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Cisco has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple Cisco products. An attacker could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.
CISA encourages users and administrators to review the Cisco Security Advisories page and apply the necessary updates.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Retail executives have long understood the critical role that supply chain management plays in their organization’s ability to meet customer demand. Yet, as central as the supply chain is to success in most companies, customers rarely consider it when placing an order. This status quo shifted dramatically during the pandemic as high-profile disruptions and global shortages pushed supply chain from the boardroom to the forefront of consumer awareness. It has also cemented supply chain as a top priority for retailers, direct-to-consumer manufacturers, and distributors in the consumer goods sectormany of whom are embarking on enterprise resource planning (ERP) modernization. In this blog, we discuss composability for retailers alongside three customer success stories that showcase how Microsoft Dynamics 365 breathes composability into ERP modernization.
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A composable business is an organization consisting of modular building blocks that can be orchestrated to rapidly adapt operations to changing market conditions, new business opportunities, and unpredictable disruptions. Unfortunately, while many sectors are reaping large benefits from composability, retailers have been slower to adopt a flexible approach. When Gartner asked retailers if they accept the risk and costs of new technology and deploy it as early as possible, only eight percent of retailers agree, compared to 21 percent for highly composable business.1 One company that certainly exemplifies the value that a composable approach can create is Signature Cosmetics.
Signature Cosmetics, a leading cosmetics and fragrance group, based in South Africa, began a modernization program in 2019 to rationalize the complexity that years of steady growth brought to its supply chain. When they embarked, the retailer was hard pressed with even simple tasks, like determining accurate product cost and margin. Operating three divisions (manufacturing, imports, and retail) in four countries, each with siloed and separate systems, had made even routine decision making extremely difficult.
When the company began its modernization program by implementing Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, it was not immediately clear the value that a composable solution would provide. As the pandemic hit, it quickly understood that a pivot in strategy was necessary. Because of the composable nature of the Dynamics 365 platform, it was able to rapidly stand up a new e-commerce site in less than two months, becoming the first Dynamics 365 e-commerce solution in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. The company quickly went from zero online sales at the onset of the pandemic to a 20-30 percent revenue growth in its first few months.
“Pivoting to an e-commerce platform has really opened the doors for them for new revenue opportunities.”Mario Engelbrecht, Chief Technology Officer, Parity Software (Implementation partner).
Learn more: Signature Cosmetics customer story.
At Microsoft, we believe in the value that composability can bring to retailers. With new enhancements to our solutions, such as our Inventory Visibility Add-in for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, retailers can begin their composability journey without significant risk or cost.
Our Inventory Visibility Add-in is a highly scalable microservice that enables real-time on-hand inventory tracking. The solution can easily connect and pull inventory from multiple third-party systems, allowing companies to create a single, global view of all inventories. By creating one pool of global inventory from which all orders can pull, companies can often increase inventory accuracy and thereby maximize sales opportunities. Plus, when coupled with the soft reservation capability, sales order fulfillment can avoid over-selling, effectively mitigating the risk of missed sales opportunities that may challenge some organizations. Ultimately, with the Inventory Visibility Add-in, users can compose a bespoke inventory system that delivers superior business value by meeting the unique needs of your operating model.
Learn more about composable solutions and microservice architectures in our blog: Dynamics 365 composable approach enables rapid deployment of a supply chain control tower.
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), total returns increased from $428 billion in 20202, to $761 billion in 20213, an increase of more than 65 percent. While the growth in retail sales certainly accounts for a corresponding rise in returns, this may not be the entire story. Indeed, a 2021 Incisive survey of over 6,000 consumer transactions found that 73 percent of returns occurred due to a retailer-controlled action or inaction.4 In light of this fact, it is not surprising that savvy consumer goods companies are not inclined to treat returns as a necessary cost of doing business. Instead, they are working aggressively to stop returns from ever occurring while also focusing on reducing the operational cost of supporting the returns that they must support.
After all, it isn’t realistic to reduce returns entirely, which is why providing a quick and easy return mechanism is an essential part of delivering a quality post-purchase experience to consumers, particularly for online buyers. Still, e-commerce complexity and digital demand continue to grow, and many organizations are challenged to provide a seamless returns process. With initiatives such as our multiyear collaboration with FedEx, Microsoft is changing this situation for retailers.
We recently announced that the next step of our partnership with FedEx brings a unique integration to Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management. The integration, which begins the preview on April 30, 2022, will help brands deliver modern, high-value post-purchase experiences directly to their customers, including convenient, seamless returns. Users of Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management will gain the ability to allow their customers to take advantage of over 60,000 FedEx drop-off locations, convenient at-home pick-up, and paperless/label-less returns with easy-to-use QR codes, at no additional cost. One company that is leveraging Dynamics 365 to overcome the unique challenges of today’s retail supply chain is FOCO.
As you saw during the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event, FOCO, which is a leadingmanufacturer of sports and entertainment merchandise, including apparel, accessories, toys, collectibles, novelty items, and more, needs to provide a seamless returns experience for its customers. They can use the new FedEx integration returns management app to do so. As others discussed here, this composable microservice solution plugs into its existing e-commerce application.
FOCO can provide its customers with an intuitive, guided self-service returns experience. The process captures just enough information to coordinate a refund or exchange, requiring customers to visit a drop-off location of their choice and scan a simple QR code to complete the returnmeeting consumer expectations with minimal effort. The process wraps up neatly for FOCO too. The solution combines multiple return items across multiple return points into a consolidated return shipment to the warehouse. Composable solutions like these make the post-purchase experience delightfully simple for the customer while also reducing the operational burden of the returns process for companies.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Dynamics 365 Finance offer businesses two standardized ERP capabilities on a composable ERP platform, functioning as stand-alone solutions or as a tightly integrated and extensible system. As product-centric enterprises look to renovate their existing ERP platform to improve systems and processes by moving them to the cloud, Dynamics 365 is enabling the transformation and improving IT agility to deliver business outcomes in the process. Another company using Dynamics 365 for ERP modernization is Simply Good Foods Company.
The Simply Good Foods Company was formed by merging two well-known brands, Atkins and Quest. Before the merger, Quest modernized its ERP system by upgrading to Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Dynamics 365 Finance. One of the aims of the merger was to standardize business operations between the two companies, which led Atkins to join the implementation of the new ERP solution.
While challenging to complete alongside the merger, broadening the implementation enabled The Simply Good Foods Company to consolidate master data, increase third-party logistics, and improve its sales order process productivityall without sacrificing reporting independence. Today, the company goes to market as a multi-brand retailer, presenting a unified face to its customers but reaping the operational benefits from economies of scale created by the merger.
Learn more: The Simply Good Foods Company customer story.
In addition to the customer stories and new features covered here, we are honored that Gartner has recognized Microsoft as a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises for Microsoft Dynamics 365. To learn more, please check out the Gartner Magic Quadrant and visit our Build a Resilient and Sustainable Supply Chain webinar.
Sources:
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2- NRF, 2021. $428 billion in Merchandise Returned in 2020.
3- NRF, 2022. Retail Returns Increased to $761 Billion in 2021 as a Result of Overall Sales Growth.
4- Incisiv, 2021. State of the Industry Report: Retail Returns.
The post Dynamics 365 breathes composability into enterprise resource planning modernization appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
As part of our work to make Dataverse more relevant to our education partners, the 2022 release wave 1 of the Dynamics 365 education accelerator includes features that we developed in response to your feedback. In addition to new and enhanced data model entities, you’ll find updated sample applications that demonstrate how to use the entities in K-12 and higher education.
The higher education and K-12 model-driven apps capture more detailed information in the contact data for each student, such as home and preferred languages.
The higher education and K-12 student portals capture achievement data.
The K-12 portal captures school calendar data.
The K-12 model-driven app captures teachers’ certification and credential information.
“As an ISV who has aligned with the Higher Education Accelerator (HEA) since V1, we see the April 22 (V4) release of HEA as a substantial step forward for partners and customers. With the inclusion of the learner record, school calendar, instructor certifications and other new features along with the ability to leverage components from K-12 for Higher Ed, this release truly enriches our greymatter Higher Education Lifecycle CRM and allows us to deliver a comprehensive learner record and true Student 360 view to empower institutions like the College of Southern Nevada to create exceptional student experiences.”
Shekar Kadaba, CEO, Frequency Foundry
“We are seeing a real positive response from the K-12 space since the recent releases of the industry accelerator. It is providing a platform that allows schools to adjust to the ever-changing demands for their industry. The flexible nature of the accelerator has meant that schools have been able to start modernizing the way they interact with their parents and students through the different channels provided with the Dynamics 365 platform. One of the many advantages we have seen for schools is how they can move away from the traditional siloed environment. This has allowed them to interact with their data in ways they have not been able to previously. It is an exciting time being a partner in the education space and leveraging the Microsoft Education Accelerator and Power Platform to improve the whole customer experience in schools.”
Brad Orders, Solution Specialist, Fusion5
“For PwC, keeping our clients’ systems evergreen is as important as upgrading and extending their usability. Private preview allows us to plan and schedule updates in our clients’ data models. We are excited about the new release, which expands the student learning profile and workforce development and directly addresses what we have learned from schools.”
Khue Trinh, Lead Solution Architect Connected School, PwC
The post Data enhancements in education accelerator appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
We want to inform you about a change that we are working on. This change will be rolled out in a phased manner starting in the later part of April 2022.
The Name parameter associated with a user within a tenant should be unique. However, while we sync objects from Azure Active Directory to Exchange Online, the way Name parameter is being evaluated currently led to periodic conflicts. We realized that the current method is not the best method to compute this parameter. Hence, we want to move away from current method to a more robust way of generating the Name parameter which is through ExternalDirectoryObjectId (EDOID).
EDOID value is unique. We’ll use this GUID as Name instead of synchronizing the Name from on-premises or using the alias (if Name is not specified). With this change the DistinguishedName (DN) value will also get impacted. To better understand how this will impact objects in a tenant where directory synchronization is enabled, consider the following example:
With this new change, when creating a new Office 365 (remote) mailbox from on-premises Exchange Admin Center, the Name field will no longer synchronize to Exchange Online.
Before changes are implemented:
DisplayName: Jeff Smith
Name: Jeff Smith
Alias: jsmith
DistinguishedName: CN= Jeff Smith,OU=(tenant).onmicrosoft.com, OU=Microsoft Exchange Hosted Organizations, DC=NAMP283A001, DC=PROD,DC=OUTLOOK, DC=COM
ExternalDirectoryObjectId: 12313c53-fff7-46d4-8b83-71fb317d1853
After changes are implemented:
DisplayName: Jeff Smith
Name: 12313c53-fff7-46d4-8b83-71fb317d1853
Alias: jsmith
DistinguishedName: CN= 12313c53-fff7-46d4-8b83-71fb317d1853, OU=(tenant).onmicrosoft.com, OU=Microsoft Exchange Hosted Organizations, DC=NAMP283A001, DC=PROD, DC=OUTLOOK, DC=COM
In this example, both the Name and DistinguishedName are updated with the EDOID value.
Note: This would also mean that any subsequent CN value change in Exchange on-premises will not be reflected in the object’s Name property in Exchange Online.
Will this change not allow modification of the Name property?
Customers can still use Exchange PowerShell cmdlets (Set-User, Set-MailUser, Set-Mailbox with -Name parameter) to update the Name property in Exchange Online. Since the cmdlets ensure uniqueness, it would allow the operation to succeed only when the passed Name is unique in the tenant.
How will the change impact new and existing users?
The updated naming logic would take effect only during new user creation. Existing users won’t get impacted in any way.
Please note that since we will start using EDOID as Name in Exchange Online, we shall stop allowing changes in CN to reflect in Name property in Exchange Online for all users (both new and existing).
We recommend that Administrators evaluate any scripts or other automation that may rely on the Name property and update them accordingly.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
CISA has added 10 new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise. Note: to view the newly added vulnerabilities in the catalog, click on the arrow on the of the “Date Added to Catalog” column, which will sort by descending dates.
Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities established the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog as a living list of known CVEs that carry significant risk to the federal enterprise. BOD 22-01 requires FCEB agencies to remediate identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect FCEB networks against active threats. See the BOD 22-01 Fact Sheet for more information.
Although BOD 22-01 only applies to FCEB agencies, CISA strongly urges all organizations to reduce their exposure to cyberattacks by prioritizing timely remediation of Catalog vulnerabilities as part of their vulnerability management practice. CISA will continue to add vulnerabilities to the Catalog that meet the meet the specified criteria.
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