Register for the 2021 Yammer Festival Dec 8-9

Register for the 2021 Yammer Festival Dec 8-9

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

We are excited to be partnering with SWOOP Analytics to host our 2021 Yammer Community Festival on December 8th-9th! This event has been curated and designed for our customers, for you to learn from each another and hear how to build culture and community in your own organizations. Whether you are just launching your Yammer network and not sure where to begin or are curious to hear what’s coming down the product pipeline, there are sessions for you!


 


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Agenda


This virtual event will span across European, Americas, and Asia Pacific time zones. Look at the agenda to see an idea of the types of stories and sessions that will be available. All sessions will be recorded to be able to watch on demand following the event.


 


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*Exact timing and content subject to change.


 


Speakers


We have an incredible line up of Yammer customer speakers that have a variety of experiences and types of organizations from across the world. They’ll share best practices, lessons learned and provide practical guidance that you’ll be able to take and use at your organization. You’ll also hear directly from Microsoft , including the product teams who build Yammer and learn more about the future of products like Microsoft Viva. You might see new faces and familiar brands that have great stories to share. Take a closer look at all the presenters here.


 


Nominate your colleagues for the Community Champion Award


The Yammer Community Champion Award is an opportunity to recognize passionate community managers around the world who are committed to employee engagement, knowledge sharing, and collaboration in their Yammer networks and communities.


As part of our first Yammer Community Festival, we will announce regional winners of the Yammer Community Champion Award.


 


Can you think of anyone who deserves this title? Tell us who you think should win this award!


There will be one winner per regional session and winners will be contacted in advance of session that they have been ‘shortlisted’ as a top contender for the Yammer Community Champion Award. This is to ensure the winners are present to virtually accept their award. Based on network size, the number of nominations per organization is not limited as there may be many opportunities within a company to submit a nomination.


 


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Register today!


We’re running the event as an interactive Microsoft Teams meeting with Q&A enabled. Bring your questions and ideas as we want to make the chat component active, with many voices heard. Speakers are there to prompt conversations in chat and be prepared to unmute!  


 


“We are so excited to present the future of Yammer to this community. We’ve heard from customers like you, that you want to connect and learn from the Yammer community of customers that exist across the globe. This is a great opportunity to showcase your success and learn from others in the community. We look forward to seeing you all at the festival!”


MURALI SITARAM
CVP Yammer+M365 Groups, Microsoft


 


Save your seat and register now!


 


 


FAQ


How much does this cost?


This event is free so invite your whole team!


 


Can I attend a session outside of my time zone?


Yes! Feel free to attend any session that fits your schedule, regardless of your location.


 


Will sessions be recorded?


Yes, sessions will be recorded and made available after the event.


 


How many people can I nominate for the Community Champion Award?


We do not have a set limit for number of nominations by organization or person. Feel free to nominate all the Community Champions you know!


 


What do the Community Champion Award members win?


There will be custom swag sent to each award winner.


 


Who should attend?


All roles and departments are welcome. Customer speakers will be a variety of backgrounds and roles within an organization and you’ll be sure to find similar roles that support the work you do, regardless if you are in marketing, communications, sales, product development or IT.

Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management launches new guided tour

Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management launches new guided tour

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

Today we are excited to announce the new guided tour for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management. We are also taking this opportunity to talk about businesses’ need for order management solutions to move beyond the limitations of traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and keep pace with the fast-changing landscape of e-commerce.

View of one of the steps of Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management guided tour.

View of one of the steps of Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management guided tour.

Moving beyond traditional ERP

An excellent customer experience is a requirement for organizational success in today’s modern business environment. This is particularly true for retailers, distributors, and manufacturers that are embracing direct-to-consumer business models. When it comes to selling, manufacturing, or distributing physical goods, a critical component of providing an excellent customer experience is ensuring that customer orders are shipped On Time and In Full (OTIF), every time.

And more and more companies are realizing that traditional ERP systems lack the adaptability, agility, and resiliency necessary to keep pace with the ever-evolving demands and growing complexity of modern digital commerce. To meet these challenges, forward-thinking organizations have found that order management solutions provide them the required capability to accept orders from anywhere and fulfill them everywhere in a cost-efficient manner. To this end, let’s look at two ways that Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management allows businesses to move beyond the limitations of traditional ERP systems.

Faster delivery

The accelerated shift to buying online that accompanied the global pandemic came alongside the trend of consumers demanding shorter delivery times. The result is that for companies interested in selling direct-to-consumer, delivering within two daysif not soonerbecame table stakes. It makes sense then that when McKinsey & Company surveyed apparel, hard goods, and specialty retailers in 2021, they found that the overwhelming majority75 percenthad active plans to build out fulfillment networks that offer two-day or faster delivery times by 2022.1

And this is just one area where traditional ERP systems face challenges and where organizations need advanced solutions to move beyond their limitations. For example, consider that modern digital commerce companies frequently need to add new partners and apps for e-commerce, customer relationship management (CRM), shipping, billing, tax calculations, etc. To be effective this requires an easy-to-deploy solution that integrates with internal and external ecosystems without the need for costly and time-consuming rip and replace processes. Enter Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management, a modern, and open platform that allows organizations to overcome supply chain constraints and disruptions, and capitalize seasonal peak volumes.

Composable approach

Gartner predicts that by 2023, organizations that have adopted a composable approach will outpace the competition by 80 percent in the speed of new feature implementation.2 A primary reason for adopting a composable approach is because it provides greater agility and resiliency. Traditional ERP falls short on delivering this agility and resiliency because of their lack of real-time inventory visibility into siloed data. Plus, traditional ERPs don’t have the ability to easily support customized rules for the latest fulfillment methods such as Buy-online, Pickup in-store (BOPIS), and AI and machine learning capabilities.

Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management seamlessly works with existing ERPs and supply chain solutions to enhance end-to-end visibility. It enables customers to create an execution-based control tower, suited to companies that must delight customers with accurate, timely fulfillment of frequent orders, perhaps using third-party logistics (3PL) providers.

It uses rules based-fulfillment orchestration and AI-based anomaly detection models to proactively identify and address fulfillment constraints and improve delivery times while reducing costs. This helps accelerate decision-making to mitigate the impact of disruptions. As massive amounts of data are generated across the order management processes, technologies such as AI and machine learning are increasingly necessary because businesses must be able to deliver actionable insights at scale.

Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management enables organizations to extend and operate in complex environments, where there are many internal and external supply chain partners. Moreover, it is designed to easily configure order orchestration flows through low-code or no-code interfaces and quickly scale by adding new partners’ connectors to the best-of-breed solutions for e-commerce, shipping, tax calculation, and more.

At this point, it makes sense to conclude that order management systems need to be open and flexible solutions, capable of handling and integrating with multiple order sources and order orchestration applications. In this way, Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management is far more flexible than traditional ERPs. It can be used as a started point to build a control tower with this desirable composable approach, as it integrates with existing ERPs, making them much faster and cheaper to customize and support.

In summary, this composable approach is what makes it possible for organizations to connect their existing supply chain systems, enhance these systems with an order management solution, and to integrate all business platforms with new e-commerce, payments, shipping, taxes, and other partners. This is accomplished by using prebuilt connectors to manage the entire order life cycle more efficiently and to provide more organizational agility and resiliency in the process.

Learn more about how to create agile and digital supply chains in this webinar.

What’s next?

We have reviewed some of the areas where Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management allows businesses to move beyond the limitations of traditional ERP systems. We invite you to experience a free trial of Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management or visit our new guided tour to learn more.


1-McKinsey & Company, Retail’s need for speed: Unlocking value in omnichannel delivery, September 2021.

2-Gartner, Composable Commerce Must Be Adopted for the Future of Applications, June 2020. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner Inc., in the U.S. and internationally, and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

The post Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management launches new guided tour appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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

VMware Releases Security Advisory

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

VMware has released a security advisory to address a privilege escalation vulnerability in vCenter Server and Cloud Foundation. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system.

CISA encourages users and administrators to review VMware Security Advisory VMSA-2021-0025 and apply the necessary workaround.  

Looking for alternatives for your holiday shopping?

Looking for alternatives for your holiday shopping?

This article was originally posted by the FTC. See the original article here.

ideas for skipping problems shopping for the holidays

You’ve probably heard: this holiday season, it might be harder to find the gifts you’re looking for. So, many of us might be looking for alternatives, like buying gifts locally — or maybe from online marketplaces or sites you find through your social media accounts, online ads, or by searching online. If that might be you heading online, here are some things you can to do to avoid a scam or negative experience:

  • Check the rules about refunds and returns, and what happens if there’s a problem. Does the site have processes to help you get a refund if you don’t get exactly what was advertised or never get the item?
  • Make sure they let you pay with a safe payment method. For example, credit cards have legal protections, or a secure online payment system can protect you in case there’s a problem. If someone tells you to pay with a wire transfer, gift cards, or cryptocurrency, stop and find another seller. That’s how scammers tell you to pay.
  • Don’t buy from anyone who wants you to pay outside the marketplace’s payment system. If you do, you’ll lose any protection the site offers, and you probably won’t get the item or a refund.
  • Find out other people’s experiences. Search online for the site’s name with words like “complaint” or “scam,” and check to see if any well-known websites have credible and impartial reviews of the marketplace or the seller.
  • Look for pictures of the actual item and read the description of its condition and location.

What if something still goes wrong? Try to work out problems with the seller. If that doesn’t work, report them to the marketplace. If you paid by credit or debit card, file a dispute with your credit or debit card company. Read What To Do if You Were Scammed for more on what to do if you paid a scammer.

And report fraud, scams, or bad business practices to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

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

Automated Machine Learning on the M5 Forecasting Competition

Automated Machine Learning on the M5 Forecasting Competition

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


We announce here that Microsoft’s Automated Machine Learning, with nearly default settings, achieves a score in the 99th percentile of private leaderboard entries for the high-profile M5 forecasting competition. Customers use Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) for ML applications in regression, classification, and time series forecasting. For example, The Kantar Group leverages AutoML for churn analysis, allowing clients to boost customer loyalty and increase their revenue.



Our M5 result demonstrates the power and effectiveness of our Many Models Solution which combines classical time-series algorithms and modern machine learning methods. Many Models is used in production pipelines by customers such as AGL, Adamed, and Oriflame for demand forecasting applications. We also use our open-source Responsible AI tools to understand how the model leverages information in the training data. All computations take place on our scalable, cloud-based Azure Machine Learning platform.



The M5 Competition



The M5 Competition, the fifth iteration of the Makridakis time-series forecasting competition, provides a useful benchmark for retail forecasting methods. The data contains historical daily sales information for about 3,000 products from 10 different Wal-Mart retail store locations. As is often the case in retail scenarios, the data has hierarchical structure along product catalog and geographic dimensions. Data features like sales price, SNAP (food stamp) eligibility, and calendar events are provided by the organizers in addition to historical sales. The accuracy track of the competition evaluates 28-day-ahead forecasts for 30,490 store-product combinations. With submissions from over 5,000 teams and 24 baseline models, the competition provides a rich set of comparisons between different modeling strategies.



Modeling Strategy



There are myriad approaches to modeling the M5 data, especially given its hierarchical structure. Since our goal is to demonstrate an automated solution, we executed what we considered the most simple strategy: build a model for each individual store-product combination. The result is a composite model with 30,490 constituent time-series models. Our Many Models Solution, born out of deep engagement with customers, is precisely suited to this task.


 

Many Models Flow MapMany Models Flow Map


The Many Models accelerator runs independent Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) jobs on each store-product time-series, creating a model dictionary over the entire dataset. In turn, each AutoML job generates engineered features and sweeps over model classes and hyperparameters using a novel collaborative filtering algorithm. AutoML then selects the best model for each time-series via temporal cross-validation. Training and scoring are data-parallel operations for Many Models and easily scalable on Azure-managed compute resources.



Understanding the Final Model



The final composite model is a mix of three model types: classical time-series models, machine learning (ML) regression models, and ensembles which can contain multiple models from either or both of the first two types. AutoML creates the ensembles from weighted combinations of top performing time-series and ML models found during sweeping. Naturally, the ensemble models are often the best models for a given store-product combo.


 

model_type_pie.png

The chart above shows that two-thirds of the selected models are ensembles, with classical time-series and ML models making up approximately equal portions of the remainder.



We get a more detailed view of the composite model by breaking into model sub-types. AutoML sweeps over three ML regression subtypes: regularized linear models, tree-based models, and Facebook’s Prophet model. Classical algorithms include Holt-Winters Exponential Smoothing, ARIMAX (ARIMA with regressors), and a suite of “Naive”, or persistence, models. Ensembles are weighted combinations of these sub-types.  


 

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The proportions of subtypes in the full composite model are shown above, where ensemble weights are used to apportion subtypes from each ensemble. Tree-based models like Random Forest and XGBoost that are capable of learning complex, non-linear patterns are a plurality. However, relatively simple linear and Naive time-series models are also quite common!



Feature Importance



Most of AutoML’s models can make use of the data features beyond the historical sales, so we find yet more insight into the composite model by examining the impact, or importance, of these features relative to the model’s predictions. A common way to quantify feature importance is with game-theoretic Shapley value estimates. AutoML optionally calculates these for the best model selected from sweeping, so we make use of them here by aggregating values over all models in the composite.


 

m5_feature_importance.png


In the feature importance chart, we distinguish between features present in the original dataset, such as price, and those engineered by AutoML to aid model accuracy. Evidently, engineered features associated with the calendar and a seasonal decomposition make the most impact on predictions. The seasonal decomposition is derived from weekly sales patterns detected by AutoML. Price is the most important of the original features which is expected in retail scenarios given the likely significant effects of price on demand.



The Value of AutoML and Many Models



Our automatically tuned composite model performs exceedingly well on the M5 data – better than 99% of the other competition entries. Many of these teams spent weeks tuning their models. Despite this excellent result, it is important to note that no single modeling approach will always be the best. In this case, we achieved great accuracy with an assumption that the product-store time-series could be modeled independently of one another. This implies that the dynamics driving changes across sales at different stores and products may vary widely. We’ve learned from several successful engagements with our enterprise customers that the Many Models approach achieves good accuracy and scales well across other forecasting scenarios as well.



From more information, see our other Many Models post: Train and Score Hundreds of Thousands of Models in Parallel.

 

Special thanks to Sabina Cartacio for contributing text and editorial guidance.

Microsoft Releases November 2021 Security Updates

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

Microsoft has released updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft software. An attacker can exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.

CISA encourages users and administrators to review Microsoft’s November 2021 Security Update Summary and Deployment Information and apply the necessary updates.

#M365GovCommunityCall November 2021: Teach a Govie to Fish (through MSFT updates)

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

 


https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hsNc_QjYwfw


 


At the beginning of November, Microsoft had their second Ignite of the year, announcing or further clarifying details around many of the latest and near-immediate future features expected to rollout to Microsoft 365. However, as many of the US Federal cloud tenants see features months (if not longer) after they hit the commercial tenant, these users are often left wondering “what’s next for us” instead of having the same excitement commercial tenant owners have coming out of these conferences.


 


In this episode, we meet with Microsoft architect John Moh (LinkedIn) to discuss our favorite ways to stay up to date on what’s available to us in the GCC, GCC-H, and DOD tenants!


Government Community Events



In the News



Roadmap Update



Today’s Discussion






Today’s Panelists


 


Today’s panelists can be found on Twitter if you want to connect with them further!


 






 

CISA Releases Security Advisory on Siemens Nucleus Real-Time Operating Systems

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

CISA has released an Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisory detailing multiple vulnerabilities found in Siemens Nucleus Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) and supporting libraries. A remote attacker could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.

CISA encourages users and administrators to review ICS Advisory: ICSA-21-313-03 Siemens Nucleus RTOS TCP/IP Stack for more information and apply the necessary mitigations.

Dynamics 365 Commerce enables the modern and intelligent store

Dynamics 365 Commerce enables the modern and intelligent store

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

As the retail industry rebounds from the unparalleled disruptions to store operations over the last year, the store’s role in merchant strategy is evolving and being reimagined. For retailers to thrive in ever more competitive marketplaces, they must embrace technology solutions that enable a modern and intelligent store. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce stands ready with the capabilities to accelerate and empower retailers in their digital transformation journey.

Enhance customer shopping experiences

As physical stores return to pre-pandemic operating capacity, retailers realize the extent to which a new normal for store operations has taken hold. The result is that they are searching for opportunities to leverage technology to improve and automate the in-store experience, reduce costs, enhance operational efficiencies, and ultimately, enhance customer shopping experiences.

As the amount of data generated is growing exponentially across the customer journey, from online to in-store and beyond, retailers need to leverage this data to bridge the digital to physical divide in a seamless and frictionless way. Dynamics 365 Commerce assists companies in these efforts with solutions that delivercurated customer interactions, enable contactless selling, maximize physical store revenue, streamline store operations, and reduce loss due to fraud.

Learn more about Microsoft Cloud for Retail.

Curated customer interactions

We have previously talked about how Dynamics 365 can deliver personalized digital customer engagement. The natural extension of personalized digital customer engagement is to bring the same strategy to the physical store. In this case, we speak about curating customer interactions by augmenting store associates with an unprecedented view of consumers, also known as clienteling.

This strategy is not new. Retailers have long sought ways to build long-term relationships with their most important customers. In the days before box store chains, repeat customers could reasonably expect sales associates to remember who they were, what their preferences were, and even have a good sense of the items in which they might be interested. As retail chains grew and expanded into e-commerce marketplaces, in-store associate turnover and customer mobility also increased. The result is the personalized experiences that customers desire decreased due to a lack of continuity of in-store associates and, to a lesser extent, the different stores that customers may visit. Another factor at work here is the disconnect between e-commerce marketplaces and physical stores, leaving frontline workers lacking critical data about customer purchases and preferences.

At Microsoft, we are actively enabling technologies such as AI and machine learning to change this situation by empowering store associates with better customer insights based on data gathered across every customer touchpoint. And by connecting the once siloed data of digital and physical enterprise systems, we are helping merchants provide an end-to-end digital buying experience across every stage of the customer journey. In physical stores, this means that associates can utilize handheld digital shared devices to access a full 360-degree customer profile. This provides frontline teams with AI-driven recommendations, access to real-time up-sell and cross-sell guidance, and even unlocks customer brand affinity or product preferences.

Enable contactless selling

One of the trends we highlighted in our recent blog on the 4 post-pandemic retail trends was contactless payments. And with good reason. Market studies in recent months found that a large percentage of consumers were still anxious about shopping in stores. One way that retailers can reduce this anxiety is by enabling seamless contactless selling experiences.

By enabling contactless payments, either via store associate handheld devices or with automated checkout systems, consumers have one less physical surface to touch. While no panacea for eliminating consumers’ health risk and associated anxiety, contactless selling has other benefits like reducing time spent in checkout lines and eliminating a point of friction in the purchase process. Ultimately, Dynamics 365 Commerce enables contactless selling with mobile point-of-sale (POS) and contactless payment solutions so that merchants can deliver safe and secure shopping experiences.

Learn more about contactless payments and other retail trends in our recent e-book: The Future of Commerce in a Post-Pandemic World.

Maximize physical store revenue

Successful merchants understand the importance of maximizing physical store revenue. With Dynamics 365 Commerce, retailers have a deeper understanding of purchasing habits that allow them to tailor product selections, offer timely and data-driven recommendations, and access any relevant promotions. Additionally, by developing a single view of customers for use at physical POS and connecting this with a real-time view of cross-store inventory and purchasing options, merchants can enable endless aisles to ensure that they never miss a sales opportunity. This translates into increasing the number of units sold per transaction and maximization of sales per square foot. Plus, Dynamics 365 Commerce also helps boost in-store team member productivity with inventory, shift, and cash drawer management actions across all role-specific workspaces.

Streamline store operations

Retailers that are seeking to streamline store operations should look to utilize edge-based technology to unlock new insights, such as identifying and responding faster to in-store profit gaps and improving the efficiency of store team members-actions that ultimately serve to improve overall store profitability.

A byproduct of streamlining store operations by adopting innovative and connected technology solutions is that it decreases the time required to open new stores or add new franchises by removing friction from every part of business operations and processes. This is a pivotal area where the capabilities of Dynamics 365 Commerce can help to optimize retail operations and deliver friction-free shopping experiences to customers.

Reduce fraud loss

While retailers are rightly focused on reducing loss due to fraud, they must also focus on delivering data privacy and security. Dynamics 365 Commerce helps merchants maximize profitability by providing loss prevention tools that combat internal fraudulent practices. At the same time, Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection provides even greater protection for purchases and accounts with industry-leading enterprise-grade security that also reduces losses due to return fraud.

Learn more: Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection.

Creating the store of the future

By connecting digital and physical store systems, unifying the data that these systems collect, leveraging that data with AI and machine learning, and connecting that data to in-store team members, Dynamics 365 Commerce is helping retailers to create the store of the future. We believe that the modern and intelligent store is one where retail operations are transformed and reimagined, and we are enabling merchants on this journey to delivercurated customer interactions, enable contactless selling, maximize physical store revenue, streamline store operations, and reduce loss due to fraud.

What’s next?

At Microsoft, we will continue to deliver timely and innovative solutions that help companies enable the modern and intelligent store. If you are ready to start delivering unified, personalized, and seamless buying experiences for your customers and partners, we invite you to try a free trial of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce today.

The post Dynamics 365 Commerce enables the modern and intelligent store appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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

New veterans: Finding your civilian career

New veterans: Finding your civilian career

This article was originally posted by the FTC. See the original article here.

Veterans Day is a time to thank veterans for their contributions to our nation, and welcome to the civilian workforce the roughly 200,000 servicemembers who leave the service every year. Transitioning personnel face many decisions: figuring out changes to their benefits, revamping their budget, and planning for a civilian job. If you’re like the majority of veterans, you might want a career different than what you did in the service. Here are some resources to help.

Check out Military Consumer’s advice to get you started. DoD and other agencies offer training and counseling as you prepare to leave the service. Transitioning Veterans is a free DoD program that helps you navigate benefits. Call 800-342-9647 or start a live chat at MIlitaryOneSource.mil to schedule an appointment. The Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs Transition Assistance Program offers career counseling.

If you’re interested in working for the federal government, Feds Hires Vets has information about veterans preferences, the federal hiring process, and job listings. Search CareerOneStop for information in your state’s job bank, including special programs for veterans.

Know that some employers check into your background before deciding whether to hire you or keep you on the job. When they do a background check, you have certain rights under federal law. Before you apply for a job, order a free copy of your credit report so you can fix any mistakes before an employer sees it. To get your free credit report, visit AnnualCreditReport.com or call 1-877-322-8228.

On Veterans Day and always, we thank you for your service and sacrifice.

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