November 2022, can enable the feature. Once available, admins can begin planning for the types of data and views that they want to make available via Teams chat or specific channels. This helps your organisation and staff to improve the 360 degree on your customers status and activities. And that will contribute to a higher customer satisfaction rate.
The introduction of Microsoft 365 read-only users of Business Central data in Teams now broadens the full range of possibilities for Business Central user experiences. Microsoft also offers a Business Central Team Member license, which offers full User Interface access, full read, limited write, and no access to manufacturing or service order management. And the typical Business Central Premium and Essentials licenses already provide full access options, though with access to extra modules for Premium.
Interesting observation is that this new functionality will only be available for Microsoft’s cloud ERP solution for SMB, being Business Central. So not for Dynamics NAV on-premise. Another good reason for you to consider an upgrade to BC!
