Microsoft Eliminated Change Confusion & Secured Its Enterprise Systems With Whatfix

The Challenge

The Cost of Confusion: When New Security Rollouts Overwhelm Support Teams

While implementing a new IP Firewall control designed to enhance security for MSX, the engineering team encountered an important adoption milestone. The updated control required sellers to connect via VPN when working remotely, ensuring secure and streamlined access to the system.

In situations where sellers were not connected to the VPN, the system displayed a standard error message, which, while intended to maintain security, sometimes prompted additional inquiries from users seeking guidance. As a result, there was an increased volume of support requests, reflecting the users’ commitment to compliance and productivity across Microsoft’s global seller community.

“One of our key challenges was ensuring that users received timely and effective guidance when VPN connectivity was required for tool access,” explained Mayank Dehgal, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft. “By collaborating with the Whatfix team, we developed an in-app experience that explained how they could unblock themselves in less than three clicks instead of reaching out to tech support.”

The Solution

Simplifying Transitions & Securing Systems with Contextual Help

To address this urgent adoption challenge that resulted in a spike in MS Dynamics support cases, MSX turned to Whatfix. The team implemented a Whatfix video pop-up overlay that appeared directly in Dynamics 365 Sales when the system detected the VPN issue. The guidance walked sellers through the VPN connection process, enabling them to take the right action instantly without escalating to IT.

Within the first week of launch, over 14,000 Microsoft sellers used the pop-up to resolve the issue independently. Since rollout, the experience has been triggered over 140,000 times by more than 24,000 users.

“In the absence of Whatfix, the MSX team would have risked support tickets from most of their seller community once the IP Firewall got deployed,” said Mayank. “This new use case required dynamic content delivery based on user behavior. Traditional DAP tools wouldn’t work well here because of the complexity. Whatfix adapted with us.”

The team also began using Whatfix to drive awareness and adoption of new features, building Flows to walk sellers through lead generation workflows and prevent common errors, further improving usage across the sales org.

The Results

From Rollout Confusion to Seamless Change Execution with Whatfix

The partnership with Whatfix delivered transformative results:

• 90% Reduction in VPN Support Tickets: Whatfix in-app guidance helped sellers resolve their issues, eliminating thousands of IT escalations.
• 3,000+ Hours Saved in Support Efforts: Time saved on support was reinvested into higher-value seller and IT team priorities.
• 140K+ Interactions Across 24K+ Users: The pop-up solution provided ongoing, scalable support to Microsoft’s global field and partner seller network.
• Increased Adoption of New Features: With Whatfix Flows, the engineering team successfully drove adoption of new capabilities, such as lead generation workflows.

Mayank added, “How Whatfix is structured by including a tight loop between their customer success team and product management team made it easier to expand or customize our scope. As we evolve rapidly, we need partners who can adapt and grow with us, and Whatfix fit the bill perfectly.”

For Microsoft’s MSX team, Whatfix became more than just a tool—it was a critical part of the digital adoption strategy that empowered sellers, protected security, and scaled innovation across the enterprise.