Increase
customer satisfaction by offering personalized call treatment.Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Center vs. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center
by Anastasia Micic | Published On January 8, 2025
Delivering exceptional experiences to customers is non-negotiable for all businesses today. After all, great customer service doesn’t just improve employee retention; it enhances your profits.
Around 86% of customers say they’re willing to pay more for a guaranteed good experience.
The first step to ensuring you can live up to customer expectations, is choosing the right contact center technology. For companies already connected with the ever-evolving Microsoft ecosystem, choosing a Microsoft-aligned contact center solution makes a lot of sense.
The question is, how do you decide between a Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Center, offered by an innovative partner, and the CRM-first Microsoft Dynamics 365 contact center?
Both options have their merits for companies focused on customer experience, offering access to innovative omnichannel capabilities, advanced features and rich integration options. Ultimately, the solution that’s right for you depends on your specific needs and priorities.
In this guide, we’ll dissect the strengths and weaknesses of both options to help you make the right choice for your organization.
What are Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Centers?
Microsoft Teams is the world’s most popular collaboration platform, combining chat, calling, video meeting, and even AI tools into a single platform. Microsoft Teams Certified contact centers are third-party software solutions that allow Microsoft partners to convert Microsoft Teams into an all-in-one solution for internal and external communications.
Certified by Microsoft, these contact centers use specific models to bring new functionality to Microsoft Teams. The Connect model provides basic integration, such as simple routing, while the Extend model offers deep, native-level functionality—delivering a more seamless user experience.
Solutions like Computer Talk’s ice Contact Center for Microsoft Teams can merge the power of Teams’ collaboration tools with robust features like AI-powered insights, intelligent routing, reporting, and recording tools, to create the ultimate contact center environment.
Key Features of a Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Center
While the features of a Microsoft Teams certified contact center can vary, depending on the partner offering the solution (and their connection model), core features include:
- Seamless integration with Microsoft Teams: Solutions like ice Contact Center ensure calls can easily reach users through the Microsoft Teams client, and provide access to a wide range of controls, through the iceBar platform.
- Monitoring and analytics: Supervisors can monitor queues, users, and teams in real time, enabling dynamic business decisions. Historical reporting tools provide data to inform strategies and improve customer service.
- Omnichannel communications: Microsoft Teams certified contact centers can support interactions across multiple channels such as voice, video, web chat, email, social media, and chatbots—ensuring a consistent experience regardless of the medium.
- Integration with third-party applications: Most Microsoft Teams certified contact centers can also integrate with other tools, such as CRM systems like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and ServiceNow, providing agents with comprehensive customer information for personalized service.
Some solutions, like ComputerTalk’s ice Contact Center can also enable access to various other advanced features, such as customizable interaction workflows, intelligent IVR systems, chatbots, and even compliance monitoring tools or recording capabilities.
What is the Microsoft 365 Dynamics Contact Center?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a comprehensive collection of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) applications. The Microsoft Dynamics 365 contact center is a Copilot-first, cloud-based contact center that builds on this CRM foundation.
Designed to work seamlessly with existing CRM systems, including Dynamics 365 Customer Service, it empowers organizations to deliver frictionless, personalized experiences across various communication channels. By leveraging advanced AI capabilities, Dynamics 365 Contact Center enables businesses to provide effortless self-service options, enhance agent productivity, and reduce operational costs, all while maintaining a cohesive view of customer interactions.
Basically, Dynamics 365 Contact Center extends the CRM functionalities of Dynamics 365 by integrating sophisticated contact center capabilities, thereby enabling organizations to elevate their customer service operations and foster stronger, more meaningful customer relationships.
Key Features of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center
The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center enhances customer engagement by integrating advanced contact center functionalities with existing CRM systems. Key features include:
- Unified Customer Profiles: By consolidating customer data from various touchpoints, Dynamics 365 Contact Center provides agents with a comprehensive view of each customer. Agents can keep track of interaction history, preferences, and previous support inquiries, and tailor their responses to each customer.
- AI-Powered Insights and Predictive Analytics: Leveraging generative AI, the platform offers real-time sentiment analysis, conversation summaries, and predictive analytics. These tools help agents anticipate customer needs, identify trends, and make informed decisions to enhance service quality and operational efficiency.
- Comprehensive Omnichannel Support: Dynamics 365 Contact Center enables organizations to engage customers across various channels, including voice, SMS, chat, email, and social media. Companies can even deliver self-service through chat and voice bots and use unified routing throughout the contact center environment.
- Automation tools: Microsoft Dynamics 365 contact center incorporates automation features such as intelligent routing, conversational IVR powered by Nuance, and AI-driven chatbots. These tools reduce manual workloads, expedite response times, and enhance the overall customer experience by directing inquiries to the most appropriate resources.
The Limitations of Microsoft 365 Dynamics Contact Centers
Although Microsoft Dynamics 365 contact center offers companies a powerful and ever-evolving set of features for customer engagement, it does have its limitations. Even with upgrades from solutions like Microsoft Copilot, companies can still struggle with:
- Implementation complexity: Deploying Dynamics 365 Contact Center can be difficult, especially when integrating with existing systems. Businesses often face challenges with data migration, system customization, and aligning with current business processes. Without meticulous planning, these complexities can lead to delays and increased costs. For instance, data migration issues, such as outdated or duplicated data, can cause confusion and errors post-migration. However, working with experienced implementation partners can help to minimize these issues.
- Limited out-of-the-box features: Dynamics 365 Contact Center provides essential functionalities; however, some advanced features may require additional customization or third-party integrations (such as call recording or real-time monitoring). This necessity can extend deployment timelines and elevate costs, potentially impacting the overall return on investment.
- Restricted collaboration tools: While Dynamics 365 Contact Center includes collaboration features, they don’t match the comprehensive capabilities of Microsoft Teams. For example, Teams offers extensive chat, video conferencing, and file-sharing functionalities that facilitate seamless internal communication. Dynamics 365 simply doesn’t offer the same freedom to connect employees throughout the workplace as Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Centers vs Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Centers: Key Differences
So, how do you make the right decision for your contact center? Ultimately, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for choosing the right system. To make the right decision, you need to take a comprehensive look at both solutions – side by side.
Here’s a quick overview of how both Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Teams certified contact centers stack up in specific areas.
Core Functionalities
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center is a Copilot-first, cloud-based solution that builds on a fantastic CRM foundation and uses AI to enhance customer interactions. With features like conversational IVR from Nuance and generative AI for real-time insights, it provides robust tools for managing inquiries across multiple channels.
For companies focusing on delivering heavily personalized experiences, building on insights from their CRM platform, Microsoft Dynamics 365’s contact center is a great choice. On the other hand, Microsoft Teams certified contact centers boost cross-functional collaboration and enhance interactions between teams and customers.
By embedding combining contact center tools with Microsoft Teams, companies can give agents an easy way to align their efforts and upgrade productivity.
Primary Use Cases
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center is well-suited for businesses that prioritize data-driven, AI-enhanced operations. As a complement to your existing CRM system and a solution that provides immediate access to Copilot, it’s an excellent choice for data-driven, intelligent customer service.
In contrast, Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Centers are designed for businesses emphasizing collaboration and productivity. By integrating contact center functionality within Teams, these solutions ensure that customer service teams and other departments can collaborate seamlessly.
Microsoft Teams certified contact centers are also inherently more flexible, giving companies more room to customize their ecosystem with advanced tools, like call recording systems.
Integration Focus
Speaking of flexibility, both solutions support integrations. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center emphasizes interoperability with a range of CRM systems, enabling businesses to leverage their preferred platforms while enhancing customer engagement. For organizations already invested in Dynamics 365 or other CRM solutions, this makes this option a good choice. However, integrating with other external tools can be more complex.
Conversely, Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Centers revolve around embedding customer service capabilities within the Teams environment. With Microsoft Teams certified contact centers, there’s often a lot more freedom with a wide range of integrations. You can connect your ecosystem to workforce management tools, reporting systems, productivity tools, and more.
Collaboration Tools
Collaboration tools are a major differentiating factor between Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Teams certified contact centers. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center offers collaboration features, but they are primarily tied to CRM-focused workflows. While they might be fine for some customer service teams, they may lack the comprehensive functionality required for true cross-functional collaboration at scale.
Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Centers, however, shine in this area. Teams offers unmatched collaboration tools, including persistent chat, video conferencing, and file sharing. These capabilities not only enhance teamwork but also improve the overall efficiency of contact center operations. For organizations with a collaborative culture, Teams Certified Contact Centers stand out.
Channel Support
If you’re ready to embrace the power of omnichannel communication, both of these contact center options have their benefits. They can both enable seamless interactions across voice, SMS, chat, email, and so on. Microsoft Teams certified contact centers can even facilitate video conferencing.
Plus, if you work with a versatile partner, you could potentially add new channels into the mix, such as custom voice and chat bots, messaging applications, and social media apps. Microsoft Teams’ flexibility makes it a little easier to customize your channel mix.
Deployment and Flexibility
Dynamics 365 Contact Center is a cloud-based solution that offers flexible deployment options, making it suitable for businesses with complex CRM environments. However, actually implementing and configuring your solution for your needs can be time-consuming, complicated, and sometimes expensive.
Teams Certified contact centers offer extensive flexibility without the complexity involved with setting up systems and training teams. Companies like ComputerTalk can customize and deploy your solution according to your specific needs, minimizing the headaches for your team. They can even provide access to training and support to help boost adoption and reduce future issues.
Reporting and Analytics
Both solutions offer powerful analytics tools to enhance decision-making and customer satisfaction. Dynamics 365 Contact Center delivers AI-driven insights, including sentiment analysis, predictive analytics, and customer satisfaction metrics. These features enable businesses to identify trends, optimize performance, and deliver proactive customer service.
Teams Certified Contact Centers also provide robust reporting and analytics capabilities, focusing on real-time performance metrics and customer interaction data. With the right vendor, you can even gain access to historical analytical tools, predictive analytics, real-time monitoring dashboards, recording and transcription services, and more.
Cost Considerations
Ultimately, the amount you pay for either a Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Center, or a Microsoft Dynamics 365 contact center can vary. The overall price you’ll pay will depend on a range of factors, but in some cases, a Dynamics contact center may require additional investment for customization, set-up, and maintenance costs.
Teams Certified Contact Centers often present a more cost-effective solution for businesses already using Teams extensively. By leveraging existing infrastructure, these solutions minimize additional expenses while enhancing productivity and collaboration.
How to Choose the Right Solution for your Business
Choosing between the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center and a Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Center depends on your business's priorities.
For businesses where collaboration is key, a Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Center offers unmatched synergy. If your organization already uses Microsoft Teams extensively, this solution seamlessly integrates customer interactions into your existing workflows. The ability to handle voice, chat, and other interactions directly within Teams enhances cross-departmental communication and agent collaboration.
Plus, Teams Certified Contact Centers like ComputerTalk’s ice Contact Center simplify deployment and support comprehensive omnichannel communication, making it a great fit for businesses seeking agility and scalability.
Alternatively, if your business already relies heavily on CRM tools like Microsoft Dynamics 365 and wants to tap into the benefits of Copilot, the Microsoft Dynamics Contact Center makes the most sense.
With its AI-powered insights, predictive analytics, and deep data mining capabilities, Dynamics 365 empowers teams to deliver personalized service and forecast customer needs.
Choosing the Perfect Contact Center
Choosing between Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center and a Microsoft Teams Certified Contact Center ultimately comes down to understanding your business’s unique needs. If seamless collaboration, enhanced agent productivity, and leveraging existing Microsoft Teams investments are your priorities, a Teams Certified Contact Center stands out as the superior option.
Alternatively, if data-driven insights, deep CRM integrations, and customer analytics are at the heart of your business, Dynamics 365 Contact Center is an excellent choice.
If you’re looking for the ultimate Microsoft Teams certified contact center, ComputerTalk’s ice Contact Center could be the ideal choice.
Offering a native integration within the Teams environment, support for omnichannel communication, and powerful features like real-time analytics and intelligent automation, ice Contact Center could help your company achieve its CX goals faster than ever.
Contact ComputerTalk today to learn more about the unique benefits of the ice Contact Center for Microsoft Teams.
More from our blog
ComputerTalk is excited to announce that we’re scored a leader in exceeding client expectations in InfoTech Research Group’s SoftwareReviews.
Good customer service is often thought of as simply responding to questions promptly and accurately, which is a good place to start. But when it comes to providing excellent customer service, there’s more to it than that.
Virtual agents are quickly becoming a crucial part of the modern contact center, extending the functionality of the traditional chatbot to transform self-service.
