Improve seller productivity with the deal manager experience

Improve seller productivity with the deal manager experience

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

The sales pipeline is a visual representation of where prospects are within the sales funnel. Managing the pipeline is one of the core activities of any seller; it helps sellers to stay organized and focused on moving deals forward. A seller who can successfully master the sales pipeline will drive more revenue.

But mastering a sales pipeline is not easy, especially when sellers must balance multiple active deals, an array of contacts, and conversations across multiple channels while trying to figure out when the next interaction will occur, what next steps are required, and which app or process will help accomplish the job.

The deal manager workspace is an updated user experience in Dynamics 365 Sales that puts the seller at the center of their workflows, and is now available for public preview.

This enhanced deal manager workspace allows sellers to get a full view of their pipeline, quickly gather context and take action, collaborate with their colleagues, and effectively work the way they want to work.

Watch this video for an overview of how to manage deals in Dynamics 365 Sales:

Visualizing the pipeline with charts

The easiest way to get an overview of the sales pipeline is by visualizing the deals on a chart. Charts form a key component of the deal manager. Not only do they provide key insights on opportunities, but in the deal manager these charts are interactive and allow sellers to quickly locate and focus on the right deals.

In the July release, two charts are available out of the box:

  • A bubble chart that allows sellers to track risky deals on a timeline.
  • A funnel chart that allows sellers to see where deals are in the sales process.

These charts are configurable by administrators. In future releases, we will introduce additional charts.

Keeping track of key metrics

Another tool that keeps sellers informed are key performance indicators (KPIs). In the deal manager, we’ve introduced tools to track and highlight metrics that help sellers stay on top of their most important KPIs. Sellers can choose from a subset of metrics, re-order them, or even create their own metrics.

A modern, seller-optimized spreadsheet experience

When it comes to managing deals, it’s no wonder that sellers love spreadsheets. Spreadsheets provide a table view of all opportunities, with aggregation, quick filtering, sorting, grouping with pivot tables, re-ordering of columns, and the ability to edit fields inline easily. Unfortunately, data in a spreadsheet is static and not up to date within Dynamics 365.

The deal manager workspace comes with an inline grid that can be edited. This grid behaves just as a spreadsheet would. Sellers can:

  • Edit any cell inline.
  • Filter by any column (advanced querying is also supported).
  • Re-order columns by dragging them into place.
  • Freeze a column.
  • Hide and show any field from the table.
  • Summarize column data by SUM, MAX, MIN, or AVG.
  • Group the data by any field or option set.

The grid has also been optimized for salespeople. Sellers can add special “smart columns” to make their pipeline management even more insightful and efficient:

  • Close date: Intelligently combines the value of the Estimated Close Date and the Actual Close Date fields into one column for sellers to use and update.
  • Revenue: Intelligently combines the value of the Estimated Revenue and the Actual Revenue fields into one column for sellers to use and update.

Getting context without navigating away

With the deal manager workspace, useful information is easily accessible. When you select a record in the workspace, an optimized form appears in the side panel. This form contains a modern task management experience and provides useful information, such as:

  • Key entity fields
  • A timeline list of activities
  • An optimized list of notes

Administrators can customize the form to select the most relevant fields for your business.

Collaborate in context

Selling is a team sport. Now that Microsoft Teams is part of the Dynamics 365 experience, collaborating with your colleagues is seamless. Within the deal manager workspace, sellers are able to instantly follow up with any colleague regarding any deal of interest.

In this release, we have focused on empowering sellers with an intuitive workspace experience allowing sales reps to better manage their pipeline by getting to the information they need quickly.

Next steps

The public preview will gradually roll out over the next few weeks. For more information on how to enable the experience in your environment, read the documentation.

The post Improve seller productivity with the deal manager experience appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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

Azure Marketplace new offers – Volume 153

Azure Marketplace new offers – Volume 153

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











We continue to expand the Azure Marketplace ecosystem. For this volume, 84 new offers successfully met the onboarding criteria and went live. See details of the new offers below:





























































































































































































































































































































































Applications


Asset Performance Management.png

Asset Performance Management: By harnessing machine condition data (vibration, oil, thermography) and process operating data, Symphony Industrial AI provides accurate and predictive information on machine health and performance with a portfolio of integrated products.


AugmentedStore.png

AugmentedStore: Create an enhanced sales channel that helps customers understand more about your products in an interactive way. Support customers in their decision-making process with an at-home digital experience that improves your brand awareness and sales conversion rate.


Bedrock.png

Bedrock: Bedrock is a cloud-based enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) platform that helps you achieve a faster time to market for massive-scale AI engines. Inbuilt governance enables transparency and accountability of AI, the foundation for responsible AI deployments in enterprises.


BeyondMinds AI Platform.png

BeyondMinds AI Platform: BeyondMinds enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) platform delivers hyper-customized, production-ready AI systems that enable companies to overcome the massive failure rate in AI adoption and rapidly implement ROI-positive transformations.


BIA Employee.png

BIA Employee: Help employees manage their human resources activities anytime with this complete human capital management (HCM) platform. Enjoy powerful tools for reporting and data analysis with Microsoft Power BI and benefit from single sign-on with Microsoft 365 integration.


CENTERSIGHT scale - Your flexible IoT solution.png

CENTERSIGHT scale – Your flexible IoT solution: CENTERSIGHT scale enables fast implementation of initial Internet of Things (IoT) projects so you can immediately see a return on investment. It links Microsoft Azure services with ready-to-use IoT applications for solutions based on a flexible framework.


CGI Renewables Management System (RMS).png

CGI Renewables Management System (RMS): Need a real-time monitoring, control, and performance management solution for your power plants? RMS uses Microsoft Azure services like Azure IoT Hub and Azure Machine Learning to maximize availability, decrease energy losses, and boost your bottom line.


Cloud Native CMS & DXP for Joomla.png

Cloud Native CMS & DXP for Joomla: Build websites, portals, intranets, extranets, and more with this image from VMLAB. It contains all the components required to deploy and run the open-source content management system (CMS) Joomla! on Microsoft Azure.


Connected Drums.png

Connected Drums: This digital solution for cable drum management combines hardware, software, services, and engineering expertise to enable real-time pinpointing of drum location, allowing you to optimize drum management, logistics, and rotation cycle time while preventing loss and theft.


Content Collaboration Platform based on Seafile.png

Content Collaboration Platform based on Seafile: Sync, share, and collaborate across devices and teams with this image from VMLAB. It contains all the components required to run the open-source file sync and share solution Seafile on Microsoft Azure, designed for high reliability and performance.


Coroban.png

Coroban: Assess the risk of your medical patients falling by analyzing electronic records through the artificial intelligence Concept Insider, enabling uniform and objective judgments while reducing the burden on hospital or facility staff. This application is available only in Japanese.


Document Project CRM and Collaboration All in One.png

Document Project CRM and Collaboration All in One: VMLab offers this preconfigured image of ONLYOFFICE Groups for Microsoft Azure. ONLYOFFICE Groups is an open source collaborative system developed to manage documents, projects, customer relationships, and email correspondence, all in one place.


Enterprise AI Bots.png

Enterprise AI Bots: DBA LOUNGE’s Enterprise AI Bot on Microsoft Teams integrates with ERP and non-ERP business applications to create a conversational experience that interprets users’ intent, automating processes and delivering contextual responses to text commands.


Genpact Cora Finance Analytics.png

Genpact Cora Finance Analytics: Built on a robust and scalable data foundation layer, Cora Finance Analytics is Genpact’s comprehensive analytics solution that provides finance teams with strategic, operational, and tactical capabilities to help them make better, faster, and more insightful decisions.


Graphical and Creative Programming Platform.png

Graphical and Creative Programming Platform: VMLab provides this preconfigured image of Scratch GUI, which is a set of React components that compose the interface for creating and running Scratch 3.0 projects on Microsoft Azure.


HoloMuseum.png

HoloMuseum: HoloMuseum offers new ways to engage visitors during their remote or on-site museum tours. Visitors connect through Microsoft Teams or other collaborative platform and share the same point of view of the tour guide, who, thanks to Azure Spatial Anchors, can draw on several elements of each display.​


INFRABIRD.png

INFRABIRD: Nexans INFRABIRD helps telecom service providers prevent unauthorized access to their fiber-to-the-home street cabinets. The keyless access and Internet of Things supervision system can be deployed in just a few minutes to turn passive cabinets into smart, cloud-connected assets.


JARVIS Video Analytics - Automating Existing CCTVs.png

JARVIS Video Analytics – Automating Existing CCTVs: Joint AI Research for Video Instances and Streams (JARVIS) is an AI-powered video analytics platform that can be used on existing CCTV infrastructure to automate safety, security, and operational SOPs in real time.


Klaviyo Power BI Connector.png

Klaviyo Power BI Connector: Innovoco’s Klaviyo Power BI Connector enables users to gain access to hidden data from Klaviyo, integrate it into the business intelligence ecosystem, and visualize it using Microsoft Power BI. Bridge the gap between the data you need and the dashboards you use.


Market For Help.png

Market For Help: Available only in Italian, GeckoWay’s Market For Help is a cloud platform available to associations and public administration for managing the social service of giving assistance to disadvantaged people.


Metallic Backup for Microsoft Dynamics 365.png

Metallic Backup for Microsoft Dynamics 365: Metallic delivers enterprise-grade data backup and recovery with the simplicity of SaaS. With comprehensive coverage across production and sandbox environments, Metallic protects Microsoft Dynamics 365 data with ease – helping your business stay safe, compliant, and rapidly recoverable.


Metallic Database Backup.png

Metallic Database Backup: Metallic Database Backup offers a single solution to protect the structured data of database servers. The solution ensures backup as a service (BaaS) will enable customers to quickly and easily back up and recover database data from SQL Server, SAP HANA, and Oracle.


Metallic File & Object Backup.png

Metallic File & Object Backup: Metallic File & Object Backup offers a single solution to protect data stored on Windows, Linux, and Unix servers as well as in Microsoft Azure Blob Storage and Azure Files. Leverage cost-optimized protection for your unstructured data.


Metallic Salesforce Backup.png

Metallic Salesforce Backup: Metallic SaaS Backup delivers powerful, enterprise-grade data backup and recovery. With broad-ranging coverage across the Salesforce Cloud, Metallic safeguards valuable data from deletion, corruption, and ransomware attack. Keep your cloud data secure and recoverable.


Metallic VM & Kubernetes Backup.png

Metallic VM & Kubernetes Backup: Metallic VM & Kubernetes offers a single solution to protect workloads in hybrid virtual environments. Protect on-premises virtual machines running on Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware vSphere and cloud-native workloads running on a Microsoft Azure virtual machine.


MinIO Blob Storage Gateway (S3 API).png

MinIO Blob Storage Gateway (S3 API): MinIO Gateway provides an Amazon S3-compatible API for objects stored in Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. Enable applications to simultaneously use both the Azure Blob Storage API and the Amazon S3 API to access buckets and objects with the same credentials.


NousMigrator for Cognos to Power BI.png

NousMigrator for Cognos to Power BI: Migrate Cognos reports to Microsoft Power BI faster with reduced risks and complexities using NousMigrator. NousMigrator partially automates report migration, reducing both the risk of human error when migrating and the time to market per report.


Open Source Cloud Native CRM for SuiteCRM.png

Open Source Cloud Native CRM for SuiteCRM: VMLab provides this preconfigured image of SuiteCRM with PHP runtime on Microsoft Azure. SuiteCRM delivers workflow, reporting, portal, quotes, invoices, accounts, contacts, and much more with a responsive mobile theme and Microsoft Outlook and Thunderbird integration.


Open Source Online Office Suite.png

Open Source Online Office Suite: VMLab provides this preconfigured image of ONLYOFFICE Docs Community on Microsoft Azure. ONLYOFFICE Docs Community is a powerful online editor for text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Supported formats include docx, xlsx, pptx, odt, ods, odp, pdf, rtf, html, and more.


Open Source Wiki and Knowledge Base Software.png

Open Source Wiki and Knowledge Base Software: VMLab provides this preconfigured image of MediaWiki on Microsoft Azure. MediaWiki is an open-source wiki package written in PHP, originally for use on Wikipedia. It is used by several other projects of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation and by many other wikis.


OpenText EnCase Information Assurance.png

OpenText EnCase Information Assurance: EnCase Information Assurance (formerly EnCase eDiscovery) is a data risk management solution designed to help corporations and government agencies locate sensitive or regulated information quickly across the entire IT infrastructure.


PostgreSQL Server.png

PostgreSQL Server: Cloud Infrastructure Services provides this preconfigured image of PostgreSQL Server and pgAdmin on Ubuntu Server 20.04. PostgreSQL is an enterprise-class, open source relational database system that supports both SQL (relational) and JSON (non-relational) querying.


PostgreSQL Server with pgAdmin.png

PostgreSQL Server with pgAdmin: Cloud Infrastructure Services provides this preconfigured image of PostgreSQL Server and pgAdmin on CentOS Server 8.3. PostgreSQL is an enterprise-class, open source relational database system that supports both SQL (relational) and JSON (non-relational) querying.


Process Performance Optimization.png

Process Performance Optimization: Symphony Industrial AI’s Performance 360 channels the power of rapidly evolving IIOT, artificial intelligence, and big data technologies to optimize the performance of process units and plants, increasing reliability and availability, minimizing costs, and reducing operational risks.


Rapid7 VM Scan Engine.png

Rapid7 VM Scan Engine: Rapid7’s vulnerability management solutions, Nexpose and InsightVM, reduces your organization’s risk by dynamically collecting and analyzing risk across vulnerabilities, configurations, and controls from the endpoint to the cloud.


Recorded Future for Azure Sentinel.png

Recorded Future for Azure Sentinel: Recorded Future reduces security risk by automatically positioning threat intelligence data in your Microsoft Azure environment. Data is delivered to Azure Sentinel to provide context and empower analysts to identify and triage alerts faster, proactively block threats, and more.


Refactr Runner.png

Refactr Runner: Refactr helps you jump-start your journey to IT-as-code by introducing the latest automation techniques in DevSecOps. With minimal setup, DevSecOps teams can create repeatable, software-defined, and secure automation pipelines that are executed with a few clicks or through automation triggers.


RemoteSelling.png

RemoteSelling: RemoteSelling offers new ways to engage customers during remote or on-site shopping. Visitors connect through Microsoft Teams or other collaborative platform and share the same point of view of the sales representative, who, thanks to Azure Spatial Anchors, can draw on several elements of each product.


Route Guard _ IP Hijack Detection & Prevention.png

Route Guard | IP Hijack Detection & Prevention: Developed based on 15 years of academic research, Route Guard from BGProtect is a comprehensive IP hijack detection and prevention solution that provides IP hijack detection regardless of the hijack technology.


Scappman.png

Scappman: Scappman enables you to easily install and update applications on your Microsoft Intune-managed computers, offering an enterprise-grade software and patch management solution for small businesses that want to work securely and remain up to date.


SELMID.png

SELMID: SELMID, an IDaaS for B2C operators, is provided in Microsoft Azure Active Directory B2C to enable users to easily and flexibly implement SNS support of existing businesses, SNS cooperation, and identity verification for new services and businesses. This application is available only in Japanese.


Shobdo – Speech Keyword Spotting AI.png

Shobdo – Speech Keyword Spotting AI: Shobdo on Microsoft Azure is an AI-powered speech and keyword-spotting solution that provides brands with actionable insights by using machine learning models to recognize specific words and key phrases from audio recordings.


Shopify Power BI Connector.png

Shopify Power BI Connector: Innovoco’s Shopify Power BI Connector enables users to gain access to a wider range of fields and data from Shopify, integrate the data into the business intelligence ecosystem, and visualize it using Microsoft Power BI. Bridge the gap between the data you need and the dashboards you use.


Smaartpulse Ecommerce.png

Smaartpulse Ecommerce: Enixta Innovations’ Smaartpulse helps eliminate consumer confusion and shorten the purchase decision cycle time by generating actionable insights for products and helping consumers find the portions of product reviews they care about the most.


SquaredUp Dashboard Server.png

SquaredUp Dashboard Server: SquaredUp Dashboard Server lets you easily deliver real-time answers from any data source to anyone in your business. Connect to, surface, and dashboard any data to provide real-time insights so teams can optimize outcomes and identify issues fast.


Terragon CDP.png

Terragon CDP: The Terragon Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a marketing solution that aggregates and organizes customer data across a variety of touchpoints and data platforms to create persistent, unified records of all your customers, their attributes, and their interests.


VIVE Process Intelligence Platform.png

VIVE Process Intelligence Platform: VIVE’s Process Intelligence Platform is a cross-industry domain application addressing all the usual business processes, including supply chain and logistics, for retail, manufacturing, healthcare, finance, oil/gas/energy, smart cities, government, and more.


Write-Back Tool - Power BI.png

Write-Back Tool – Power BI: Innovoco’s Write-Back Tool allows Microsoft Power BI users to update source systems while staying within the context of the Power BI dashboard. The solution extends the BI functionality from traditionally being a read-only tool to a tool that allows users to create, edit, and delete data.



Consulting services


Azure Baseline Managed Services.png

Azure Baseline Managed Services: This managed service from Spikes enables an optimal Microsoft Azure environment with guaranteed 99.95% uptime. Spikes employs Recovery Services vaults to monitor, support, manage, and restore backups, and it uses Azure Site Recovery to ensure availability.


Azure Information Protection 3-Week Proof of Concept.png

Azure Information Protection: 3-Week Proof of Concept: This consulting offer from CS IT LLC pilots the use of the Microsoft Azure Information Protection data protection and encryption service, removing risks and concerns regarding its implementation. This offer is available only in Russian.


AKA Azure Cloud Adoption Assessment 4 Weeks.png

AKA: Azure Cloud Adoption Assessment: 4 Weeks: The experts at AKAVEIL will provide a clear plan on how to use Microsoft Azure to enable the digital transformation of your business. This consulting offer maps your current IT infrastructure, calculates total cost of ownership, and assesses cloud readiness.


App Modernization 10-Week Proof of Concept.png

App Modernization: 10-Week Proof of Concept: The experts at Canarys will work with your teams to plan, prioritize, and modernize or migrate your systems (identified apps) and deploy on Microsoft Azure App Service, Azure SQL, or to a container-based architecture using Azure Kubernetes Service.


Application Migration to the Cloud 4-Week Assessment.png

Application Migration to the Cloud: 4-Week Assessment: This consulting engagement with T-Systems is designed to help a customer plan and perform business-to-business infrastructure and application layer migrations to a Microsoft Azure environment. This offer is available only in Hungarian.


Application Modernization 2-Week Assessment.png

Application Modernization: 2-Week Assessment: This consulting engagement with Devoteam assists customers in identifying and prioritizing applications for modernization to Microsoft Azure. Customers are provided a cost estimate, reference architecture design, and modernization plan.


Azure AI ML Ideation 8-Hour Workshop.png

Azure AI/ML Ideation: 8-Hour Workshop: A Rackspace data scientist will show you the possibilities of Azure AI and Azure Machine Learning, then take you on a technical deep dive into machine learning products and the associated tools and services enabling AI/ML frameworks on Azure.


Azure Cognitive Services 8-Week Proof of Concept.png

Azure Cognitive Services 8-Week Proof of Concept: This consulting engagement with Persol uses Microsoft Azure Cognitive Search to support the evaluation of knowledge mining using your environment and text and image data. This service is available only in Japanese.


Azure Cost Optimization 4-Week Assessment.png

Azure Cost Optimization: 4-Week Assessment: Engineering experts from T-Systems will review your Microsoft Azure configuration and recommend optimizations that will result in predictable future costs to help you avoid overspending. This consulting service is available only in Hungarian.


Synapse Analytics Hands on Lab  1-Day Briefing.png

Azure Synapse Analytics Hands-on Lab: 1-Day Briefing: Datasolution’s consulting services for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics provide insights into the efficient utilization of IT resources through analytics and an overall understanding of data warehouse services. This offer is available only in Korean.


Windows Virtual Desktop 1-Day Implementation.png

Azure Virtual Desktop: 1-Day Implementation: Available only in German from SVA System Vertrieb Alexander, this offering is aimed at customers who need a 24×7 professionally managed Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop) environment with an appropriate ITIL operating approach, high stability, and service management.


BaaS Backup as a Service.png

BaaS Backup as a Service: Quickly and easily protect your Microsoft 365 data with Zones Backup as a Service. This managed service offering on Microsoft Azure enables your organization to back up data and restore it directly with a call or email to a Zones data management expert.


Baseline Analytics Azure EDW Implementation.png

Baseline Analytics: Azure EDW Implementation: This consulting service combines an agile approach with Enfo Sweden’s 20 years of experience to kick-start your analytics and data platform project via a solid delivery methodology and a proven Microsoft Azure reference architecture.


Build Smart Data Platform Hybrid Cloud 5-Day Implementation.png

Build Smart Data Platform Hybrid Cloud: 5-Day Implementation: NTT Com will survey your network and server infrastructure, then help you design and implement the Microsoft Azure environment required to securely store your assets. This offer is available only in Japanese.


Cloud Adoption 4-Hour Workshop.png

Cloud Adoption 4-Hour Workshop: This CEO/CTO/CIO-level workshop from CLOUD SERVICES, based on the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework, can help organizations looking for best approaches in technical framework, organizational transformations, and staff competency readiness.


Cloud Advisory Services - 3-Week Assessment.png

Cloud Advisory Services – 3-Week Assessment: Coforge’s Cloud Advisory Services help enterprises identify the need for infrastructure and application modernization, identify drivers of modernization, and develop an overall IT transformation strategy for moving applications to Microsoft Azure.


Cloud Native 1-Day Online Workshop.png

Cloud Native 1-Day Online Workshop: Available from Cloud Services, this one-day workshop is designed to simplify and accelerate your journey toward modernizing your applications and building new ones using Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service.


Data Mart-as-a-Service Analytics DevOps Implementation.png

Data Mart-as-a-Service: Analytics DevOps Implementation: Data Mart as a Service enables the full potential of a data-driven organization by providing a fully hosted Microsoft Azure Data Warehouse, Microsoft Power BI reports, and the ability to scale when needed.


Dedicated Internet Access 5-Week Implementation.png

Dedicated Internet Access: 5-Week Implementation: Lumen’s offering aims to improve connectivity to Microsoft public services such as Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Teams, and other SaaS products running on Microsoft Azure. Customer traffic takes the shortest path to the Microsoft network from the nearest edge.


DevOps Consulting 6-Week Implementation.png

DevOps Consulting: 6-Week Implementation: Canarys Automations offers GitHub and Microsoft Azure DevOps consulting services and implementation, providing expert assistance in the design and development of workflows for your organization’s code build and deployment.


DevOps Toolchain Consultation 3-Week Assessment.png

DevOps Toolchain Consultation: 3-Week Assessment: Available only in Hungarian, T-Systems’ DevOps Toolchain consulting service helps your company improve software development and testing and shorten deployment times. Spend less time integrating and more time delivering better quality software faster.


Digital Assistant for Knowledge Workers 3-Week Proof of Concept.png

Digital Assistant for Knowledge Workers: 3-Week Proof of Concept: Using its experience in Microsoft Azure services, business processes, and artificial intelligence, Spikes will demonstrate the value of a digital assistant in a proof of concept. Gain hands-on insight into the capabilities of Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services and tailor-made AI services.


Disaster Recovery - 4 Week Implementation.png

Disaster Recovery – 4 Week Implementation: Available only in Portuguese from DataEX, the Disaster Recovery Deployment Service maps key resources, determines which servers and services will be included in the disaster recovery plan, and then helps you create and implement it.


Finchloom Professional Services for Azure - 1-Hour Consultation.png

Finchloom Professional Services for Azure – 1-Hour Consultation: Finchloom’s free consultation will help you determine the scope and pricing for your deployment projects. Finchloom’s team will work with your organization’s IT department to identify how to transform your datacenters and develop hybrid cloud solutions or migrations to Microsoft Azure.


Netezza to Azure Synapse Analytics Migration - 2-Hour Workshop.png

IBM Netezza to Azure Synapse Analytics Migration – 2-Hour Workshop: In this free value discovery workshop, you will learn how you can reduce IBM Netezza to Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics migration cost and timelines via a risk-mitigated approach using Hexaware’s AMAZE re-platforming solution.


Insurhub IFRS 17 Jumpstart 4-Week Assessment.png

Insurhub IFRS 17 Jumpstart: 4-Week Assessment: Built on Microsoft Azure, Insurhub allows insurers to leverage their existing finance, actuarial, policy, and other corporate systems to securely manage data, business rules, calculations, and processes required to meet IFRS 17 regulatory compliance.


IT Technical Support.png

IT Technical Support: Ideal for small and midsize legal entities, AJ Santos Comércio de Produtos de Informática e Serviços’ IT Technical Support services cover information security, cloud management, software installation, and more. This offer is available only in Portuguese.


MAaaS (Analytics Service) 8-Week Implementation.png

MAaaS (Analytics Service): 8-Week Implementation: Available only in Korean, MAaaS is a Managed Analytics as a Service that operates and manages AI predictive models in Microsoft Azure. From developing and applying initial predictive models to diagnosing performance to tuning models, Data Solutions offers analytics to fill your needs.


Migrate to Windows Virtual Desktop -2 Hour Workshop.png

Migrate to Azure Virtual Desktop – 2-Hour Workshop: Hexaware invites you to a free value discovery workshop for companies looking to migrate to Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop) from Citrix or VMWare Horizon. Learn how you can realize centralized management, improved data security, simplified deployment, lower costs, and more.


Move to Cloud  5-Day Assessment.png

Move to Cloud: 5-Day Assessment: Orange Business Services will help you define the best migration strategy to Microsoft Azure to improve your organization’s agility, efficiency, and cost optimization in line with your existing IT environment.


NetApp Back Up Cloud  6-Day Implementation.png

NetApp Back Up Cloud: 6-Day Implementation: Available only in French, ALFUN’s six-week implementation includes the hybridization of your organization’s NetApp solutions with Microsoft Azure for your backup and migration requirements.


SAP on Azure Migration 4-Week Assessment.png

SAP on Azure Migration: 4-Week Assessment: Learn about the requirements for migrating on-premises SAP systems to Microsoft Azure. T-Systems Hungary will map the parameters, interfaces, and dependencies of the source systems, then create target environments that are infrastructurally identical to the source environment.


Secure Landing Zone - 5-Week Implementation.png

Secure Landing Zone – 5-Week Implementation: Coforge Limited’s Secure Landing Zone offering brings a unique mix of Microsoft Azure best practice and Coforge’s deep technical expertise from managing cloud estates to help your organization start with a secure cloud foundation.


Teradata to Azure Synapse Analytics Migration - 2-Hour Workshop.png

Teradata to Azure Synapse Analytics Migration – 2-Hour Workshop: In this free value discovery workshop, you will learn how you can reduce Teradata to Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics migration cost and timelines via a risk-mitigated approach using Hexaware’s AMAZE re-platforming solution.


VDI-Persona Investigation 4-Week Assessment.png

VDI-Persona Investigation: 4-Week Assessment: Orange Business Services’ consultants will work with you to determine which devices are used in your organization along with your application and data requirements, then create a design-led approach for the deployment of an Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop) environment.


Workload Migration to Azure 10-Week Implementation.png

Workload Migration to Azure: 10-Week Implementation: The Applied Information Sciences Workload Migration to Azure offering aims to help organizations move on-premises workloads to the Microsoft Azure commercial cloud. The offering targets Microsoft Windows and Linux server workloads running on physical servers or virtualized on VMWare or Microsoft Hyper-V.



Enabling hybrid work with Microsoft 365 and collaborative apps

Enabling hybrid work with Microsoft 365 and collaborative apps

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

The world around us has dramatically changed. Hybrid, global work requires structural changes to how we build and interact with applications. We need a new class of apps that are centered around enabling synchronous and asynchronous modes of collaboration with real-time meetings, ad-hoc messaging, document collaboration, and business processes automation. Microsoft Teams, together with the…

The post Enabling hybrid work with Microsoft 365 and collaborative apps appeared first on Microsoft 365 Blog.

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

Improve seller productivity with the deal manager experience

How to approach your routing and assignment transformation with unified routing

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

Customer service organizations depend on incoming service requests getting to the appropriate agent to ensure high customer satisfaction. Improving routing for your organization can seem like a daunting task, but it is not something that needs to be tackled all at once. The new unified routing capabilities in Dynamics 365 Customer Service can help improve parts of your process without disruption to your overall organization.

The recent blog post Increase customer satisfaction and agent productivity with unified routing describes six benefits of unified routing for your organization. Thanks to the composability of the system, you can break down your approach and benefit from incremental improvements without having to completely overhaul your routing and assignment strategy all at once.

Where to start

The unified routing capability reimagines the routing pipeline into two broad stages: assignment and classification. Get started with your routing transformation by assessing your current system and business structure in both of those stages.

Assignment

How are your customer service agents structured? Do you have teams supporting different regions, priority cases, or languages? Is work assigned to agents based on their skills and specifications or on who has the most capacity? Your queue configuration and assignment strategy should be core to your business processes, and it can be hard to change. But this step can have the greatest impact on improving your core support KPIs.

If your organization is ready to completely adopt automated, skills-based assignments, start by building your ideal queue structure, assign the skills and agents, and ensure your workstream rules update the incoming work items with those corresponding skills. If your organization is starting incrementally, identify a smaller group of agents and a subset of work items, and start a pilot program using one workstream (such as live chat or email) and one queue. The rest of the organization can continue to work as they are today, and the pilot will provide insight into what it would take for your organization to fully migrate.

Classification

What about the cases, emails, conversations, or other incoming service requests your organization needs to route and distribute? How often do these items include all the information required to get to the appropriate agent? Do you have manual or automated steps to look up related data or extract key concepts before it can be routed? The classification stage in unified routing provides configuration and machine learning rules to help organizations ensure the work item has all the necessary details to route it to the right agent or queue.

If your organization is ready to completely adopt this stage, start by examining your existing process for steps that update the work item either manually or through a plug-in, and translate it into a classification rule. If your organization is looking to start small, identify a subset of the work items or maybe a new set of work items not being routed today such as email, and start a pilot using one workstream and one queue. Once again, the rest of the organization can continue to work as they are currently, and the pilot will provide insight into what it would take for your organization to fully use these capabilities.

Increased visibility

Maybe your current system is working well for your agent structure and the incoming work items. But do you have the visibility into the system to understand what’s going well and what needs to be improved? Unified routing provides diagnostics for any item routed, showing you clearly which rules were evaluated, what the results were, and how it was ultimately assigned to the agent. Continued monitoring will provide insight into how your routing rules are running and highlight areas in both workstream and queue configurations that should be reviewed.

How to get started

If you’re a current customer of Dynamics 365 Customer Service, you can enable unified routing in your organization to start streamlining your routing and assignments. You may already be leveraging the routing rulesets, which can still be used alongside the new unified routing workstreams. By crafting intake rules you can determine which cases and work items go through the unified routing engine and which are still processed by your existing routing rules. Don’t forget to use diagnostics to track a work item through your newly configured classification and assignment rules.

If you’re a current customer of chat or digital messaging for Dynamics 365 Customer Service, the good news is you’re already using the improved assignment capabilities. After migrating your workstreams to the new Omnichannel admin center app, you’ll be able to use the new classification capabilities as well.

If you’re not yet a customer of Dynamics 365 Customer Service, head over to Dynamics365.com to connect with a partner or start your own trial.

The post How to approach your routing and assignment transformation with unified routing appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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

Building the next smart city with Azure Percept

Building the next smart city with Azure Percept

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

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Cities range from the large to the small, the old to the new, and the well-known to the hardly-ever-heard-of, but the one thing they have in common is an appetite to meet the needs of their population. Smart cities are hubs of cutting-edge technology that help make municipalities work better for everyone, from giving residents better lives to enabling thriving businesses.


 


Smart cities are reshaping global economics, the relationship of people to their physical spaces, and the needs for new talent, skills, and attitudes to embrace the future. By leveraging cloud and edge computing powered by 5G (and LPWA, or Low Power Wireless Access), cities have new opportunities to engage residents, increase safety, and promote efficient operations at low-cost. The use of this advanced technology, including the intelligent edge, artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G, will truly transform how we live, work, and develop new applications and solutions through collaborations across government and industries.


 


Proximus + Microsoft deliver on Kortrijk’s vision as a smart city 


 


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Kortrijk is a smart city in Belgium that used technology to access pedestrian count to promote safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. For a city, knowing the number of people on the streets in relation to a venues’ capacity is an important element to consider when looking for innovative ways to make the municipalities safer.  Beyond the pandemic, though, learning how people move in a particular area can have a great impact on a city’s activities, so having the right tools to access this data can lead to smoother operations and better engagement.


 


Using edge AI and IoT technology to quickly solve for city challenges


 


Kortrijk originally relied on webcam barometric pressure readings to gather pedestrian counts, but after several tests, it became clear that live counts were not accurate, prompting city officials to look for alternative solutions. After exploring the market for a suitable solution, Proximus, one of the largest mobile telecommunications companies in Belgium, turned to Azure Percept to propose new alternatives to Kortrijk.


Azure Percept is a comprehensive end-to-end edge AI platform with pre-built models and solution management, as well as Zero Trust security measures, to safeguard models and data. It offers the capabilities to start a proof of concept in minutes with hardware accelerators designed to integrate seamlessly with Azure AI and Azure IoT services.


With this, Microsoft partnered with Proximus, which is the leading telecom provider in Belgium, to develop an innovative, proof of concept solution that leverages Proximus’s cellular network to address the live-count limitations the city had encountered with previous technologies. The strategy was to set-up a test system which included:



  • Video analysis for pedestrian count

  • Video analysis with 3D cameras

  • Point cloud analysis relying on millimeter wave radars

  • Sound analysis based on sound sensors powered by AI


Sensors were placed in key locations and tests , which did not require an initial investment from the city, were conducted in late May.  By leveraging Azure Cognitive Services and ML, Proximus was able to deliver vision and audio insights in real time. The results served to decide which model was best suited for the city by estimating the ideal technology and placement options to obtain optimal pedestrian counts—becoming one of the first operators in Europe to directly integrate Microsoft edge capabilities into the heart of its network.


 


Intelligent edge for smart cities


 


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Innovation does not come without challenges though. With new applications, services, and workloads, smart cities need solutions and architecture built to support their demands. Enter the intelligent edge, a continually expanding set of connected systems and devices that gather and analyze data. Users get real-time insights and experiences, delivered by highly responsive and contextually aware apps, and when combined with the limitless computing power of the cloud, the possibilities for innovation are endless. 


Bringing enterprise applications closer to data sources, such as IoT devices or local edge servers, results in faster insights, improved response times, and better bandwidth availability. Cloud flexibility and scalability allows for easy integration and deployment, and with low maintenance costs, processes can be managed centrally while still allowing deployment of software depending on the user’s needs—resulting in accelerated value, reduced operating costs, and increased efficiency. With this, smart cities can invent and innovate to meet the demands of the future. 


 


The 5G power wave—fueling edge computing 


 


The importance of 5G and LPWA stems from its potential to accelerate value and improve efficiency as it provides a new set of latencies and features that did not exist in the 4G environment and previous generations. This is particularly relevant in smart cities where the convergence of industry, public service, and other enterprises requires high density, speed and bandwidth and low power networks that—when paired with technology—opens a new world of possibilities.


For Kortrijk and other cities, this powerful combination offers accurate insights as well as fast and cost-efficient solutions to address their particular needs. The data gathered through computer vision—which detects objects and movement in real-time—is robust and configurable to support different scenarios, allowing city officials to evaluate their options and make decisions that lead to optimal solutions.


 


Full throttle toward 5G and smart cities


 


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Thanks to advanced technology like the intelligent edge, AI, and 5G, we have the power to make smart cities a reality more easily. More and more cities around the world are welcoming this approach and solutions are being created and deployed to address the most pressing concerns that decision makers face every day. 


Azure Percept, along with the entire portfolio of Azure services for smart cities, is designed to speed the development and deployment of secure and comprehensive edge AI solutions from partners like Proximus that can leverage a range of edge endpoints – cameras, gateways, environmental sensors, all leveraging telecom infrastructure including 5G and LPWA.


Ultimately, the goal is to create fully integrated smart processes that use data, technology and creativity to shape how people and goods move—making smart cities not only innovative but also safer and more reliable to support economic growth and meet the challenges of the future. 


 


Learn more about Azure Percept.