Whether building a startup or running a large enterprise, core systems like sales, finance, operations, and customer service operating in isolation lead to manual work, delayed decisions, and frustrated employees. It is high time for all businesses to shift from siloed ERP and systems to unified, cloud-based platforms to provide a more personalized customer experience. Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a practical solution to address all these challenges.

Named by Gartner Magic Quadrant as a leader in Cloud ERP for Service Centric Enterprises, Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises, and Cloud ERP for finance, Dynamics 365’s ability to support complex and large-scale enterprise operations makes it an ideal solution. Instead of switching between multiple applications and reconciling data manually, teams can work in a single shared system where information flows seamlessly across departments.

For the successful Microsoft Dynamics 365 integration, you must understand its capabilities, integration approaches, and how it can benefit you in different business cases.

Are Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Dynamics 365 the Same?

Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Dynamics 365 are not the same, but they are related. Microsoft Dynamics is an umbrella term that includes Dynamics 365 and a broader range of Microsoft applications. Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based software that integrates with third-party and native Microsoft capabilities.

What Is Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based application platform that brings Customer Relationship Management and Enterprise Resource Planning capabilities together in a unified way. Organizations can use MS Dynamics 365 as an integrated ecosystem, rather than managing sales, finance, operations, or customer service in silos.

This cloud-first design capability of Microsoft eliminates the need for heavy on-premise infrastructure and enables organizations to scale applications and users as business needs change. At its core, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is designed to address common business challenges arising from fragmented systems, disconnected data, and inefficient processes.

Core Components of Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 comprises two primary application categories: ERP and CRM. These two are designed to work together on a shared platform, helping organizations to manage customer experience and core business operations.

1. Dynamics 365 CRM Applications

Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM integration focuses on managing customer relationships, improving engagement, and driving revenue growth. Using this CRM, businesses can capture leads, manage sales pipelines, and offer a personalized user experience.

2. Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP Applications

MS D365 ERP supports core business operations like finance, supply chain, and overall enterprise management in a unified manner. It provides real-time insights, reporting, and compliance to streamline your business operations.

Key Capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a set of capabilities designed to unify data, enable intelligent decision making, and support integration across core enterprise systems. Here are the key capabilities of D365

1. Data Unification with Dataverse

Dataverse acts like a common data layer for D365, creating a single source of truth for customer, financial, and operational data.

2. Built-in AI and Analytics

AI and built-in analytics help businesses gain actionable insights into their data, supporting predictive forecasting, customer behavior analysis, and performance monitoring

3. Security and Compliance

Offers enterprise-grade security with role-based access controls, data encryption, and compliance with global standards.

4. Scalability for Growing Enterprises

The cloud-based architecture of Dynamics 365 supports increased user counts, larger data volumes, and global operations, allowing businesses to add applications as they evolve.

5. Integration and Extensibility Capabilities

Microsoft D365 provides different ways to connect, including native connectors, RESTful APIs, and event-driven mechanisms such as plugins and webhooks.

Primary Dynamics 365 Integration Patterns

Integration pattern describes the type of interaction required with Dynamics 365 by other application. A business process that transcends one application would need information to be either created/updated, queried or ‘notified of a change’ to other application.

1. Inbound (Create/Update/Query): The integration platform supplies new or changed data to Dynamics 365 and querying to retrieve data from Dynamic 365 through a synchronous call.

2. Outbound (Event Driven Approach): Dynamics 365 supplies new or changed data to the Integration Platform using Event Driven approach.

Common Approaches to Dynamics 365 Integration

Here are few of the most commonly used approaches to integrate Dynamics 365 with other Microsoft as well as3rd party applications.

1. API Enable Integration

Dynamics 365 includes a modern RESTful web service that enables you to interact with data and objects in the application. The Web API implements the OData (Open Data Protocol) v4. OData is an OASIS standard for building and consuming RESTful APIs over rich data sources.

Service Root URL to expose Web API: Service Root URL :[Organisation Name]/api/data/v9.1/

The Dynamics 365 Web API allows you to perform various operations and exposes them via REST. Some major operations performed using Web API are:

• Create, Retrieve, Update, and Delete an Entity using Web API
• Querying Data using Web API
• Execute Batch Operation and Conditional Operation using Web API

Sometimes, business users don’t want to share the original Dynamics 365 API URLs and access credentials to integrate third-party applications. You can hide all the addresses and credentials behind an API using Azure API Management (APIM). This configuration will act as a broker, providing access between your Dynamics 365 and third-party applications.

2. Event Framework Enable Integration (Event-Driven & Webhook)

Event Framework provides the capability to register custom code to be run in response to specific events. The Dynamics 365 event processing subsystem executes plug-ins using a message pipeline execution model.

Plugins can be triggered by:

• A user action in the Dynamics 365 user interface
• Events triggered by the Organization Service or the Web API

Another option is to use webhooks.

Webhook (Lightweight HTTP pattern) – also called a web callback or HTTP push API – is a way to provide real-time information to the apps for Dynamics 365 to send out data to an HTTP endpoint whenever an event occurs.

3. Tools Enabled Integration

Leading integration platforms ( like Azure Integration Services, Boomi etc) provide on-demand multi-tenant cloud/ on-premises integration services, that enables integration with Dynamics 365 . These tools enable other applications to connect with Dynamic 365 without the need of writing code.

Azure Integration Services provides prebuilt set of connectors to implement integration, automate workflow and make communication between Dynamics 365 and other application. Connector provide standard operations to –

• Get (query) records
• Create new records
• Delete records
• Update records
• List records
• Get a notification when any record is created in Dynamics 365
• Get a notification when any record is updated in Dynamics 365
• Get a notification when any record is deleted in Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integration with Third-Party Applications and Native Platforms

D365 offers integration with a massive number of third-party applications alongside Microsoft’s native tools and capabilities. This connectivity lets you build an ecosystem in which all internal and external systems are end-to-end integrated. It offers various options, such as APIs, connectors, and integrations, to connect these applications and exchange data, thereby enhancing collaboration across the enterprise.

Platform	Key Functionality
Azure Integration Services	Provides enterprise-grade tools like Logic Apps and Service Bus for complex, event-driven workflows and secure API management.
Power Platform	Uses Power Automate for no-code task automation and Dataverse to provide a unified data structure across all Microsoft apps.
Power BI	Pulls data from D365 and external sources to create interactive dashboards for real-time strategic decision-making.
Sales & CRM	Synchronizes lead and contact data between external sales teams (Salesforce) and the Dynamics ecosystem to prevent data silos.
Finance & ERP	Connects financial records, ensuring that invoices, purchase orders, and accounting data are consistent across both (SAP/NetSuite) systems.
Marketing	Links marketing campaign responses and engagement metrics (clicks, opens) directly to customer records in D365.
E-commerce	Automates the transfer of online orders, customer profiles, and inventory levels between web storefronts (Shopify) and back-office ERP.
Communication	Enables real-time notifications and allows users to access or share CRM records directly within chat interfaces.

Step-by-Step Guide to Set Up Dynamics 365 Integration

Here is a step-by-step guide to set up and configure your Microsoft Dynamics 365 integration. 

Step 1: Enable Integration at the Tenant Level

Log in to Viva Goals as a tenant admin and open the Viva Goals Admin Center. Navigate to Integrations, locate Dynamics 365, toggle the status to On, and save the changes. This makes the integration available to all organizations in the tenant.

Source : Microsoft

Step 2: Enable Integration at the Organization Level

Sign in as an organization admin and go to Admin > Integrations in Viva Goals. Select Dynamics 365, choose Enable or Manage, and create a new connection by signing in with Microsoft credentials.

Step 3: Add and Manage Dynamics 365 Connections

Viva Goals allows multiple Dynamics 365 connections within an organization. Each connection must have a unique name, enabling users to switch connections when linking key results to different Dynamics 365 environments.

Step 4: Link Dynamics 365 to a Key Result

Edit or create a key result and go to the Progress and Status section. Select Connect to a data source, choose the Dynamics 365 icon, and select the appropriate connection if multiple options exist.

Step 5: Configure the Dynamics 365 Metric

Choose the Dynamics 365 app, select the relevant entity and view, and pick the column that represents the metric. Define the aggregation method to calculate progress, then save the configuration.

Step 6: Sync and Monitor Progress

Once linked, a Dynamics 365 icon appears next to the key result. Progress updates automatically every hour, and users can manually refresh the data using the Sync option.

Benefits of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integration

Dynamics 365 unifies data, automates processes, and enables smarter decision-making across the organization.

1. Optimizing and Streamlining Business Processes

Businesses are using Dynamics 365 and various third-party applications to address business processes and functions. System Integration helps businesses to optimize and streamline business processes and reduce costs.

2. Reducing Manual Effort 

Integration reduces the manual effort required to maintain and update data and transactions across both systems.

3. Holistic View of Customer Interactions

Integration provides companies with a holistic view of customer interactions, from prospect creation through sales and support.

4. Automated Workflows Across Applications

Integration helps you to develop automated workflows across applications and avoid repetitive business process execution.

Challenges of Dynamics 365 Integration

Organizations must hire a Microsoft Dynamics 365 expert to address all the technical and operational challenges.

• Data Migration and Legacy Systems

Data migration from legacy to Dynamics 365 can raise data quality issues, inconsistent formats, and outdated processes. It requires proper data assessment and cleansing.

• Integration Complexity

Integration with existing applications and third-party systems can be challenging due to complex architectures, data mapping, and synchronization demands.

• User Adoption

Lack of training and knowledge of Dynamics 365 can affect its implementation. Hire an experienced consultant who can manage the entire process from implementation to post-production support.

How NeosAlpha helps you with Successful Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integration?

As an experienced Microsoft Dynamics 365 services provider, we help organizations to design, implement, and optimize seamless integration tailored to their business needs. With deep ERP, CRM, and integration expertise, we help businesses create a scalable Dynamics 365 ecosystem.

• As a Microsoft Partner, we have hands-on experience across ERP and CRM integration platforms.
• Official integration partner for Boomi and Workato, enabling faster and low-code integrations
• Proven expertise in integrating Dynamics 365 with enterprise systems such as Salesforce and SAP
• SERP domain knowledge from platforms like NetSuite aligns integrations with real-world business processes
• Microsoft Azure partner expertise for secure, scalable, and cloud-native integration architectures
• End-to-end integration services covering strategy, design, implementation, testing, and ongoing support

Use Cases of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Integration

Use Case	Business Impact
Order-to-Cash & Supply Chain (EDI)	Focuses on automating order intake, acknowledgments, and invoicing. It maps to connecting external EDI systems into D365 ERP workflows using middleware like Boomi.
ERP Modernization & Cloud Transformation	Represents the transition from restrictive on-premise legacy systems to scalable cloud environments, supporting rapid organizational growth.
Customer 360 & Data Synchronization	Centers on unifying fragmented data (such as donor records) across CRM and Finance systems to create a single, centralized “source of truth.”
Sales-to-Finance & e-Commerce Integration	Maps to direct connectivity with marketplaces like Amazon (via SP-API), automating inventory updates and financial reconciliation within Dynamics.

Conclusion

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is more than a collection of business applications; it is a unified platform designed to simplify complexity, connect teams, and enable smarter decision-making. By bringing ERP and CRM capabilities together on a secure, cloud-based foundation, Dynamics 365 helps organizations gain real-time visibility, streamline operations, and deliver better customer experiences.

When implemented and integrated correctly, it becomes a powerful enabler of end-to-end business processes, from sales and finance to supply chain and customer service. For organizations looking to modernize their systems and future-proof their operations, Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides the flexibility, scalability, and intelligence needed to succeed in an increasingly digital world.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can Salesforce be integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 using APIs?

Integrating Salesforce with Dynamics 365 via REST APIs is possible. D365 exposes OData-based web APIs, while Salesforce provides REST and SOAP APIs. Using integration platforms like Boomi, businesses can ensure the secure exchange of data, such as customer, lead, and opportunity data, between systems.

2. What are the common integration options available in Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Dynamics 365 supports different integration patterns and approaches.  It includes RESTful Web APIs, event-driven integration via plugins and webhooks, Dataverse-based integration, and native connectors via Azure Integration Services and the Power Platform. By using these approaches, you can integrate native Microsoft and third-party applications.

3. Can Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP and Sales be integrated in real time?

Yes, real-time D365 integration is possible using event-driven approaches such as plugins, webhooks, and messaging services. When changes occur in one platform such as order creation or status updates, they are automatically updated in other systems as well. Contact us for the successful Dynamics 365 integration with other application. 

4. How to integrate dotmailer with Microsoft Dynamics CRM?

Dotmailer (Dotdigital) Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration synchronizes contacts, leads, and customer data for marketing campaigns. This integration automates email marketing, personalized campaigns, and real-time engagement using CRM data, helping marketing and sales teams to work together towards a common goal.

5. What data can be integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Businesses can integrate customer data (accounts, contacts, leads), sales, pipeline, finance, accounting, product, inventory, and marketing data. Along with data integration with D365, it also supports integration with operational, analytics, and third-party system data, offering a unified view across the enterprise.