Common Data Service

You may have heard the term "Common Data Service" before. But what does it actually mean? And what does it mean to store data in the Common Data Service? Henrik Lillhage, a business consultant and Dynamics expert at Releye, breaks down the concept and gives us examples of how it might work in practice.

It is not uncommon for an organization to use different types of systems for different needs. Often, complex IT projects are required to integrate these systems and their users, which in turn leads to complex discussions, high IT costs, and a siloed workforce. The Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform addresses these challenges by consolidating all of a company’s information in one place. This is known as the “Common Data Service.” Microsoft Dynamics is not just a single product; it is more like an ecosystem of various products and applications designed to address every aspect of an organization.

Customer-facing applications (such as Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, and Marketing), Office 365 (Outlook, SharePoint, Teams, and the rest of the Office suite), and the business systems Business Central and Finance & Operations all belong to the same ecosystem. Using products and functionality within the Power Platform—Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agent—all these areas are linked together, unifying the ecosystem. The core, or foundation, of the ecosystem is the Common Data Service (CDS). Put very simply, all data saved in every application within the ecosystem is stored in the “Common Data Service,” which means that all applications can access this data regardless of which application you, as a user, are currently using.

• You never have to worry about data getting lost or falling through the cracks.
• You also don't need to worry that one of your colleagues who is next in line to take action on an issue in the system might miss something.
• Perhaps best of all, your organization can avoid complex integrations, which often involve high costs and lengthy IT projects.

A lead is automatically imported from the website via Dynamics 365 Marketing. This lead is qualified either automatically or by a user in the system. The lead is now in Common Data Service and available to both D365 Marketing and D365 Sales. Sales picks it up and qualifies it. The system creates a company and a contact linked to the company. The salesperson manages the entire deal in a Sales Opportunity and wins the deal. The salesperson marks both the quote and the order as won. Common Data Service now contains the following information.

• The lead and the history of how it was handled.
• The account that is now a purchasing customer.
• The contact person at the client company.
• A business opportunity that contains all the information about the deal itself.
• Quotation with a history of various proposed solutions.
• Order with the final agreement.

After a few months, a case is submitted to customer service. The case is a complaint in which the customer is unsure whether the proposed solution to the problem is actually included in the agreed-upon contract. Customer service simply accesses the customer file, where all the information has been saved. The case is categorized as a complaint. When the case is closed, this information is also saved to the account. Before the responsible sales representative meets with the customer for a follow-up meeting, they access the account to view the latest activities associated with the customer and can then see that a complaint has been filed. The customer naturally appreciates that the sales representative, who actually had nothing to do with the case itself, is informed.

Last but not least, Marketing has been tasked with finding ways to reduce customer churn. They want to develop an offer for all customers who have ever filed a complaint about a product. Marketing thus creates a customer segment based on the criterion “complaint.” Customer data for the segment is retrieved from Common Data Service, where our customer is listed. And thanks to the compelling offer, the customer chooses to stay, despite some dissatisfaction related to the complaint, and stops considering switching providers.

In many cases, a workflow like the one in this example would have required hundreds of hours of development work on integrations and other complex system connections. With Dynamics 365 as your CRM system, this is included from the start.