Adapting to change with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales: Customers’ success stories

Adapting to change with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales: Customers’ success stories

by | Feb 14, 2024 | Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Technology

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

In a rapidly changing business landscape, organizations face numerous challenges in meeting their customers’ expectations and staying relevant. With the COVID-19 pandemic driving a sudden shift to remote work and the introduction of new technologies, many struggled to keep up with the pace of change and financial pressures.

In this blog post, we’ll showcase some of our recent success stories with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales customers in the financial services and manufacturing industries. From improving client relationships to streamlining operations and reducing overhead costs, each of these organizations uses Dynamics 365 Sales to overcome unique challenges and achieve outstanding business outcomes. So, whether you’re in financial services or manufacturing, join us as we explore real-world examples of how Dynamics 365 Sales can help you succeed in today’s market.

Female developer collaborating with a male developer between meetings.

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Revolutionizing the finance industry: How Dynamics 365 Sales is helping financial institutions build stronger client relationships

Customers and investors of banks and insurance companies expect a personalized experience that incorporates their unique needs. Long-term clients expect these institutions to know them, and proactively approach them with services that are relevant to them. However, large financial institutions tend to spread across the globe, and different divisions must offer different services and products based not only on local markets, but also on changing regulations.

To tackle these challenges, Investec, a global financial services company, uses conversation intelligence in Dynamics 365 Sales to transcribe sales calls accurately and analyze the content. This helped build stronger client relationships, identify appropriate next steps, and ultimately save time and reduce overhead costs.

Franklin Templeton is one of the largest asset management companies in the world and prides itself on effective stewardship of its clients’ capital. After recent acquisitions, it aimed to restructure its many inherited customer relationship management (CRM) systems under one do-it-all sales platform to gather customer data efficiently. Through proof-of-concept trials, the Franklin Templeton technology team found Dynamics 365 Sales to be the best CRM solution for its pre-built integrations and user-friendly interfaces, improving its relationships with customers and streamlining its operations.

Empowering the manufacturing industry with Dynamics 365 Sales

In the manufacturing industry, companies are required to coordinate their work with multiple internal departments, partners, and customers. At the same time, buyers are looking for consistent experiences. Traditional dealer networks have been key in this industry, but now, end customers are looking for direct contact with the manufacturer. Let’s have a look at some of the successful Dynamics 365 Sales customers in this industry.

Lexmark, a global provider of printing and imaging technology, needed a sustainable path to digital transformation by overhauling its sales and reporting processes. Lack of integration between different platforms within the company and its complex product and service ecosystem made it difficult to build configurations using its old configure, price, quote (CPQ) system. Using Dynamics 365 and Experlogix CPQ, the company integrated its CRM and CPQ system, resulting in a 43% drop in quote revisions and significant reduction in time-to-quote.

Andreas Stihl AG & Co. KG, a German-based company, develops, manufactures, and distributes power tools for professional and private users in the forestry and agriculture, landscape maintenance, and construction sectors. STIHL’s customers want consistent experiences across all touchpoints—online, print, or on-site at the dealer. However, STIHL didn’t have a unified CRM system. To overcome these challenges, STIHL adopted a central solution that would bring transparency to its business processes, combining dealer and customer data. STIHL rolled out its OneCRM, basing it on Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service. This solution provides a 360-degree view of customers and specialist dealers. By implementing this solution, STIHL significantly sped up its customer support response, and improved transparency within and between its sales subsidiaries worldwide.

As a premier supplier of transportation solutions, Siemens Mobility has been for 160 years handling complex solutions that require working with many departments, customers, and partners. In spring of 2020, the company had an urgent need for a CRM solution that could keep pace with its highly collaborative selling process and intricate customer journey. In just five months, Siemens transitioned fully to the new CRM solution. Since then, Siemens Mobility has been using Dynamics 365 to personalize and streamline marketing communication and to accelerate their tender-based sales processes. Dynamics 365 is used all the way from lead acquisition to deal closure including lead generation, lead qualification, and account and opportunity management. With all these processes in the same system, Siemens can easily follow process performance across all touchpoints and continue tuning the ways of working to keep equipping the world with seamless, sustainable, and reliable transport solutions.

a view of a city on a train track with trees in the background
Dynamics 365 provides visibility on all touchpoints within a sale or service at Siemens Mobility.

Looking ahead with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales

You’ve seen how Dynamics 365 Sales has helped five customers from the financial services and manufacturing industries achieve their sales goals. Each faced unique challenges, but they all shared a common vision: to deliver more value to their customers. They’re not done yet—some of them are already exploring Microsoft Copilot for Sales capabilities to gain further insights and guidance.

“At Investec, we are very excited to see how we can leverage Copilot and AI within the Microsoft stack to connect our internal teams and to enhance our understanding further of prospective and current clients to ensure we are providing a best-in-class experience.”

—Dan Speirits, CRM Product Manager at Investec

Join our customers on their continued journey, ensuring their success and their customers’ success with the use of Dynamics 365 Sales and Microsoft Copilot for Sales.

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The post Adapting to change with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales: Customers’ success stories appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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

Making our generative AI products safer for consumers

Making our generative AI products safer for consumers

by | Feb 13, 2024 | AI, Business, Microsoft 365, Technology

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

Over the past year, generative AI has seen tremendous growth in popularity and is increasingly being adopted by people and organizations. At Microsoft, we are deeply focused on minimizing the risks of harmful use of these technologies and are committed to keeping these tools even more reliable and safer.

The post Making our generative AI products safer for consumers appeared first on Microsoft 365 Blog.

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

Azure SQL Managed Instance – Log Space Growth Alert using Azure Runbook/PowerShell

by | Feb 13, 2024 | Technology

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

Introduction


 


There are scenarios wherein customer want to monitor their transaction log space usage. Currently there are options available to monitor Azure SQL Managed Instance metrics like CPU, RAM, IOPS etc. using Azure Monitor, but there is no inbuilt alert to monitor the transaction log space usage.


 


This blog will guide to setup Azure Runbook and schedule the execution of DMVs to monitor their transaction log space usage and take appropriate actions.


 


Overview


 


Microsoft Azure SQL Managed Instance enables a subset of dynamic management views (DMVs) to diagnose performance problems, which might be caused by blocked or long-running queries, resource bottlenecks, poor query plans, and so on. 


 


Using DMV’s we can also find the log growth – Find the usage in percentage and compare it to a threshold value and create an alert.


 


In Azure SQL Managed Instance, querying a dynamic management view requires VIEW SERVER STATE permissions.


 


 

GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE TO database_user;

 


 


 


Monitor log space use by using sys.dm_db_log_space_usage. This DMV returns information about the amount of log space currently used and indicates when the transaction log needs truncation.


 


For information about the current log file size, its maximum size, and the auto grow option for the file, you can also use the size, max_size, and growth columns for that log file in sys.database_files.


 


Solution


 


Below PowerShell script can be used inside an Azure Runbook and alerts can be created to notify the user about the log space used to take necessary actions.


 


 

# Ensures you do not inherit an AzContext in your runbook
Disable-AzContextAutosave -Scope Process
$Threshold = 70  # Change this to your desired threshold percentage

try
{
    "Logging in to Azure..."
    Connect-AzAccount -Identity
}
catch {
    Write-Error -Message $_.Exception
    throw $_.Exception
}

$ServerName = "tcp:xxx.xx.xxx.database.windows.net,3342"
$databaseName = "AdventureWorks2017"
$Cred = Get-AutomationPSCredential -Name "xxxx"
$Query="USE [AdventureWorks2017];"
$Query= $Query+ " "
$Query= $Query+ "SELECT  ROUND(used_log_space_in_percent,0) as used_log_space_in_percent FROM sys.dm_db_log_space_usage;"


$Output = Invoke-SqlCmd -ServerInstance $ServerName -Database $databaseName -Username $Cred.UserName -Password $Cred.GetNetworkCredential().Password -Query $Query

#$LogspaceUsedPercentage = $Output.used_log_space_in_percent
#$LogspaceUsedPercentage
 
if($Output. used_log_space_in_percent -ge $Threshold)
 {
        # Raise an alert
        $alertMessage = "Log space usage on database $databaseName is above the threshold. Current usage: $Output.used_log_space_in_percent%."
        Write-Output "Alert: $alertMessage"
 
        # You can send an alert using Send-Alert cmdlet or any other desired method
        # Send-Alert -Message $alertMessage -Severity "High" Via EMAIL - Can call logicApp to send email, run DBCC CMDs etc.
    } else {
        Write-Output "Log space usage is within acceptable limits."
    }

 


 


 


There are different alert options which you can use to send alert in case log space exceeds its limit as below.


 


Alert Options


 



  1. Send email using logic apps or SMTP – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/connectors/connectors-create-api-smtp


 



  1. Azure functions – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/samples/azure-samples/e2e-dotnetcore-function-sendemail/azure-net-core-function-to-send-email-through-smtp-for-office-365/


 



  1. Run dbcc command to shrink log growth – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/managed-instance/file-space-manage?view=azuresql-mi#ShrinkSize


 


Feedback and suggestions


If you have feedback or suggestions for improving this data migration asset, please contact the Data SQL Ninja Engineering Team (datasqlninja@microsoft.com). Thanks for your support!


Note: For additional information about migrating various source databases to Azure, see the Azure Database Migration Guide


 

Build your Copilot testing strategy in Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Build your Copilot testing strategy in Dynamics 365 Customer Service

by | Feb 12, 2024 | Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Technology

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

As Microsoft continues to invest in AI technologies across Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, many enterprise organizations are rapidly adopting Copilot in Microsoft apps such as Dynamics 365 Customer Service. Unlike solutions in other business areas, customer service solutions are particularly sensitive for a couple of reasons.

First, the customer service team acts as the organization’s frontline, dealing directly with customer inquiries and issues. Moreover, most interactions between support agents and customers occur in real-time, leaving zero tolerance for error. Any customer frustration can easily impact the customer satisfaction rate.

Additionally, introducing a new tool like Copilot in Customer Service to customer service agents must be well-tested and validated. In the era of AI and generative AI, organizations face the critical question of how to build their testing strategy for these innovative tools. 

Copilot business value

Before delving into Copilot test cases, let’s quickly discuss the business value of Copilot in Customer Service. Copilot and AI features in the customer service world act as an agent assistant. Copilot helps agents with tasks such as retrieving information from the knowledge base, drafting emails, or providing quick summaries of customer conversations or cases with long threads, multiple notes, and emails. 

Leveraging Copilot in Customer Service brings quick wins to the business. For instance, reduced handle times for customer requests allow agents to focus on core tasks. And since agents can provide more accurate and timely responses, organizations see improved customer satisfaction levels.

A closer look at each Copilot feature reveals the need for agent review before presenting any information to the customer. Take, for example, the case summary feature. A disclaimer indicates that this is an AI-generated summary, emphasizing the need to “Make sure it’s appropriate and accurate before using it.” This highlights the critical role of human oversight in ensuring the accuracy and appropriateness of AI-generated content. It reinforces the value of Copilot as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for human judgment and expertise. 

Defining success metrics

Having covered the basics, it’s crucial to establish a success matrix for implementing Copilot in Customer Service. Most enterprise customers follow a standard process for introducing new tools or features. While this approach is recommended and applicable to almost all new Dynamics 365 features, the success criteria for Copilot should address several specific factors, due to its unique functionalities and impact:

  • Time efficiency: Measure the amount of time Copilot saves agents in performing their tasks. This can be quantified by comparing the time taken to complete tasks with and without the assistance of Copilot.
  • Relevance and helpfulness of responses: Evaluating Copilot’s responses isn’t as straightforward as saying they’re right or wrong. Measure their effectiveness with a percentage that shows how relevant and helpful these responses really are. When it comes to measuring Copilot’s impact, we look at it like this:
    • Totally irrelevant: Assistance that does not address the agent’s inquiry at all, providing no useful information for handling customer queries.
    • Partially helpful: Responses that offer some relevant information but may not fully equip the agent to resolve the customer’s issue, possibly requiring further clarification or additional resources.
    • Mostly helpful: Assistance that is largely on point, providing substantial information and guidance towards resolving the inquiry, with minimal need for further action.
    • Completely helpful: Responses that fully equip the agent with the necessary information and resources to address and resolve the customer’s issue without any need for additional support or clarification.
  • Agent satisfaction and ease of use: Assess how user-friendly and intuitive Copilot is for customer service agents. Agent satisfaction with the tool can be a key indicator of its usability and effectiveness in a real-world setting.
  • Impact on customer satisfaction: Monitor changes in customer satisfaction metrics. You can do this through surveys or analyzing customer feedback. See if there is a noticeable improvement due to the implementation of Copilot.
  • Return on investment: Consider the overall costs versus the benefits of implementing Copilot. This evaluation is crucial, as it is important to test and evaluate any feature intended for user adoption. Remember, Copilot is not a new product but a feature within Dynamics 365 Customer Service. It incurs no extra cost for most customers.

Start your Copilot journey with confidence

The best way to test and measure Copilot’s success is through real scenarios, real agents, and real customers in a production environment. This is why we recommend starting quickly with a pilot or initial phase and gradually rolling out Copilot capabilities. You can closely monitor the results and feedback during the initial phase. 

We use the name ‘Copilot’ and not ‘Autopilot’ for a good reason. Essentially, Copilot in Customer Service acts as an assistant to the agents. While it proves useful in some situations, there are instances when questions or requests become too complex, requiring human expertise. However, even in these scenarios, business operations continue seamlessly, thanks to the human agents. 

In Customer Service, think of each Copilot feature as being in one of two categories: those that do not rely on the knowledge base and those that do. 

The easiest way to begin is with the first category, which includes summarization features. This category has minimal risk and requires less change management effort. This article provides in-depth information on this. 

Test and optimize Copilot

A pilot phase is vital for testing Copilot, where you will document the results and collect feedback from your agents. The best candidates for the pilot phase are the highly skilled agents. They have the expertise to deal with customer questions efficiently, allowing them to give thorough feedback without affecting the normal call center functions. Moreover, they help ensure the proper use of Copilot, avoiding any incorrect or unverified information being passed from Copilot to customers. 

During the pilot phase, you need to keep track of your success metrics and aim for ongoing improvement. This mainly involves improving the knowledge base articles. Copilot in Customer Service is not a magic tool; its performance depends on the quality of the information it can access. Providing Copilot with clear and complete knowledge articles will help it to produce clear and correct results.

Microsoft is heavily investing in integrating AI capabilities into Dynamics 365. Organizations with live implementations of Dynamics 365 Customer Service should view this as an opportunity to enhance their customer service operations. While testing remains essential, they should not hesitate to deploy these native capabilities in production mode, especially since Copilot in Customer Service comes without any extra licensing costs. 

Generative AI is evolving rapidly, and organizations that start to adopt and utilize it early will secure a competitive advantage in the future! 

Learn more

For more details on how to enable Copilot for a specific number of users using agent profiles, refer to Enable Copilot features in Customer Service | Microsoft Learn

The post Build your Copilot testing strategy in Dynamics 365 Customer Service appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365: Connect data to the tools where work is done

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365: Connect data to the tools where work is done

by | Feb 12, 2024 | Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Technology

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

The pace of business operations continues to accelerate daily, presenting an ongoing challenge for employees who increasingly struggle to keep up. They often find themselves overwhelmed by the very tools designed to enhance their work, leading to frequent switching between various documents, apps, and websites as they hunt for data.  

a remote sales worker uses productivity apps to get work done on his tablet

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Harvard Business Review addresses this issue in its article How Much Time and Energy Do We Waste Toggling Between Applications?, where it describes the prevalent “swivel chair” approach to work, which has become the norm for most employees. This is primarily because many software applications weren’t originally designed to connect with each other. Consequently, employees often serve as the connective tissue bridging the gap between these disparate applications. They engage in manual processes of fetching, transforming, and submitting data from one system to another, constantly shifting between apps. This practice is both time-consuming and mentally draining. 

The true cost of this constant app-switching becomes apparent when we consider that the average user toggles between different apps nearly 1,200 times each day, spending approximately four hours per week reorienting themselves after switching to a new application. Annually, this adds up to a staggering five working weeks, accounting for a significant 9% of their total work time.1  

What’s the solution to this productivity-sapping dilemma? The answer lies in connecting business systems and productivity tools, providing employees with easy access to the information they need without switching between applications. Seamless sharing of data across tools and applications not only simplifies access for employees but also lays the foundation for AI and Microsoft Copilot to offer proactive insights and assistance within their everyday tools. 

With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365, businesses can establish a unified experience where data seamlessly connects with productivity apps including Excel, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. This connectivity ensures that employees can access timely information, gain valuable insights, and collaborate directly within the tools they use daily—all without the need to switch between applications. 

By harnessing connected solutions powered by real-time data, businesses can begin to unlock the full potential of AI-enabled productivity with Microsoft Copilot. With Copilot, businesses can automate tasks and guide users through assisted workflows—saving them time, improving collaboration, enhancing decision-making, and allowing employees to focus on what truly matters—driving business success. 

More collaboration with Business Central and Teams 

Modern workplaces are challenged by fragmented data and communication tools—employees often find themselves juggling various apps and struggling to disseminate timely information, making collaboration difficult. With Teams connected to Business Central, your organization can efficiently share and interact with real-time data, transforming Teams into a centralized hub for your daily operations.  

graphical user interface, application, Teams

With Business Central and Teams, employees can: 

  • Make data accessible and collaborative. With Teams connected to Business Central, timely data can be shared in group chats or channels, transforming Teams into the hub for all and daily operations that unite employees, processes, and the data they need to work together. 
  • Take action from the app they prefer. From Business Central, quickly share data to jumpstart conversations in Teams. From Teams, stay in the flow of work by viewing and editing business data without having to switch apps. 
  •  Streamline collaboration across departments. Empower each department to self-serve by unlocking the data they need to work better together—even without a Business Central license. Get read-only access to Business Central data in Teams at no additional cost with your Microsoft 365 license. 

More productivity with Business Central and Excel 

Employees often find themselves working in specific applications that align with their roles and responsibilities. For finance and operations teams, Excel is a fundamental tool that plays a pivotal role in their daily tasks. Enabling these teams to maximize their productivity within their preferred application can lead to significant productivity gains. 

With Business Central and Excel, employees can: 

  • Simplify daily tasks. Export any Business Central data to an Excel worksheet to capture data snapshots or share for review. Save time by updating records in bulk in Excel and uploading the revised records to Business Central with just a few clicks.  
  •  Go from raw data to insights faster. Get timely operational insights from Business Central as Excel reports and adapt quickly by customizing report layouts as Excel worksheets. Easily analyze transactions and business data using pivot tables, charts, and calculations to get answers quickly. 
  • Collaborate in the tools where teams work best. Streamline team-based activities like budgeting and planning with multi-player co-authorship and functionality. Create, edit, and access Excel documents as a team, then publish the final outcomes back to Business Central. 

More impact with Business Central and Outlook 

At the core of most businesses lies the unwavering commitment to deliver exceptional products and services to its customers. To achieve this goal, businesses must foster strong and meaningful relationships with their clients, vendors, and stakeholders. With Business Central and Outlook working together, employees gain valuable business insights delivered directly to their inbox, so they can save time while staying focused on delivering extraordinary experiences.  

With Business Central and Outlook, employees can: 

  • Enhance customer experience directly from their inbox. Connect real-time data from Business Central to Outlook. Save time with visibility into customer and vendor information like sales, purchase details, and more without leaving their inbox.   
  • Stay in the flow of work. Use templates to quickly send payment reminders, order confirmations, and other emails directly from Business Central connected to a shared mailbox. 
  • Go from quote to cash without leaving Outlook. Set up customers or vendors, create quotes, submit invoices, and more from within Outlook so employees can focus on the task at hand. 

Embrace the future of work with AI and Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365 

When Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365 work together, small and medium-sized businesses can boost productivity and redefine how work gets done. With data delivered directly to familiar apps like Excel, Outlook, and Teams, employees get the information they need without switching between applications. Using next-generation AI with Microsoft Copilot, employees can further streamline routine tasks like drafting content, summarizing meetings, providing email follow up, and quickly finding answers to questions—all within the tools where they work best. 

Learn more about connecting your data with Business Central.

Sources:

1 Harvard Business Review, How Much Time and Energy Do We Waste Toggling Between Applications, 2022 

The post Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365: Connect data to the tools where work is done appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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