Why Dynamics 365 Sales Customers Should Consider Moving to Customer Insights

If you're already using Dynamics 365 Sales, you're halfway to a fully integrated customer engagement strategy. But many organizations still rely on third-party marketing platforms, which often introduce data silos, higher costs, and integration complexity.

Microsoft’s Customer Insights – Journeys and Customer Insights – Data offer a native, AI-powered alternative that’s built to work seamlessly with Dynamics 365. These tools unify your customer data, automate personalized marketing, and deliver measurable business outcomes—all within the Microsoft ecosystem.

1. Native Integration with Dynamics 365 Sales

Customer Insights is designed to work out-of-the-box with Dynamics 365 Sales, eliminating the need for custom connectors or middleware. This means:

• Real-time sync between sales and marketing data

• Unified customer profiles across departments

• Seamless lead handoff and qualification

This alignment helps sales and marketing teams collaborate more effectively and act on shared insights.

2. Unified Customer Data with CI Data

Customer Insights – Data consolidates customer information from CRM, ERP, web, social, and other sources into a single, 360-degree profile. Benefits include:

• Smarter segmentation and targeting

• AI-driven predictions and scoring

• Faster time to insights with Data Lake support [What's new...hts - Data]

This eliminates the need for external CDPs and ensures your teams are working with the most current, actionable data.

3. Real-Time Marketing Automation with CI Journeys

Customer Insights – Journeys replaces Dynamics 365 Marketing with a more agile, AI-powered platform. Key features:

• Trigger-based journeys that respond instantly to customer actions

• Multi-channel outreach (email, SMS, push, Teams)

• Copilot AI for journey creation using natural language

• Built-in analytics and performance tracking

This enables marketers to build personalized marketing workflows that adapt in real time, without needing technical expertise.

4. Significant Cost Savings

Third-party platforms often come with:

• High licensing and integration costs

• Separate support contracts

• Redundant data storage and processing fees

By consolidating marketing and data tools within Microsoft, organizations can:

• Reduce total cost of ownership

• Simplify vendor management

• Leverage existing Microsoft licensing agreements

This is especially beneficial for customers already using Microsoft 365, Teams, Azure, or Power Platform.

5. Enhanced Security and Compliance

Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure offers enterprise-grade security and compliance:

• Data residency controls

• GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO compliance

• Role-based access and audit trails

This reduces risk and simplifies governance compared to third-party platforms.

6. Platform Improvements: Evidence of Progress

Microsoft has dramatically improved Customer Insights – Journeys and Data over the past year. Highlights from the 2025 Release Wave 2 include: [What's new...- Journeys]

• Copilot-powered journey creation: Describe a journey in plain language, and Copilot builds it automatically

• Voice conversations with Copilot: Engage customers using AI-driven voice interactions

• Journey API: Automate scalable journey creation programmatically

• Static segments with up to 200,000 members: Handle large audiences with ease

• Event ROI tools: Paid registration and seamless payment integration

• Teams Town Hall integration: Host large-scale online events directly in Microsoft Teams

• Export sent emails for compliance

• Message expiration settings to keep communications relevant

These updates show that Microsoft is not only catching up to third-party platforms, it’s leapfrogging them with AI, scale, and native integration.

7. Simplified Licensing and Transition

Microsoft has unified licensing for Customer Insights – Journeys and Data, making it easier to manage and budget. Plus, the transition from Dynamics 365 Marketing to CIJ is well-supported, with clear guidance and tools.

New customers are provisioned with real-time journeys by default, and outbound marketing will be fully retired by June 30, 2025.

The Strategic Advantage of Staying Native

For Dynamics 365 Sales customers, adopting Customer Insights – Journeys and Customer Insights – Data is a strategic upgrade. It aligns your teams, reduces costs, improves data quality, and unlocks the full power of Microsoft’s AI and cloud capabilities.