by Contributed | Jun 1, 2023 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
As you might have seen, many new features have become available in Communities (beta) in Teams free on Windows 11, bringing it close to parity with mobile. You can now create and join communities on Windows 11, and invite others to your communities, too.
There’s also a significant change in Teams free meetings where previously all meeting participants joined meetings through lobby. We have now added a new option for invited participants to get directly to the meeting, in other words bypassing the lobby. This will be the default setting for all new Teams free meetings, making meeting joins more seamless for the invited participants, and keeping your meetings safe by having everybody else still joining through the lobby.
New features in Teams (free) on desktop and web
Create a community (Windows 11)
You can now conveniently create a new community from scratch in Teams free on Windows 11, very similarly as on mobile. You just need to fill in the community details like name, description, and community picture, and adjust community guidelines as needed. After community creation you can then invite new members or change further community details using mobile.
Invite members to your community (Windows 11)
It’s easy to invite others to your communities in Teams free on Windows 11 now. You can invite contacts already using Teams free or even those who have not yet got started using their email address or phone number. Learn how to invite and remove community members
Create community events and view community calendars (Windows 11)
Community events are a core feature in communities and now it’s possible to create those and view community calendars in Teams free on Windows 11, too. Communities created on Windows 11 are visible on mobile and vice versa making it easy to join the meeting when it’s time. Learn more about community calendars and events
Notify community members about new content via email (Windows 11)
When creating a new community post, you can now notify community members about the new post via email. This new option available when posting in a community helps you to reach your community members quickly even when they are not in Teams. These emails link back to the original post making it convenient to read the new content. Learn how to post to a community
Use Microsoft Designer for community announcements (Windows 11)
Community announcements stand out from other community content and when posting a community announcement on Windows 11, you can now use Microsoft Designer to quickly create a gorgeous banner image for the announcement. Learn how to use Designer for announcement banners
New features in Teams (free) on mobile
Notify community members about new content via email
When creating a new community post, you can now notify community members about the new post via email. This new option available when posting in a community helps you to reach your community members quickly even when they are not in Teams. These emails link back to the original post making it convenient to read the new content. Learn how to post to a community
Block users from your community
In the event of a bad actor going rogue in your community, as the community owner you can now block them from the community. The same user will not be able to join the community again. We hope you won’t be needing this feature, but it’s now available should it be needed. You can remove a community member and block them from joining the community again by selecting them from the member list and selecting ‘Remove from community’. This will give you options to ‘Remove’ and ‘Remove & Block’. Learn how to remove and block users from your community
Bulk invite community members using mobile camera (iOS)
It’s now very easy to quickly get your community growing with the new bulk invite option on iOS. With this feature you can use your mobile camera on iOS to grab a picture of a list of email addresses and phone numbers which then will be validated and matched against the current member list of the community. You can update the list as needed and when ready, send invites to up to 50 persons in one go. Learn how to bulk invite community members on iOS
How to send feedback and suggestions?
We are always happy to receive feedback and suggestions to make our product even better. To participate in our feedback program and help us in our endeavor, please follow the steps below:
You can also sign up for a user panel, to get opportunities to connect directly with the product team, and help make Teams (free) better. Learn more
by Contributed | Jun 1, 2023 | AI, Business, Microsoft 365, Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Today we’re announcing new updates to the free version of Microsoft Teams that will allow you to create communities from scratch, share and invite members, create and host events, moderate content with critical trust and safety features, and get notified about all important activities.
The post Build more connections with new communities in Microsoft Teams and GroupMe features appeared first on Microsoft 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
by Contributed | May 31, 2023 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Many organizations, for example, schools during a significant weather event, need to rapidly communicate ad hoc updates via SMS or Email. With Azure Communication Services and Azure OpenAI Services, we can simplify this experience to help you automatically generate templated messages for different communication channels and audiences. If this problem seems familiar, we have built a pre-built solution that can help you. See our manual for step-by-step instructions.
The solution uses the example of a a school administrator who needs to send a weather related alert and focuses on three main parts:
- Provide a secure app for school administrators using Power Apps. School administrators can configure the message they want to send to their contacts.
- Support multiple channels (SMS, Email) using Power Automate and Azure Communication Services. They can cover a variety of channels to ensure the recipients see the message in a timely manner.
- Auto-generate templates for each medium based on the message description using Power Automate and Azure OpenAI Services. Craft professional messages for a variety of mediums easily. You will not need to re-write the message for each medium.
Architecture overview
In our solution, to create and send messages to the contacts, we will leverage Power Apps and Power Automate to build the applications and flows. The Power App will enable the school administrator to configure the message they want to send out to contacts. It will be linked to a Dataverse table with contact information. The Power App will trigger a Power Automate flow which will use Azure OpenAI Services to create communication templates for each channel and Azure Communication Services to send SMS and Emails to the parents using contact information.
Check out our pre-built solution or the step-by-step instructions to get started building your own application for SMS and email messages today.
If you would like to see more samples like this or would like to learn more about the process of building solutions with Azure Communication Services and Azure OpenAI Services, drop us a comment below.
by Contributed | May 31, 2023 | Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
In an era marked by increasing interest rates, high inflation, and economic uncertainty, empowering CFOs with financial planning tools and data analytics (FP&A) has become essential. These resources aid decision-making by providing comprehensive financial analysis, forecasting, and budgeting capabilities helping organizations to consolidate and analyze financial data, and create accurate financial models. At Microsoft, we are dedicated to delivering advanced FP&A solutions that seamlessly integrate innovative new features with traditional capabilities, empowering CFOs with impactful tools tailored for the modern era. Our objective is to usher in a new generation of planning capabilities for CFOs by unifying data across business processes, delivering near real-time insights to anticipate the future, and using the latest advancements in AI and natural language processing to provide a solution that goes beyond traditional FP&A solutions and redefining how finance operates.
Today, we are thrilled to announce significant strides toward realizing this vision. Microsoft is introducing a fully developed, customer-ready extended planning and analytics solution (xP&A). Our solution will provide Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance customers with user-friendly and rapidly deployable modern xP&A capabilities. Empowered by our new solution, organizations can continuously plan, looking across the enterprise at timely operational and financial data with AI-assisted insights providing critical strategic direction to accelerate innovation and guide their businesses toward sustainable success.
Dynamics 365 Finance
Enhance your financial decision making
Outdated and overly complex solutions hinder finance’s strategic execution
Over the past decade, CFOs have reaped the benefits of various FP&A tools offering invaluable support. However, these tools inherently possess limitations that impede their ability to meet the strategic demands of modern CFOs. Challenges such as integration complexities, restricted data sets, and infrequent data updates severely curtail their effectiveness, rendering agile planning difficult if attainable. Their implementation tends to be sluggish and costly, demanding advanced skill sets to derive actionable insights. Moreover, their inflexibility and reliance on rigid user interfaces constrain customization possibilities and do not cater to specialized customer requirements. Lastly, these tools, in their present state, often lack advanced analytics and AI capabilities to better predict and model scenarios to anticipate future needs.
Equipping Finance with the planning tools of the future
To address these challenges, our xP&A solution will utilize advancements across the Microsoft product portfolio. It seamlessly integrates access to unified, near real-time data innovations powered by the business performance analytics capabilities within Dynamics 365 Finance and incorporates automated insights obtained through recent acquisitions in critical business domains, such as AI-driven spend analytics and process mining. Additionally, our solution includes the latest advancements in natural language processing, enabling interactive and embedded AI experiences that actively guide finance and operations leaders toward better decisions. This unique combination of technologies positions Dynamics 365 Finance as a disruptive force in ERP (enterprise resource planning) and the opportunity to lead in the financial planning and analytics category. By embracing our solution, finance teams can confidently navigate the era of AI and may experience significant growth.
Traditional FP&A solutions with the innovation needed for success
While our xP&A solution aims to be visionary, we acknowledge the importance of meeting the foundational expectations established by industry-standard FP&A tools. In addition to offering these essential capabilities, our new xP&A solution provides access to a diverse range of customizable use cases and templates designed to address various financial requirements, facilitate a quick start for customers, and enable fast deployment.
Whether teams require support for budgeting and forecasting, sales and operations planning, cash flow forecasting, financial close, or workforce planning, our solution delivers proven workflows that are highly adaptable. Our solution prioritizes critical modern capabilities that are top of mind for today’s CFOs, such as predictive forecasting, zero-based budgeting, what-if analysis, and uncovering hidden drivers with AI-powered insights.
Dynamics 365 Finance xP&A capabilities go beyond traditional finance processes by extending the scope of data to encompass cross-domain datasets, including supply chain, human resources, sales, and more. This holistic approach supplies a comprehensive view of operational performance, empowering informed decision-making.
Familiar user experiences and the power of Microsoft Cloud
Most importantly, our xP&A solution provides customers with a familiar and user-friendly environment, delivered through the well-known and easily customizable experiences of Power BI and Excel. These applications have become ubiquitous among Finance users as their go-to analytics environment for daily work. Our solution allows them to seamlessly work within their preferred experiences without extracting and transforming data from their ERP. Gone are the days when finance teams were confined to rigid and outdated user experiences in traditional ERPs. With our solution, finance teams can fully embrace innovation from dedicated product teams while enjoying the familiarity and efficiency of the tools they have relied on for decades.
Finally, backed by the full power of the Microsoft Cloud and data platform, our xP&A solution will use innovations across the Microsoft portfolio. With robust collaboration capabilities embedded into Microsoft Teams and recently announced Dynamics 365 Copilot natural language processing functionality to deliver interactive insights embedded into the flow of work so users of all skill levels can securely access, share, and collaborate with timely data within the same tools they already rely on daily.
A new era of planning capabilities for the CFO
Today’s announcement of extended planning and analytics (xP&A) for Dynamics 365 Finance represents a significant advancement in providing CFOs with AI-driven financial planning tools and data analytics capabilities. Imagine a world where finance teams can engage with embedded natural language processing models in planning tools, enabling them to initiate what-if scenario planning iterations by asking critical questions and modeling their impacts. This empowers finance teams to anticipate and adjust for various outcomes proactively.
For instance, what if Finance users could prompt Dynamics 365 Copilot by asking questions like, “What is the predicted growth rate for product A and B?” These predictions are then seamlessly integrated into planning models, generating detailed scenarios that offer valuable insights into how the growth of specific products may influence staffing needs, revenue, and margins.
To address modern economic challenges, a new age of sophisticated planning and analytical tools is essential for CFOs to anticipate risk, drive innovation, and guide their businesses toward short-term and long-term success. With Dynamics 365 Finance, CFOs now have the tools to address these challenges and keep their organizations strong for the future.
Learn more
Begin your AI journey today! Learn more about Dynamics 365 Finance.
The post Introducing extended planning and analytics for Dynamics 365 Finance appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
by Contributed | May 30, 2023 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Introduction
Our customers want a simple way to bring the power of the cloud into their real-world operations to transform their businesses. At Microsoft, our goal is to give businesses the ability to project Azure to wherever they need it, whether it be the cloud, a data center, or an edge location like a retail store.
However, we know operating even modern hybrid cloud environments can be a complex undertaking. An array of disparate tools and technologies acquired over time and space often leaves customers to stitch it all together themselves. Our aim is to reduce that complexity with Azure-consistent infrastructure that simplifies the ability to take advantage of cloud-native technologies at the edge.
As part of this ambitious vision, we are evolving our flagship hyperconverged infrastructure offering, Azure Stack HCI, towards an increasingly cloud-native posture that leverages Azure Arc to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers. The result is a solution for businesses that simplifies operations, and allows our customers to use the same tools, app models, and control planes uniformly regardless of where their data and applications reside.
How Microsoft delivers a seamless cloud to edge solution with Azure Stack HCI
Unified and consistent operations across environments
- Edge deployments are streamlined into a simplified turnkey experience driven centrally from the cloud, which minimizes the need for on-prem IT expertise.
- Updates are one-click for the entire technology stack, closing the seams between hardware, firmware, drivers, OS, and agents. All updates are comprehensively validated for compatibility, interoperability, and reliability.
- Support is at the solution level, providing a single point of contact experience for hardware, software, and cloud components.
Simplified application modernization
- Applications are developed once and deployed and managed equally across environments.
- Azure Arc-enabled Azure features and services such as Azure Kubernetes Services, Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure Arc-enabled data services, and Azure Arc-enabled VM Management easily extend from the cloud to the edge.
Centralized governance
- On-premises resources are easily accessed, managed, and governed centrally through the Azure Portal.
- Infrastructure is continuously monitored to ensure it stays in a validated state.
- Azure’s policy management, threat protection, and security controls extend to on-premises infrastructure.
Announcing Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure
To simplify the inherent complexity of cloud to edge, the unique breadth and depth of our partners extends Microsoft’s cloud services and software into customers’ environments around the world. With one of our key partners, we recently announced the Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure, the first Azure Stack HCI solution of its kind, delivering integration and capabilities beyond the Validated Nodes and Integrated Systems in the Azure Stack HCI portfolio today.
Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Azure is the result of extensive engineering collaboration between Microsoft and Dell. It natively integrates with Azure Arc and Azure Stack HCI to provide a turnkey experience to customers, including simplified deployment, seamless management, and orchestration capabilities for hyperconverged infrastructure deployments. Building on Dell’s track record of delivering market-leading integrated infrastructure solutions with extensive software-driven management and orchestration (M&O) automation, this comprehensive solution enables IT admins and operators to focus less on managing the day-to-day operational tasks and more on innovation and achieving desired business outcomes. This integration gives customers a consistent operational model to run their application and data services across datacenter and edge and manage on-premises resources from the Azure portal with consistent security and governance.
Conclusion
We are excited for what’s to come with Azure Stack HCI as we keep building and transforming with our customers. To learn more about Azure Stack HCI, visit our page on Microsoft Learn.
For more information on Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure, please visit Dell’s solution brief.
by Contributed | May 29, 2023 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Your learning goes beyond Microsoft Build. Join After Parties at a local time with your local community.
Here are some of our Community-led After Parties held on from May 29 to June 5 (as of May 29, 2023). Check it out and join your favorite Parties!
MVP/RD/User Group-led Microsoft Build 2023 After Party
Date (Local Time)
|
Title
|
Language(s)
|
Format(s)
|
May 29, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – 気ままに勉強会 Power Platform Meetup 1
|
Japanese-Japan
|
Virtual
|
May 30, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Wellington Azure AI Meetup
|
English-New Zealand
|
Hybrid
|
May 30, 2023
|
Discussion for Microsoft Build Keynote by TechLean w/English
|
English-Japan
|
Hybrid
|
May 30, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Women Who Code Seoul Meetup
|
Korean-Korea
|
Virtual
|
May 30, 2023
|
Microsoft Build Watch Party by Z-TECH
|
Czech-Czech Republic
|
In-Person
|
May 30, 2023
|
One year anniversary of MSUG – Build After Party
|
English-Norway
|
Virtual
|
May 30, 2023
|
You’re going to this event! Microsoft Build Afterparty UA by Dynamics 365 & Power Platform Ukraine User Group
|
English-Ukraine
|
Virtual
|
May 30, 2023
|
Microsoft Build 2023 meets Azure Meetup Cologne
|
German-Germany
|
Virtual
|
May 31, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Brisbane M365 Meetup
|
English-Australia
|
Hybrid
|
May 31, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Wellington Power Platform
|
English-New Zealand
|
Virtual
|
May 31, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Power Platform User Group Norway
|
Norwegian-Norway
|
In-Person
|
May 31, 2023
|
Microsoft After Party – Power Mallorca
|
Spanish-Spain
|
Virtual
|
May 31, 2023
|
Power 365 Initiatives – Microsoft Build 2023 After Party
|
Spanish-Spain
|
Virtual
|
May 31, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – SanFran Bay Area
|
English-United States
|
In-Person
|
June 1, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Hungary Power Platform UG
|
Hungarian-Hungary
|
Virtual
|
June 1, 2023
|
Microsoft Build 2023 Recap by Azure Bonn Meetup
|
German-Germany
|
Virtual
|
June 2, 2023
|
Microsoft Build 2023 After Party – JAZUG TOHOKU
|
Japanese-Japan
|
In-Person
|
June 2, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Pune Tech Community
|
English-India
|
Virtual
|
June 2, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Seoul Power Platform Meetup 1
|
Korean-Korea
|
Virtual
|
June 2, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – TFSUG
|
Japanese-Japan
|
Virtual
|
June 2, 2023
|
Microsoft Build Watch Party – Islamabad Azure Group
|
English-Pakistan
|
In-Person
|
June 3, 2023
|
Microsoft Build 2023 – After Party Pinoy Version by BizApps Pinoy Community
|
English-Philippines
|
Hybrid
|
June 3, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Beijing .NET Meetup
|
Mandarin-China
|
Hybrid
|
June 3, 2023
|
Power Apps 勉強会 MS Build 2023 After Party
|
Japanese-Japan
|
Virtual
|
June 3, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Delhi Power BI User Group
|
English-India
|
Virtual
|
June 3, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Saudi Arabia Power Platform User Group
|
Arabic-Saudi Arabia
|
Virtual
|
June 3, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Nigeria Power Platform UG
|
English-Nigeria
|
Virtual
|
June 5, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – 気ままに勉強会 Power Platform Meetup 2
|
Japanese-Japan
|
Virtual
|
June 5, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – 퓨전개발자 (fusiondevkr)
|
Korean-Korea
|
Virtual
|
June 5, 2023
|
Azure OpenAI ChatGPT by AI Club
|
Korean-Korea
|
In-Person
|
June 5, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Future Workers Club
|
Korean-Korea
|
Virtual
|
June 5, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Japan Microsoft 365 Users Group
|
Japanese-Japan
|
Virtual
|
June 5, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – PyTorch Meetup
|
Korean-Korea
|
Virtual
|
June 5, 2023
|
Microsoft Build 2023 After Party
|
English-Canada
|
In-Person
|
Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador-led Microsoft Build 2023 After Party
Date (Local Time)
|
Title
|
Language(s)
|
Format(s)
|
May 29, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – MLSA OAU
|
English-Nigeria
|
In-Person
|
May 31, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – MLSA X SISTEC
|
English-India
|
In-Person
|
May 31, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Skopje Azure Meetup
|
Macedonian-Macedonia
|
In-Person
|
June 1, 2023
|
Microsoft Build MLSA – MIET
|
English-India
|
In-Person
|
June 2, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Bangladesh by MLSA Bangladesh
|
English-Bangladesh
|
Virtual
|
June 2, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – BVCOE, New Delhi
|
English-India
|
In-Person
|
June 2, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Bangladesh
|
Bangla-Bangladesh
|
Virtual
|
June 2, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Toh Tech
|
English-Mexico
|
Virtual
|
June 2, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Toh Tech
|
Spanish-Mexico
|
Virtual
|
June 3, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Delhi OpenSource Meetup
|
Hindi-India
|
In-Person
|
June 3, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Benin
|
English-Nigeria
|
Virtual
|
June 3, 2023
|
Microsoft Build After Party – Quito
|
Spanish-Ecuador
|
Virtual
|
June 4, 2023
|
Microsoft Build Watch Party – Pune
|
English-India
|
In-Person
|
*Information in this blog is subject to change without notice.
*Go to After Parties pages to find the full event schedule.
by Contributed | May 27, 2023 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
In today’s blog post, we dive into the exciting fusion of AI large language models with Microsoft’s Power Platform.
With over 33 million Monthly active users of Power Platform announced at Build 2023. We explore how this powerful combination can help build automation workflows, apps, webpages, and bots without requiring extensive coding knowledge. With the introduction of AI-assisted workflow generation in Power Automate, Copilot integration with Power Apps, Power Pages for website generation, and enhanced chat experiences with Power Virtual Agents, the Power Platform is revolutionizing low-code development.
Sharing 33 million monthly active users of PowerPlatform, Charles Lamanna, MSBuild 2023 session
Saving Time and Effort with AI and Copilot
The AI and Copilot experiences across the Power Platform offer numerous benefits, including time and effort savings for users. Whether you have an idea for automating a process or creating an app or website, AI can bring your vision to life more efficiently than ever before. By leveraging AI’s knowledge and the data you provide, the platform can generate customized experiences and suggest improvements to enhance your workflows and applications.
AI-Driven Automation of Invoice Processing
To showcase the capabilities of Copilot and AI, we explore a common scenario: invoice processing. Traditionally, this involves manual data entry, approval workflows, and Excel spreadsheet management. With Copilot, users can build and automate basic workflows using natural language prompts, eliminating the need for extensive coding expertise. Copilot generates a preview flow within seconds based on the provided prompt, and users can customize the flow further or generate additional variants effortlessly. This automation extends to scoping the flow to invoice attachments, specifying approval steps, and updating Excel files automatically.
Harnessing AI Builder for Document Analysis
AI Builder, a powerful tool within the Power Platform, offers forms processing capabilities for extracting data from documents like invoices. By integrating AI Builder with Copilot, users can extract approval justifications and automatically generate comprehensive emails. The extracted invoice details can be presented within the email, enabling seamless approval within Outlook. Additionally, the AI-generated flow can enter the approved invoice data into Excel, further streamlining the process.
Accelerating App Development with Copilot
Copilot’s integration with Power Apps expedites app development processes. Users can import Excel files directly into Power Apps Studio, where Copilot processes the data and transfers it to a Dataverse environment. This enables scalable and centralized management of invoice data. Copilot automatically determines column headings and data types, simplifying the app creation process. The resulting app is fully functional, allowing users to browse, search, create new records, and customize the app effortlessly.
Building Professional Websites with Power Pages and Copilot
Power Pages, coupled with Copilot, provides an efficient way to build professional websites. By using Copilot prompts, users can generate HTML, CSS, and contextually relevant images for website sections. Copilot’s assistance extends to content generation, including descriptive paragraphs and forms. The large language model’s ability to generate both code and text-based content streamlines the website development process significantly.
Enhancing Chat Experiences with Power Virtual Agents and AI
The integration of Power Virtual Agents and Copilot empowers websites with intelligent chatbot capabilities. Power Virtual Agents can address user inquiries and provide generative answers powered by OpenAI’s GPT. The bot is automatically configured to search across the website and summarize relevant knowledge-based articles. Additionally, the chatbot supports multi-turn conversations and context-based responses. Future enhancements will include document uploads, tone selection for responses, and content moderation controls.
Overview of Demos in the Video
Exploring AI and Copilot Experiences in the Power Platform
Stephen Siciliano, guides us through the latest Power Platform updates. The AI and Copilot experiences in the Power Platform offer assistance across various tasks, saving time and effort for users. Whether automating processes, building apps, or creating websites, the AI can generate experiences based on knowledge and data provided, offering suggestions for customization and helping with logic and workflow generation.
Building Automated Workflows with Copilot
Stephen demonstrates how Copilot can transform a common scenario like invoice processing. Using a natural language prompt, Copilot quickly generates a workflow for managing invoice intake and approval. Users can iterate on the flow, ask for additional variants, and customize it as needed. Copilot’s ability to automate repetitive processes and generate functional experiences simplifies the automation of complex workflows.
Utilizing AI Builder for Document Analysis
Stephen showcases how AI Builder, integrated with Copilot, can extract data from incoming invoices. The AI model can process the invoice content, extract relevant information, and generate comprehensive email notifications. This streamlines the approval process and eliminates the need for manual data entry.
Accelerating App Development with Copilot
Copilot’s capabilities extend to app development in Power Apps. Stephen demonstrates how Copilot assists in creating apps based on existing Excel files. By uploading the file to Power Apps Studio, Copilot processes the data, determines column headings and data types, and generates a working app. The AI also assists in customizing the app, making changes based on prompts provided by the user.
Creating Websites with Power Pages and Copilot
Stephen shows how Copilot can be used in conjunction with Power Pages to build professional websites quickly. By providing prompts, Copilot generates HTML, CSS, and relevant images for different sections of the webpage. This accelerates the website creation process, allowing users to focus on content customization.
Enhancing User Experiences with Power Virtual Agents
Power Virtual Agents integration with Power Pages enables the addition of intelligent chatbots to websites. Stephen demonstrates how a bot can be easily added to a website using Power Virtual Agents. The chatbot, powered by OpenAI’s GPT, can provide generative answers to user questions, search the website for relevant information, and engage in multi-turn conversations. The integration ensures that site visitors can find the information they need quickly and effortlessly.
Conclusion
The fusion of AI and Copilot with Microsoft’s Power Platform opens up new possibilities for automation, app development, and user experiences. With AI-assisted workflow generation, app building, webpage creation, and chatbot integration, users can achieve their goals more efficiently, even without extensive coding knowledge. The Power Platform’s latest updates empower users to leverage AI technologies, making the development process faster, more intuitive, and highly productive.
Learning Resources
Bring AI to your business with AI Builder – Training | Microsoft Learn
Improve business performance with AI Builder – Training | Microsoft Learn
Create bots with Power Virtual Agents – Training | Microsoft Learn
Get started with Power Pages – Training | Microsoft Learn
by Contributed | May 26, 2023 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Blog Banner
At Microsoft Build, 50 updates were announced and among those updates were Power Platform announcements in which we will look at one of them today. Learn how to use the Excel to App with Copilot feature which enables you to take advantage of Copilot to add data processing capabilities by helping you clean and prepare your data before you even start building the app. Copilot can now ingest any Excel file, no matter how loosely structured and create robust structured tables with a variety of data types.
Find out more about Microsoft Build announcements on the Microsoft Build 2023 Book of News
Earn a free certification voucher by completing at least one Cloud Skills Challenge from the Microsoft Build Cloud Skills Challenge
Excel to App
Students, rising developers and pro-developers can rapidly build solutions in PowerApps by simply dragging and dropping or linking to a data source like Excel, and then build the UI on top of that data.
Things to consider
- You can import your excel file as it is and PowerApps will create a Custom Dataverse Table and a Canvas App for you.
- You do not need to format your table within excel (example you do not have to use Format as a Table within your spreadsheet)
- Your Canvas App and Dataverse table will be built based on the first sheet of your Excel Spreadsheet.
- The excel file needs to be closed when importing within PowerApps
Short Demo
Animation showing a short demo of the Excel to App feature with Copilot in PowerApps
Practical steps to follow
- Prepare your excel file to use or create a new one.
- Go to PowerApps and Sign in with your account.
- On the homepage, click on Start with data
- On the Start with data wizard, choose and click on Upload an Excel file.
- Click on Select from device button then choose your excel file your device.
- You will get a preview of your Dataverse custom table that will be created for you. You will be able to edit the table by clicking on Edit Table Properties to change the Table name.
- The columns of your table are assigned to their appropriate data types and you have the ability to change/edit the column by clicking on the drop down next to the column and click on Edit Column. Once done, you can click on Create app
- Once you have clicked on Create app, Copilot will build a Canvas App with a Standard template that you can modify based on your needs.
Let’s Add more AI capabilities with Copilot
- Within your app, click on Settings then choose Upcoming Features
- Search for Copilot and toggle it to enable it. Once enabled close the dialog box.
- Once your Copilot Component is enabled, click on Insert and choose Copilot (preview)
- Once the Copilot Component is added on the screen, you will need to choose/select the your Datasource.
- Once you have chosen your Datasource, the full Copilot Component is added to your app. This allows your app users to use Copilot to understand and analyze their data using suggested prompts.
- Play the app and see Copilot in action. Choose one of the suggested prompts, for example on the picture below I want to know how many tickets are open.
Congratulations! You did it, you built a Canvas app from your excel file using Copilot!
by Contributed | May 26, 2023 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
This article describes how to perform a REST API request in Azure using RBAC authentication with Postman. I will use as example the Get Blob (REST API) request.
Please see below how to perform a REST API request in Azure using RBAC authentication:
- Open the Azure Portal and go to Azure Active Directory.
- On left side, please create a new App registration by clicking on App registration (left side bar) and then New registration. Fill in the Name and all the information required.
- Inside the new app:
- Click on Overview and and collect the Application (client) ID value, and the Directory (tenant) ID value.
- Clink on Certificates & secrets and create a New Client Secret. Please collect the client secret value.
- Open your storage account and go to Access Control (IAM) and assign to this App the RBAC role required to call any data access operation in Azure Storage. Please note the role assignment could take some time to take effect.
- For the example presented here (Get Blob request), we need to assign to the app need the following permission “Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/read“. The Storage Blob Data Reader RBAC role is the least privileged built-in role with this permission. This information can be found here: Get Blob (REST API) – Azure Storage
- Open Postman and:
- Create a new request.
- Select the Authorization tab in the request builder window and:
- In the “Type” dropdown, select “OAuth 2.0”
- On the right side, please fill in the following fields:
- Token Name: A name of your choosing
- Grant Type: Client Credentials
- Access Token URL: https://login.microsoftonline.com//oauth2/v2.0/token where is the Directory (tenant) ID value collected on step 3.1 above.
- Client ID: The Application (client) ID value collected on step 3.1 above.
- Client Secret: The client secret value collected on step 3.2 above.
- Scope: For storage, use https://storage.azure.com/.default
- Client Authentication: Send as Basic Auth Header.
- Click in “Get New Access Token” and collect the Access Token.
- To be able to execute the get blob request, we need to select the Headers tab in the request builder window and:
- Select the GET method request.
- Add the GET method request URI (https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myblob)
- Add the header “Authorization“ with the value “Bearer <token>” where <token> is the value generated on the step 5.2.7 above.
- Add at least the two required headers x-ms-date and x-ms-version.
- Execute the request.
Disclaimer:
- These steps are provided for the purpose of illustration only.
- These steps and any related information are provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.
- We grant You a nonexclusive, royalty-free right to use and modify the Steps and to reproduce and distribute the steps, provided that. You agree:
- to not use Our name, logo, or trademarks to market Your software product in which the steps are embedded;
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- to indemnify, hold harmless, and defend Us and Our suppliers from and against any claims or lawsuits, including attorneys’ fees, that arise or result from the use or distribution of steps.
by Contributed | May 25, 2023 | Technology
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Today, we faced a service request where our customer got the following issue Msg 9002, Level 17, State 2, Line 8
The transaction log for database ‘2d7c3f5a-XXXX-XZY-ZZZ-XXX’ is full due to ‘REPLICATION’ and the holdup lsn is (194XXX:24X:1). Following I would like to share with you what was the lesson learned here.
We need to pay attention about the phrase “is full due to”, in this case is REPLICATION that means that could be related about Transaction Replication or Change Data Capture (CDC).
In order to determine the situation, if we are not using Transaction Replication is to review if CDC is enabled running the following query: select name,recovery_model,log_reuse_wait,log_reuse_wait_desc,is_cdc_enabled,* from sys.databases where database_id=db_id() – sys.databases (Transact-SQL) – SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
If the value of the column is_cdc_enabled is 1 and you are not using CDC, use the command sys.sp_cdc_disable_db to disable the CDC job. sys.sp_cdc_disable_db (Transact-SQL) – SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
During the troubleshooting process during the execution of sys.sp_cdc_disable_db we got another error Msg 22831, Level 16, State 1, Procedure sys.sp_cdc_disable_db_internal, Line 338 [Batch Start Line 6]
Could not update the metadata that indicates database XYZ is not enabled for Change Data Capture. The failure occurred when executing the command ‘(null)’. The error returned was 9002: ‘The transaction log for database ‘xxx-XXX-43bffef44d0c’ is full due to ‘REPLICATION’ and the holdup lsn is (51XYZ:219:1).’. Use the action and error to determine the cause of the failure and resubmit the request.
In this situation, we need to add more space to the transaction log file due there is not possible to register the disabling CDC operation in the transaction log.
Once, we have more space in our transaction log, we were able to disable CDC and after disabling CDC, Azure SQL Database was able to marked as backup the Transaction Log.
Finally, in order to try to speed up the truncation of this transaction log we executed several times the command DBCC SHRINKFILE (Transact-SQL) – SQL Server | Microsoft Learn and we were able to reduce the file size of the transaction log file.
Also, during the troubleshooting we used the following to see how many VLFs that we have and the space usage: sys.dm_db_log_info (Transact-SQL) – SQL Server | Microsoft Learn and sys.database_recovery_status (Transact-SQL) – SQL Server | Microsoft Learn
SELECT * FROM sys.dm_db_log_info(db_id()) AS l
select * from sys.database_recovery_status where database_id=db_id()
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