D365 Customer Insights explained
1. Artificial Intelligence all the buzz
AI is the buzzword and Microsoft is continuing its journey and development using Artificial Intelligence.
In a new announcement, as of September 2023 Dynamics 365 Marketing has been combined with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and both products are now sold together under a single product SKU called Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. I dove into this topic for a client, so I want to share what I found out so far.
The individual applications are renamed respectively as Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys (marketing aspect) and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data (customer insights aspect). For more information, please visit the FAQ.
Also on September 1st, new Dynamics 365 Marketing customers receive real time marketing features only. For more information on this, visit this page.
If you want to know more about Dynamics 365 in general, its applications and how to license them, read our blog here.
2. Why is Microsoft combining D365 Marketing & D365 Customer Insights?
Bringing these two products together allows users to create personalized, responsive and connected customer journeys powered by next generation AI.
What is Customer Insights & how is it integrated with D365 Marketing?
On the Microsoft page for Customer Insights you can take a guided tour of Customer Insights. The tour allows you to explore different topics such as:
- Introduction to Customer Insights
- 360-degree view
- Customer Discovery Copilot
- Customer Journey Orchestration
- Measuring journey progress
- Summary
So right off the bat, the intro shows you the two distinct experiences Customer Insights offer that your team can use to manage customer data and to turn that data into action. The 360-degree view shows data analysts how they can use Customer Insights to gain valuable insights and enhance their knowledge of customers. You can discover actionable insights, infuse them into business applications and make them readily available to your marketing team.
Data sets added to the system are called entities. The following are organized around the entities you choose to bring together:
- Customer Insights
- Product processes, including:
- data unification
- relationships
- segmentation
- measures
- activities
If you click unify, it shows you that AI-powered Identity Resolution uses attribution, attributes and signals to inform unified customer profiles.
3. Customer Discovery with Copilot
Microsoft wants to highlight the Copilot features as the brand is increasing and growing rapidly.
Customer Discovery with Copilot allows you to discover new audience segments with-AI driven recommendations or define your own segments to target marketing campaigns for example.
Microsoft states that this is a privacy first AI-powered customer data platform and a journey orchestration solution where you can:
- Unify data across a full range of sources
- Power personalized customer experiences
- Drive greater customer satisfaction
4. The new Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
What is it? As we said above, it’s an offering combining Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 marketing apps into one single application. The name remains unchanged. The new Customer Insights offering is expanded to include both the Dynamics 365 Customer Insights journeys, so both marketing and data.
As loyal D365 customers will know, this is not the first rebrand in Dynamics 365. If you are getting lost in all the names/rebranding, read our D365 glossary here for more clarity.
You can read a lot about Customer Insights functionality on Microsoft’s page, however, what I am missing is information on pricing.
1. Tenant-wide License
Currently, D365 Marketing and D365 Customer Insights are both tenant-wide applications, which means you purchase one license and use this in your tenant and in your Dynamics 365 environment. Currently D365 Marketing and D365 Customer Insights are both priced at approximately €1400 per month. On a sidenote: it is not available for US government pricing, DoD or anything like that.
The new Dynamics 365 Customer Insights combined offering is sold on a prepaid capacity model where capacity is pooled at the tenant level, as you are used to with the other Dynamics 365 apps. If you require more capacity, you will be able to add this as an Add-on.
2. Pricing
Back to pricing as I am curious what will happen here. Will they keep the pricing the same and just rename it or will they combine the products into one? If so, what will happen to the price? Microsoft has not expanded on this yet, only stating that it will be generally available from September 1st.
When looking at the current September 2023 price list, it looks like the price changed compared to the August price list. The Customer Insights price was updated to around €1600 from €1400 per month. It seems like you can get quite some bang for your buck, but only if you use both aspects of Customer Insights. Otherwise, you will end up paying more for what you were already using (upon renewal of your prices – EA renewal or CSP extension).
Interesting move, but only for new users. If you are an existing user and your renewal is coming up, you have work to do! It can pay off to investigate how you use D365 Marketing, or Journey as it is now called, and to ensure Microsoft maintains your current price for another three years (this is an option, see below).
3. Availability
Is the new Customer Insights offer available worldwide?
We know it is available in the geographies United States, UK, UAE, Asia Pacific, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, France, Switzerland, Japan and India. Germany, Korea and South Africa, which currently only offer the standalone Custom Insights queue, will continue to have access to the standalone licensing model for the next contract renewal cycle.
4. Capacity
The previous model had four capacity units while the new model only has the following two capacity units:
- People interacted equivalent to the previous marketable contacts unit in Dynamics 365 marketing
- People unified equivalent to the previous profile meter in Dynamics 365 customer insights
Additional capacity is available for purchase and Microsoft provides additional information on how you should define people unified and people interacted.
5. Renewal for existing D365 customers
If you were already a D365 Marketing or D365 Customer Insights user in one of the above regions, you will move to this new licensing model. Buying either product standalone will no longer be possible.
D365 customers will have the opportunity to renew their existing license for one contractual cycle before transitioning to the new D365 Customer Insights combined licensing motion, up until September 1st, 2024, giving customers one year to renew their current licenses. The question is, what price will Microsoft use for the D365 Customer Insights license?
As of today (September 2023), to renew your contract and make use of the old Dynamics 365 Marketing and/or Customer Insights model before you have to move to the bundled motion.
D365 customers with only one app
What happens to customers who only have a license for either one of the products Dynamics 365 Marketing or Customer Insights after September 1st?
Existing customers can choose to remain and renew on the standalone licensing model for another contractual cycle. There is a transition window that runs through September 2024 and the renewal must be made during this time, with a final contract maturity date that cannot extend beyond September 1st, 2027 (three years after the final date). At the end of the renewed contract period, customers have to transition to the new Customer Insights combined licensing model.
More information
We hope this blog helps you understand the new D365 Customer Insights. As Microsoft keeps developing its offer, we keep updating our blogs and socials. Keep an eye out for more interesting u[dates on AI, Dynamics 365 and more.
Reach out to us with any comments or questions regarding Customers Insights or D365/Microsoft in general. You can visit our website for more information on our services or contact our licensing experts at info@licenseq.com.
