CRM and Cortana – The Perfect Team

What’s the deal?

At some point in your day you probably wish you had your own personal assistant. Well, with Microsoft’s CRM and Cortana you can have just that! Cortana was first introduced in Windows 8.1 and helped Windows mobile users manage their calendar, track packages, find files, and tell jokes. Perhaps most impressive is the fact that the more you used Cortana, the more personalized your experience was.

Cortana came into the Dynamics world with the release of CRM 2015.  In this current Cortana and CRM integration users can open an item, create a new appointment, search for a record, and set reminders to help move deals from prospecting to won. In the coming release of CRM 2016, Microsoft promises even greater functionality with Cortana. At the moment no official explanations have been given, but fortunately after a bit of digging, we at Alta Vista Technology were able to uncover a few clues as to what might be coming.

What’s the Impact?

We’ve all been there. You wake up at the sound of your alarm and the first thought in your mind is, “Where am I?” After about 5 minutes, you are able to separate your dream from reality and then the day truly begins. It’s in moments like this that we all need a friendly reminder of what needs to be done and when. According to Stephanie Dart, Director of Product Marketing for Microsoft Dynamics this may be where Cortana comes in to save the day. She said recently that, “At the start of the day, Cortana can let you know not just about appointments and weather, but also information about the opportunities you’re working on.”

In addition to this, the analytics suite built around Cortana will also provide tools to allow you and your colleagues to be more productive than ever. Intelligent product suggestions (for cross-sell), and recommended cases to resolve customer service issues are just a few examples that have been mentioned. Time will only tell how deep the integration between Cortana and CRM will be, but the future looks bright from here!