With Azure Stack HCI release 23H2 preview, there are significant changes to how clusters are deployed, enabling low touch deployments in edge sites. Running these deployments in customer sites or lab environments may require some troubleshooting as kinks in the process are ironed out. This post aims to give guidance on this troubleshooting.
The following is written using a rapidly changing preview release, based on field and lab experience. We’re focused on how to start troubleshooting, rather than digging into specific issues you may encounter.
Understanding the deployment process
Deployment is completed in two steps: first, the target environment and configuration are validated, then the validated configuration is applied to the cluster nodes by a deployment. While ideally any issues with the configuration will be caught in validation, this is not always the case. Consequently, you may find yourself working through issues in validation only to also have more issues during deployment to troubleshoot. We’ll start with tips on working through validation issues then move to deployment issues.
When the validation step completes, a ‘deploymentSettings’ sub-resource is created on your HCI cluster Azure resource.
Logs Everywhere!
When you run into errors in validation or deployment the error passed through to the Portal may not have enough information or context to understand exactly what is going on. To get to the details, we frequently need to dig into the log files on the HCI nodes. The validation and deployment processes pull in components used in Azure Stack Hub, resulting in log files in various locations, but most logs are on the seed node (the first node sorted by name).
Viewing Logs on Nodes
When connected to your HCI nodes with Remote Desktop, Notepad is available for opening log files and checking contents. Another useful trick is to use the PowerShell Get-Content command with the -wait parameter to follow a log and -last parameter to show only recent lines. This is especially helpful to watch the CloudDeployment log progress. For example:
Cluster validation runs when the cluster is created; when validation fails, these logs tell you why
Retrying Validations and Deployments
Retrying Validation
In the Portal, you can usually retry validation with the “Try Again…” button. If you are using an ARM template, you can redeploy the template.
In the Validation stage, your node is running a series of scripts and checks to ensure it is ready for deployment. Most of these scripts are part of the modules found here:
Sometimes it can be insightful to run the modules individually, with verbose or debug output enabled.
Retrying Deployment
The ‘deploymentSettings’ resource under your cluster contains the configuration to deploy and is used to track the status of your deployment. Sometimes it can be helpful to view this resource; an easy way to do this is to navigate to your Azure Stack HCI cluster in the Portal and append ‘deploymentsettings/default’ after your cluster name in the browser address bar.
Image 1 – the deploymentSettings Resource in the Portal
From the Portal
In the Portal, if your Deployment stage fails part-way through, you can usually restart the deployment by clicking the ‘Return Deployment’ button under Deployments at the cluster resource.
Image 2 – access the deployment in the Portal so you can retry
Alternatively, you can navigate to the cluster resource group deployments. Find the deployment matching the name of your cluster and initiate a redeploy using the Redeploy option.
Image 3 – the ‘Redploy’ button on the deployment view in the Portal
If Azure/the Portal show your deployment as still in progress, you won’t be able to start it again until you cancel it or it fails.
From an ARM Template
To retry a deployment when you used the ARM template approach, just resubmit the deployment. With the ARM template deployment, you submit the same template twice—once with deploymentMode: “Validate” and again with deploymentMode: “Deploy”. If you’re wanting to retry validation, use “Validate” and to retry deployment, use “Deploy”.
Image 4 – ARM template showing deploymentMode setting
Locally on the Seed Node
In most cases, you’ll want to initiate deployment, validation, and retries from Azure. This ensures that your deploymentSettings resource is at the same stage as the local deployment.
However, in some instances, the deployment status as Azure understands it becomes out of sync with what is going on at the node level, leaving you unable to retry a stuck deployment. For example, Azure has your deploymentSettings status as “Provisioning” but the logs in CloudDeployment show the activity has stopped and/or the ‘LCMAzureStackDeploy’ scheduled task on the seed node is stopped. In this case, you may be able to rerun the deployment by restarting the ‘LCMAzureStackDeploy’ scheduled task on the seed node:
Start-ScheduledTask -TaskName LCMAzureStackDeploy
If this does not work, you may need to delete the deploymentSettings resource and start again. See: The big hammer: full reset.
Advanced Troubleshooting
Invoking Deployment from PowerShell
Although deployment activity has lots of logging, sometimes either you can’t find the right log file or seem to be missing what is causing the failure. In this case, it is sometimes helpful to retry the deployment directly in PowerShell, executing the script which is normally called by the Scheduled Task mentioned above. For example:
In a few cases, we’ve found that the local Administrators group membership on the cluster nodes does not get populated with the necessary domain and virtual service account users. The issues this has caused have been difficult to track down through logs, and likely has a root cause which will soon be addressed.
Check group membership with: Get-LocalGroupMember Administrators
Add group membership with: Add-LocalGroupMember Administrators -Member [,…]
Here’s what we expect on a fully deployed cluster:
Type
Accounts
Comments
Domain Users
DOMAIN
This is the domain account created during AD Prep and specified during deployment
Local Users
AzBuiltInAdmin (renamed from Administrator)
ECEAgentService HCIOrchestrator
These accounts don’t exist initially but are created at various stages during deployment. Try adding them—if they are not provisioned, you’ll get a message that they don’t exist.
These are the SIDs of the various virtual service accounts used to run services related to deployment and continued lifecycle management. The SIDs seem to be hard coded, so these can be added any time. When these accounts are missing, there are issues as early as the JEA deployment step.
ECEStore
The files in the ECEStore directory show state and status information of the ECE service, which handles some lifecycle and configuration management. The JSON files in this directory may be helpful to troubleshoot stuck states, but most events also seem to be reported in standard logs. The MASLogs directory in the ECEStore directory shows PowerShell transcripts, which can be helpful as well.
NUGET Packages
During initialization, several NuGet packages are downloaded and extracted on the seed node. We’ve seen issues where these packages are incomplete or corrupted—usually noted in the MASLogs directory. In this case, the The big hammer: full reset option seems to be required.
The Big Hammer: Full Reset
If you’ve pulled the last of your hair out, the following steps usually perform a full reset of the environment, while avoiding needing to reinstall the OS and reconfigure networking, etc (the biggest hammer). This is not usually necessary and you don’t want to go through this only to run into the same problem, so spend some time with the other troubleshooting options first.
Uninstall the Arc agents on all nodes with the Remove-AzStackHciArcInitialization command
Delete the deploymentSettings resource in Azure
Delete the cluster resource in Azure
Reboot the seed node
Delete the following directories on the seed node:
C:CloudContent
C:CloudDeployment
C:Deployment
C:DeploymentPackage
C:EceStore
C:NugetStore
Remove the LCMAzureStackStampInformation registry key on the seed node: Get-Item -path HKLM:SOFTWAREMicrosoftLCMAzureStackStampInformation | Remove-Item -whatif
Reinitialize Arc on each node with Invoke-AzStackHciArcInitialization and retry the complete deployment
Conclusion
Hopefully this guide has helped you troubleshoot issues with your deployment. Please feel free to comment with additional suggestions or questions and we’ll try to get those incorporated in this post.
If you’re still having issues, a Support Case is your next step!
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
In this session, we continue with the “We Speak”, Mission Critical Series with an episode on how Azure Logic Apps can unlock scenarios where is required to integrate with IBM i (i Series or former AS/400) Applications.
The IBM i In-App Connector
The IBM i In-App connector enables connections between Logic App workflows to IBM i Applications running on IBM Power Systems.
Background:
More than 50 years ago, IBM released the first midrange systems. IBM advertised them as “Small in size, small in price and Big in performance. It is a system for now and for the future”. Over the years, the midranges evolved and became pervasive in medium size businesses or in large enterprises to extend Mainframe environments. Midranges running IBM i (typically Power systems), support TCP/IP and SNA. Host Integration Server supports connecting with midranges using both.
IBM i includes the Distributed Program Calls (DPC) server feature that allows most IBM System i applications to interact with clients such as Azure Logic Apps in request-reply fashion (client-initiated only) with minimum modifications. DPC is a documented protocol that supports program to program integration on an IBM System i, which can be accessed easily from client applications using the TCP/IP networking protocol.
IBM i Applications were typically built using the Report Program Generator (RPG) or the COBOL languages. The Azure Logic Apps connector for IBM i supports integrating with both types of programs. The following is a simple RPG program called CDRBANKRPG.
As with many of our other IBM Mainframe connectors, it is required to prepare an artifact with the metadata of the IBM i programs to call by using the HIS Designer for Logic Apps tool. The HIS Designer will help you creating a Host Integration Design XML file (HIDX) for use with the IBM i connector. The following is a view of the outcome of the HIDX file for the program above.
For instructions on how to create this metadata artifacts, you can watch this video:
Once you have the HIDX file ready for deployment, you will need to upload it in the Maps artifacts of your Azure Logic App and then create a workflow and add the IBM 3270 i Connector.
To set up the IBM i Connector, you will require inputs from the midrange Specialist. You will require at least the midrange IP and Port.
In the Parameters section, enter the name of the HIDX file. If the HIDX was uploaded to Maps, then it should appear dynamically:
And then select the method name:
The following video include a complete demonstration of the use of the IBM i In-App connector for Azure Logic Apps:
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Below, you’ll find a treasure trove of resources to further your learning and engagement with Microsoft Fabric.
Dive Deeper into Microsoft Fabric
Microsoft Fabric Learn Together
Join us for expert-guided live sessions! These will cover all necessary modules to ace the DP-600 exam and achieve the Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate certification.
Overview: Microsoft Fabric Learn Together is an expert-led live series that provides in-depth walk-throughs covering all the Learn modules to prepare participants for the DP-600 Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate certification. The series consists of 9 episodes delivered in both India and Americas timezones, offering a comprehensive learning experience for those looking to enhance their skills in Fabric Analytics.
Agenda:
Introduction to Microsoft Fabric: An overview of the Fabric platform and its capabilities.
Setting up the Environment: Guidance on preparing the necessary tools and systems for working with Fabric.
Data Ingestion and Management: Best practices for data ingestion and management within the Fabric ecosystem.
Analytics and Insights: Techniques for deriving insights from data using Fabric’s analytics tools.
Security and Compliance: Ensuring data security and compliance with industry standards when using Fabric.
Performance Tuning: Tips for optimizing the performance of Fabric applications.
Troubleshooting: Common issues and troubleshooting techniques for Fabric.
Certification Preparation: Focused sessions on preparing for the DP-600 certification exam.
Q&A and Wrap-up: An interactive session to address any remaining questions and summarize key takeaways.
This series is designed to be interactive, allowing participants to ask questions and engage with experts live. It’s a valuable opportunity for those looking to specialize in Fabric Analytics and gain a recognized certification in the field.
For more detailed information and to register for the series, you can visit the page on Microsoft Learn. Enjoy your learning journey https://aka.ms/learntogether
Hands-On Learning with Fabric
Enhance your skills with over 30 interactive, on-demand learning modules tailored for Microsoft Fabric.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Hello Azure Communication Services users!
As we enter 2024, we’d like to take the opportunity to hear what you think of the Azure Communication Services platform. We’d love to hear your insights and feedback on what you think we’re doing well and where you think we have an opportunity to better meet your needs. We’d really appreciate it if you would take 5-7 minutes to complete our survey HERE and share your thoughts with us. We’ll use this information to help guide future development, and to help us focus on the areas that our customers tell us are most important to them.
Please note – This survey is specifically designed for developers who’ve built something (even a demo or sample) with
Azure Communication Services. We will offer additional opportunities for other users to share their feedback as well.
That survey link, again, is HERE. Thanks for your feedback, and here’s to a productive and successful 2024!
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Across industries and around the world, field service leaders face any number of challenges in areas including digitalization and modernization of traditionally paper-based processes, rising customer expectations, and employee training and retention. With these challenges top of mind, we have continually invested in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service as a solution to meet the growing requirements of field service management (FSM) operations. That’s why we take great pride in sharing we’re the only vendor positioned as a Leader in the following four IDC MarketScapes:
A Leader in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Field Service Management Solutions for Oil and Gas 2023-2024 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US50040023, November 2023)
Field service management applications
Source: IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Field Service Management Applications 2023 Vendor Assessment”, Aly Pinder, December 2023 IDC Doc# US49989523.
According to the 2023 report “Product Innovation and Aftermarket Service Survey,” IDC notes that “the top metric prioritized by service leaders as determining success in service was customer satisfaction (46.2%), followed by customer retention (39.0%).” This means frontline worker roles such as service agents and field technicians are absolutely critical to ensuring the best possible customer experience. That’s why we’re continuously developing Dynamics 365 Field Service so that organizations can equip those workers with modern digital tools to make them more responsive and efficient.
Microsoft was positioned as a Leader in the 2023-2024 IDC MarketScape for worldwide field service management applications based on two strengths: “innovation at scale and pace” and “infusion of AI into field service processes.” The IDC MarketScape notes that “Microsoft’s end-to-end service experience capabilities aid field service companies in a continuous transformation journey. As customer expectations evolve, frontline workforces shift, and business models get disrupted, Microsoft leverages its platform to incorporate technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), mixed reality, industrial metaverse, and digital twins.” In addition, the IDC MarketScape says that in the areas of AI and generative AI, which would include Copilot in Field Service, “Microsoft is enabling service organizations to realize near-term and long-term strategies around this innovative technology.”
The IDC MarketScape suggests that organizations consider Microsoft field service solutions “if they are looking for a vendor that can incorporate end-to-end capabilities with innovative technologies for transformation and growth.”
Service life-cycle management
Source: IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Service Life-Cycle Management Platforms 2023–2024 Vendor Assessment, by Aly Pinder, October 2023, IDC Doc# US49989623
IDC has noted that service is no longer something that happens only after a sale is complete. More and more, organizations are aligning services and sales to help drive greater revenue through better alignment and new service offerings. This IDC MarketScape report highlights two key Microsoft strengths: an integrated platform supporting the front and back office, and innovation accelerators that enhance experiences.
From an integration standpoint, the IDC MarketScape notes that “the service team can no longer operate in a silo and requires tools that allow it to connect to other business functions, customers, and the wide network of partners. Microsoft’s integrated platform of back-office, midoffice, and front-office applications aids customers across their digital journey and not just within a single function.” The integration of Dynamics 365 Field Service with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams is key. Dynamics 365 Field Service integrates with Outlook, Teams, and Microsoft Viva Connections so that frontline workers and managers can create, view, and manage work orders within Outlook and Teams. This integration enhances collaboration between dispatchers, frontline technicians, and managers by enabling work order data to sync automatically between Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365. Additionally, frontline technicians can quickly start their day with access to key workday information at a glance, with work orders visible from the Viva Connections homepage in Teams. Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 empower technicians with the right information to resolve issues the first time, which is key to creating a positive customer experience.
When it comes to innovation, the IDC MarketScape explains, “Microsoft through its AI, GenAI, IoT, and mixed reality capabilities and tools allows service organizations to deliver enhanced experiences for the service team and the customer. Microsoft customers value this level of shared innovations, which has cemented partnerships for shared growth.” Dynamics 365 Field Service can be integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist on Microsoft HoloLens, Microsoft HoloLens 2, Android, or iOS devices to enable technicians to collaborate more efficiently by working together from different locations. This means service technicians can find and connect with technical experts working at other locations to share what they’re seeing, receive remote assistance, and quickly resolve customer issues. Dynamics 365 Field Service can also be integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides to attach mixed reality guides to Field Service tasks. Overall, the integration between Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, Dynamics 365 Guides, and tools like HoloLens helps to elevate field service operations by enabling them to optimize processes and deliver unparalleled customer experiences.
The IDC Life-Cycle Management report suggests organizations “consider Microsoft when searching for capabilities that will enable continuous exploration of innovation across the service life cycle and partner networks. Microsoft has enabled a broad set of innovation capabilities, which support collaboration, co-innovation, and prescriptive service at speed and a global scale.”
Field service management for utilities
Source: IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Field Service Management Solutions for Utilities 2023-2024 Vendor Assessment, By: Jean-François Segalotto, John Villali and Daniele Arenga, November 2023, IDC Doc #US50036223
For customers in the utilities industry, the IDC MarketScape explains that a key strength for Microsoft is that “[customers] recognize Dynamics 365 Field Service as a well-engineered, flexible FSM solution, offering a solid user experience in terms of usability, configurability, ease of integration into complex landscapes, and extensibility thanks to the Microsoft portfolio.”
The IDC MarketScape also notes, “Microsoft is putting considerable resources behind the product, including significantly increasing the engineering budget this year.” It also states that “[the] ability to instantly access this innovation through a pure-play SaaS ultimately results in good value for money.” Many Field Service customers experienced this with the addition of the Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service Outlook add-in, which streamlines work order creation with relevant details pre-populated from emails and optimizes technician scheduling with data-driven recommendations based on factors such as travel time, availability, and skillset. Frontline managers can see relevant work orders and review them before creating new work orders, and they can easily reschedule or update those work orders as customers’ needs change.
Field service management for oil and gas
For customers in the oil and gas (O&G) industry, the IDC MarketScape stated, “Microsoft’s FSM solution comes in an integrated and comprehensive portfolio catering to core O&G field services and asset operations. By seamlessly integrating FSM with Mixed Reality, Microsoft 365, AI, IoT, and Azure, it provides customers the flexibility to tailor solutions, enhancing efficiency, driving innovation, and boosting productivity in a highly customizable manner.”
“Drawing on its long-established customer base, Microsoft works with major O&G players addressing a wide range of field service challenges. Typically, these collaborations focus on enabling frontline workers and optimizing planning and service workflow automation in vast scale operations spanning large assets such as refineries, petrochemical plants, LNG facilities, renewable gas plants, and the extensive network of gas stations.” For service technicians on the frontline, a primary benefit of Dynamics 365 Field Service is the Field Service mobile app which enables technicians to see their workdays at a glance so they can view and update work orders, customer assets, accounts, and more, no matter where they are working—even in areas with limited connectivity. Technicians can also easily access up-to-date inventory information, eliminating the need for cumbersome manual inventory checks and reducing delays caused by missing parts. The Field Service mobile app also incorporates safety checklists and real-time reporting, helping to ensure compliance with safety regulations and to improve the well-being of service technicians who often work under hazardous conditions.
We invite you to read the following IDC MarketScape report excerpts for full details:
Source: IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor’s position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures vendor product, go-to-market and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a 3-5-year timeframe. Vendor market share is represented by the size of the circles.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Welcome to the fourth edition of Microsoft Viva People Science industry trends, where the Viva People Science team share learnings from customers across a range of different industries. Drawing on data spanning over 150 countries, 10 million employees, and millions of survey comments, we uncover the unique employee experience challenges and best practices for each industry.
In this blog, @Jamie_Cunningham and I share our insights on the state of employee engagement in the retail industry. You can also access the recording from our recent live webinar, where we discussed this topic in depth.
Let’s first look at what’s impacting the retail industry today. In summary, we are hearing about market volatility, supply chain constraints, changing consumer behavior, technological advancements, labor pressures, and rising costs. According to the Deloitte Retail Trends 2023 report, the top-of-mind issues for retail leaders are:
Growth versus sustainability: Retailers need to balance the short-term pressures of profitability and cash flow with the long-term goals of environmental and social responsibility.
Consumer confidence and retail sales: Retailers need to cope with the uncertain and volatile consumer demand, which is influenced by factors such as inflation, health concerns, and government policies.
Leadership quality and brand strength: Retailers need to demonstrate strong and visionary leadership, as well as to build and maintain a distinctive and trusted brand identity.
Technological innovation: Retailers need to leverage technology and data to create personalized, seamless, and omnichannel customer experiences, as well as to optimize their operations and supply chains.
These issues require retailers to be agile, resilient, and innovative in their employee experience strategies and execution. The retail industry also faces some specific challenges in attracting and retaining talent, such as:
Rewards:Retail jobs often pay comparatively lower wages and benefits to other industries and can lack recognition and rewards for employees’ hard work.
Wellbeing: Retail employees often deal with high-stress, low-flexibility, and high-risk work environments, which can affect their physical and mental health.
Growth: Retail employees often perceive limited opportunities for career advancement, skill development, and learning, which can lead to disengagement and attrition.
According to Glint benchmark data (2023), employee engagement in retail has declined by two points between 2021 and 2022. It’s clear that retailers need to invest in improving the employee experience, especially for the frontline workers, who are the face of the brand and the key to customer loyalty. So, how do they do this? Here are three examples of how retailers we’ve worked with have addressed the needs of their employees with the support of Microsoft Viva:
1. Create a compelling future
We worked with the leadership team of a MENA (Middle East and North Africa) based retailer to recognize that there was a connection between their ability to communicate the future of the direction of the organization effectively, and the degree to which employees saw a future for themselves in the organization. The team committed to clarifying how the business initiatives they were rolling out connected to future work opportunities for their teams.
2.Build bridges with frontline employees
According to the Microsoft Work Trend Report (2022), sixty-three percent of all frontline workers say messages from leadership don’t make it to them. A global fashion brand recognised after several years of employee listening that the actions being taken by leadership were not being felt on the shop floor. We worked with them to adopt a simplified action taking model with one clear commitment from leaders, that was efficient and effective in terms of communication and adoption. They also increased their investment in manager enablement to support better conversations within teams, when results from Viva Glint were released. This simplified approach led to improved perceptions of the listening process, and greater clarity at all levels on where to focus for a positive employee experience.
3.One internal team, one goal
Through an Executive Consultation with leaders of a UK retailer, it was identified that wellbeing was a risk for the business that unless addressed, would severely impact their priorities. With that in mind, the team created internal alignment – to prioritise wellbeing through both training investment and policy changes, resulting in a thirteen-point improvement in the wellbeing score year over year.
Conclusions
To succeed in this dynamic and competitive market, retailers need to focus on their most valuable asset: their employees. By investing in the employee experience, especially for the frontline workers, retailers can boost their employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and business performance.
A downloadable one-page summary is also available with this blog for you to share with your colleagues and leaders.
Leave a comment below to let us know if this resonates with what you are seeing with your employees in this industry.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Practice mode is now available in Forms. It’s tailored for EDU users, particularly students, offering a new way for students to review, test, and reinforce their knowledge. Follow me, let’s check out more details of practice mode. You can just try it from this template. (Note: Practice mode is only available for quizzes. )
Practice mode
Instant feedback after answering each question In practice mode, questions will be shown one at a time. Students will receive immediate feedback after submitting each question, indicating whether their answer is right or wrong.
Instant feedback after answering each question
Try multiple times for the correct answer Students can reconsider and try a question multiple times if they answer it incorrectly, facilitating immediate re-learning, and consequently strengthening their grasp of certain knowledge.
Try multiple times to get the correct answer
Encouragement and autonomy during practice Students will receive an encouraging message after answering a question, whether their answer is correct or not, giving them a positive practice experience. And They have the freedom to learn at their own pace. If they answer a question incorrectly, they can choose to retry, view the correct answer, or skip this question.
Encouragement message and other options
Recap questions After completing the practice, students can review all the questions along with the correct answers, offering a comprehensive overview to assess their overall performance.
Recap questions
Enter practice mode Practice mode is only available for quizzes. You can turn it on from the “…” icon in the upper-right corner. Once you distribute the quiz recipients will automatically enter practice mode. Try out practice mode from this template now!
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
During the 1st quarter of 2024, D365 Sales conversation intelligence data will migrate from its current storage location (Microsoft provided storage) across to each customer’s Dataverse organization. This blog post describes this change and provides answers to questions raised by admins when preparing their organizations for this data migration.
Sales conversation intelligence data is the general term for any outcome of the processing of phone calls made through the embedded Teams dialer within Dynamics 365. This includes files, such as the audio recording file or transcript file, as well as all the insights collected during a call. Examples include:
Sentiment
Tracked keywords
Asked questions
Summary suggestions
Important: during the migration, no data will be transferred outside of your tenant.
Moving the data into Dataverse allows you to meet the highest data management standards, such as data encryption using Customer Managed Key (CMK) – and management of customer data using Lockbox.
The migration also allows for granular control over the conversation intelligence data: orgs can now allow access to specific types of data only for specific security roles. For example, the admin can assign privileges to the ‘sentiment’ entity in Dataverse only for sales managers. This granular control also allows for deletion of specific types of data while retaining others. For example, the admin can store sentiment data for only 1 month, while storing the transcript of the call for 1 year, and by this maximizing the Dataverse storage capacity.
Having conversation intelligence stored in Dataverse also allows organizations and 3rd party apps to consume the data per the organization’s needs. For example, organizations can create tailored dashboards and visualizations based on the data. Furthermore, the admin can allow third-party apps to access the conversation intelligence data and to provide extensible services based on it.
Storage location by type
The following table describes the storage location of conversation intelligence data before and after the change:
Current storage
Type of data
Before the change
After the migration
Microsoft provided storage
Files (recording, transcript)
Microsoft provided storage
Organization’s Dataverse1
Conversation intelligence insights
Microsoft provided storage
Organization’s Dataverse1
Your own Azure blob storage
Files (recording, transcript)
Your own Azure blob storage
Your own Azure blob storage2
Conversation intelligence insights
Microsoft provided storage
Organization’s Dataverse1
1 After the data is successfully migrated, it will be deleted from the Microsoft-provided storage.
2 No change. This data is not migrated.
After the successful migration of existing data, data from new calls will be automatically saved to Dataverse.
Action required by admins:
For all organizations:
Check the solution version (mandatory): Make sure you have the latest version of the conversation intelligence solution (msdyn_Conversation_Intelligence version 9.0.1.1139 or higher) installed in your organization.
Provide access to new Dataverse entities (mandatory): Make sure the relevant security roles have read and write privileges to the new Dataverse entities (see below a list of entities).
Make sure you have sufficient storage space in Dataverse (mandatory):
Database storage: Multiply the number of calls by 160KB.
File storage (only relevant for orgs previously using Microsoft provided storage): Multiply the number of calls by 0.93MB.
For example: if you had 20,000 calls, and you previously used the Microsoft provided storage, you will need to have 32GB of DB storage and 18.6GB of file storage for the migrated data.
Note: The above numbers are based on average call duration and number of insights per call. Actual sizes may vary.
Set a retention policy (optional): Previously, conversation intelligence data was automatically deleted according to the retention policy set by the admin in the conversation intelligence settings. By default, data saved into Dataverse does not have an automatic retention policy like this. If you wish to set a retention policy for your conversation intelligence data in Dataverse, you can do so by following this documentation.
For organizations currently using own Azure blob storage:
Set up Service principal (mandatory): To allow conversation intelligence access to your blob storage in a more secure way. See this article to learn more on this setup.
Opting out of migrating the existing data into Dataverse
By default, your existing data will be migrated to Dataverse. If you wish to opt out of the migration, (because your organization is no longer using conversation intelligence or you don’t want to migrate the existing files or insights for example), you will need to send an email, containing your first and last name and the organization ID to this email address: CI-data-migration@microsoft.com before January 31st 2024. The data of organizations which opted-out of the migration will be permanently deleted by April 1st 2024.
Frequently asked questions
Here are some answers for questions you might have on this process:
What will happen to my organization’s saved data? The data will be transferred from where it is stored today (Microsoft provided storage) to your organization’s Dataverse database. After verifying the transfer and customer confirmation, the data will be permanently deleted from the previous storage location (data will not be automatically deleted from your Azure blob storage). Note that data older than 90 days will not be migrated.
What type of Dataverse storage will be used? Conversation intelligence uses 2 types of Dataverse storage: File storage will be used for storing the recording and transcript files (unless stored in your org’s Azure blob storage), while DB storage will be used for storing the conversation intelligence insights.
What are the expected implications of moving the data into Dataverse?
Migrating data into your Dataverse will require free Dataverse storage space. See above on how to calculate the required storage space.
Who will have access to the transferred data?
Out-of-the-box security roles (such as Salesperson and Sales Manager) will automatically receive privileges to the new entities where the data is stored. If your org uses custom security roles, make sure you assign them with the required privileges for the new Dataverse tables as listed below. You can do this prior to the migration of the data. List of new Dataverse entities:
Conversation Action item
Conversation Aggregated Insights
Conversation Comment
Conversation Participant Insights
Conversation Participant Sentiment
Conversation Question
Conversation Segment Sentiment
Conversation Sentiment
Conversation Signal
Conversation Subject
Conversation Summary Suggestion
Conversation System Tag
Conversation Tag
Ocrecording
Recording
SCI Conversation
Sci Environment Settings
Sci User Settings
Transcript
Will users in my organization be able to continue using the conversation intelligence app?
Once the data is migrated into Dataverse, the conversation intelligence app will no longer work. The aggregated conversation intelligence data will be available through a new Power BI based dashboard.
How to opt-out of moving my organization’s existing data into Dataverse? You can opt-out of moving the existing data by sending an email to: CI-data-migration@microsoft.com before January 31st 2024. If you chose to do so, the existing data of your organization which is currently saved in the Microsoft-provided storage will be permanently deleted by April 1st 2024.
What’s next? If you don’t choose to opt-out, your organization’s conversation intelligence data will be transferred to Dataverse between February 1st 2024 and March 30th 2024. You will receive an email with a confirmation of successful data migration. After the moves to Dataverse, all new conversation intelligence data will be saved to Dataverse as well.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Frontline managers have gained greater control, on a team-level, over the capabilities offered in Microsoft Shifts.
With the latest releases now available on the Shifts settings page, we have made updates to improve the end-user experience for frontline manager and workers. The updates are as follows:
Open shifts
Previously, when the Open Shifts setting was off, frontline managers could create but not publish open shifts. Also, they could view open and assigned shifts listed on their team’s schedule (including when workers are scheduled for time off).
Now, when the setting is turned off, frontline managers can’t create open shifts and can only view on their team’s schedule the assigned shifts (including scheduled time off).
See the differences from the past and new experience for frontline managers:
Time-off requests
Previously, when the time-off request setting was turned off, frontline managers couldn’t assign time off to their team members; more over, frontline workers couldn’t request time-off.
Now, when the setting is turned off, frontline managers can continue to assign time off to their team members. However, frontline workers will not have the ability to create time-off requests if this setting remains off.
Your organization can leverage Shifts as the place where the frontline may view their working and non-working schedules despite not using Shifts as your leave management tool.
See the new experience for frontline managers:
Open shifts, swap shifts, offer shifts and time-Off requests
Previously, when any of the request-related setting toggled between on to off, frontline managers couldn’t manage previous requests that were submitted when the setting was on.
Now, frontline managers can directly manage previous requests on the Requests page while frontline workers can view status and details of their individual requests.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Introduction:
The start of the new year has brought a wave of exciting enhancements to the Demand Planning module in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. We’re thrilled to introduce you to five groundbreaking features that will redefine the way you approach demand planning. In this blog post, we’ll look into each feature, highlighting their benefits and showcasing live demos hosted by the expert, Anders Girke.
Feature 1: Edit on Total Level
The new feature in our January release is the revolutionary “Edit on Total Level” functionality. This empowers planners to expedite their planning workflows through effective edits on a broader scale. Let’s swiftly explore the advantages:
✨ Edit on Total Level: Accelerate planning with efficient edits on a larger scale.
? Date Filters: Navigate and analyze data effortlessly.
? Distribute Proportional Over Time: Streamline workflows with proportional changes.
? Allocate Proportional Amongst Dimensions: Optimize precision in planning.
The second feature in our January release series is “Filter in Transformation.” This powerful tool allows precise data transformation for enhanced what-if analysis and forecasting on a focused dataset. Here are the key benefits:
? Perform What-if forecasts on a filtered sub-set of data
? Filter staging data prior to transformation
? Ensure secure performance
? Experiment with Dimensions to refine your planning
Witness the possibilities unfold as you perform What-if forecasts, filter staging data, ensure secure performance, and experiment with dimensions to refine your planning. Your demand planning just got a whole lot smarter!
The third installment of our January release series introduces “Comments.” This feature is set to transform collaboration and communication within the demand planning application. Key highlights include:
? Enhanced Communication: Provide detailed explanations for changes, fostering transparency.
? Real-time Collaboration: Facilitate consensus-building among team members.
Feature 4: System Administrator Role for Demand Planning
In this release, we introduce the pivotal role of the System Administrator for Demand Planning. This role is responsible for installing the app, assigning roles, managing teams, and overseeing critical operations. Highlights include:
? Role Level Access for Contributors: Empower limited users with the ability to view shared worksheets, create personalized views, and edit data within their permissions.
? Row Level Access Rules: Define conditions for specific tables, columns, and operators for unparalleled flexibility.
? Editing Demand Plans with Flexibility: Highlighting the power of role level access, added experience, and disaggregation in editing demand plans.
Get a sneak peek into the upcoming February release, emphasizing the balance between limiting filters for optimal performance and ensuring an exceptional user experience.
In conclusion, the recent January release of Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Demand Planning has brought forth a wave of transformative features, including “Edit on Total Level,” “Filter in Transformation,” and “Comments,” redefining the landscape for planners with tools that enhance efficiency and collaboration. The incorporation of the System Administrator role, Role Level Access for Contributors, Row Level Access Rules, and advanced security features positions the platform as a robust and secure solution for demand planning needs. With increased flexibility in editing demand plans and promising additions in the upcoming February release, Dynamics 365 is shaping a future of more streamlined and user-friendly demand planning experiences. This release marks a substantial leap forward, promising organizations worldwide a future characterized by smarter and more precise demand planning. As we embrace this evolution in demand planning, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management stands as a pioneer, leading the way with innovative features. Stay tuned for ongoing updates and enhancements that will continuously elevate your planning processes to unprecedented heights!
?North America Demand Planning Workshop?
Join us at the forthcoming Demand Planning Workshop, hosted at Microsoft’s state-of-the-art facility – Microsoft in Redmond, WA (98052). This event is tailored to introduce the innovative Demand Planning application to both our valued Customers and Partners.
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