Microsoft Copilot presents an opportunity to reimagine the way we work—turning natural language into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet. With AI, organizations can unearth value in the mountain of data across productivity tools like Microsoft 365 and business applications.

To this end, earlier this year, we introduced Microsoft Copilot for Dynamics 365, the world’s first AI copilot natively built for CRM and ERP. Since then, more than 130,000 organizations have experienced copilot capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform firsthand. In fact, a survey revealed that 70 percent of the Copilot users were more productive, 73 percent could complete tasks faster, and 68 percent of users improved the quality of their work.

Organizations, however, depend on a range of business applications across roles and functions, from customer relationship management (CRM) systems for marketing, sales, and service roles to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for finance, supply chain, and operations departments. At Microsoft Ignite, we are announcing new Microsoft Copilot experiences that empower organizations to unlock value from a multitude of systems of record. In conjunction with these copilot experiences, we are announcing new and updated copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 applications.

Microsoft Ignite 2023

Access recordings of keynotes and sessions, including opportunities to learn about the copilot capabilities announced.

Get on-demand access

Announcements include:

• Updates to Copilot for Dynamics 365 to drive efficiency across the organization, featuring capabilities that help marketing, sales, and field service professionals provide exceptional customer experiences.
• Introduction of Microsoft Copilot for Service and Microsoft Copilot for Sales, the evolution of Sales Copilot, bringing together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 with role-specific insights and actions. Both provide flexibility to integrate with an organization’s existing contact center and CRM systems respectively. 

Together, these capabilities empower organizations to harness secure and enterprise-ready, generative AI experiences, helping employees to perform at their highest potential across every role and function. 

Reimagine ways to drive efficiency across the organization with Copilot for Dynamics 365

We’re introducing new and enhanced copilot capabilities for Dynamics 365 that help marketers, sellers, and field service professionals elevate customer experiences.

The following Copilot updates are in addition to recently-announced copilot and demand planning capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, as well as the 2023 release wave 2 for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, a six-month rollout of new and enhanced capabilities scheduled for release between October 2023 and March 2024.

Copilot delivers answers and information to field service workers in a chat-based conversation

Field service workers depend on quick access to a variety of customer and technical information precisely at the moment it is needed. A recent survey by Microsoft highlighted that not being able to easily find the information they need ranks in the top five disruptive issues faced by frontline workers in their current day-to-day role.¹ This can significantly affect key performance indicators such as first-time fix rates, customer satisfaction, and retention.

We’re introducing AI-powered experiences for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service, available for preview in December, that enable frontline workers to quickly access information on a job site by asking questions in conversational language, directly within Teams.

We’re also announcing the general availability of AI-assisted work order creation and technician scheduling, and the public preview of financial and inventory data flow between Dynamics 365 Field Service and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Additionally, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist are available at no additional cost.

Explore the full set of updates to Dynamics 365 Field Service.

Reimagining CRM systems with natural language experiences

The innovation and scale of Copilot have established Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales as an innovative leader in sales technology, as recognized by Gartner and Forrester. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales enhances seller productivity and effectiveness in their flow of work, enabling them to automate the sales processes and make informed decisions with AI-powered insights and actions. Copilot features help sellers save time, boost productivity, and eliminate mundane workloads to maintain focus on connecting with customers and closing deals.

We’re announcing new copilot experiences in Dynamics 365 Sales that allow sellers to interact with their data using natural language.  

Now in preview, sellers can use their own words to get contextual insights and recommendations for leads and opportunities.

In addition, Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales has a new full-screen view where sellers can use natural language or prebuilt prompts to gain a quick understanding of customers, deals, meetings, forecasts, and more. The feature is now available in Asia and Europe and will be available in North America in December.

Deliver more personalized customer experiences with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

New capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights provide a deeper understanding of target customers and segments, helping to hyper-personalize campaign content and improve engagement.

Available for preview in December, sellers can use Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to instantly generate a customer profile summary—including demographic, transactional, behavioral, and analytics data—to uncover key insights on customers. The capability is available for organizations that have both Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise or Premium subscriptions.  

We continue to build capabilities that enable a seamless handoff from marketing to sellers. Now in preview, marketers can qualify their leads using metrics such as engagement scores, ensuring marketing and sales teams maximize the opportunity pipeline and improve win rates.  

Adding to our growing ecosystem, we’re announcing a unique partnership with Optimizely. In preview this December, organizations can use the segments and journeys built in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights directly within Optimizely. This enables Optimizely users to build personalized campaigns in real time without writing any code. Through bi-directional integrations, organizations can deliver hyper-personalized omnichannel experiences across web, social, email, and offline channels.

Bring together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 and business insights and actions

Most organizations depend on a range of applications to manage the business, including CRM, ERP, and supply chain management systems. Integrating innovative technology, like generative AI, into these systems can be challenging—especially when security, privacy, and compliance are a top priority.

Responding to this need, we’re introducing a new category of Microsoft Copilot solutions that tap into data from various applications—including Microsoft 365 and third-party systems of record—to bring a new level of efficiency and automation to business functions across the organization. 

Modernize the contact center with Microsoft Copilot for Service

In a recent Microsoft survey, it was revealed that three out of four customer service agents feel less inspired and motivated by their work. With insufficient focus time, over half of them are struggling to deliver exceptional customer service and efficiently address customer issues.¹ The surveyed agents express confidence that AI can positively impact their performance, as well as provide, analytical insights, including trend and sentiment analysis. 

We’re meeting the needs of service agents with a Microsoft Copilot solution that integrates generative AI capabilities into the tools and processes that they depend on every day. Microsoft Copilot for Service integrates an organization’s trusted knowledge with the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 to boost agent productivity in the tools they already use every day, such as Outlook and Teams; providing AI-guided answers and resources personalized for each customer issue and conversation. 

Microsoft Copilot for Service provides the flexibility to integrate with an organization’s existing CRM and contact center systems. Organizations can train Microsoft Copilot for Service using trusted websites, knowledgebase articles, files, and other critical data sources from their existing contact center to unlock generative AI-powered guidance across all of their data. Microsoft Copilot for Service provides out-of-the-box integrations with Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk, and can be extended to other systems through a vast array of more than 1,100 prebuilt and custom connectors.

Copilot for Service can be further customized with Microsoft Copilot Studio, also announced at Microsoft Ignite 2023. With Copilot Studio, service teams can fine-tune copilot experiences by incorporating their own data, logic, and actions tailored for specific scenarios, frequent conversations, or other unique use cases.

Copilot for Service will be available in public preview in early December and generally available in early 2024. Pricing is USD50 per user per month. Learn more about Microsoft Copilot for Service.

Unlock sales productivity in the flow of work

Microsoft Copilot for Sales is the evolution of Sales Copilot, used by leading brands including 10,000 sellers within the Microsoft sales team. A recent survey revealed that 83 percent of Microsoft sellers claim that Microsoft Copilot for Sales helps them improve productivity, with sellers saving an average of 90 minutes per week.¹ Read our ebook on the AI advantage for sellers for details. 

Copilot for Sales brings together the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 in seller workflows, using customer data within the CRM system they already use, along with information in documents, email, and chats from Microsoft 365 applications.

The innovations enabled in Copilot for Sales include a newly integrated experience with Microsoft Word and Teams. Sellers can prompt Copilot to create a meeting preparation brief in Word, automatically populated with customer information such as an account and opportunity summary, names and titles of meeting participants, pending tasks, and highlights from recent meetings and email threads. In addition, meeting recaps in Microsoft Teams can surface action items and tasks, key performance indicators (KPIs), and sales keywords mentioned. These experiences help sellers save time and energy, generate innovative ideas, build stronger customer relationships, and ultimately close more deals.

Like Copilot for Service, sellers can customize AI-assisted sales processes with Copilot Studio, bringing tailored experiences informed by their own data, logic, and actions for specific scenarios.

Copilot for Sales² will be available in the first quarter of 2024 for USD50 per user per month.

Learn more at Microsoft Ignite

Register for Microsoft Ignite to access on-demand recordings of keynotes and sessions, including opportunities to learn about the copilot capabilities announced. You have the opportunity to engage with the global community online, regardless of your location, and participate in live discussions at no cost. To get started, we recommend the following sessions: 

• Becoming an AI-powered organization with Microsoft Copilot (keynote, in-person and online)
• Transform customer experience with Dynamics 365 and next-generation AI (breakout, in-person and online)
• Transforming service organizations with generative AI (breakout, in-person and online)
• ERP in the era of AI: A new face of business efficiency and agility (breakout, in-person and online)

In addition, learn more about what’s possible with Copilot for Dynamics 365 and get started on your journey today. 

¹ Microsoft 2023 Work Trend Index survey

² Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise and Premium customers will retain rights to capabilities in Sales Copilot. As today’s news demonstrates, copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 Sales will continue to innovate. To get the full value of the new Copilot for Sales, including access to Copilot for Microsoft 365, customers will work with their Microsoft account representative to upgrade.

The post Introducing new Copilot experiences to boost productivity and elevate customer experiences across the organization  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Over the past six months we’ve outlined our vision for the evolution of Microsoft’s portfolio targeting customer service and related markets, beginning with the introduction of Copilot for Microsoft Dynamics 365 as the world’s first Copilot for both CRM and ERP, and more recently reaching the general availability of Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service. In this blog, we will discuss the opportunity for organizations to delight their customers with generative AI-powered service experiences and explain some of the new innovations we’re announcing to make it a reality. 

Generative AI is transforming customer service 

Customers expect fast, personalized service at every touchpoint. Effective customer service strategies not only delight customers, but also build long-term loyalty, create efficiencies and ultimately grow the business. The stakes are high, yet access to relevant data and the right technology tools continues to be the greatest barrier for agents seeking to resolve customer issues. 

Generative AI is transforming customer service by boosting agent productivity and unlocking organizational efficiency. For example, Microsoft’s Customer Service and Support (CSS) team—one of the largest customer service organizations in the world—has been using Copilot capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service for the past six months. We recently shared findings demonstrating how generative AI has impacted the way our CSS agents work to resolve support cases, as well as their efficiency in customer engagements and overall productivity in areas like reducing average case handling time by 12 percent, increasing the ability for agents to independently resolve cases (13 percent of cases in one support business), and more. 

Introducing Microsoft Copilot for Service 

Today we’re taking the next step in our journey to help organizations deliver compelling service experiences by modernizing their existing contact centers with generative AI—introducing Microsoft Copilot for Service. Copilot for Service synthesizes vast amounts of data already available from an organization’s trusted knowledge sources to provide relevant, timely guidance to agents in their flow of work. Copilot for Service provides flexibility for organizations to quickly begin realizing the benefits of generative AI by extending their existing investments in CRM and contact center solutions—including Dynamics 365, Salesforce, ServiceNow and more.   

Connect to existing contact center and CRM solutions  

Without costly development time or rip and replace efforts, organizations can simply point to their data—such as public websites, SharePoint, knowledgebase articles, and offline files—and in a few minutes unlock generative AI-powered conversations across all of their data. Copilot for Service reduces time to production with out-of-the-box integrations for Dynamics 365, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk. 

Assist agents in the flow of work 

Copilot for Service accelerates agent onboarding and case resolution, improves efficiency, and automates tasks to help free agents to focus on customers. Embedded in their desktop of choice or deployed in Teams, agents can simply ask the generative AI-powered Copilot questions in natural language to receive relevant answers that leverage existing contact center knowledge to enhance agent productivity and customer satisfaction.  

Since Copilot for Microsoft 365 is included in Copilot for Service, organizations will also benefit more broadly from productivity enhancements in the tools agents already use every day, such as Outlook and Teams. For example, Copilot can quickly bring agents up to speed on email threads within Outlook by providing summaries, as well as accelerate responses to customers by providing draft emails. In Teams, agents can stay on top of meetings with customers or subject matter experts by viewing AI-powered meeting recaps with summaries of key discussion points, sentiment, and next steps. Furthermore, agents can use Copilot to get the latest account and case information from CRM systems. 

In the future, Copilot for Service will make agents even more productive by enriching email summaries, email drafts, and meeting recaps with CRM data. It will not only provide them the ability to view/update CRM records directly in Outlook and Teams in their flow of work, but also automate CRM tasks such as case wrap ups, meeting scheduling, adding new contacts, and task follow up—all with a single click based on context from emails, knowledge sources, and previous customer communications, comparable to the agent assist capabilities that are part of Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service. 

Copilot for Service will also make proactive recommendations for creating new or updating existing knowledge assets by curating information across email threads, cases, Teams chats and more. These updated knowledge bases will in turn benefit an organization’s broad set of agents as they seek to accelerate the resolution of customer issues, as well as knowledge workers in other roles by providing a full 360 degree view of the customer (inclusive of cases, recent activities, knowledge sources, and other information) from the CRM systems—all in their flow of work via Outlook and Teams.  

Customize and extend to meet your needs 

Copilot for Service enables extensibility with Microsoft Copilot Studio. Add additional topics, automate actions and workflows, and further customize for a uniquely tailored solution. Additionally, Copilot for Service can be extended to other systems with more than 1,100 pre-built and custom connectors that eliminate the need for expensive IT integration work. 

Copilot for Service availability and pricing 

Copilot for Service will be available in public preview in early December. General availability is targeted for the first quarter of 2024. Pricing will be $50 USD per user/month. 

Learn more about Copilot for Microsoft 365 licensing requirements. 

For Dynamics 365 customers, comparable agent assist capabilities are included in Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise. Learn more about Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service.  

Learn more 

Join us during Microsoft Ignite to learn more: 

• Becoming an AI-Powered Organization with Microsoft Copilot (Keynote, in-person and online) 
• Transforming service organizations with generative AI (Breakout, in-person and online) 

The post Announcing Microsoft Copilot for Service  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Service professionals on the frontline rely on having nearly-instant access to a range of customer and technical information at the moment it’s needed. However, data from Microsoft’s 2023 Work Trend Index Annual Report[1] reveals not being able to easily find the information they need ranks in the top 5 most disruptive issues faced by frontline workers in their current day-to-day role. This can have a serious impact on KPIs, such as first-time fix rates and customer satisfaction and retention.

Today, we are introducing new AI-powered experiences for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service that give frontline workers a faster way to access information on a job site—by asking questions and stating what they need in conversational language. We’re also announcing the general availability of streamlined, AI-assisted work order creation and technician scheduling; the availability of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist at no additional cost; and the public preview of financial and inventory data flow between Dynamics 365 Field Service and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management.

Boosting Technician Productivity with Next-Generation AI

In public preview beginning December 2023, frontline workers can access key work order information by asking Copilot questions within Microsoft Teams. They can simply state what they need using natural language to receive specific information related to their work orders in Dynamics 365 Field Service including status updates, parts needed, or instructions to help them get the job done. Additionally, with the Dynamics 365 Field Service app in Teams becoming generally available in December 2023, frontline workers can not only view, but also edit their work orders directly within Teams. Ask your IT administrator to make work orders accessible at-a-glance for your frontline via the Microsoft Viva Connections home experience in Teams.

Earlier this year, we introduced a modern user experience in Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile to help frontline technicians easily access the key information they need on the go. We are now enhancing this experience with next-generation AI to further save valuable technician time. With the public preview of new capabilities for Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile in December 2023, frontline technicians can quickly get a summary of key points in a work order without having to navigate through a series of tabs. They can also swiftly make updates by simply speaking to Copilot and describing their progress. Copilot will provide suggestions to efficiently check off service tasks, add notes, and update product quantities as well as statuses, accelerating data-entry so technicians can focus on providing great customer service. To try it out, opt into the new Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile experience.

“From the incoming service request to the creation of the invoice – Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service is assisting in streamlining work and increasing productivity. In combination with the new Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile experience, it is reducing the administrative burden on the frontline workers tremendously.”
-Henk-Jan van de Beek, Global director Customer Experience at HSO Group

We are also pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with AI and mixed reality for frontline workers who need to be heads-up and hands-free. As demonstrated in the Microsoft Ignite keynote, Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides will revolutionize real world operations with the ability to point at a complex machine that needs service, and then engage in a back-and-forth dialogue about that asset. Copilot uses generative AI to search for information from technical documentation, service records, training content and other data sources that customers curate. Copilot will not only be able to suggest what to do next, but also show what to do by projecting holograms into the real world. We are excited to introduce this capability in private preview to a limited set of customers with Microsoft HoloLens 2 and roll it out more broadly to mobile users in the future.

Streamlining Manager Workflows with Next-Generation AI

Next-generation AI can not only help frontline managers accelerate time-consuming processes but also improve the accuracy of data entry. Introduced in preview earlier this year and becoming generally available in December 2023 for frontline managers, Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service Outlook add-in can streamline work order creation with relevant details pre-populated from emails. It can also optimize technician scheduling with data-driven recommendations based on factors such as travel time, availability, and skillset. Relevant work orders are surfaced within this experience for managers to review before creating new work orders and these can be easily rescheduled or updated as customer needs change. In addition organizations will be able to customize work orders for their frontline needs by adding new fields as well as renaming or rearranging existing fields. Copilot will also become generally available in December 2023 to assist frontline managers with work order scheduling in Microsoft Teams, saving time and effort to find the right worker for the job.

“Vixxo is excited about the potential AI has to transform our business processes and deliver better customer experiences. With Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service, we are discovering how to leverage AI in a secure and flexible way to enhance the efficiency of our service and field teams. This is only the start and we look forward to what’s next!”
– Jim McCarthy, Chief Technology and Supply Chain Officer at Vixxo 

A redesigned Dynamics 365 Field Service work order management experience is now generally available, featuring a simplified web experience that brings important information front and center. The experience not only offers concise information about the work order but also provides relevant next steps based on booking statuses and supports making quick updates inline or in a side panel to not lose context. Additionally, Copilot is available in preview within this experience to provide frontline managers intelligent recaps so they can stay up to date without having to navigate through all the information in a work order.

“Medxcel has previewed the new Dynamics 365 work order management experience and is excited to introduce it more broadly to facility managers, directors and coordinators. From enabling mass edits with infinite scrolling to providing quick visual references with color coding on priority and system status – the redesign offers several features to improve work efficiency.”
 – Sonali Atram, D365 Solutions Architect at Medxcel

Introducing Efficiencies With More Integrated Offerings

IDC reports field service is shifting from being reactive to more proactive, predictive, and prescriptive. This shift requires field service technicians to evolve and provide a new set of experiences for customers. More organizations are leveraging third-party technicians who may service multiple asset brands or newer technicians who have never seen a particular type of equipment. The entire workforce needs to be equipped with the tools to solve problems, and mixed reality capabilities can ensure that expertise is shared for the benefit of resolution and customer experience.[2]

Beginning December 2023, Dynamics 365 Field Service customers can get access to Dynamics 365 Guides and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist at no additional cost. Users can create guides to provide technicians with step-by-step instructions for key tasks and enable real-time collaboration with remote experts via mobile or HoloLens 2 devices when additional assistance is needed. Ask your IT administrator to install Guides and Remote Assist for your frontline technicians.

“The inability to find new talent hampers the growth potential for organizations. Technologies like Copilot are allowing people to see manufacturing jobs as innovative again and do a lot more with the same amount of people by helping them work smarter. Add to that field service solutions like Dynamics 365 Guides and Remote Assist and it really lowers the barrier for companies to recruit new talent into the workplace.”
– Tim Verpoorten, Go-To-Market & Business Development Director at 9altitudes

Beginning December 2023, customers can purchase Dynamics 365 Field Service Contractor to provide essential work order management functionality to external vendors, easing onboarding as they scale field service operations to meet demand. Learn more about this offering.

In public preview starting today, seamless financial and inventory data flow between Dynamics 365 Field Service and Dynamics 365 Finance as well as Supply Chain Management will help ensure the frontline and back office stay in sync. By syncing real-time price and cost information from work orders and automatically updating financial and inventory data as work orders are executed, this integration will reduce the effort required to connect these Dynamics 365 apps. Request your IT administrator to opt in today.
 
“We are thrilled about the new integration between Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Dynamics 365 Field Service. This out of the box process orchestration will help us standardize processes from both sides, reduce our time to value, and improve our business operations.”
– Dardan Imeri Northvolt, ERP Lead at Northvolt

Learn More

Tune in to the following Microsoft Ignite breakout sessions to learn more about AI-powered experiences in Dynamics 365 Field Service, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft’s mixed reality applications for your frontline workforce:

• Transforming service organizations with generative AI 
• Reimagine the frontline with next-generation AI and fast deployment 
• Unleashing the Potential of Industrials 

[1] The Work Trend Index survey was conducted by an independent research firm, Edelman Data x Intelligence, among 31,000 full-time employed or self-employed workers across 31 markets, 6,019 of which are frontline workers, between February 1, 2023, and March 14, 2023. This survey was 20 minutes in length and conducted online, in either the English language or translated into a local language across markets. One thousand full-time workers were surveyed in each market, and global results have been aggregated across all responses to provide an average. Each market is evenly weighted within the global average. Each market was sampled to be representative of the full-time workforce across age, gender, and region; each sample included a mix of work environments (in-person, remote vs. non-remote, office settings vs. non-office settings, etc.), industries, company sizes, tenures, and job levels. Markets surveyed include: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam.

[2] IDC Analyst Brief sponsored by Microsoft, Generative AI and Mixed Reality Power the Future of Field Service Resolution (Doc #US51300223), October 2023

The post Streamline Field Service Operations with new Copilot capabilities  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, effective communication is the key to success for any business. Apple Messages for Business (AMB) isn’t just for personal chats and emojis. It can also be a powerful tool for businesses to streamline communication, enhance customer engagement, and drive growth. With Dynamics 365 Customer Service, you can use AMB to expand your consumer reach, reduce costs, and provide a seamless experience for both businesses and customers. In this blog post, we’ll delve into some compelling benefits and best practices to help you harness the full potential of AMB in your Customer Service organization. 

Expand your global reach to mobile users

Apple’s ubiquity is one of its most significant advantages. With over 2 billion active devices worldwide, AMB provides a unique platform to tap into a global audience. Whether your business operates locally or has a worldwide presence, leveraging AMB ensures that you can reach your audience wherever they are, without the limitations of geographical boundaries. 

Drive customer engagement with multiple entry points 

Apple Messages for Business offers a multitude of entry points for customer engagement. Customers can initiate conversations by searching for your company in Apple Maps, Safari, or Search and simply tapping the Messages icon. Additionally, integrating a messaging link into your website, app, or other touchpoints makes it convenient for customers to start a conversation. These diverse entry points cater to different customer preferences, ensuring that you’re meeting them where they are most comfortable. 

Deflect calls with Apple’s Message Suggest 

An ingenious feature that can significantly benefit businesses is Apple’s Message Suggest. When your business registers a phone number with Apple, Message Suggest proactively presents the option to chat when users attempt to call your business via Safari, Maps, Siri, or Search. By offering a messaging alternative, Message Suggest helps deflect voice calls to text-based messaging, reducing costs associated with voice support. This shift toward messaging can also enhance customer experience, as it aligns with modern communication preferences. 

Provide enhanced mobile customer experiences using rich messages 

The Apple Messages for Business channel offers support for a wide range of rich messages. This synergy leads to enriched customer experiences, fostering loyalty and increasing customer lifetime value. Utilizing rich messages in Dynamics 365 Customer Service offers customers the ability to tap more and type less. This approach simplifies customer interactions, enabling users to access information and resolve issues with fewer keystrokes.  

Advanced message routing 

Apple Messages for Business allows businesses to fine-tune message routing using intent and group IDs. This advanced routing capability ensures that messages are directed to the right team, streamlining communication and improving response times. This level of customization enables businesses to tailor their messaging strategy to meet specific needs, further enhancing the customer experience. 

In conclusion, by implementing these best practices and leveraging the unique benefits of AMB, your business can stay ahead of the curve in the competitive world of modern communication. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with your audience in a way that aligns with their preferences and expectations. Start harnessing the power of AMB in your organization today. 

Better together

As a digital channel, the addition of Apple Messages for Business expands and unifies the core omnichannel capabilities of Dynamics 365 Customer Service with a configurable, high-productivity interface. It provides contextual customer identification, real-time notifications, integrated communications, and agent productivity tools, including rich messages, knowledge base integration, and search. Apple Messages for Business helps deliver more innovation and opportunities to your digital contact center to empower you to continually exceed customer expectations.

Learn more 

Watch a quick video demonstration.

To learn more about Apple Messages for Business, read the documentation: Configure an Apple Messages for Business channel | Microsoft Learn 

Try Customer Service with Generative AI | Microsoft Dynamics 365 and discover the difference it can make for your business! 

The post Boost customer engagement with Apple Messages for Business  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Sellers need to navigate large amounts of information to better engage with customers. It’s imperative that they can do that with ease. With the world becoming much more technology aware, sales people expect the business applications they use to be as easy to engage as an app they use in their personal life. 

Well, we have some good news for you: the modern, refreshed look for model-driven apps is now generally available! 

The modern update is a new design option that gives your model-driven apps such as Dynamics 365 Sales a sleek and modern appearance, with improved readability, accessibility, and usability. It also aligns with the Fluent Design System, Microsoft’s design language for creating harmonious and engaging experiences across devices and platforms. 

The features and benefits of the modern update include: 

• Updated read-only style with a lock icon to indicate non-editable fields. 
• Updated option set, date time, and duration fields with new Fluent drop-down and combo box controls. 
• Updated dashboards with a new command bar and integrated sub grids that use the new Power Apps grid control. 
• Customizable app header colors to match your organizational branding. 
• A new feature toggle in the header that lets end users try the new look and switch back at any time. 

We understand that each organization has its own nuances and may need more control over the look and feel of the application. They also need added flexibility to switch between different styles according to preference. The modern update is an opt-in feature that does not affect your existing apps or customizations. You can try the new look, by turning on the toggle in the top header bar. 

As soon as you do that, your app will convert into the new look. You can go back to the classic look by turning off the toggle. 

We plan to make the new look as default experiences in the upcoming releases. As we are constantly improving the system based on your input and suggestions, please share your feedback with us.

You can read more about these changes in this blog from the PowerApps team: Modern, refreshed look for model-driven apps is generally available (GA) | Microsoft Power Apps 

Next steps:

Learn more about the modern look: Modern, refreshed look for model-driven apps – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn. 

Not yet a Dynamics 365 Sales customer? Take a tour and start your free trial today. 

The post Refresh the Sales experience with Dynamics 365 Sales modern update appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Advanced Configuration

In this final part of the Field Service Mobile offline blog series, we will discuss some of the more advanced configuration and recommendations for IT pros and partners to get the most out of their offline application. 

Learn more about the offline user experience in Part 1

Learn more about best practices and configuration in Part 2

Limit relationships to avoid slow-running data queries. 

In addition to limiting data being downloaded, it is also important to limit the complexity of expensive SQL queries that are run to fetch that data. Gains realized by reducing data can be offset by complex queries which take longer run on the server. The following best practices can be considered when defining relationships: 

• If your data model includes several levels of relationships generating multiple joins across tables, consider using simple filters like ‘all records’; it can be faster to download more data up front as part of the one-time initial sync so more frequent delta syncs will be faster without the complex queries.
• If using time-based filters to reduce records, it is recommended to use time ranges with fixed boundaries. For the most efficient sync experience, you could include fixed time window of last month, current month and next month. If requiring more dynamic time-based filtering, filter using Created on in the last N-days. Using these filtering techniques will help support downloading only recent, relevant data for the Frontline Worker. 
• Avoid using both custom data filters and selecting relationships on the same table. This will result in complex queries impacting performance.

NOTE: Be aware that using a custom filter creates an OR with relationships, and each relationship creates as an OR as well.

• Avoid self-joins, where a table is making a circular reference with the same table within customer filters. 
• If using time-based calendar items that result in downloading many related records and files, consider reducing that time window to reduce total data download

Leveraging ODATA to view Offline Profile configuration. 

Makers may be able to better evaluate joins and complexity of their offline profile by viewing those joins directly via API. The following APIs can be used to view details of the offline profile. 

OData call used to return JSON of the mobile offline profile showing profile filters.

This is the fetch xml for offline profile items for any entity within the profile. This could be used to inspect the complexity and relationships. 

NOTE: For the snippets below

• {orgurl} is your CRM organization URL 
• {profileID} is the GUID for your mobile offline profile 
• {entityname} the logical name of your entity 
• {entitysetname} is the plural name you assign for your entity (must be lower case) 
• {fetchXml}: Return value from your get filter ODATA call 

To get started you can locate your profile id leveraging:

https://{orgurl}/api/data/v9.0/mobileofflineprofiles?$select=name,mobileprofileid

To fetch the profile items and filters: 

https://{orgurl}/api/data/v9.0/mobileofflineprofileitemfilters?$filter=_mobileofflineprofileid_value eq ‘{profileID}’ and returnedtypecode eq '{entityname}' and type eq 2&$select=fetchXml,returnedtypecode 

To get the ODATA to test FetchXML for an entity you are including in your profile:

https://{orgurl}/api/data/v9.1/{entitysetname}?fetchXml={fetchXml} 

OData call to find the number of users assigned to a profile.

NOTE: This does not apply to role-based access to profile/apps

https://{orgurl}api/data/v9.0/usermobileofflineprofilememberships?$filter=_mobileofflineprofileid_value eq {profileID}&$count=true 

Understanding Application data & schema changes and their impact on Offline Sync 

The offline sync client uses Dataverse change tracking to find updated records to download. Even a minor change to one column will trigger the re-download of the entire record. Watch out for processes that automatically update many records on a frequent basis as this will lead to longer synchronization times. 

Similarly, when the schema of a data table changes, the offline sync client will re-download records in that table to ensure that no data is missed. Whenever possible, avoid schema changes to offline-enabled tables. When schema changes are required, group them together in a single release or solution update so that data is only re-downloaded for each table one time. 

Leverage “online light up” for edge cases, or scenarios that may not require offline access. 

There are some scenarios where offline access may not be necessary. An example of this may be iOT data which is only a live feed from a connected device that is only accessible online.  

In these cases, you can include that table as part of the user experience in the application, but not include it in the mobile offline profile. By doing so, the views for that table will be accessible to the Field Service Mobile users only when the network is available. 

Leveraging online light up for online-only scenarios helps to reduce data which would otherwise need to be synchronized to the device. It is a great way to meet business needs for uncommon or edge-case scenarios without having to download more data for standard business scenarios that must function offline.  

For standard out of the box forms and views this works without additional logic. When implementing customizations which are intended to be online-only, please refer to Xrm.WebApi (Client API reference) in model-driven apps – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn

Conclusion

This concludes our 3-part blog series on getting the best of your Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile application setup. If there are new enhancement suggestions, it is recommended to submit those asks via the Field Service Mobile Ideas portal: Field Service Mobile – Ideas. This will allow the product team to evaluate new requests and plan for future product release waves. 

And for more best practices, please refer to Platform Offline Best Practices for further offline guidance.  

The post Best Practices for Offline Mode in the Field Service mobile app – Part 3 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.