Announcing developer preview of the Microsoft Federated Search Platform

by | Jun 24, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

The amount of information we create has grown exponentially, and more often is distributed across multiple locations, making finding the right information, at the right time, increasingly difficult. One solution to this challenge is to merge your on-premises information with your information in Microsoft 365, but occasionally business requirements, corporate and/or regulatory compliance, or other constraints may limit the ability to merge or store data in the cloud.


 


The new Microsoft Federated Search Platform is designed specifically for these scenarios.  The Microsoft Federated Search Platform enables you to build custom federated search providers to allow your information to participate in Microsoft Search’s Answers & Vertical experiences without the need for merging that information with your Microsoft 365 index – while still letting you use familiar Microsoft Search apps and services to include SharePoint, Office.com and Microsoft Bing.


 


The Microsoft Federated Search Platform lets you:



  • Build a custom search provider or bring your existing bot (developed using Microsoft Bot framework protocol 4.0) and register it via the Azure Developer Portal

  • Add trigger phrases for your provider for the most common query patterns used to search over your data to get high precision Answers in the All vertical

  • Define Adaptive Cards UX to render your search results in the Answer card and custom vertical

  • Use the Search & intelligence admin center to enable your custom search providers for your  employees


 


Today we’re extending an invitation to enroll in our upcoming private preview of the Microsoft Federated Search Developer Platform (opening later this Summer) where you can try out this new experience.


 


As part of our private preview program, we’ll provide a federated search provider sample which you can download and customize for your specific scenarios using the Bot Framework SDK. 


 


Once customized and deployed you’ll be able to register it with our platform using the Azure Developer Portal providing its provider icon, name, trigger phrases, Answers & Vertical settings, etc.).  This will allow you to register your provider with Microsoft Search and publish it for your tenant admin for review and approval. 


 


When enabled, employees in your organization will be to search results from your provider alongside your Microsoft 365 information in Microsoft Search.


 


If you’re interested in enrolling in this private preview, complete the form at https://aka.ms/SearchDevPrivatePreview.


 


You can learn more about our plans for federated search and view a demonstration at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZcOskBTwNU.

Quick Tips for a Better Website Redesign

Quick Tips for a Better Website Redesign

by | Jun 24, 2021 | Marketing, Tips and Tricks, Web Design

Optimizing a website is not as easy as ABC. There are several factors to consider and implement to achieve a good user experience and maximize conversion rates. This article will provide you with some tips for a better website design, one of which is to ensure that all of the internal links on your website are working correctly. In this article, I present some tips for optimizing website functionality and building the best user experience.

The first of the user experience tips for a better website is to make sure that all internal links on your site are working correctly. When clicking an internal link, the user should see a loading indicator, either a green arrow with a red X or another similar indicator. If there is a loading indicator, but the page takes too long to load, or the page doesn’t fully load when the user tries to open it, then it’s likely that the page isn’t receiving a fast connection from its ISP. To solve this problem, you should contact the ISP and ask them to upgrade your internet connection speed. They’ll likely be happy to help you out!

The second tip for an improved user experience for a better website is to create clear navigation links between pages. For example, if your website has a search bar on the left side, you should have a navigation bar on the right side of the page that clicking on the appropriate links. Another navigation option is to use the header navigation links often provided with newsletters, blog posts, and product reviews. This gives the reader a good overview of what the author wants to convey with the rest of the content on that particular page.

A third tip is to minimize the number of browser crashes while viewing the page. You can do this by adding JavaScripts and frames to your page to speed things up and allow the viewer to interact with the page with ease. For example, if your web page has many flash elements, you should place them somewhere else on the page to cut down on browser crashes. Using frames also allows the reader to jump from one page to another quickly.

A fourth of the quick tips for a better website redesign involves using clear navigation links on each page of the website. For example, you should place your menu bar at the top of every page or the top left corner of every page. This makes it easy for the viewer to go from one page to another.

Finally, make sure that your website still looks clean and pleasant even after you’ve designed it. Many new websites have flashy designs, which often get people’s attention turned away from the site’s actual content. It would be best if you instead focused on making the essential features of your website very obvious. By doing this, you will be able to build a better reputation for your business online. After all, you won’t be able to do much to turn people off of your website if they don’t even know that it exists!

Intelligent Order Management partners with leading service providers to optimize order management

Intelligent Order Management partners with leading service providers to optimize order management

by | Jun 24, 2021 | Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Today, consumers are demanding more products and services from retailers in a rapidly evolving number of delivery modes. At the same time, retailers are increasingly asking, “how can we go faster” as they work to refine their retail playbook. To meet the demands of the future of their businesses, retailers must consider how to leverage interoperable ecosystems to enable frictionless processes from order source through orchestration to intelligent fulfillment and delivery. The industry has not overlooked this truth, with Gartner predicting that by 2023, organizations that have adopted a composable approach will outpace the competition by 80 percent1 in the speed of new initiative implementation.

Against the backdrop of these challenges, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management provides the dexterity companies require to accept orders from any source, automate orchestration actions across multiple pathways, and flexibly fulfill and deliverall in harmony with a growing ecosystem of leading service providers.

Key order management KPIs

Order source systems

Order source systems are the intake valves that represent the sources of the orders that you need to fulfill. These sources can vary not only from one merchant to another but dynamically as buying trends fluctuate and new marketplaces come online.

Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management delivers the flexibility required to rapidly scale and incorporate new sources of order intake, whether these sources are business partners, wholesale customers, distributors, or franchises. This is what Intelligent Order Management’s partnership with Magento from Adobe is all about. The pre-built connector for Intelligent Order Management will give your customers the buying options they desire while allowing for order fulfillment from anywhere: be that online, in-store, curbside, or locker pickup.

Another partnership we are excited to introduce is BigCommerce. The pre-built connector for Intelligent Order Management will enable a real-time flow of all orders generated through the BigCommerce platform to route them to a single order orchestration platform. The combination creates a streamlined and efficient data flow that provides a harmonious online shopping experience across the entire customer journeyfrom processing to management and finally to the fulfillment of the product.

example of capturing orders from anywhere

Retailers can go faster by leveraging this new and expanding ecosystem of leading service providers. With these new tools powering the future of their retail supply chains, brand owners gain real-time visibility into each step of the order journey and fulfillment insights in real-time through customizable and integrated dashboards that enable their supply chain team to overcome constraints and improve operational efficiency.

Fulfillment and delivery

Intelligent Order Management is also partnering with service providers like Krber (formerly Warehouse Advantage) to provide seamless end-to-end supply chain experiences for retailers around the world. Krber is a supply chain software provider that empowers organizations to scale their operations on a global level and keep their inventory moving.

an example of how the order orchestration designer tool can help modify the order journey

Krber’s supply chain flagship warehouse management solution is known for its flexibility and ease of configuration to adapt to changing business needs. In a world that changes constantly, the dexterity to adjust business processes as necessary has become top of mind for retailers looking to compete in today’s ultra-competitive environment. With the pre-built connector for Intelligent Order Management, organizations can use the order information, optimize orchestration, and facilitate strategic sourcing and slotting to mitigate wasted movement and expedited fulfillment.

Together, Intelligent Order Management and Krber empowers users to streamline orders through to executionsaving retailers time, optimizing throughput, and increasing visibility from order to fulfillment.

Another fulfillment and delivery partnership that we are proud to highlight is with Flexe. With the pre-built connector for Intelligent Order Management, organizations can quickly extend to include a team of logistic experts that are dedicated to supporting their businessday in, day out. Microsoft’s partnership with Flexe also provides retailers with access to the largest scalable network of warehouse and fulfillment service providers. This is the beauty and simplicity of Microsoft Power Platform that runs Intelligent Order Management. If you need it, simply connect it through our powerful and intuitive, drag and drop order orchestration designer interface.

Order orchestration actions

As a trusted Microsoft partner and vendor for more than a decade, Vertex, Inc. is a leading global provider of indirect tax software and solutions that integrate with Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 suite. With the pre-built connector for Intelligent Order Management, customers get complete access to Vertex’s tax solutions. Vertex’s innovative solution enables customers to benefit from the automatic posting of sales and use tax and VAT with comprehensive business process support.

an example of rules-based order fulfillment orchestration

“As we collaborate with the team at Microsoft, we remain focused on our mission to deliver the most trusted tax technology, enabling our joint global customers to transact, comply and grow with confidence,” said Nichole Prendergast, Global Partner Leader at Vertex, Inc. “The integration of our tax solutions with Intelligent Order Management is a natural extension of modern supply chain management which requires optimizing tax strategies and efficiency as much as inventory management.”

What’s next?

As we have highlighted with the partnerships announced here, Intelligent Order Management helps businesses go faster by adapting rapidly to complex environments successfully. It gives retailers the ability to get up and running quickly using a range of connectors to existing business applications, order sources, and fulfillment providers. Our next steps are to roll out additional capabilities for Intelligent Order Management in the coming months, including more pre-built connectors, as we continue to develop our partner ecosystem of best-of-breed applications that enhance your ability to capitalize on new order management solutions quickly.

Learn more about how Intelligent Order Management helps companies adapt quickly and fulfill efficiently in this recent blog post or dig deeper into Intelligent Order Management by watching this MyIgnite session on intelligent fulfillment orchestration for optimized delivery.

Further NRF news

1- Gartner, Composable Commerce Must Be Adopted for the Future of Applications, Mike Lowndes, Sandy Shen, 18 June 2020

The post Intelligent Order Management partners with leading service providers to optimize order management appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

Updates to Microsoft Teams meetings, Search, and more—here’s what’s new to Microsoft 365

Updates to Microsoft Teams meetings, Search, and more—here’s what’s new to Microsoft 365

by | Jun 24, 2021 | Business, Microsoft 365, Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

We believe the future of work is hybrid and that the leaders of tomorrow will be the ones that empower their people to collaborate and be productive from anywhere, at any time. Earlier this month, we shared several new innovations to Microsoft Teams Rooms, Fluid, and Microsoft Viva designed to help people connect, engage, and…

The post Updates to Microsoft Teams meetings, Search, and more—here’s what’s new to Microsoft 365 appeared first on Microsoft 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

Azure SQL Database Ledger​ – The power of blockchain with the simplicity of SQL | Data Exposed

by | Jun 24, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

In this episode of Data Exposed with Jason Anderson, learn what the ledger feature of Azure SQL Database is and where using ledger can help enable digital trust in your data. There will also be some quick demos on how to enable this exciting new capability and how to show to others that your data is in-fact, intact.


 


Watch on Data Exposed



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