Omnichannel digital messaging, with AI-powered chatbots, and no support for voice

This architecture is intended for contact centers focused on digital engagement channels only. Using this approach, Microsoft products are used to enable omnichannel customer engagements. Microsoft supplies PSTN connectivity for SMS messages, and self-service activities are enabled by Microsoft Copilot Studio. There is a complete end-to-end experience for agents and supervisors in Dynamics 365 Customer Service and the ability to engage other employees using Microsoft Teams. Potential use cases include the following examples:

• Retailers providing online sales and support

• Healthcare providers offering support for patient questions

• Financial Services companies providing help and advice for banking, investments, mortgages, and so on

• Internally facing help desks for employees

• Smaller sized contact centers that aren't staffed to provide voice (telephony) support

Architecture

The following diagram illustrates the architecture. Choose the magnifier icon for a more detailed view.

Dataflow

1. Customers engage via the digital messaging channel of their choice, including potentially using Microsoft Teams as a channel for internally facing contact centers (such as employee helpdesks).

2. Azure Communications Services provides Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) services for SMS

3. Microsoft Coliot Studio provides self-service automation in the form messaging chat bots.

4. Work is routed to agents, who use the customer service workspace within Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

5. Both the agent experience and the supervisor experience are built upon and integrated with the Power Platform. Dataverse stores all core data and events to for the customer data platform.

6. Supervisors interact with the built-in capabilities of Dynamics 365 Customer Service, including insights, forecasting, and scheduling.

7. Using Context IQ, Teams collaboration is enabled between Dynamics users and Teams users, including the ability to collaborate one-on-one or via swarms.

Components

• Dynamics 365 Customer Service documentation

  • Overview of collaboration in Dynamics 365 Customer Service

  • Overview of channels in Omnichannel for Customer Service

  • Configure an SMS channel using Azure Communication Services

  • Configure Microsoft Teams channel in Omnichannel for Customer Service

  • Overview of unified routing

  • Overview of the Customer Service workspace application for Dynamics 365 Customer Service

  • Customer Service Insights

  • Forecast agent, case, and conversation volumes in Customer Service

  • Overview of the Scheduling Service

• Connect to Azure Communication Services

• Microsoft Copilot Studio documentation

  • Configure hand-off to Dynamics 365 Customer Service

• Microsoft Power Platform documentation

• What is Microsoft Dataverse?

• Meet Context IQ—A new way to collaborate in a hyperconnected business - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog

Related resources

• Azure Communication Services telephony concepts
• Azure Communication Services architecture design
• Digital Contact Center Platform guidance overview

Assumptions

In all Digital Contact Center Platform architectures, wherever possible, we assume that all or most solution components use the core capabilities of Microsoft Azure, including, but not limited to, compute, storage, identity, security, management, and compliance.