Microsoft Dynamics 365 comes with an out of the box functionality of Portals called as Dynamics 365 Portals. It brings frameworks such as web engagement and CMS framework together on one platform.
Portals become essentials with different user bases, be it customers, partners, vendors or even the employees of a firm, all of them needs to be connected with interactions with firm to get different needs of information and operations, such as customer self-service, search for knowledge base, opportunity management for customers by vendors, social engagements and connect with customers, information about product and services by customers and partners, connect with communities etc.
Dynamics 365 Portals bridges that gap and provides an intuitive framework to work with all the stakeholders in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Difference between Organizations Website and Portal?
To better connect with customer, partners, and stakeholders, organizations have their own web presence through their websites. It’s a great way to connect with the customer to give them necessary information for product and service offerings, self-service options, generate leads and many more. Many organizations already have their web presence and businesses are run smoothly.
Now what happens in the background, Organizations manage their backend operations by utilizing CRM and ERP applications to run business operations and day to day activities, each of these software’s comes with a heavy price tag, with costs involved as Hardware, Software’s, Development Cost, Integrations with Multiple Applications, Maintenance Cost, Cost of upgrade and enhancements, training to users and of course time spent for all of that.
With modern day scenario of intense competition, do we have that flexibility to be bitten by the completion in any way? Time and Money to spend?
With Dynamics 365 Portal time, efforts and cost can drastically be reduced with no hardware cost, no cost of certificates for the website, and very less maintenance cost with the subscription-based model for pay as you go and no lock-in with aging infrastructure.
Setup the portal within minutes and customize as required.
To save the time and effort, multiple built-in templates are already available in the offerings.
Customer Self Service Portal
Engage with the existing customer, make the loyalty four folds, connect with them, provide options for self-service, ask for feedback and use them to improve products and service at one place.
Partner Portal
Connect with partners be it a vendor, reseller, supplier etc. in a seamless manner. Let your partners manage your opportunities themselves, order for products, check their invoices, bring more customers all at the centralized place with real-time metrics and updates at any given point.
Community Portal
Manage the communities of your products and service with the power of community portal. Manages Blogs, Forums and Comments and much more at a centralized place.
Employee Portal
Engage employees to seamlessly connect with the right team and people to get or give the information, process the requests, knowledge sharing, service requests and many more, with targeted functionality for needs. Employee portal bridges that gaps and saves big on costs.
Custom Portal
Create your portal as per the need with the flexible, extensible and customizable framework to have them without any overhead costs involved, be it field technician portal, student portal, media portal or any such requirements, easily can be done with custom portals.
Take Away
Take away from this is, with the era of competition, utilize the power of portal, and seamlessly connect with customers, partners, vendors, employees, and prospects without having overhead costs and seamless operations and stay ahead with the competition.
Cheers !!
Gaurav Thakur's Dynamics 365 & Power Platform Blog 