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At Microsoft Ignite 2023, we’re excited to announce Microsoft Copilot Studio, a low-code tool to customize Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 and build standalone copilots.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
At Microsoft Ignite 2023, we are announcing new innovations across Microsoft Copilot—one copilot experience that runs across all our surfaces, understanding your context on the web, on your PC, and at work to bring the right skills to you when you need them across work and life.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Microsoft Copilot presents an opportunity to reimagine the way we work—turning natural language into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet. With AI, organizations can unearth value in the mountain of data across productivity tools like Microsoft 365 and business applications.
To this end, earlier this year, we introduced Microsoft Copilot for Dynamics 365, the world’s first AI copilot natively built for CRM and ERP. Since then, more than 130,000 organizations have experienced copilot capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform firsthand. In fact, a survey revealed that 70 percent of the Copilot users were more productive, 73 percent could complete tasks faster, and 68 percent of users improved the quality of their work.
Organizations, however, depend on a range of business applications across roles and functions, from customer relationship management (CRM) systems for marketing, sales, and service roles to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for finance, supply chain, and operations departments. At Microsoft Ignite, we are announcing new Microsoft Copilot experiences that empower organizations to unlock value from a multitude of systems of record. In conjunction with these copilot experiences, we are announcing new and updated copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 applications.
Microsoft Ignite 2023
Access recordings of keynotes and sessions, including opportunities to learn about the copilot capabilities announced.
Updates to Copilot for Dynamics 365 to drive efficiency across the organization, featuring capabilities that help marketing, sales, and field service professionals provide exceptional customer experiences.
Introduction of Microsoft Copilot for Service and Microsoft Copilot for Sales, the evolution of Sales Copilot, bringing together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 with role-specific insights and actions. Both provide flexibility to integrate with an organization’s existing contact center and CRM systems respectively.
Together, these capabilities empower organizations to harness secure and enterprise-ready, generative AI experiences, helping employees to perform at their highest potential across every role and function.
Reimagine ways to drive efficiency across the organization with Copilot for Dynamics 365
We’re introducing new and enhanced copilot capabilities for Dynamics 365 that help marketers, sellers, and field service professionals elevate customer experiences.
The following Copilot updates are in addition to recently-announced copilot and demand planning capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, as well as the 2023 release wave 2 for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, a six-month rollout of new and enhanced capabilities scheduled for release between October 2023 and March 2024.
Copilot delivers answers and information to field service workers in a chat-based conversation
Field service workers depend on quick access to a variety of customer and technical information precisely at the moment it is needed. A recent survey by Microsoft highlighted that not being able to easily find the information they need ranks in the top five disruptive issues faced by frontline workers in their current day-to-day role.1 This can significantly affect key performance indicators such as first-time fix rates, customer satisfaction, and retention.
We’re introducing AI-powered experiences for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service, available for preview in December, that enable frontline workers to quickly access information on a job site by asking questions in conversational language, directly within Teams.
We’re also announcing the general availability of AI-assisted work order creation and technician scheduling, and the public preview of financial and inventory data flow between Dynamics 365 Field Service and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Additionally, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist are available at no additional cost.
Reimagining CRM systems with natural language experiences
The innovation and scale of Copilot have established Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales as an innovative leader in sales technology, as recognized by Gartner and Forrester. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales enhances seller productivity and effectiveness in their flow of work, enabling them to automate the sales processes and make informed decisions with AI-powered insights and actions. Copilot features help sellers save time, boost productivity, and eliminate mundane workloads to maintain focus on connecting with customers and closing deals.
We’re announcing new copilot experiences in Dynamics 365 Sales that allow sellers to interact with their data using natural language.
Now in preview, sellers can use their own words to get contextual insights and recommendations for leads and opportunities.
In addition, Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales has a new full-screen view where sellers can use natural language or prebuilt prompts to gain a quick understanding of customers, deals, meetings, forecasts, and more. The feature is now available in Asia and Europe and will be available in North America in December.
Deliver more personalized customer experiences with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
New capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights provide a deeper understanding of target customers and segments, helping to hyper-personalize campaign content and improve engagement.
Available for preview in December, sellers can use Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to instantly generate a customer profile summary—including demographic, transactional, behavioral, and analytics data—to uncover key insights on customers. The capability is available for organizations that have both Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise or Premium subscriptions.
We continue to build capabilities that enable a seamless handoff from marketing to sellers. Now in preview, marketers can qualify their leads using metrics such as engagement scores, ensuring marketing and sales teams maximize the opportunity pipeline and improve win rates.
Adding to our growing ecosystem, we’re announcing a unique partnership with Optimizely. In preview this December, organizations can use the segments and journeys built in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights directly within Optimizely. This enables Optimizely users to build personalized campaigns in real time without writing any code. Through bi-directional integrations, organizations can deliver hyper-personalized omnichannel experiences across web, social, email, and offline channels.
Bring together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 and business insights and actions
Most organizations depend on a range of applications to manage the business, including CRM, ERP, and supply chain management systems. Integrating innovative technology, like generative AI, into these systems can be challenging—especially when security, privacy, and compliance are a top priority.
Responding to this need, we’re introducing a new category of Microsoft Copilot solutions that tap into data from various applications—including Microsoft 365 and third-party systems of record—to bring a new level of efficiency and automation to business functions across the organization.
Modernize the contact center with Microsoft Copilot for Service
In a recent Microsoft survey, it was revealed that three out of four customer service agents feel less inspired and motivated by their work. With insufficient focus time, over half of them are struggling to deliver exceptional customer service and efficiently address customer issues.1 The surveyed agents express confidence that AI can positively impact their performance, as well as provide, analytical insights, including trend and sentiment analysis.
We’re meeting the needs of service agents with a Microsoft Copilot solution that integrates generative AI capabilities into the tools and processes that they depend on every day. Microsoft Copilot for Service integrates an organization’s trusted knowledge with the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 to boost agent productivity in the tools they already use every day, such as Outlook and Teams; providing AI-guided answers and resources personalized for each customer issue and conversation.
Microsoft Copilot for Service provides the flexibility to integrate with an organization’s existing CRM and contact center systems. Organizations can train Microsoft Copilot for Service using trusted websites, knowledgebase articles, files, and other critical data sources from their existing contact center to unlock generative AI-powered guidance across all of their data. Microsoft Copilot for Service provides out-of-the-box integrations with Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk, and can be extended to other systems through a vast array of more than 1,100 prebuilt and custom connectors.
Copilot for Service can be further customized with Microsoft Copilot Studio, also announced at Microsoft Ignite 2023. With Copilot Studio, service teams can fine-tune copilot experiences by incorporating their own data, logic, and actions tailored for specific scenarios, frequent conversations, or other unique use cases.
Copilot for Service will be available in public preview in early December and generally available in early 2024. Pricing is USD50 per user per month. Learn more about Microsoft Copilot for Service.
Unlock sales productivity in the flow of work
Microsoft Copilot for Sales is the evolution of Sales Copilot, used by leading brands including 10,000 sellers within the Microsoft sales team. A recent survey revealed that 83 percent of Microsoft sellers claim that Microsoft Copilot for Sales helps them improve productivity, with sellers saving an average of 90 minutes per week.1 Read our ebook on the AI advantage for sellers for details.
Copilot for Sales brings together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 in seller workflows, using customer data within the CRM system they already use, along with information in documents, email, and chats from Microsoft 365 applications.
The innovations enabled in Copilot for Sales include a newly integrated experience with Microsoft Word and Teams. Sellers can prompt Copilot to create a meeting preparation brief in Word, automatically populated with customer information such as an account and opportunity summary, names and titles of meeting participants, pending tasks, and highlights from recent meetings and email threads. In addition, meeting recaps in Microsoft Teams can surface action items and tasks, key performance indicators (KPIs), and sales keywords mentioned. These experiences help sellers save time and energy, generate innovative ideas, build stronger customer relationships, and ultimately close more deals.
Like Copilot for Service, sellers can customize AI-assisted sales processes with Copilot Studio, bringing tailored experiences informed by their own data, logic, and actions for specific scenarios.
Copilot for Sales2 will be available in the first quarter of 2024 for USD50 per user per month.
Learn more at Microsoft Ignite
Register for Microsoft Ignite to access on-demand recordings of keynotes and sessions, including opportunities to learn about the copilot capabilities announced. You have the opportunity to engage with the global community online, regardless of your location, and participate in live discussions at no cost. To get started, we recommend the following sessions:
2 Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise and Premium customers will retain rights to capabilities in Sales Copilot. As today’s news demonstrates, copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 Sales will continue to innovate. To get the full value of the new Copilot for Sales, including access to Copilot for Microsoft 365, customers will work with their Microsoft account representative to upgrade.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, effective communication is the key to success for any business. Apple Messages for Business (AMB) isn’t just for personal chats and emojis. It can also be a powerful tool for businesses to streamline communication, enhance customer engagement, and drive growth. With Dynamics 365 Customer Service, you can use AMB to expand your consumer reach, reduce costs, and provide a seamless experience for both businesses and customers. In this blog post, we’ll delve into some compelling benefits and best practices to help you harness the full potential of AMB in your Customer Service organization.
Expand your global reach to mobile users
Apple’s ubiquity is one of its most significant advantages. With over 2 billion active devices worldwide, AMB provides a unique platform to tap into a global audience. Whether your business operates locally or has a worldwide presence, leveraging AMB ensures that you can reach your audience wherever they are, without the limitations of geographical boundaries.
Drive customer engagement with multiple entry points
Apple Messages for Business offers a multitude of entry points for customer engagement. Customers can initiate conversations by searching for your company in Apple Maps, Safari, or Search and simply tapping the Messages icon. Additionally, integrating a messaging link into your website, app, or other touchpoints makes it convenient for customers to start a conversation. These diverse entry points cater to different customer preferences, ensuring that you’re meeting them where they are most comfortable.
Deflect calls with Apple’s Message Suggest
An ingenious feature that can significantly benefit businesses is Apple’s Message Suggest. When your business registers a phone number with Apple, Message Suggest proactively presents the option to chat when users attempt to call your business via Safari, Maps, Siri, or Search. By offering a messaging alternative, Message Suggest helps deflect voice calls to text-based messaging, reducing costs associated with voice support. This shift toward messaging can also enhance customer experience, as it aligns with modern communication preferences.
Provide enhanced mobile customer experiences using rich messages
The Apple Messages for Business channel offers support for a wide range of rich messages. This synergy leads to enriched customer experiences, fostering loyalty and increasing customer lifetime value. Utilizing rich messages in Dynamics 365 Customer Service offers customers the ability to tap more and type less. This approach simplifies customer interactions, enabling users to access information and resolve issues with fewer keystrokes.
Advanced message routing
Apple Messages for Business allows businesses to fine-tune message routing using intent and group IDs. This advanced routing capability ensures that messages are directed to the right team, streamlining communication and improving response times. This level of customization enables businesses to tailor their messaging strategy to meet specific needs, further enhancing the customer experience.
In conclusion,by implementing these best practices and leveraging the unique benefits of AMB, your business can stay ahead of the curve in the competitive world of modern communication. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with your audience in a way that aligns with their preferences and expectations. Start harnessing the power of AMB in your organization today.
Better together
As a digital channel, the addition of Apple Messages for Business expands and unifies the core omnichannel capabilities of Dynamics 365 Customer Service with a configurable, high-productivity interface. It provides contextual customer identification, real-time notifications, integrated communications, and agent productivity tools, including rich messages, knowledge base integration, and search. Apple Messages for Business helps deliver more innovation and opportunities to your digital contact center to empower you to continually exceed customer expectations.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
I am excited to announce a comprehensive refresh of the Well-Architected Framework for designing and running optimized workloads on Azure. Customers will not only get great, consistent guidance for making architectural trade-offs for their workloads, but they’ll also have much more precise instructions on how to implement this guidance within the context of their organization.
Background
Cloud services have become an essential part of the success of most companies today. The scale and flexibility of the cloud offer organizations the ability to optimize and innovate in ways not previously possible. As organizations continue to expand cloud services as part of their IT strategies, it is important to establish standards that create a culture of excellence that enables teams to fully realize the benefits of the modern technologies available in the cloud.
At Microsoft, we put huge importance on helping customers be successful and publish guidance that teaches every step of the journey and how to establish those standards. For Azure, that collection of adoption and architecture guidance is referred to as Azure Patterns and Practices.
The Patterns and Practices guidance has three main elements:
Each element focuses on different parts of the overall adoption of Azure and speaks to specific audiences, such as WAF and workload teams.
What is a workload?
The term workload in the context of the Well-Architected Framework refers to a collection of application resources, data, and supporting infrastructure that function together towards a defined business goal.
Well-architected is a state that is achieved and maintained through design and continuous improvement. You optimize through a design process that results in an architecture that delivers what the business needs while minimizing risk and expense.
For us, the workload standard of excellence is defined in the Well-architected Framework – a set of principles, considerations, and trade-offs that cover the core elements of workload architecture. As with all of the Well-architected Framework content, this guidance is based on proven experience from Microsoft’s customer-facing technical experts. The Well-architected Framework continues to receive updates from working with customers, partners, and our technical teams.
Today we have published updates across each of the core pillars of WAF which represent a huge amount of experience and learning from across Microsoft.
The refreshed and expanded Well-Architected Framework brings together guidance to help workload teams design, build, and optimize great workloads in the cloud. It is intended to shape discussions and decisions within workload teams and help create standards that should be applied continuously to all workloads.
Details of the refreshed Well-Architected Framework
Over the past six months, Microsoft’s cloud solution architects refreshed the Well-Architected Framework by compiling the learnings and experience of over 10,000 engagements that had leveraged the WAF and its assessment.
All five pillars of the Well-Architected Framework now follow a common structure that consists exclusively of design principles, design review checklists, trade-offs, recommendation guides, and cloud design patterns.
Design principles. Presents goal-oriented principles that build a foundation for the workload. Each principle includes a set of recommended approaches and the benefits of taking those approaches. The principles for each pillar have changed in terms of content and coverage.
Design review checklists. Lists roughly codified recommendations that drive action. Use the checklists during the design phase of your new workload and to evaluate brownfield workloads.
Trade-offs. Describes tradeoffs with other pillars. Many design decisions force a tradeoff. It’s vital to understand how achieving the goals of one pillar might make achieving the goals of another pillar more challenging.
Recommendation guides. Every design review checklist recommendation is associated with one or more guides. They explain the key strategies to fulfill that recommendation. They also include how Azure can facilitate workload design to help achieve that recommendation. Some of these guides are new, and others are refreshed versions of guides that cover a similar concept.
The recommendation guides include trade-offs along with risks.
This icon indicates a trade-off:
This icon indicates a risk:
Cloud design patterns. Build your design on proven, common architecture patterns. The Azure Architecture Center maintains the Cloud Design Patterns catalog. Each pillar includes descriptions of the cloud design patterns that are relevant to the goals of the pillar and how they support the pillar.
The Well-Architected Review assessment has also been refreshed. Specifically, the “Core Well-Architected Review” option now aligns to the new content structure in the Well-Architected Framework. Every question in every pillar maps to the design review checklist for that pillar. All choices for the questions correlate to the recommendation guides for the related checklist item.
Using the guidance
The Well-architected Framework is intended to help workload teams throughout the process of designing and running workloads in the cloud.
Here are three key ways in which the guidance can help your team be successful:
Use the Well-architected Framework as the basis for your organization’s approach to designing and improving cloud workloads.
Establish the concept of achieving and maintaining a state of well-architected as a best practice for all workload teams
Regularly review each workload to find opportunities to optimize further – use learnings from operations and new technology capabilities to refine elements such as running costs, or attributes aligned to performance, reliability, or security
To learn more, see the new hub page for the Well-Architected Framework: aka.ms/waf
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