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On November 10, 2020, we announced the first preview of Az.Tools.Predictor, a PowerShell module suggesting the Azure cmdlet to use with parameters and suggested values.
Today, we are announcing the general availability of Az.Tools.Predictor.
How it all started
During a study about a new module for Azure, I was surprised to see how difficult it was for the participant to find the correct cmdlet to use. Later, I was summarizing the learnings of the study, and though it would be great if we could have a solution that could help people finding the right cmdlet to use.
At the same time, we were starting to work on Predictive IntelliSense in PowerShell and after a couple of meetings with Jason Helmick, it became clear that this would be a great mechanism to address the challenge I had seen few days before by providing, in the command line, suggestions about cmdlet to use.
We quickly thought that some form of AI could help providing accurate recommendations so we involved Roshanak, Yevhen and Maoliang from our data science team to work with us on how we could build an engine that would provide recommendations for PowerShell cmdlets based on the user’s context.
Behind the scenes
Once a functional prototype was built, we wanted to confirm its usability before considering any public previews. For our team usability is important, over time certain key combinations became a reflex and we knew that we had to fit in the existing memory muscle and become intuitive for PowerShell. For predictors to be successful, we organized several usability studies with prototypes of Az Predictors and addressed several improvements, like the color of the suggested text or the key combination to use to accept or navigate amongst predictions.
One of our initial prototypes was using the color scheme below, we wanted to have a clear color-based differentiation between typed characters and suggestions hoping this would help user navigate the suggestion. We worked with our design team to address the issue and evolve our design towards the current design.
We also evaluated if the information provided in the suggestions is helpful. Below is another of our early designs. By listening to our customers and observing how they are using the tool, we learned that showing cmdlets first then parameters and associated value samples was not as useful as showing the full line and not using more space in the terminal which is our current design.
During the last months we have done a few previews (read about preview 5) to stabilize the module as PowerShell and PS Readline which we depend on became stable. We have also improved our model based on the feedback we have collected and addressed issues reported.
Getting started
We would like to invite you to try the stable version of Az.Tools.Predictor. To get started, follows these steps:
Once enabled, the default view is the “inline view” as shown in the following screen capture:
This mode shows only one suggestion at a time. The suggestion can be accepted by pressing the right arrow or you can continue to type. The suggestion will dynamically adjust based on the text that you have typed. You can accept the suggestion at any time then come back and edit the command that is on your prompt.
List view mode
This is my favorite mode!
Switch to this view either by using the “F2” function key on your keyboard or run the following command:
This mode shows from your current prompt a list of possible matches for the command that you are typing. It combines suggestions from your local history and from Az Predictor.
Select a suggestion and then navigate through the parameter values with “Alt + A” to quickly fill replace the proposed values with yours.
Next steps
This is just the beginning of our journey to improving the usability of Azure PowerShell!
We will be carefully listening to every feedback that you send us:
We will share soon more about how we plan to expand this experience to other environments.
Credits
“It takes a village to raise a child” Az.Tools.Predictor is the result of the close collaboration of several teams distributed across continents and time zones working hard during the pandemic.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
We are excited to share two new investments in Microsoft Dynamics 365 supply chain portfolio that we are launching in preview. We had announced a partnership between FedEx and Microsoft, in January of 2022, to launch a cross-platform, logistics-as-a-service solution for brands. This partnership is now in preview. As e-commerce is exploding, businesses are challenged with growing their brand affinity while operating profitably to meet their consumer expectation like delivering orders in two days and offering a seamless returns experience. To achieve this, we are combining data insights from FedEx with order insights from Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management so that brands can optimize their transportation, and proactively overcome delays and disruptions enroute to deliver customer orders on time, in a cost-effective manner.
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This partnership will also bring a powerful returns management experience to Dynamics 365, including hassle-free returns options at over 60,000 FedEx drop-off locations, convenient at-home pickups, printer-less QR return labels, and no-box returns. Ultimately, Microsoft and FedEx’s intelligence-driven logistics return services will empower brands with end-to-end visibility of customer returns while also allowing them to update consumers in real-time on the status of their return and refund generation.
Next, we are also excited to announce that we will launch embedded Microsoft Teams collaboration within Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management in preview on May 15, 2022.
This enables hybrid supply chain teams to seamlessly connect over chat, share screens for discussion, post updates on issues in Teams. On top of improving communications, users will also be able to collaborate by sharing sales orders, return orders, and fulfillment order tracking data more effectively, all without exiting their flow of work within Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management. These capabilities help build a hyperconnected business that empowers people to collaborate as one business, everywhereso people can thrive wherever, and however, they work.
Digital transformation of supply chains
We recommend three initiatives to kick start the digital transformation of your supply chains for a resilient and sustainable futureenhancing supply chain visibility, improving collaborative capabilities for better decision making, and designing sustainable operations with a circular economy in mind. You can achieve this by surrounding your existing supply chain and ERP systems without replacing them. Let us dive deeper into these areas and get a sneak peek into how some of our customers are transforming their supply chains.
Enhancing supply chain visibility
It is easier said than done to get real-time supply chain data across the value chain. At Microsoft, we have been investing in bringing new capabilities within our Dynamics 365 Supply Chain portfolio to market over the last year to really help organizations enhance visibility into every aspect of their value chain.
With the latest enhancements to Inventory Visibility Add-in, a highly scalable microservice for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, companies can pull inventory from multiple third-party systems, allowing them to create a single, global view of all inventories. By creating one pool of global inventory from which all orders can pull, companies can often increase inventory accuracy and thereby maximize sales opportunities. Plus, when coupled with the soft reservation capability, sales order fulfillment can avoid over-selling, effectively mitigating the risk of missed sales opportunities that may challenge some organizations.
Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) is the number one Coca-Cola bottler in Africa and the eighth largest globally by revenue.
“CCBA is currently implementing a set of Dynamics products including Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management with Inventory Visibility, Field Service, and Customer Engagement products. CCBA envisage using Inventory Visibility to provide critical parts availability to field service technicians and to validate in near real-time the sales demands generated from Dynamics Customer Engagement. It will also be a key component of CCBA’s integrated Advance Warehouse Management solution. Eventually, all the orders and inventory journals will be synced or directly created in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management for financial and logistics processing.”Elmar Els, Enterprise and Integration Architect, Coca-Cola Beverage Africa (CCBA).
Improve decision making with enhanced collaboration and a data-first approach
From a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft in March 2022, we learned that over one-third of supply chain and operations leaders surveyed are taking steps to improve productivity through system and process improvements to mitigate future challenges.1 While it is imperative to generate insights from real-time supply chain data, the ability to act quickly on these insights is a whole different ball game. Organizations need to collaborate effectively across the different functions globally and with external suppliers and logistics partners to proactively overcome disruptions so that the orders can be delivered on time.
From the Forrester study, it’s clear that transformation is taking place across the entire customer journey, with nearly a third of businesses wanting to improve their operating model by making processes more streamlined across the board. To achieve their goals, companies require a tactical focus on being data-driven, improving the customer journey, and driving operational efficiency at scale.1
Peet’s Coffee is a California-based brand that delivers craft coffee and tea. They offer a variety of productsfrom a single cup to k-cups, capsules to whole beansfor sale in its stores, online, and in the supermarket.
Pre-2020, Peet’s Coffee ran the business on a dated and highly customized, on-premises system and Excel spreadsheets. The company had reached the point where the legacy system was near the end of its life and, after a rigorous software selection process, found Dynamics 365 to be the most comprehensive solution for a multi-channel organization with the best flexibility to adapt to the unique needs of coffee production.
“Dynamics 365 gives us the cloud-based architecture we require to support the growth requirements of the business. The combination of Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Azure cloud services provides Peet’s with a scalable and supportable technology foundation for the future.”Allan Smith, Chief Information Officer, Peet’s Coffee.
By the early days of 2020, Peet’s Coffee had begun a digital transformation process by implementing Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. But what Peet’s Coffee couldn’t have planned for was the dramatic shift in demand that stay-at-home orders would create with the onset of the pandemic. Suddenly, Peet’s Coffee saw sales volume from its traditional channels, wholesale and coffee shops, plummet, while direct-to-consumer (DTC) and grocery channel sales surged 2x. Peet’s Coffee radically modified its implementation plan for Dynamics 365 to support immediate business needs. Ultimately, Peet’s Coffee adopted a new business model (DTC) and pivoted to supply grocery demand while successfully completing the implementation.
“with the pandemicit has been a heck of a year. I’m pleased with the investments we made. I’m pleased with the Blue Horseshoe relationship. I’m glad Dynamics 365 is live at Peet’s. But I wish we had done it earlier.”Eric Lauterbach, President, Peet’s Coffee.
Reverse supply chains and circular economies
One way that manufacturing organizations are improving sustainability is by standing up circular economies. Circular economy, or circularity, is rooted in reverse supply chain management, which deals with what happens after a product’s useful life.
Setting up these circular economy flows can be challenging without an agile and composable supply chain management application. The Microsoft Circular Center program uses Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Microsoft Power Platform to facilitate the reuse and recycling of servers and hardware within our datacenters, which is part of our commitment to achieving zero-waste and carbon-negative operations by 2030. To date, the Circular Centers model has achieved 83 percent reuse and 17 percent recycling of critical parts while contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions by 145,000 metric tons CO2 equivalent.
“We were looking for a warehouse management system that would allow us to model all the product flows that we needed while also connecting to datacenters and other systems used to manage our cloud assets. Dynamics 365 had all these functionalities to build exactly what we needed.”Anand Narasimhan, General Manager of Cloud Supply Chain Sustainability, Microsoft.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain solutions enable organizations to create a digital supply chain that connects global teams, suppliers, and logistic partners for end-to-end visibility and frictionless collaboration. Our agile and composable Supply Chain solutions unify siloed data sources in real-time to detect opportunities, predict and overcome disruptions, and deliver sustainable competitive advantage. Reach out to learn more or get started with a free trial of Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management.
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1- A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft. March 2022.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s Research & Advisory organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
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This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
This month, we’re adding new capabilities to make everyone more comfortable in meetings, feel empowered in the diverse hybrid workplace, and be able to switch devices more easily.
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On March 15, Synaptiq and Microsoft issued a press release announcing a new Machine Vision pilot program for hospitals. In collaboration with Microsoft, Synaptiq built a demo solution to proactively inform care teams of potential Central Line dressing compliance issues.
The pilot program is designed to help reduce preventable injuries from hospital-borne Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSIs) and improve speed of care and patient outcomes. It also helps providers standardize care for new and existing staff, identify education opportunities, and decrease documentation time.
According to the NIH, CLABSIs are largely preventable infections that occur in more than 400,000 patients annually in the United States alone, resulting in over 28,000 deaths and costing U.S. hospitals $2 billion. A key piece of preventing CLABSIs is maintaining Central Line dressings as clean and intact as possible.
Machine vision is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that enables computers to derive information from visual inputs. It is able to collect more precise visual data than human vision ever could, and uses processing power to analyze the visual data faster and more thoroughly than the human mind.
Because visual cues play such a vital role in ensuring patient safety and preventing CLABSIs, machine vision has the potential to exponentially enhance care teams’ ability to recognize and respond to possible infections – before the human eye can even detect a problem is present.
I am truly excited to provide our Voices of Healthcare viewers with a first-look at this incredibly important pilot. I had the opportunity to assist in building the demo solution alongside Synaptiq and cannot wait to see how it helps save many, many lives in the years to come.
For this session on May 11, 2022, Synaptiq’s CEO Stephen Sklarew and Mariana Gattegno, Quality and Patient Safety consultant at Volpini Solutions LLC, will discuss the current status of Central Line dressing maintenance in hospitals today, review the pilot program details, and demo the solution. They will also answer questions and discuss how hospitals joining this effort will benefit.
Synaptiq’s solution to assess Central Line dressings using Microsoft Technologies
Synaptiq’s Machine Vision Pilot Program for Central Line Dressing Maintenance is an example of how Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare can rapidly deliver a machine vision application that works seamlessly with care teams to help provide superior patient experiences.
We see many benefits, such as:
Hospitals in the pilot program will have an exclusive early adopter opportunity to test the solution first-hand, and their care teams will be able to help design the future solution that best meets their needs.
It is powered by Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare and leverages many Microsoft technologies that are already licensed by most major hospital systems in the United States.
There are three applications that are part of the solution that support this process: The Central Line Assessment app (Microsoft PowerApps); CLABSI Prevention Team (Microsoft Teams); and Central Line Maintenance dashboard (Microsoft Power BI)
The Central Line Assessment app runs on a smartphone for convenient bedside access and is used to capture and analyze photos of patients’ dressings. If a potential compliance issue is identified, the care team is alerted to take action. Over time, data from the provider’s electronic medical record (EMR) system accumulates information from the Central Line Assessment app and the patient’s medical record, and the Central Line Maintenance dashboard provides canned reports and ad hoc analysis capabilities to identify trends.
Most importantly, Synaptiq’s Pilot Program for this solution is an example of how Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare can rapidly deliver a machine vision application that works seamlessly with care teams to help provide superior patient experience – and help save lives.
Come join us to hear how this hospital pilot program will work and how your organization can get involved.
This session will be on May 11th at 11:00 PT / 12:00 MT/ 1:00 CT / 2:00 ET
As always, we will record the session and post the recording afterward for future consumption. We have a new landing page for this series, so favorite or follow https://aka.ms/VoicesofHealthcareCloud to make sure you never miss a future session.
Please follow the aka.ms/HLSBlog for all this great content.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Healthcare providers around the world are accelerating their digital journey and embracing secure solutions that empower health team collaboration and boost clinician productivity. Embracing mixed realitya set of technologies that superimposes digital data and images in the physical worldbrings new opportunities for healthcare providers to work together more effectively, optimize operations, and accelerate learning all while improving patient care.
With HoloLens 2 and mixed reality, health professionals can connect with remote experts, and call up patient data and go beyond x-rays to consult Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images in 3D at the point of care. Microsoft’s comprehensive ecosystem of mixed reality solutions, including Microsoft HoloLens 2, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides, empower teams to cooperate more effectively and reduce time-to-care.
The benefits of adopting mixed reality in healthcare are significant. According to the commissioned Total Economic Impact of Mixed Reality Using Microsoft HoloLens 2 (“HoloLens 2 TEI study”), Forrester found that healthcare organizations experienced the following benefits:
Improved efficiency to complete ward rounds by 30 percent at an average savings of $41 per hour.
Reduced training time by 30 percent, at an average savings of $63 per labor hour.
Reduced average annual PPE costs by 75 percent, saving $954 per employee.
Forrester also estimates an ROI of 177 percent and a net present value of $7.6 million over three years with a payback of 13 months with HoloLens 2 and mixed reality.
Adapt to the speed of change and improve clinical operations
Dynamics 365 mixed reality on HoloLens 2 is enabling healthcare providers to train medical staff more effectively and efficiently with holographic step-by-step guidance. Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 enables medical institutions to provide continuous learning and widespread knowledge sharing while removing the need for subject matter experts to be physically present. Simply use your PC and the HoloLens app to author instructions and easily place 2D and 3D content in the real-world environment, showing users how and where to complete tasks.
Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 empowers doctors, nurses, and technicians to train and to practice using hands-on, simulated learningensuring the entire organization keeps pace with the technological advances in science and technology. According to the HoloLens 2 TEI study, Healthcare providers reduced 80 hours of training time by 30 percent, at an average savings of $63 per labor hour.
When the pandemic hit, like many hospitals, Sheba Medical Center, a comprehensive hospital in the Middle East, sought solutions that would allow it to scale its workforce and expedite task shifting. With Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2, Sheba Medical Center deployed a self-serve training solution that supported staff to learn to operate physical ventilators quickly and easily. With holographic instructions overlaid in their physical environment, hospital staff were able to walk through a guided training simulation proficiently and successfully without requiring a supervisor. As a result, Sheba Medical Center was able to expedite task shifting across medical staff and meet staffing demands, enabling over 60 members of its staff to learn how to operate new devices in just 20 minutes.
“One of the key advantages of the technology is that it works on several layers of the brain you hear it talk, see the presentation in front of you, and also physically touch the ventilator. The more senses involved simultaneously, the better the brain can recall. I ‘tested’ myself later to check what my brain remembered, and it was incredible. It also gave me a sense of empowerment that I can learn and embrace new technologies.”Shiraz Shushan, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse, Sheba Medical Center. Learn more about how Sheba Medical Center optimized staff training.
Empower care teams to collaborate effectively and securely from anywhere
Multidisciplinary care teams encompassing specialized clinicians, clinical staff, and healthcare administrators often span multiple hospitals or locations, adding time, cost, and complexity to patient care. Enable care teams to collaborate remotely and conduct virtual patient consultations with real-time spatial information to accelerate diagnoses and reduce time-to-treatment with HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 mixed reality solutions.
Using Dynamics 365 mixed reality solutions on HoloLens 2, medical staff can consult colleagues’ heads-up, hands-free through an interactive collaborative experience from anywhere in the world. Additionally, healthcare providers can improve access and care delivery to aging and underserved populations with remote assisted care consultations. These remote consultations also lead to major cost savingsthe HoloLens 2 TEI study shows that healthcare providers reduced ward round time by 30 percent saving $41 per hour.
Each year, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust provides acute and specialist healthcare in northwest London for over a million and a half people. Like many healthcare providers around the world, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust rapidly began to redeploy and retrain its staff while at the same time coping with an increasing number of affected patients. With Dynamics 365 Remote Assist on HoloLens 2, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust was able to successfully conduct virtual ward rounds and treat very ill patients while limiting staff exposure to the deadly virus. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust reduced ward rounds from four doctors to one doctor by holding video calls with colleagues and experts from anywhere in the world heads-up, hands free. Doctors were also able to simultaneously access patient data such as medical notes, X-rays, and MRIs to effectively treat patients.
“What it means is that you have all the information, all the specialist care you need at the patient’s bedside there and then and it’s all in one headset.”Dr. James Kinross, consultant surgeon and senior lecturer, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Learn more about how Imperial College NHS Trust enabled virtual ward rounds.
Preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals while reducing costs
According to World Health Organization (WHO), to achieve the goal of universal health coverage by 2030, the world needs nine million more nurses and midwives.2 Dynamics 365 mixed reality and HoloLens 2 are advancing the learning of nurses and removing location barriers of in-person training while reducing costs.
Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 enables healthcare providers and institutions to enhance the upskilling of nurses and reduce PPE costs with continuous, hands-on learning experiences remotely. Instructors and supervisors can track and monitor student and faculty progress with Power BI dashboards that pull in real-time performance data to maximize participant development and identify areas for operational improvements. The HoloLens TEI study reports that healthcare providers reduced annual PPE costs by 75 percent, saving $954 per employee.
The pandemic disrupted the operations of institutions around the world casting a clear gap in the effectiveness of hybrid learning tools. The School of Nursing at the University of Michigan (the University) turned to Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 to support hybrid learning because of its ability to provide hands-on skills to nursing students remotely. The University piloted a program allowing students to conduct simulated, repeatable augmented medical procedures one step at a time. Dynamics 365 Guides on HoloLens 2 enabled students to follow the guided training heads-up, hands-free and simultaneously perform the procedures on mannequins. The University is continuing to develop and scale the program for more advanced nursing procedures.
“Once we were introduced to HoloLens 2 we learned about Dynamics 365 Guides, and it was pretty exciting because we realized that we could use the guides to create training tools to teach the nursing students how to do these necessary, rudimentary, required skills, and procedures that they have to do in order to move to the next level and go out and practice.”Deborah Lee, clinical assistant professor, School of Nursing at the University of Michigan. Learn more about how University is transforming nursing education.
Next steps
Our customer evidence stories, in addition to the material ROI showcased above, demonstrate that Microsoft offers not only innovative results, but long-term and sustainable solutions for healthcare organizations and beyond.
Request a Dynamics 365 Mixed Reality demo on Microsoft HoloLens 2. Book an appointment with our Microsoft Stores team today. Select ‘Other’ under Choose topic and reference HoloLens 2 demo in “What can we help with”.
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