The Partner Opportunity For Microsoft AI Business Solutions: Spotlight On Dynamics 365 Solution Plays

Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential business opportunity partners may realize by building and scaling Microsoft AI Business Solutions practices.¹

To better understand the revenue streams, investments, and risks associated with AI Business Solutions practices, Forrester interviewed representatives from 37 partners and surveyed 24 respondents from organizations with AI Business Solutions practices. The case study builds on interviews from the past 12 years with more than 250 Microsoft partners and more than 200 organizations that buy their services.

AI Business Solutions covers three solutions area groups including Microsoft AI, core Microsoft 365, and core Dynamics 365. This abstract focuses on recent changes for Microsoft partners as it relates to the Dynamics 365 solution plays and the outlook for fiscal year (FY) 2027. This includes market trends and how partners make money.

The core Dynamics 365 solution area includes:

• Enterprise resource planning (ERP). The services partners offer for Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.

• Sales. The services partners offer for Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights (Marketing).

• Service. The services partners offer for Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Field Service, and Dynamics 365 Contact Center.

Many of the interviewees’ organizations had Dynamics 365 practices in addition to broader AI Business Solutions practices. In these discussions with Forrester, interviewees shared their views on the high-level trends driving growth today and those expected to become even more important in FY 2027.

To summarize, they said that enterprise demand for Dynamics 365 solutions and services was strong. Key factors driving opportunities and growth included AI adoption, cost optimization through technology vendor consolidation, cloud adoption, customer growth, solution area interconnectedness, product evolution, and Microsoft partner support. For example, AI ignited conversations with customers that recognized the synergy between AI and ERP and the value that was shifting to cloud-based business applications. Customers knew these valuable transformative opportunities with business applications could help optimize costs, drive revenue, and improve service effectiveness and efficiency. These trends yielded new customer and service opportunities for Microsoft partners in FY 2026, and interviewees anticipated continued opportunities and growth in FY 2027.

The Partner Opportunity For Microsoft Dynamics 365

The trends discussed in the previous section have increased revenues across Microsoft Dynamics 365 in terms of total revenue potential (i.e., what partners are offering) and the expected revenue associated with the likely bundles of services that customers are buying (attach rates applied).

In terms of those services, partners aimed to deploy faster by attaching advisory more frequently, starting to build or building more agents, and growing ongoing services for support and continued development. Dynamics 365 engagements also often led to additional opportunities. For example, one interviewee estimated that 95% of customers that implement Dynamics 365 eventually buy additional services. They also discussed how ERP, Sales, and Service were increasingly packaged together for enterprises, how Sales was often an entry point into new customer accounts, and how Service had synergies with Teams Phone. Finally, they noted how Dynamics 365 creates natural extension opportunities with agents and Power Platform, driving growth for partners across AI Business Solutions.

Accounting for attach rates, Forrester found that the expected Microsoft Dynamics 365 revenue opportunity for a new enterprise customer on a three-year journey is $19.70 per user per month.

For details on the partner opportunity for smaller customers, please reference the accompanying CSP case study.³

Forrester calculated the Dynamics 365 opportunity per knowledge worker to align with other solution areas. To calculate per-Dynamics 365 user numbers, readers should multiply the per-knowledge-worker numbers by 5,000 and then divide by the assumed number of license-holding users. However, partners said that employee and user counts matter less for Dynamics 365 than for other solution areas. Instead, partners consider client and project complexity when evaluating these revenue opportunities.

ERP. Partners help enterprise customers transform finance and operations using Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. These services include:

• ERP deployment services with AI-driven enterprise opportunities. To deploy Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, enterprise customers use Microsoft partner services like workshops and setup; proofs of concept; initial integration, system configuration, and data migration; and rollout. Interviewees attributed the strong demand for deployment services to AI, the shift to cloud-based business applications, vendor consolidation, and customer growth. They also said customers understand the value of data and AI with ERP and see clear benefits in leveraging a single platform. For enterprise customers, total ERP project deal sizes regularly ranged from $1 million to $5 million or more (including deployment, advisory, and solutions development).

• Advisory services, like business process optimization. As a core part of ERP projects, partners provide upfront strategy and planning, training, change management, governance, and related advisory services. Partners also increasingly help customers adapt and optimize their ERP-related business processes. These services attach more frequently than in the past as customers recognize the importance of data and AI and seek to maximize the value of their investments. Interviewees shared examples of strategy or training components worth hundreds of thousands of dollars within multimillion-dollar ERP projects for large, complex enterprise clients.

• Solutions development, such as building and customizing ERP-related agents. Enterprise customers often require customization, extensions, and advanced integration work beyond standard deployment services. Interviewees said this work can account for up to 60% of an ERP project, which can exceed $1 million in value. Partners also continue to build IP to accelerate deployments and migrations and deliver greater customer value. This IP helps partners demonstrate technical and industry expertise, leading to additional opportunities.
  Furthermore, partners are now building ERP-related agents and leveraging Microsoft’s first-party Dynamics 365 agents as effective sales enablers. One interviewee estimated that 80% to 90%, if not all, of their organization’s ERP projects included some element of agentic work.

• Managed services, which are and will be even more important. Post-deployment, partners provide ongoing management, business process optimization, and continuous improvements, including AI agents. This represents a shift from earlier business models that focused primarily on break/fix work and updates. This service is also increasingly important to attach more frequently, especially as deployments become faster and more phased. One interviewee shared: “As we transition to the era of AI, this manage-and-evolve service will become more important because the systems integration work will become smaller. It is more about the long-term relationship to continue evolving the platform.”

Sales. Partners help enterprise customers transform how they target, acquire, and retain customers by improving sales and marketing functions using Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. These services include:

• Deployments, which include competitive Sales migrations. Deploying Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights often includes proofs of concept, pilots, deployment, and rollout. Deployment includes setup, initial integration and system configuration, and data migration. Enterprises view these solutions as a way to boost sales with AI and a prime transformation opportunity. They are also looking to consolidate vendors and migrate away from underperforming CRM solutions. As a result of these factors and Microsoft’s support, partners said customer demand is strong. Sales projects were typically smaller than ERP projects and comparable to or smaller than Services projects. Interviewees shared typical deal sizes for Sales projects ranging from $250,000 to $1.5 million or more (including deployment, advisory, and solutions development).

• Sales advisory services that enterprises are now more willing to pay for. Partners offer strategy, change management, training, and related advisory services for Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights deployments. AI has increased demand for these services and customers are increasingly willing to pay for them. For example, an interviewee said: “There are customers using CRM systems that feel they did not get what they wanted. Now, they are willing to pay for strategy.” Forrester modeled total Sales advisory services at approximately 25% of the initial project deal size.

• CRM agent development now that customer demand has started to mature. When deploying Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, enterprise customers often require significant custom development and advanced integration. Compared to last year, this development increasingly includes CRM-focused agents, which partners previously described as being in the early stages. Some partners now offer agents as standalone IP, alongside apps and accelerators. Partners anticipate that they will do more CRM agent-related work as a proportion of Sales projects.

• Managed services, which is the goal of partners. After deployment, partners provide ongoing services, from basic support and periodic updates to continuing projects and enhancements. Partners are aiming to grow managed services as a share of revenue and succeeding. Ongoing manage-and-evolve services, including building new CRM-related agents, represents the largest Sales managed services opportunities.

Service. Partners help enterprise clients transform how they serve customers with Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Field Service, and Dynamics 365 Contact Center. These services include:

• Growing Services deployment opportunities. Services implementations typically move from assessment and discovery to proofs of concept, pilots, and full deployment. Deployment includes setup, initial integration, system configuration, and data migration. Interviewees said demand was strong as enterprises sought to improve service efficiency and effectiveness with AI while optimizing costs and standardizing. Dynamics 365 Contact Center also resonated well with customers and yielded new opportunities. These projects were similar in scale to, or slightly larger than, Sales projects. Interviewees shared typical deal sizes for Services projects ranging from $200,000 to $2 million or more (including deployment, advisory, and solutions development) for each of the solutions. They did explain that there could be economies of scale for deploying multiple solutions.

• Advisory services that continue to rise in value. For these customer service solutions, partners provide business consulting, governance, COE setup, change management, training, and related services. An interviewee said, “The advisory side of projects is becoming more important.”

• AI agent development services demanded by enterprises. As with Sales, partners use their own IP, including agents, to win Services deals and deliver projects faster. Projects often include custom development and integration work. Some partners also use agents as an overlay for customers on competing solutions, creating an entry point for future migration. One interviewee described how agent-related solutions development was changing: “Twelve months ago, we had lots of hype and not enough action. Now, businesses have started to ask for agentic AI solutions. The business value and impact of agentic AI solutions is so material that we have genuine demand.”

• Post-deployment services. After deployment, ongoing offerings include monitoring, standard support, and enhancements. As partners aim for quicker deployments, managed services become more important for post-deployment revenue as they add features for enterprise customers and expand to other solution areas. An interviewee said: “Managed services are an important and growing part of our business. It is a recurring revenue model. It also helps us to upsell and cross-sell more project services because we have that customer relationship.”