Lifetime Products rebalances workforce with autonomous agents in Dynamics 365

Lifetime Products puts people first. It enhanced customer experience and empowered employees with its Microsoft Dynamics 365 rollout, but wanted to achieve more. The famously innovative company knew that automation would intensify those gains.

It deployed the Account Reconciliation Agent for Dynamics 365 Finance to automate matching and clearing transactions between subledgers and the general ledger. It has also automated several e-commerce order processes.

Two months after deployment, the Lifetime division that automated e-commerce processes realized a 95% efficiency improvement and completely eliminated several manual processes. It looks forward to continued advances.

“With autonomous agents in Dynamics 365, we’re giving our people the tools they need to continue to make an impact on the company and better compete in the marketplace. I’m proud of that.”

Ted Esplin, COO, Lifetime Products

Supporting the All-Stars who make products for All-Stars

Lifetime Products touts the iconic basketball hoops that started a sporting goods empire with a telling slogan: “Made for All-Stars by All-Stars.” Although renowned for its innovative drive, Lifetime Products is unwaveringly dedicated to people. The company’s pledges of commitment, innovation, and quality run deep, along with its respect for all the players in its orbit. That means opportunity for employees' careers buoyed by teamwork and passion. Most recently, Lifetime has ignited the benefits of its Dynamic 365 deployment with AI, opening the door to more employee opportunities—and wins for the company.

Building on success

Lifetime Products reimagined its business processes by replacing its outdated ERP system with Microsoft Dynamics 365. The project brought Lifetime internal teams and FastTrack for Dynamics 365 experts together. “One of our major deployment ROI initiatives was to ensure professional growth for our employees,” says John Bowden, CIO at Lifetime Products. “Technology is just one business optimization aspect. Processes and people are crucial.”

Lifetime Products COO Ted Esplin agrees. “When people know how much we value them, they’re passionate to improve processes.” He explains that Lifetime “rebalances” employees to where they’re most needed and have the best opportunities. This strategy plays perfectly with the company’s current focus on automation. “With our Dynamics 365 deployment working so well, we felt that we could rebalance to optimize employee opportunity,” explains Sinahi Lopez, Global IT Functional Manager at Lifetime Products. “Using AI and autonomous agents are just the next level for us when it comes to realizing the full benefit of our Dynamics 365 environment.”

“With our Dynamics 365 deployment working so well, we felt that we could rebalance to optimize employee opportunity. Using AI and autonomous agents are just the next level for us when it comes to realizing the full benefit of our Dynamics 365 environment.”

Sinahi Lopez, Global IT Functional Manager, Lifetime Products

Doing more with same

Within the first quarter of 2025, Lifetime’s Mexico division achieved dramatic improvement with AI automation in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance to automate splitting and matching of Accounts Receivable deductions. The division’s sales director automated several e-commerce order processes, creating a 95% efficiency increase and completely eliminating several manual processes. The subsequent rebalancing gave sales team members more creative marketing and strategic opportunities. Taken across a multinational business, even the slightest process improvement can translate to enormous gains. “We experience the impacts of AI automation so potently that we measure process improvement time in seconds,” adds Bowden. “And this is crucial to our ongoing rebalancing. We believe that we can now rebalance 20% of our knowledge workforce.”

Esplin reassures employees who worry that technology will edge them out. “Our goal is not to just reduce labor,” he explains. “Our goal is to be more efficient with the labor we have and ‘do more with same.’”

Sharing innovation in a culture of “aggressive learning”

Lopez appreciates the “aggressive learning” culture in which Lifetime employees constantly strive to stay on top of emerging technologies, poised to meet business demands. “We strongly rely on Microsoft certification programs,” says Lopez. “Exploring the technology deeply and deploying autonomous agents has elevated my team. It’s also very rewarding to see how much the people we work with appreciate the time they save when we automate a process for them.”

Now Lifetime is preparing to deploy the Supplier Communications Agent in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, to autonomously communicate with suppliers to proactively mitigate order delays and supply chain disruptions. Aggressive learning and exploration continue to bear fruit as Lopez’s IT team deepens its partnership with the business. “One of our biggest learnings has been to let the autonomous agent run its own calculations,” Lopez insists. “You’ll get a more comprehensive, better result.”

“With autonomous agents in Dynamics 365, we’re giving our people the tools they need to continue to make an impact on the company and better compete in the marketplace,” concludes Esplin. “I’m proud of that.”

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