Dynamics 365 customer engagement apps and the Power Platform
Before examining the different Dynamics 365 customer engagement applications, let’s examine what they’re built on. As mentioned initially, Dynamics 365’s customer engagement applications are built on Microsoft Power Platform. Power Platform is Microsoft’s low-code application development platform that not only spans Dynamics 365, but also Microsoft 365, Azure, and standalone applications. It combines the power of Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, Power Pages, and Copilot Studio into one business application platform that provides quick and easy app building, data insights, and AI-powered automation.
The Power Platform is important to Dynamics 365 customer engagement apps for many different reasons. First, all Dynamics 365 customer engagement apps are model-driven applications. Model-driven applications are built using Power Apps. They’re based on a data model stored within Microsoft Dataverse. Components such as forms, views, charts, and dashboards are used to present data to end users.
Model-driven applications aren’t the only component of the Power Platform used by Dynamics 365 applications. Power Platform components used by Dynamics 365 customer engagement apps can include:
- Power Apps: Power Apps provides a rapid low-code development environment for building custom apps for business needs. It’s a suite of app development services with a scalable data platform (Microsoft Dataverse) and an ability to interact with cloud & on-premises data sources. Power Apps enables the creation of web and mobile applications that run on all devices. For example, a sales team might build a custom canvas app that lets field reps capture visit notes and update opportunity records directly from a mobile device, without navigating the full Sales Hub interface.
- Power BI: The business analytics capabilities provided by Power BI are often used to connect to Dynamics 365 applications and provide important insight into an organization. These visualizations can then be used inside Dynamics 365 apps.
- Power Automate: Power Automate connects Dynamics 365 customer engagement apps to automated workflows across your organization. Business process flows guide users through defined stages — for example, Dynamics 365 Sales includes a lead-to-opportunity process that walks sellers from initial contact to a closed deal. Cloud flows extend automation beyond the user interface, triggering actions based on events in Dynamics 365 or other systems. For example, when a high-value opportunity is marked as won in Sales, a cloud flow can automatically create a follow-up task, notify the account manager in Teams, and generate a quote in Dynamics 365 Finance — all without manual intervention.
- Power Pages: Many organizations provide customers with self-support options where customers can access a portal and find answers to questions, engage with support, or register for an event. Power Pages makes it easy for organizations to create externally facing sites that connect to Dataverse that customers can access.
- Copilot Studio: Copilot Studio enables organizations to build custom AI agents and copilots that extend Dynamics 365 customer engagement apps with conversational AI capabilities. These AI agents can automate customer interactions, answer questions, surface insights, and execute complex workflows using natural language. Copilot Studio integrates seamlessly with Dataverse and other Power Platform components, allowing organizations to create intelligent experiences that understand business context and accelerate outcomes across sales, service, contact center, and field operations.