Transforming ERP, and the speed of business, with generative AI

Transforming ERP, and the speed of business, with generative AI

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

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms were designed to help integrate the fragmented processes that comprise the operation of a large enterprise. But the way we do business keeps fundamentally changing. New business models disrupt the way companies sell products and services, blurring industry lines and transforming customer experiences.

Business complexity continues to intensify, and the rise of data as a driver of business—plus the attendant proliferation of data streams—means reaping the full promise of comprehensive ERP platforms can still be elusive.

In fact, according to a Gartner® Research report, “by 2027, less than 30% of customers who adopted new solutions from ERP platform mega-vendors will have proven their original adoption business case.”1

The arrival of generative AI brings hope of renewed promise. AI is elevating performance and creating advantages for those who understand how to apply it to data-centric systems like ERP platforms. By 2027, according to the same Gartner report, at least 50 percent of ERP systems with AI-enabled features will be enabled through generative AI capabilities.1

People often think of generative AI as a tool to automate routine tasks, but its capabilities are so much broader. Improved decision-making is an area where AI becomes a valuable tool. In fact, a report from the market research firm IDC found that, by mid-2024, 30% of global organizations will take advantage of human-like interfaces in their enterprise applications to gain more insights quickly, improving decision velocity.2

While AI can inform and enhance any number of operations across an enterprise, it’s worth looking at some specific processes in detail to see how much AI can elevate ERP solutions. Learn more about current trends in ERP platform modernization in the age of generative AI in this webinar.

How AI creates a better plan-to-produce process

Most manufacturing firms implement a plan for how they will schedule production runs to meet materials capacity, deliver quality products on time, and maintain cost-effectiveness.

Sometimes, though, this plan-to-produce process becomes an accretion of good ideas at the time, a fragmented assemblage of tools and strategies trying to work together to paint the big picture of what’s happening on the production floor. This can lead to quality control issues, and manpower and equipment shortages that fail to meet production surges, or inaccurate forecasts that waste resources or leave customers high and dry—among other issues.

Generative AI integrated with a robust ERP system can aggregate data from across an enterprise—even data residing in multiple clouds—in real time, so managers have a clear picture of the state of play at any given moment, allowing them to reduce lead times necessary to plan or alter production runs.

The complicated interdependence of tasks on a manufacturing floor—for example, Part A must be installed before Part B can be attached—is a perfect puzzle for AI to help solve. The predictive analytics capacity of generative AI allows it to better forecast demand and synch production with supplies, and then optimize timing to match resource availability with manpower. AI can also forecast and build scenarios for supply chain disruption or changes in demand.

Whether a manufacturer needs to increase production volume to meet increasing demand or build whole new facilities, AI excels at building scalable networks, finding efficiencies, and reducing costly interventions.

Learn more about how Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and other applications optimize the plan-to-produce process.

Optimizing the procure-to-pay process

Another process most large organizations seek to optimize is the integration of procurement with accounts payable. When you need to spend the money, it’s good to know that you have the money. IDC reports that, by mid-2025, 70% of global businesses will use embedded financing to collect and make payments.2

More than most industries, healthcare organizations must reckon with a complex field of myriad payers, purchasers, and suppliers. Healthcare organizations face layers of challenging regulatory compliance and the need to control ever-rising costs. Many organizations in this field still rely on antiquated, paper-based invoicing and payables.

Fragmented processes and siloed data make regulatory issues more fraught, while also increasing attack surfaces to create security risks. AI can remove complexities by integrating processes in one ERP platform, helping to reduce vulnerabilities. By mapping operations to standards, AI supports compliance efforts, efficiently creating the audit trails and tedious reports that often take staff hours to produce.

AI streamlines procurement, reducing the potential for human error present when ordering supplies and equipment from a diverse range of providers. It tracks expenses to help control costs, providing easily accessible price information about competing products and services so the organization can continually find cost efficiencies.

An ERP solution enhanced with AI allows planners to automate the maintenance of inventory with both real-time and predictive information, reducing the risk of stockouts or overstock situations and more effectively communicating with suppliers.

Quicker quote-to-cash with personalization and automation

AI integrates and improves the sales, finance, and supply elements of an ERP platform by increasing automation in negotiations, contract lifecycles, production, order management, billing, and delivery. For businesses with retail components, making the quote-to-cash cycle faster and more accurate creates efficiencies—which can help keep customers happier.

Automating price and quote information speeds up the resolution of even highly complex deals. The same is true once a quote is accepted—an accurate, automatically generated proposal follows immediately. AI-generated purchase orders and invoices free sellers to spend more time interacting with customers and accounting teams to focus on tasks that increase the organization’s productivity.

AI’s predictive analytics ensure on-time delivery of products but also allow firms to quickly identify current and future trends and make data-driven decisions about ordering and pricing. Automating invoicing tracks payments accurately and creates a real-time picture of cash flow. AI can continually improve cash flow forecasts by comparing projections with results and adjusting from the outcomes over time. And analytics enabled by AI offer suggestions for improving sales performance and strategic decisions.

Learn more about how Copilot for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance optimizes the quote-to-cash and other retail business processes.

Get more from your business data with AI-enabled ERP processes

Across the organization, optimizing finance and supply chains can create a connected enterprise that allows enterprises to infuse AI, automation, and analytics into ERP processes. Today, companies can confidently move to the cloud with AI-powered ERP solutions, modernize business processes, and unlock the agility needed to lead the way in today’s rapidly evolving marketplace. 

A recent Forrester Research study interviewed IT leaders and professionals who had experience using Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP software.3 Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization that has 5,000 employees and generates USD1 billion in annual revenue. Forrester found that, over a three-year period, the value added to the composite included:

  • USD1.2 million in increased profitability from real-time visibility and enhanced decision-making.
  • USD8.9 million in increased productivity from unified data access, streamlined processes, automated workflows, and other gained efficiencies.
  • USD3.9 million in reduced infrastructure and IT operations spend from cloud migration.
  • USD8.9 million in productivity improvements in finance/accounting, supply chain/logistics, and other personnel.

The study estimated a net present value of USD8.1 million and an ROI of 106%, as well as additional benefits like an improved cybersecurity posture and enhanced employee experiences. The composite organization would pay back its investment in Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP software in 17 months.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP software

Learn more about the total economic impact of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP software

AI-enabled ERP platforms allow you to protect, connect, and get more from your business data while gaining security. With the right ERP solution, you can scale globally to drive business expansion and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) while ensuring regulatory compliance, supercharging productivity, and realizing the business impacts of generative AI even faster.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Virtual Training Day

Join us at a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Virtual Training Day to gain the skills needed to help your organization sell, service, and deliver on the customer expectations of tomorrow. Register for free, in-depth training events, where you’ll uncover new efficiencies of scale, discover smarter connections, and utilize built-in intelligence for deeper insights into your business.


Sources

1 Predicts 2024: ERP Evolves Planning With Automation and AI, Denis Torii, Gartner Research, April 5, 2024

2 IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Intelligent ERP 2024 Predictions, doc #US51300923, October 2023

3 The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP, Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Dynamics 365 ERP, a Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study commissioned By Microsoft, April 2024

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

The post Transforming ERP, and the speed of business, with generative AI appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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

Elevating experiences with AI, from productivity to personalization 

Elevating experiences with AI, from productivity to personalization 

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

In a previous blog, we discussed how modern, AI-enabled customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems help drive new, more effective ways of working for employees and more satisfying outcomes for the customers they serve in three key ways: by streamlining operations, by empowering more informed and insightful decisions, and by elevating customer and employee experiences.  

In this blog post, we’re going to focus on the third item: elevating customer and employee experiences by showing how AI-enabled CRM solutions help increase productivity and provide unprecedented levels of personalized service across three key business functions: marketing, sales, and customer service. We’ll also provide insights and best practices for how to help employees get the most from AI, including how they can be empowered to create personalized experiences for their customers.  

group of colleagues

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

Grow your revenue with next-generation AI.

Revolutionizing marketing: How AI-enabled CRM software drives personalized experiences and enhance customer engagement 

Marketing is one area where generative AI is already in active use. According to a Forrester survey of CMOs, more than half (56%) of B2C marketing or advertising decision makers have been using generative AI in three key ways:  

  • To help employees minimize tedious tasks, allowing for more time to focus on strategically important work. 
  • To summarize insights and enable swift action without the need to dig through data manually. 
  • To boost the scale of creative output by generating starter ideas along with visuals and copy.1

AI is particularly capable of delivering personalized experiences in marketing, where AI-enabled CRM platforms can marry customer data to messaging to create memorable moments and impact sales. One example of a company using AI-enabled CRM solutions to generate marketing content is North Carolina-based sports club NC Fusion, which used Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to help its marketers create personalized messaging tailored to its audience segments, increasing the reach of the brand. Using AI-enabled content ideas, descriptions, and summaries has provided significant time savings, and personalizing campaigns has been more effective with Copilot.2  

“For families, we are able to tailor the message they receive. This means a family will only receive messages that apply to their situation, and not a multitude of emails that have no application to their family situation. With AI-assisted content production, our customer engagement has increased from 10% to 30%.”  

Chris Barnhart, Head of IT and Data Systems at NC Fusion

Empowering sales teams: How AI-driven personalization can transform customer interactions and boost revenue 

Another area where personalization can impact an organization’s bottom line is sales, where making authentic connections with customers at the right time is paramount. Few organizations know this better than superyacht brokerage Northrop & Johnson, which has used AI to deliver highly personal sales experiences tailored to the wants and needs of its high-value clients. 

“In this market, we have high-wealth customers who are considering very high-value purchases, and we can’t afford any interactions that leave them feeling anything less than special.”

Keith Perfect, Director of Technoloy & Intelligence at Northrop & Johnson 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, and Copilot provide Northrop & Johnson sales teams with comprehensive and timely data for each client, which helps them deliver personalized conversations at precisely the right time to engage. 

“Clients at this level want to know they are taken care of. And when you must make an impact in minutes, which is all you have with these busy clients, you need to be very attuned to them. Otherwise, it could cost you the sale. So, having a solution at your fingertips that connects the entire journey is huge for our sales team.” 

Daniel Ziriakus, President & Chief Operating Officer at Northrop & Johnson

Sales teams using AI-enabled CRM software also realize significant time savings as salespeople assign more tedious tasks to their AI assistants. In fact, according to new Microsoft research, 79% of Microsoft Copilot for Sales users say it reduces the amount of administrative work they have to do, 67% say it helps them spend more time with customers, and 64% say it allows them to better personalize customer engagements. 

Transforming customer support: How AI-driven assistants enhance productivity, satisfaction, and retention 

Customer service is still another area where AI-enabled CRM platforms can make an immediate impact. According to a November 2023 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), customer service agents using a generative AI-based conversational assistant were able to increase productivity—specifically measured by the number of issues resolved per hour—by an average of 14%. The effect was even more pronounced with novice and low-skill workers, who experienced productivity increases of 34%. Researchers also found that AI assistance improves customer sentiment and increases employee retention.4 

One company using an AI-enabled CRM solution in customer service is Microsoft. We operate one of the largest customer support teams in the world and process more than 145 million contacts per year. We use Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service to help utilize the full expertise of the engineers on staff and provide better resolution of customer issues across the board.5  

“The challenge for every support engineer is to connect with the human being on the other end of the call who has a problem that needs solving. You want to connect with them, but you also need to be able to pull in a great deal of technical information. Copilot provides us the support to offer the customer understanding while also sorting out their technical problems.” 

Ric Todd, Director of Support Strategy at Microsoft

Download The AI Advantage: Driving sales performance with next-generation tools.

Bringing AI to your organization  

For leaders looking to roll out AI solutions in their organizations, we have some encouraging news: people new to AI begin recognizing its value quickly. Recent Microsoft research shows it takes a time savings of just 11 minutes per day for most people to see its usefulness (a key factor in getting new work habits to stick). 6  

Encouragingly, most respondents report having saved more than 11 minutes. The most efficient among them are saving up to 30 minutes per day—the equivalent of 10 hours per month—and the average person is saving 14 minutes per day for a time savings of almost five hours per month. 

What’s more, the breakthrough moment by which respondents report seeing improvements in productivity (75%), work enjoyment (57%), work-life balance (34%), and the ability to attend fewer meetings (37%) happens within one business quarter—11 weeks.7  

While personal productivity gains from Copilot are real and significant, building an AI-powered organization requires committing to working in a new way. Some best practices to consider include:  

  • Encourage daily use. Realizing productivity gains from AI will take intentional everyday practice. Those who start building the habit early will pull ahead. And don’t forget—11 weeks is all it takes for people to recognize the effect.  
  • Help people manage their new assistants. Employees taught to treat their generative AI tools as assistants, not search engines, will get the most value. Teach team members to manage their new assistant and to recognize when to delegate a task to AI and when to apply their human intelligence, judgment, and skill. 
  • Find good use of reclaimed time. Help your team take advantage of time savings to focus on the higher-order and creative tasks only people can do. Salespeople can devote more time to building relationships with customers and closing deals. Marketers can carve out time to dream up new solutions. Customer service teams can focus on solving problems, and managers across the organization can spend more time coaching and caring for their teams. 

Taking the next step forward 

Take the next step in your AI adoption journey by learning more about Copilot and other AI-powered capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365. Discover how to keep your organization on the cutting-edge by realizing that a new paradigm of customer engagement through AI-enabled personalization empowers both customers and employees.  

Join us at a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Virtual Training Day to gain the skills needed to help your organization sell, service, and deliver on the customer expectations of tomorrow. Register for free, in-depth training events, where you’ll uncover new efficiencies of scale, discover smarter connections, and utilize built-in intelligence for deeper insights into your business. Register now

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Virtual Training Day

Join us at a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Virtual Training Day to gain the skills needed to help your organization sell, service, and deliver on the customer expectations of tomorrow. Register for free, in-depth training events, where you’ll uncover new efficiencies of scale, discover smarter connections, and utilize built-in intelligence for deeper insights into your business.


Sources

  1.  Leap Now, Not Later, into a Responsible Generative AI Strategy for Marketing (July 5th, 2023) 
  2. Microsoft Customer Story-NC Fusion expands youth marketing outreach, taught kids leadership and life skills with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
  3. What Can Copilot’s Earliest Users Teach Us About Generative AI at Work? (microsoft.com) 
  4. Working Paper 31161; Generative AI at Work; NBER 
  5. Microsoft Customer Story-Microsoft empowers support engineers to shine brighter with Dynamics 365 Customer Service 
  6. AI Data Drop: The 11-by-11 Tipping Point 
  7. AI Data Drop: The 11-by-11 Tipping Point 

The post Elevating experiences with AI, from productivity to personalization  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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

Save ingestion costs by splitting logs into multiple tables and opting for the basic tier!

Save ingestion costs by splitting logs into multiple tables and opting for the basic tier!

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

In this blog post I am going to talk about splitting logs to multiple tables and opting for basic tier to save cost in Microsoft Sentinel. Before we delve into the details, let’s try to understand what problem we are going to solve with this approach.


Azure Monitor offers several log plans which our customers can opt for depending on their use cases. These log plans include:



  • Analytics Logs – This plan is designed for frequent, concurrent access and supports interactive usage by multiple users. This plan drives the features in Azure Monitor Insights and powers Microsoft Sentinel. It is designed to manage critical and frequently accessed logs optimized for dashboards, alerts, and business advanced queries.

  • Basic Logs – Improved to support even richer troubleshooting and incident response with fast queries while saving costs. Now available with a longer retention period and the addition of KQL operators to aggregate and lookup.

  • Auxiliary Logs – Our new, inexpensive log plan that enables ingestion and management of verbose logs needed for auditing and compliance scenarios. These may be queried with KQL on an infrequent basis and used to generate summaries.


Following diagram provides detailed information about the log plans and their use cases:


absharan_0-1724862421015.png


 


I would also recommend going through our public documentation for detailed insights about feature-wise comparison for the log plans which should help you in taking right decisions for choosing the correct log plans.


**Note** Auxiliary logs are out of scope for this blog post, I will write a separate blog on the Auxiliary logs later.


So far, we know about different log plans available and their use cases.


 The next question is which tables support Analytics and Basic log plan?



You can switch between the Analytics and Basic plans; the change takes effect on existing data in the table immediately.


When you change a table’s plan from Analytics to Basic, Azure monitor treats any data that’s older than 30 days as long-term retention data based on the total retention period set for the table. In other words, the total retention period of the table remains unchanged, unless you explicitly modify the long-term retention period.


Check our public documentation for more information on setting the table plan.


I will focus on splitting Syslog table and setting up the DCR-based table to Basic tier in this blog.


Typically Firewall logs contribute to high volume of log ingestion to a SIEM solution.


In order to manage cost in Microsoft Sentinel its highly recommended to thoroughly review the logs and identify which logs can be moved to Basic log plan.


At a high level, the following steps should be enough to achieve this task:



  • Ingest Firewall logs to Microsoft Sentinel with the help of Linux Log Forwarder via Azure Monitor Agent.

  • Assuming the log is getting ingested in Syslog table, create a custom table with same schema as Syslog table.

  • Update the DCR template to split the logs.

  • Set the table plan to Basic for the identified DCR-based custom table.

  • Set the required retention period of the table.


At this point, I anticipate you already have log forwarder set up and able to ingest Firewall logs to Microsoft Sentinel’s workspace.


Let’s focus on creating a custom table now


This part used to be cumbersome but not anymore, thanks to my colleague Marko Lauren who has done a fantastic job in creating this PowerShell Script which can create a custom table easily. All you need to do is to enter the pre-existing table name and the script will create a new DCR-Based custom table with same schema.


Let’s see it in action:



  • Download the script locally.

  • Open the script in PowerShell ISE and update workspace ID & resource ID details as shown below.


absharan_1-1724862421047.png


 






  • Save it locally and upload to Azure PowerShell.

  • Load the file and enter the table name from which you wish to copy the schema.

  • Provide the new table name as per your wish, ensure the name has suffix “_CL” as shown below:


absharan_2-1724862421055.png


 


This should create a new DCR-based custom table which you can check in Log Analytics Workspace > Table blade as shown below:


absharan_3-1724862421064.png


 


**Note** We highly recommend you should review the PowerShell script thoroughly and do proper testing before executing it in production. We don’t take any responsibility for the script.


 


The next step is to update the Data Collection Rule template to split the logs


Since we already created custom table, we should create a transformation logic to split the logs and send less relevant log to the custom table which we are going to set to Basic log tier.


For demo purposes, I’m going to split logs based on SeverityLevel. I will drop “info” logs from Syslog table and stream it to Syslog_CL table.


Let’s see how it works:



  • Browse to Data Collection Rule blade.

  • Open the DCR for Syslog table, click on Export template > Deploy > Edit Template as shown below:


absharan_4-1724862421103.png


 


absharan_5-1724862421119.png


 



  • In the dataFlows section, I’ve created 2 streams for splitting the logs. Details about the streams as follows:

    • 1st Stream: It’s going to drop the Syslog messages where SeverityLevel is “info” and send the logs to Syslog table.

    • 2nd Stream: It’s going to capture all Syslog messages where SeverityLevel is “info” and send the logs to Syslog_CL table.




absharan_6-1724862421129.png


 



  • Save and deploy.


 


Let’s validate if it really works


Go to the Log Analytics Workspace > Logs and check if the tables contains the data which we have defined it for.


In my case as we can see, Syslog table contains all logs except those where SeverityLevel is “info”


absharan_7-1724862421133.png


 


Additionally, our custom table: Syslog_CL contains those Syslog data where SeverityLevel is “info”


absharan_8-1724862421137.png


 


 


Now the next part is to set the Syslog_CL table to Basic log plan


Since Syslog_CL is a DCR-based custom table, we can set it to Basic log plan. Steps are straightforward:



  • Go to the Log Analytics Workspace > Tables

  • Search for the table: Syslog_CL

  • Click on the ellipsis on the right side and click on Manage table as shown below:


absharan_9-1724862421145.png


 



  • Select the table plan to Basic and set desired retention period


absharan_10-1724862421152.png


 



  • Save the settings.


 


Now you can enjoy some cost benefits, hope this helps.

G&J Pepsi profit rises by $30 million with Microsoft Dynamics 365

G&J Pepsi profit rises by $30 million with Microsoft Dynamics 365

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

At Microsoft, we don’t see ourselves as a vendor. When it comes to our customers, we want to be seen as partners—and as trusted advocates. Today, we want to share a story about how Microsoft can help customers take the long view when it comes to transforming their businesses and adapting to the ever-changing needs of their industries and markets. In 2021, facing an uncertain post-pandemic economy, G&J Pepsi embarked on a transformation journey to maximize customer service, revenue, and cost savings by implementing solutions including Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, and other Microsoft technologies. Since then, it has continued to adapt and adopt solutions like Microsoft Copilot to position itself for future growth and continued success in a competitive landscape. 

Dynamics 365 Field Service

Adapt and innovate with intelligent CRM and ERP business applications.

G&J Pepsi is always striving to innovate and provide better services for its customers. As the largest family-owned and operated independent U.S. Pepsi franchise bottler, it’s a respected leader in its industry. Supplying Pepsi and alliance products such as Starbucks, Gatorade, and Dr. Pepper to thousands of customers in Central and Southern Ohio and Eastern Kentucky, G&J Pepsi covers manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, trucking, digital print, and more. It produces, bottles, markets, sells, and distributes beverages consumed on-premises—restaurants, schools, entertainment complexes—as well as those purchased in retail outlets. 

Breaking down siloes for a better customer view 

In 2021, the company’s sales, field service, and other customer interactions were siloed. This meant that sales had no visibility into when a new customer might have its equipment installed, while field service technicians had no insights into a customer’s hours of operations, key contacts, or equipment needs. Customer information was stored in a mix of Excel spreadsheets, hand-written notes, and batch systems. In addition, employees across the service chain from sales to field service had no common platform for communicating and sharing information.  

G&J Pepsi adopted Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Field Service to create a customer engagement management (CEM) platform, so it could accelerate its end-to-end customer journey by unifying cross-functional support and removing barriers to customer visibility. The CEM was a game-changer, especially because it provided real-time visibility into customers that sales, field service, and leadership never had before.  

For field service operations, G&J Pepsi’s data resides in Microsoft Dataverse and is accessed through Dynamics 365 Field Service. Completing certain actions within Microsoft Dynamics 365 triggers a Microsoft Power Automate flow to kick off another process. For example, a business development representative (BDR) requesting a piece of equipment for a new customer triggers the creation of a new work order, which moves through equipment prep to scheduling a field technician for installation. Using built-in Dynamics 365 capabilities, a scheduler can assign best resources to a work order by looking across service locations instead of only selecting from a smaller subset of available technicians. Field service technicians use the Field Service mobile app’s built-in map and routing features to optimize travel time and status flags to indicate if they are on-site or traveling. Field techs can also access all the pertinent customer information in the mobile app: service tasks, customer details, product needs, and so on. And with minimal development effort using Microsoft Power Apps, G&J Pepsi extended the mobile app so that field technicians can generate service reports at the customer site and instantly email them to other departments as needed. 

Simplifying and enhancing business processes for better employee experiences 

G&J Pepsi has a digital transformation and business process team that selectively built their DevOps skills to simplify their application environment and processes using the Microsoft suite of services. In addition, they included frontline employees like service agents and field technicians through all stages of development, testing, and deployment. For example, the company’s Equipment Move Operation (EMO) process, which it performs about 10,000 times a year, had 17 manual steps—170,000 manual touchpoints annually. With Dynamics 365 and Power Automate, it automated that process, reducing a four-day event with 17 manual tasks down to a process that now takes about a minute. With these new processes, existing field technicians immediately felt more efficient and productive during customer visits, and G&J has found that it’s also attracting new talent because it provides modern tools and information flows that result in a better working environment.  

Accelerating customer response times and improving first-time fix rates 

The CEM platform based on Dynamics 365 Field Service and Dynamics 365 Sales has dramatically transformed G&J Pepsi’s operational workflow, cutting down paperwork processing from weeks to mere seconds and significantly boosting efficiency. The unified systems give salespeople, service agents, and field technicians immediate access to critical information, so they spend less time retrieving data and can focus on delivering exceptional customer service. Dynamics 365 Field Service has especially improved efficiency for onsite workers through smart scheduling and automation, and its interoperation with Pepsi’s other backend services helps it provide service agents with real-time updates and better stock management, enabling more effective customer service and streamlining operations. In addition, the interoperability of Field Service with Microsoft Teams has reduced email and simplified collaboration across the service chain, enabling service agents and field technicians to quickly locate information and subject matter experts, leading to faster resolution times. 

Adopting Field Service also helped G&J Pepsi improve mobile operations for field technicians because now they no longer need to return to the office or another physical location with dial-up to sync data with backend systems. Now, dispatchers can adjust service schedules in real time, so technicians can quickly address urgent issues, such as water leaks at major accounts. The Field Service mobile app has also enhanced efficiency by improving communication between field technicians and dispatchers and enabling them to manage tasks, like work order management and inventory control, on the fly. The Field Service mobile app also uses cellular technology to auto-update inventory as technicians use parts, avoiding manual entries and speeding up restocking processes. These changes have profoundly improved the responsiveness of field service technicians, resulting in better customer service. Overall, G&J Pepsi is experiencing better first-time fix rates, reducing the need for return visits, which in turn saves costs related to time, mileage, and fuel. It also helps G&J Pepsi achieve greater operational efficiencies and improve overall customer satisfaction by ensuring technicians have the necessary parts and information to complete jobs effectively on the very first visit. 

Benefitting from streamlined operations—and $30 million ROI over three years 

By giving salespeople, service agents, and field technicians instant access to sales history, equipment details, schedules, parts, and pricing, G&J Pepsi has streamlined operations and enhanced customer service. Before implementing its CEM platform based on Dynamics 365, the company was experiencing a $9 million yearly loss due to siloed information, outdated manual processes, and inefficient communications and collaboration. But over its three-year journey with Dynamics 365, G&J Pepsi has achieved a $30 million ROI, amounting to a total of $57 million in cost savings over the same period. In addition, simplifying processes and using technology for better data access and automation led to a 10 point increase in market share in the on-premises sector, significantly outperforming the norm of 0.5 point annual growth. And with its data residing in the Dataverse, G&J has been able to gain access to real-time insights that have transformed its operations. Overall, using Dynamics 365 and Power Automate, it has streamlined 180,000 manual steps that used to take seven to 10 days each down to 35 seconds. 

Embracing a future powered by AI through Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Azure 

Moving forward, G&J Pepsi is excited to explore the possibilities of using Microsoft Copilot to help frontline employees address real-world challenges, like optimizing scheduling and service flows based on data analysis. It plans to employ technologists and AI experts to help drive awareness and adoption of Copilot capabilities to help transform the customer experience. Microsoft tools like Copilot, Microsoft Azure AI, and Power Automate will also play a big role in helping G&J enhance its enterprise resource planning strategy and growth by creating a digital thread through its daily business operations to help succeed daily. 

“We truly see Microsoft as an organization that is tied to the entire success of G&J Pepsi, not just the entire success of the department, but as a true collaborator, where we’re getting our voice heard on some of the challenges and opportunities that we have with the products. Not just with Copilot, but with all the platforms, from Dynamics 365 to Microsoft 365 to Azure.”

Brian Balzer, Executive Vice President of Digital Technology & Business Transformation, G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers. 

Read more about G&J Pepsi’s transformation here: 

The post G&J Pepsi profit rises by $30 million with Microsoft Dynamics 365 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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

Event ID 5186 from Windows Activation Services (WAS)

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

Introduction


As IT administrators, we often find ourselves navigating through a sea of system logs, trying to decipher which events are routine and which require our immediate attention. One such event that might catch your eye is Event ID 5186 from Windows Activation Services (WAS). At first glance, it might seem like just another informational message, but understanding its significance can provide valuable insights into how your web applications are managed by IIS.


In this blog, we’ll delve into the details of Event ID 5186, explaining why it occurs, what it means for your application pools, and how you can fine-tune your server settings to optimize performance. Whether you’re troubleshooting unexpected worker process behavior or simply aiming to enhance your knowledge of IIS operations, this guide has got you covered.


 


Let’s dive into the specifics of this event and see what it can tell us about your server’s inner workings.


 


Event ID 5186 from Windows Activation Services (WAS)


 


Event Details:



  • Log Name: System

  • Source: Microsoft-Windows-WAS

  • Date: 8/27/2024 1:53:26 PM

  • Event ID: 5186

  • Task Category: None

  • Level: Information

  • Keywords: Classic

  • User: N/A

  • Computer: SERVERNAME

  • Description: A worker process with process id of ‘26648’ serving application pool ‘StackOverFlowWebApp’ was shutdown due to inactivity. Application Pool timeout configuration was set to 20 minutes. A new worker process will be started when needed.


 


What is Event ID 5186?


Event ID 5186 is an informational event generated by Windows Activation Services (WAS), a core component of Internet Information Services (IIS) that manages the lifecycle of application pools. This event specifically indicates that a worker process serving an application pool was shut down due to inactivity after a specified timeout period. In this case, the application pool named ‘StackOverFlowWebApp’ had a timeout configuration set to 20 minutes. If the worker process does not receive any requests within this time frame, WAS will automatically terminate it to free up system resources.


 


Why Does This Event Occur?


The Idle Timeout setting in the Application Pool configuration is responsible for triggering this event. This setting is designed to optimize resource utilization on the server by terminating idle worker processes that are not actively handling any requests. The timeout period is configurable, and once it elapses without any activity, WAS determines that the worker process is no longer needed and proceeds to shut it down.


This mechanism is particularly useful in environments where resource management is critical, such as on servers hosting multiple application pools or handling variable workloads. By shutting down idle processes, the system can allocate resources more efficiently, reducing overhead and improving overall performance.


 


What Happens After the Shutdown?


When a worker process is shut down due to inactivity, the associated application pool does not remain inactive permanently. WAS is designed to start a new worker process automatically when the next request is made to the application pool. This ensures that the application remains available to users without any noticeable downtime. The shutdown process is graceful, meaning that any ongoing requests are completed before the process is terminated.


However, frequent shutdowns and restarts can introduce latency, especially for applications with high start-up times or those that require a warm-up period. Administrators should consider the nature of their applications and server workloads when configuring the Idle Timeout setting.


 


How to Modify the Idle Timeout Setting


If you notice that worker processes are shutting down too often, or if your application requires more time to remain active, you can adjust the Idle Timeout setting in IIS Manager. Here’s how:



  1. Open IIS Manager.

  2. Select Application Pools from the Connections pane.

  3. Locate and select the application pool you wish to configure (e.g., ‘StackOverFlowWebApp’).

  4. In the Actions pane, click Advanced Settings.

  5. Under the Process Model section, find the Idle Timeout (minutes) setting.

  6. Adjust the timeout value as needed. The default value is 20 minutes, but this can be increased or decreased depending on your requirements.


 


Reference Link:



 


Additional Considerations


While the default Idle Timeout setting works well for many scenarios, there are cases where it might need to be adjusted:



  • High Traffic Applications: For applications that experience frequent traffic spikes, you may want to reduce the idle timeout to ensure resources are reclaimed quickly during off-peak times.

  • Long-Running Processes: Applications that involve long-running tasks might require a longer idle timeout to avoid premature shutdowns.

  • Resource-Constrained Environments: On servers with limited resources, a shorter idle timeout can help prevent resource contention by shutting down idle processes faster.


 


Conclusion


Event ID 5186 is a normal, informational event that plays a key role in maintaining efficient server performance. By understanding how and why this event is triggered, IT administrators can fine-tune their IIS Application Pool settings to better match their specific server environments and application requirements. Adjusting the Idle Timeout setting can help strike the right balance between resource utilization and application availability.