In Resource Scheduling Optimization, dispatchers can lock existing scheduled bookings to Resource, Time or Time Range, or Resource and Time based on their scheduling scenarios.

What are locked options and why are they needed?

Once a booking is created, a lock can be set on the Scheduling Lock Options field in the Resource Scheduling Optimization tab of the Bookable Resource Booking record.

There are 4 options:

• Lock to ‘Time Range’. A repair work order is scheduled for tomorrow and a confirmation sent to customer stating that a technician will be arriving between 9am to 12pm in the morning. In case if this repair work order needed to be rescheduled as part of rescheduling or re-optimization process, RSO will need to make sure estimated arrival time for this booking still between 9am to 12pm but may move this booking to other resource if needed in order to optimize global scheduling results.

• Lock to ‘Resource’. Sometimes, certain technicians manage work order requests for specific service accounts, in this case, dispatchers can configure technician as ‘Must choose from’ resource on Resource Requirement record before requirement gets fulfilled, or if the booking already created lock the booking to this resource. RSO will make sure to keep this booking assigned to the same resource but may move to another time in order to optimize global scheduling results.

• Lock to ‘Time’, similar like Lock to ‘Time Range’, instead of keeping the booking within a time window, RSO will make sure to keep the estimated arrival time for this booking at exact time but may move this booking to another resource if needed in order to optimize global scheduling results.

• Lock to ‘Resource and Time’: Sometimes, there are specific commitments with customers, which requires booking time or assigned technician to not change, with this lock option, RSO will NOT change this booking at all, it may recalculate estimated travel time based on prior booking changes.

How did RSO handle locked bookings before?

Before this changes, RSO administrators could select and rank ‘Locked booking’ objective on optimization goal, RSO will try to include locked bookings and optimize together with other bookings. When there are too many locked bookings in optimization scope, it reduces the flexibility of RSO system to generate optimal results. To improve global optimization results, RSO may decide to NOT include some locked bookings in the new proposed schedule, and since RSO will not delete locked bookings either, these locked bookings will be treated as ‘Ignored’. Dispatchers will end up seeing overlapping bookings on schedule board, or technician gets double booked which causes confusions and disruption.

For example, there are two requirements, Repair work (1 hour) and Install boiler (8 hours). We have one resource (Jeff) that works 8 hours per day. If you book repair work (1 hour) to the resource Jeff and lock that booking to Jeff, when RSO runs with the objective of maximizing total working hours, RSO decides to ignore the booking for Repair work (1 hour) and create another booking for Install boiler (8 hours) to maximize the total working hours. Since Repair work (1 hour) gets ignored from the final schedule and not being deleted, Jeff ends up being double booked.

Improved logic for locked bookings

With the improved logic for locked bookings shipped along RSO 3.4.0.8, RSO will ALWAYS include locked bookings in the new proposed schedules, and schedule other bookings around.

In the previous example for Jeff, RSO will make sure that booking for Repair work (1 hour) remains on the schedule, won’t create booking for Install boiler (8 hours) to avoid overlapping.

Excessive use of lock constraints may result in poor optimization of the final schedule. For example: Jeff has low utilization as there isn’t any other requirement can fit into the remaining hours.

Booking lock options should be used wisely to maximize Resource Scheduling Optimization results and minimize interference with other Resource Scheduling Optimization objectives.

Will RSO still respect locked bookings when locked bookings violate scheduling constraints?

Sometimes, dispatchers may lock a booking explicitly without being aware that the locked booking potentially violates certain scheduling constraints.

E,g: skill matching, a booking gets assigned to a technician who does not have the required skill. 

In this case, RSO will still respect locked bookings and make sure this locked booking is in the final schedule, as RSO respects user decision of the ‘locked booking’.  RSO shows a prompt: “Locked booking is infeasible, has invalid match of resource skill” to let the user decide in case they would like to correct manually and explicitly.

These are some of the new enhancements to allow efficiency in resource scheduling. Do review the detailed documentation on Universal Resource Scheduling for Dynamics 365 Field Service overview – Dynamics 365 Field Service | Microsoft Learn for further information.

The post Maximizing efficiency in Resource Scheduling: Prioritizing Locked Bookings appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

In today’s competitive business landscape, maximizing the value sellers derive from sales tools is paramount. One key aspect of achieving this is the ability for customers to customize Viva Sales forms, enabling them to have the right business information at the right time. This blog post explores how the latest Viva Sales update empowers administrators to add relevant out-of-the-box or custom entities to enhance the Viva Sales experience, so sellers can reduce context switching across applications and instead focus on building stronger relationships with their customers to close deals faster. 

We have integrated Viva Sales settings with the underlying CRM app, offering a more cohesive admin experience. When adding a new entity to Viva Sales, administrators now have the option to select an existing view from the CRM app to retrieve metadata information. This CRM view determines the fields to be shown, their order, filtering, and sorting definitions for Viva Sales forms and list views. 

Adding new entities to Viva Sales 

Viva Sales administrators can easily add entities from the Viva Sales settings. It’s important to note that only entities directly related to existing Viva Sales entities are available for selection. Additionally, administrators can control how the new entity is related to relevant existing Viva Sales entities. This influences its visibility in the Outlook side pane. For example, when admins add the Case entity, defining its relation to Contact and Accounts will determine how it displays in the main view and the detailed entities view within the Outlook side pane. Entities related to other entities will appear in the detailed view of their corresponding entities. For instance, adding the “Opportunity Product” entity will show the product list for a specific opportunity in the detailed view of opportunity records. 

Adding new entities through customization extends their availability across various Viva Sales experiences, including the Outlook side pane and the Teams message extension. This ensures that sellers can access and interact with the relevant information seamlessly within their preferred Viva Sales flow of work. 

Sellers have additional entities in the Viva Sales side pane and can click to see entity details and related entities. Sellers can also share any entity with their colleagues in Teams using an adaptive card. 

Keeping Viva Sales customization up to date 

When changes are made to the CRM entities exposed in Viva Sales it is important to refresh the Viva Sales settings area to reflect the update. These changes are not automatically refreshed and require action to keep a consistent experience across the applications.

Removing entities

Administrators have the flexibility to remove entities from Viva Sales. If an entity has related entities within Viva Sales, these related entities will be removed together with the main entity. This will happen unless they are still associated with other entities. Contact remains an exception and can’t be removed from Viva Sales. Removing entities doesn’t remove any data from Viva Sales or your CRM app. It only impacts the visibility of CRM data in the Viva Sales app. 

Saving Outlook emails and meetings to custom entities 

Empowering sellers with greater flexibility, the latest customize Viva Sales update enables saving Outlook emails and meeting activities to any Viva Sales out-of-the-box or custom entity. Sellers can now save activities to any entity that has been added to Viva Sales. Please note that today saving to custom entities is currently available exclusively for Dynamics 365 customers. 

The ability to customize Viva Sales forms plays a pivotal role in ensuring the information is highly relevant and impactful for the seller while keeping them working within the applications they prefer. The latest update allows Viva Sales administrators to:

• Effortlessly add new relevant custom and out-of-the-box entities.
• Leverage CRM views.
• Provide sellers with a tailored experience across various interfaces.

By keeping Viva Sales customization up to date and allowing for expanded options when saving Outlook activities, this update equips sellers with the tools they need to excel in their sales endeavors. Embrace the power of customization in Viva Sales and unlock a more efficient and personalized sales workflow. 

Next steps

Don’t have Viva Sales yet? get started now! Microsoft Viva Sales | Microsoft Viva 

Read the getting started guide to customize forms and fields 

The post Enhancing Seller Productivity: Customize Viva Sales Forms  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

With a growing alignment between customer service and brand loyalty, companies recognize the increasing complexity and consequence of the service relationship. Those looking to evolve service delivery have sought new tools and technologies to improve the experience for both the customer and the employee. This includes everything from omnichannel engagement to self-service, automation, and AI-enabled technologies that can assist agents in faster resolution and increase customer satisfaction.

But where should they start? To answer that question, Microsoft developed a service sophistication model that helps organizations assess their current service level and get guidance on evolving to the next level or beyond. Based on the aggregated responses from the assessment since its launch, we now have a white paper that highlights the key findings: Global State of Customer Service Sophistication: Leveling Up to Deliver a Modern Customer Service Experience.

Leveling up service is of interest across geography, industry, and size of organizations

Businesses across the board chose to participate in the assessment. About 65 percent of participants hailed from North America and Western Europe, followed by 26 percent from the Asia Pacific region. Financial services led the pack at 15 percent of respondents, followed by retail, healthcare, and the public sector at about 11 percent each. Businesses of various sizes expressed an interest in customer service needs, including about 20 percent from small businesses (less than 100 employees) and from 25 percent large enterprises (5,000 or more employees).

This illustrates that the interest in creating more robust customer experiences isn’t limited to a particular geography, organizational size, or industry.

A glimpse at how service organizations are looking to evolve

Modern customers expect ease and speed at every touch point; they want to interact with trained, knowledgeable staff who are empathetic to their needs. They want a seamless journey, a personalized approach that anticipates their needs, and they want to feel empowered through self-service options that give them control.

The white paper dives into how many of today’s organizations are looking to evolve their customer service and experience to satisfy these customer needs, with the assessment and guidance providing a solid foundation to start. Some of the key findings are as follows:

While voice still dominates as the primary channel for customer service, omnichannel engagement is making strides.

Manual routing for agent assistance is still the approach for a high percentage of companies; however, automated and AI-powered routing appears to be gaining ground.

While many organizations are working with only basic information, there appears to be a growing interest and trend toward more knowledge-based, holistic, and AI-assisted agent support. Many respondents are still manually generating insights from historic support data, illustrating an opportunity to move toward more automated AI-driven data analysis.

This is just an overview of the assessment findings, with the white paper providing additional details, as well as the implications of the results on customer service today and in the future. Overall, the assessment illustrates not only where the customer service level currently stands for many organizations, but also their commitment to and interest in evolving to take it to the next level and improving customer satisfaction—and in the digital tools that can help organizations reach those goals.

What organizations can do now to improve customer service operations in the future

The assessment responses noted above and further detailed in the white paper provide valuable insights on where organizations are excelling in customer service and where there is room to level up to a more sophisticated offering. That leveling up typically comes through the help of technology, with AI and automation poised to revolutionize the customer service experience.

Fortunately, this evolution doesn’t have to happen at one time. It’s more about embracing the need to create value for every interaction along the customer journey and finding the tools that can offer the connectivity and accessibility to help provide maximum engagement for customers. That digital transformation can begin by implementing small changes and applications with the potential to evolve into a cutting-edge service solution. It’s all about customizing capabilities to each individual business’ needs and making the right changes at the right times.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service can help organizations with this evolution by optimizing service operations, personalizing customer experiences, and increasing overall productivity. A holistic agent experience is the heart of Dynamics 365 Customer Service, which is designed for flexibility based on the organization’s unique business needs. It uses the latest technology, including AI and analytics, knowledge management, collaboration, and more, to streamline case management, enable personalized service with a 360-degree customer view, and provide visibility into how the service is performing.

Microsoft’s service sophistication model

Assess your organization’s current service level and get guidance on evolving to the next level.

Take the assessment

Together with the open and flexible Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform, service organizations can evolve at their pace and create the best experience for their customers.

Assess and evolve your organization’s customer service level

Access the complete Global State of Customer Service Sophistication: Leveling Up to Deliver a Modern Customer Service Experience white paper. Learn more about how your organization can build loyalty and deliver consistent, exceptional customer experiences. And if you haven’t done so already, take the service level assessment today.

The post A report on Global State of Customer Service Sophistication appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Introduction:

In this blogpost we are going to dive into the exciting features and capabilities of  2023 release wave 1  for the Warehouse Management module. Get ready for a sneak preview of the cutting-edge features that will revolutionize the implementation experience and streamline your warehouse operations.

In this release, we’re thrilled to showcase several major themes that will take your warehouse management to new heights. From label printing enhancements to a modernized user experience for setting up your warehouse, and even innovative methods for importing data while maintaining configuration, this release is packed with game-changing improvements.

Let’s dive in and uncover the possibilities that lie ahead in the world of warehouse management.

Warehouse groups

Warehouse groups are used to manage warehouses that all need the same configuration, such as wave templates, location directives and so on. Instead of adding configurations to individual warehouses, you create a warehouse group that applies the defined configuration to every warehouse of that group.

The setup is really easy: you create a group, include the warehouses that share the common configuration and then in the corresponding configuration you determine whether you would like to apply the settings for the specific warehouse, group or all warehouses.

One warehouse group can have an unlimited number of warehouses. The same warehouse can be included in different groups.

Benefits of this feature include:

• Easier warehouses setup that share the same configuration
• Adding new warehouses with an identical process in 1 click by adding new warehouse to existing group
• Quick access and review of the configuration: no need to create multiple identical configurations
• Simpler maintenance: less configuration records – easier maintenance

The following table lists the pages that support the warehouse group concept. It also shows the minimum version of Supply Chain Management that is required to apply warehouse groups.

To learn more about this feature, follow the link: Warehouse groups – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

Queries import/export in JSON format

In 10.0.32, a new set of data entities related to warehousing has been introduced. These data entities include an additional field that represents queries in the JSON format. This exciting feature allows you to conveniently review and edit queries through the data entities.

Here are some valuable use cases where this functionality can be particularly beneficial:

• Copying location directives across different work order types: Export the location directives with the queries to Excel, make necessary changes such as adjusting names, work order types, action names, and queries, and then import them back into the system.
• Replicating a complete warehouse setup with minor modifications: Export specific data entities, update names and warehouse information as needed, and then reimport them into a new warehouse configuration.
• Utilizing your own template for demos, pre-sales, and testing: Import your customized templates, including the queries, giving you the ability to seamlessly import them into the system.
• Accelerating the configuration process: If you prefer working in Excel, you can now speed up the configuration process by making changes in Excel and then importing the data back into the system.
• Exporting configuration for review with business users: Easily export the configuration for review and collaboration with your team, streamlining the review and approval process during implementations.
• Creating a test setup in a separate environment: Test and ensure that the configuration functions as desired in a test environment, and once confirmed, easily export it to create a Golden template. This simplifies the process of transferring configurations from a test system to a production-ready template.

Benefits of this feature include:

• Improved review and approval process for configurations during implementations.
• Efficient identification of configuration issues, saving time and reducing costs.
• Accelerated adjustment of configurations, allowing for quicker iterations and updates.

With the new Queries Import/Export feature in JSON format, managing and manipulating warehouse-related data has never been easier. Unlock the potential of streamlined configuration processes and optimize your warehouse operations.

Label printing enhancements

This is the summary of all label printing enhancements:

• 10.0.32. License plate label layout.  This feature let you build more advanced license plate label layouts. Now LP layouts can have repeating structures and include header, body, and footer elements. You can print information from the related tables and define custom date, time, and number formats. To learn more about this feature, follow this link: License plate label layouts and printing – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn
• 10.0.33 Custom label layouts. This feature introduces a new Custom label layout type that allows you to build layouts for any data sources. New Print button will be displayed automatically when layout exists for corresponding source. Users can print labels for any data including but not limited to Product labels, Location labels, Customer labels. To learn more about this feature, follow this link:

Custom label layouts and printing – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

• 10.0.34 Label printing using external label service solutions. This feature provides an effective solution for printing labels using any external labeling solutions. This feature allows direct interaction between Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and 3^rd party solutions by providing framework for communication using HTTP APIs, without the need for a the Document Routing Agent.  To learn more about this feature, follow this link: 
• Print labels using an external service – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

Warehouse Management Application Insights telemetry

• The 10.0.32 release supports additional events including wave processing, load posting and work creation.
• The 10.0.33 release supports additional events including wave creation and wave status change. Work creation history can be replaced by AppInsights for troubleshooting. No need to enable Work creation history to find out the root cause, the similar information can be found in the AppInsights. 

 To learn more about this feature, follow this link:  Monitor Warehouse Management usage and performance – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

Benefits of this feature include:

• Monitoring the performance of a system to generate actionable insights that can improve productivity and optimize users’ experience. 

Location directive and actions name editing

10.0.32 introduces a new ability to edit location directives and action names after saving. This highly anticipated feature empowers our customers to make changes to their configuration without the need to recreate entire location directives and actions. We understand the value of flexibility and efficiency, and this enhancement ensures that managing your location directives configuration becomes even more convenient and user-friendly.

This feature allows customers to adapt and fine-tune their configuration by simply editing names, without the burden of recreating complex directives and actions. By providing greater flexibility and ease of use, we strive to enhance your overall experience and enable you to optimize your warehouse operations more efficiently. Stay tuned for further updates as we continue to evolve our solutions to meet your evolving needs.

Self-healing rules

Additional validations and a new set of self-healing rules in the optimization advisor have been released in 10.0.33, making it easier to identify and correct the most common configuration errors. It includes:

• Location stocking limits and volumetrics optimization advisor rules
• Dead configuration optimization advisor rules
• Wave template optimization advisor rules

We strongly recommend running the optimization advisor after you configure the Warehouse management module to detect any missing or incorrect configurations.

Preview query results for the mobile device menu items

A new  feature released in 10.0.33 allows you to confirm the desired outcome of your queries, and helps you quickly identify issues with your query configurations for mobile device menu items.

By providing a streamlined and user-friendly preview capability, we aim to enhance your query management experience and ensure the smooth operation of your mobile device menu functionalities.

We are committed to providing intuitive and effective tools to enhance your troubleshooting experience, and this feature is another step towards achieving that goal.

Guided setup of the Warehouse management

Warehouse initiation wizard has been split into 2 separate wizard, to make the user experience even simpler:

• Inbound configuration wizard
• Outbound configuration wizard

Inbound configuration wizard adds a new option to create mobile device menu as part of the wizard.

Outbound configuration wizard adds a new capability to set up packing functionality as part of the wizard. 

Location directive – Filter by Warehouse

10.0.33 This feature introduces new filter by warehouse option to the location directive.

This new capability allows users to easily detect and filter location directives that are applicable to a selected warehouse. Whether it’s a location directive for all warehouses, a warehouse group, or a specific warehouse, this feature ensures that you can quickly identify the relevant directives specific to your warehouse operations. We understand the importance of efficient warehouse management, and this enhancement aims to streamline your processes and optimize your overall productivity.

Acceptance tests enhancements

This feature in 10.0.33 introduces new options for When/Then conditions. It enables more flexible and advance validation of the configuration.   It also includes considering replenishment configuration for the location directive.

 To learn more about this feature, follow this link:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/supply-chain/warehousing/location-directive-acceptance-tests#set-up-an-acceptance-test

X++Warehouse tests are available externally

In 10.0.34 businesses that extend the functionality now have the ability to achieve test coverage and easily validate for any potential regressions. This groundbreaking feature ensures that businesses can proactively avoid issues and data corruptions while significantly speeding up the implementation process and improving the accuracy of their extensions. It is important to have robust and reliable solutions, and this enhancement empowers businesses to ensure the seamless integration and operation of their extended functionality.

Spot cycle counting: Process Guide

With this improvement, customers can extend existing mobile Spot cycle counting process in X++ in a more efficient way. WhsWorkExecuteDisplaySpotCycleCounting has now been converted to Process Guide which make the extension easier, since this process is broken into small steps that can be easily extended

Conclusion

The 2023 release wave 1 for Warehouse Management introduces exciting features: warehouse groups for simplified configuration, JSON import/export for queries, enhanced label printing, telemetry for performance monitoring, self-healing rules, improved location directive editing, guided setup, acceptance tests, X++ warehouse tests, and a Process Guide for spot cycle counting. These updates revolutionize warehouse operations.

Do you want to know more about Supply Chain at Microsoft ?

Take a tour – Supply Chain Management | Microsoft Dynamics 365

We’re excited to launch Free Trial | Microsoft Supply Chain Center Preview ,  which harnesses generative AI to assist Supply Chain managers in real-time communication with suppliers regarding specific news

The post Accelerate Warehouse management implementation with new pain-free experience appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.