If your company runs on Microsoft Dynamics 365, your field reps already have their accounts, contacts, and opportunities in one place. Open an account and, if your admin has enabled it, there’s a map right on the form.
Whether that’s enough depends on what your reps do with it. A rep who visits a handful of fixed accounts each week can work fine from the record. A rep choosing today’s stops from 300 accounts across three counties needs help deciding which accounts to visit and in what order.
What Dynamics 365 maps out of the box
Dynamics 365 uses Bing Maps for its built-in map. According to Microsoft’s Power Platform documentation, when an administrator turns Bing Maps on, people see a map of a customer’s location when they view contacts, leads, or accounts. The setting lives in the Power Platform admin center, under the environment’s feature settings.
Microsoft’s guide to configuring the map component adds the details. The map is configured by default on the main account and contact forms, it displays the location from that record’s address columns, and a form can hold only one map component.
Where a record map stops for field sales
Field reps rarely need to know where one customer is. They need to decide which customers to see today and in what order. A map on a single record leaves that decision to the rep:
- Choosing the day’s accounts. Which accounts are overdue for a visit, based on tier and cadence?
- Sequencing stops. What’s the most efficient order across eight or ten visits, and what changes when one cancels?
- Seeing what’s nearby. Which other accounts or prospects sit within a few miles of today’s route?
- Capturing the visit. How does the rep log a check-in and notes in the parking lot, in seconds, even without signal?
- Seeing coverage. Which accounts in a territory haven’t been visited this cycle?
Without a tool for those jobs, reps usually build routes from exported lists and log visits when they get back to a laptop, which is how Dynamics data falls behind what’s happening in the field.
Signs your Dynamics 365 team needs mapping software
The case for adding a tool gets stronger when you see these patterns:
- Reps plan their week in a spreadsheet or a consumer maps app instead of in Dynamics.
- Visit activity arrives in Dynamics in end-of-week batches.
- High-value accounts off the usual path go too long between visits.
- Managers can report on opportunities by stage but can’t see which accounts were visited this month.
- Reps in rural territories lose signal and lose notes.
What to look for in Dynamics 365 mapping software
Most tools can put Dynamics accounts on a map. The differences show up in the integration and in what reps can do once the accounts are there.
| Capability | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Native two-way sync | Accounts, contacts, opportunities, and activities flowing in from Dynamics, with visits and notes flowing back |
| Custom fields | Your custom fields and picklists mapped across, so tiers and segments carry over |
| Sync control | The ability to choose how often data syncs between the two systems |
| Prioritization | Accounts ranked by tier, visit cadence, and recent activity |
| Routing | Single and multi-day routes built from those priorities |
| Visit capture | GPS-verified check-ins and notes logged at the visit, with offline mode |
| Territory view | Accounts by owner, tier, and last-visit date, so managers can spot coverage gaps |
How Map My Customers works with Dynamics 365
Map My Customers is a field sales execution platform that runs alongside Dynamics 365. Dynamics remains the system of record, and Map My Customers becomes the system of execution that plans the rep’s day and captures what happens in the field.
The Dynamics integration is native and two-way. You select the Dynamics records your field team needs, including contacts, companies, deals, and activities. You map Dynamics fields to Map My Customers, including the custom fields and picklists your team already uses, and you choose how often data syncs. Reps work from a prioritized list and route, log visits as they go, and that activity flows back to Dynamics for everyone else working there.
Ask your reps how they plan their routes
Ask three of your field reps how they built today’s route and how long it took. If the answer involves an export, a spreadsheet, or a separate maps app, your reps need a way to plan the day and capture visits, and the built-in map isn’t designed for either. If your territories also need rebalancing, see whether you need territory management software alongside your CRM.
FAQs
Does Dynamics 365 have a map view?
Yes, for individual records. When an administrator enables Bing Maps in the Power Platform admin center, Dynamics 365 shows a map of the customer’s location on contact, lead, and account forms. The map displays one record’s address. It isn’t designed to plan routes or show a territory’s accounts together.
How do you turn on maps in Dynamics 365?
According to Microsoft’s documentation, an administrator signs in to the Power Platform admin center, selects Manage, then Environments, and picks the environment. From there, they go to Settings, then Product, then Features, and turn on Bing Maps under Embedded content. Microsoft notes that Bing Maps isn’t available in every country, region, or language.
Does Map My Customers integrate with Dynamics 365?
Yes. Map My Customers offers a native, two-way integration with Microsoft Dynamics. You choose which records to sync, map fields including custom fields and picklists, and set the sync frequency. Dynamics stays the system of record while reps plan and log their field work in Map My Customers.