Introducing Copilot for the new Field Service mobile user experience 

Field Service mobile is a powerful application that helps frontline workers manage their tasks, access information, and communicate updates with the back office. But we know that sometimes, using an app can be cumbersome or distracting, especially when you are busy with your hands-on work. That’s why we are excited to announce Copilot for the Field Service mobile app, a new feature that makes Field Service mobile even more user-friendly and efficient. 

The new Field Service mobile (Preview) user interface has two Copilot skills that help to summarize and update work orders. Copilot update uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence to understand your input via text or voice command, then suggests form updates based on that input. While the Copilot summary provides the Frontline Worker a concise summary of their booking with the click of a button.  

Let’s learn more about these features and how they work. 

How Copilot Summarizes You Work 

Copilot Summarize provides a quick overview of the scheduled booking for the frontline worker. This gives frontline workers a better understanding of the job to be done without needing to click through multiple forms to find the information. Copilot will summarize a booking based on the following fields related to that booking:  

• Booking information 
• Activity details 
• Notes from the work order and bookings 
• Work order product details 
• Work order service details 
• Work order service tasks 
• Asset information and work order History 

Copilot work order summary is also available for the back office or from the web-based Field Service application. For more information please see Work order recap with Copilot in Field Service (preview) – Dynamics 365 Field Service | Microsoft Learn

How Copilot updates data on forms 

Another benefit of Copilot is that it can help you easily fill out forms. Instead of hunting for fields within the mobile app, you can simply tell Copilot what you want to update.  Tell Copilot to update data with phrases such as: 

• I’ve completed all tasks and finished this booking at 10:00AM 
• I’ve used {product name} as part of my work to complete this booking. 
• I’ve completed {service task name}.  

Copilot will understand your natural language input and propose updates to data on the form accordingly. All changes proposed by Copilot will be presented to the frontline worker where they can exclude or accept recommended updates.  

Today the Copilot update is limited to updates of the forms within the new mobile UX only. Scope of these updates are: 

• Update your booking status and times 
• Change the state of at task to completed 
• Consume estimated products 
• Complete work order services 
• Complete service tasks assigned to the work order 

Keep an eye out for additional enhancements and capabilities of this feature! 

How to Get Started with Copilot for Field Service Mobile 

Copilot Summary and Update are available for the new Field Service mobile (Preview) experience today. To enable Copilot, the org admin will need to enable the features within Field Service Settings. Once enabled, app users will find the copilot entry point in their application under the Copilot logo located in the header of the booking form.  

We hope that Field Service mobile with Copilot will make your work even more productive. We would love to hear your feedback and suggestions on how to improve Copilot. Please feel free to leave comments in the Dynamics 365 Community Forum or Ideas portal. Thank you for using Field Service Mobile! 

The post Experience the power of Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service in the mobile application appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

How often do you find yourself spending too much time reading through long and complex customer cases, trying to figure out the main problem and the best solution? What amount of cases do you handle per day, and how do you ensure quality and consistency in your responses? How do you keep track of the most relevant and updated information from multiple sources and channels?

These are some of the challenges that support agents face every day, and they can affect their productivity, performance, and satisfaction. Customers expect fast and accurate answers to their questions and issues, and they don’t want to repeat themselves or wait for long periods of time. Support agents need to be able to quickly understand the context and history of each case, identify the root cause and the best action, and communicate effectively with customers and colleagues.

This is where summarization comes in. Summarization is an AI-powered feature that provides support agents case summaries to help them quickly understand the context of a case and resolve customer issues more efficiently. It uses large language models and natural language processing to analyze and condense information from various sources and formats, such as emails, chat messages, phone calls, documents, and web pages, into concise and relevant summaries. Summarization can save you time, improve your accuracy, and enhance the customer experience.

This blog post explains how summarization works, what benefits it can bring to your support team and your organization, and how you can turn it on and use it with Dynamic 365 Customer Service Copilot, the leading AI platform for customer service.

Summarization: The gateway to generative AI Innovation

Summarization stands out as an ideal first use case, primarily due to its immediate, measurable impact on efficiency and productivity. It automates the extraction of crucial details such as the case title, customer, subject, product, priority, case type, and description. The AI-generated summaries offer context and communicate the actions already undertaken to address the issue. Summarization delivers tangible benefits, showcasing the power of generative AI in a clear and demonstrable manner.

Compared to other AI use cases, the implementation of summarization is less complex. It is a straightforward starting point for organizations new to generative AI, reducing barriers to entry and integration time. The success of summarization in enhancing productivity and achieving measurable outcomes serves as a confidence-building milestone for organizations. Experiencing the transformative power of generative AI fosters trust in the technology. Additionally, it lays a robust foundation for delving into more advanced use cases.

Starting with summarization brings immediate operational improvements. It also helps organizations to embrace the broader potential of generative AI, setting the stage for future business process innovation.

By selecting the Make case summaries available to agents checkbox, administrators can bring their organization a quick win that adds immediate business value. We have invested in summarization features to allow more customization options. Admins now can customize the format of how agents view conversation summaries. They can also customize the entities and fields that are used for case summary.

Learn more

To learn more about summarization, read the documentation: Enable summarization of cases and conversations | Microsoft Learn

The post Begin your copilot journey with summarization appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Microsoft has separated all Czech-specific functionalities into distinct applications as part of the delocalization process of the Czech version of Dynamics 365 Business Central. The process intended to pave the way for the seamless integration of Czech local functionalities on top of the Worldwide (W1) version of the Business Central. 

Technical Overview

Business Central has been undergoing major changes over the past few years and one of the strategy areas is application modularization, that includes localization layers. This led to critical changes in the Czech localization layer, which has now been converted into a suite of distinct localization apps. The suite contains the following apps: Core Pack, Advance Pack, Banking documents, Cash Desk, Compensation, Advance Payments, and Fixed Assets.

To ensure that both old and new Czech functionalities work in parallel in that transition period. Microsoft made sure that the old code integrated into the Base Application was gradually cleaned up. The last step is to remove Czech specific fields from the Czech Base Application.

In the next major release of Business Central 2023 wave 2 (version 23), the following Czech-specific fields will be removed from the tables, while primary keys will be updated:

• Table 1251 “Text-to-Account Mapping”, field 11700 Text-to-Account Mapping Code: Code[10]
• Table 1252 “Bank Pmt. Appl. Rule”, field “Bank Pmt. Appl. Rule Code” Code: Code[10]

The removal of Czech-specific tables and fields from the Czech Base Application, has also been announced in the list of deprecated features, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/upgrade/deprecated-features-platform#changes-in-2024-release-wave-2-version-250.

Action Required: Upgrade to Business Central 2023 Release Wave 2

To ensure a successful upgrade to Business Central 2023 release wave 2 (version 23) Czech, perform a forced synchronization of the database schema. Microsoft will ensure a seamless upgrade process for users of the online version of Business Central. However, for those upgrading to this version using Business Central on-premises, it is necessary to set the “schemaUpdateMode” parameter in CZ Base Application to “ForceSync” to synchronize the data model.

Users who are upgrading to the on-premises version of Business Central 2023 release wave 2 (version 23) Czech and higher must verify that there are no duplicate records in both tables 1251 “Text to Account Mapping” and 1252 “Bank Payment Application Rule” after the Czech fields have been removed from the primary key. This can be accomplished either by manually deleting the data or by upgrading to any version of BC 22.x where data modifications will be included as part of the upgrade procedures. It is highly recommended to back up the data in these tables before proceeding.

Summary

Czech-specific fields that were previously part of the primary key in Table 1251 “Text to Account Mapping,” specifically Field 11700 “Text-to-Account Mapping Code,” and in Table 1252 “Bank Payment Application Rule,” “Bank Payment Application Rule Code,” will be removed in this new version.

The post Impact of Delocalization Process in the Czech Version of Business Central 2023 Wave 2 Release appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

As the calendar turns its page to a new year, the roles of chief financial officers (CFOs) and finance teams take center stage as they review business performance and tackle updating strategic plans. The fresh new year of 2024 will bring with it a multitude of opportunities, challenges, and transformative possibilities for financial leaders navigating the ever-evolving landscape of the global economy. In this dynamic arena, where precision meets strategy, the CFO becomes the architect of fiscal success, and finance teams are the craftspersons shaping the financial future of their organizations. And yet, many leaders struggle with the complexity involved in navigating uncertainties, taking advantage of emerging trends, and driving business performance. We’re introducing the latest advancements in our enterprise resource planning (ERP) portfolio that address these challenges to simplify how you activate business insights at every level of your organization.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance

Begin your AI-guided business performance management journey today.

Learn more

Let’s break this down based on the following top business performance management challenges we’ve heard from our customers as they turn to their planning, analytics, and insights tools, then we’ll cover our new year’s resolutions for each.

• Data accuracy, consistency, and integration: Poor data quality, reconciliation processes, and the integration of disparate data sources hinder accurate analysis and planning. Resolve to create a connected enterprise in 2024; our new business process-centric data models in the business performance analytics capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance will pave the way.
• Complexity for users: Financial planning and analytics (FP&A) and corporate performance management solutions often have a steep learning curve, lack a user-friendly design, and are difficult for users to navigate. Resolve to empower your teams with easy-to-use tools; our business performance planning capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, generally available on December 31, 2023, will help.
• Total cost of ownership: Most financial management and ERP solutions do not include business performance management capabilities as part of their core solution, and these tools need to be purchased separately, which minimizes who can use them. Resolve to lower your total cost of ownership, while maximizing business performance management; our new Dynamics 365 Finance Premium offering will provide an easy way to acquire and deploy advanced business management capabilities.

Resolution 1: Create a single source of truth for planning, analytics, and insights, making it easy to get started.

Unlocking the true potential of your finance department requires addressing the common data-related challenges and tool limitations that hinder productivity, and getting actionable business performance insights in a timely manner.

We introduced business performance analytics in February 2023 to help you analyze and improve business performance by unifying data from Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Dataverse, and other sources into an easy-to-use, business process-centric data model. You can use business performance analytics to create reports, dashboards, and insights that help you make informed decisions and optimize your operational workflow.

Business performance analytics aims to revolutionize how finance departments handle complex data by streamlining data ingestion, cleansing, and enrichment. By automating data hygiene, teams can reduce manual work, minimize reliance on IT, and lay the foundation for advanced capabilities like copilot and AI. 

Business performance analytics capabilities are currently available in preview and your administrator can request installation;  your current Dynamics 365 Finance licenses allow you to try it out today.

Resolution 2: Empower people with planning and analytics tools that are easy to use.

Finance teams often face challenges with outdated data and complex tools, resulting in slow, manual processes when extracting integral information. The complexity of analytical tools often demands advanced data science skills or falls short with outdated features, hindering the discovery of valuable insights crucial for enhancing business performance. In the pursuit of agile decision-making, finance leaders must overcome these hurdles and ensure access to robust, timely insights that drive action.

We introduced our vision for extended planning and analysis (xP&A) back on May 31, 2023. On December 31, 2023, we’ll deliver on this vision with the general availability (GA) of business performance planning capabilities that equip our Dynamics 365 Finance customers with a comprehensive view of financial and operational performance. These capabilities simplify and automate planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and analytics by integrating with familiar Microsoft Power BI and Excel environments.

Your administrator will be able to access these capabilities for installation after the GA date from the Power Platform admin center.

Resolution 3: Optimize costs while ensuring people have the tools they need and that they’re easy to buy.

The total cost of ownership for many business performance management solutions can be notably high due to various factors such as initial software licensing fees, implementation costs, and customization expenses. Integration challenges with existing systems may necessitate additional resources, and the need for skilled personnel to manage and optimize the solution can incur ongoing labor costs.

Our approach is to include planning, analytics, and insights as capabilities within Dynamics 365 Finance, while providing interoperability with familiar tools like Excel and Microsoft Power BI. This strategy allows our customers to minimize the high costs associated with many FP&A and xP&A solutions. This ensures that individual users have access to the capabilities they need to successfully complete their work, while not having to pay for unnecessary functionalities. We’re introducing a new offering to help realize this goal. Dynamics 365 Finance Premium will equip users with the tools needed to build advanced financial plans, budgets, analytics, and insights. This license will only be needed for roles within the organization that are responsible for creating strategic plans, budgets, reports, and insights. Welcome to a new era of financial empowerment, where success is not just measured but strategically crafted.

Modernize business performance management

In navigating the complexities of today’s economic landscape, CFOs recognize the indispensable need for advanced planning and analytical tools to effectively steer their organizations through uncertainties, foster innovation, and ensure both short-term resilience and long-term prosperity. With these new capabilities in Dynamics 365 Finance, CFOs can empower finance and business leaders with the essential tools to not only anticipate risks but also drive strategic innovation. In the face of modern economic challenges, more advanced corporate performance management becomes essential for financial leaders, offering a robust foundation to fortify their organizations, ensuring they not only weather the current storms but emerge stronger and more resilient for the challenges of tomorrow.

We’ve made planning and analytics easy for customers to get started, in familiar tools that are easy for finance users to use, and we’ve made the buying process simple with the Dynamics 365 Finance Premium offering. Ensure your organization is ready to adopt the new business performance planning capabilities and start 2024 with a better view of your strategic plans.

Learn more about Dynamics 365 Finance

Begin your AI-guided business performance management journey today. Learn more about Dynamics 365 Finance and our finance solutions to get a better understanding of how this new offering will add additional business performance management capabilities for our customers.

The post Enhance business performance agility with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance Premium appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

In the rapidly evolving AI landscape, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is taking the lead with innovations that have equipped more than 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses to achieve success. Powered by next-generation AI, Microsoft Copilot offers new ways to enhance workplace efficiency, automate mundane tasks, and unlock creativity. At a time when nearly two in three people say they struggle with having the time and energy to do their job, Copilot helps to free up capacity and enables employees to focus on their most meaningful work.¹ 

Dynamics 365 Business Central brings the power of AI to small and medium-sized businesses to help companies work smarter, adapt faster, and perform better. AI in Dynamics 365 Business Central improves the way work gets done, enabling you to:

• Get answers quickly and easily using natural language.
• Save time by automating tedious, repetitive tasks.
• Spark creativity with creative content ideas.
• Anticipate and overcome business challenges.

Reclaim time for important work

In a small or medium-sized business, there is often a lot to do and not many people to help get it all done, so it’s important to make the most of your limited resources to accomplish your goals. Everyday activities like tracking down documents and bringing new employees up to speed can drain your valuable time. What if you had an AI-powered assistant ready to help you find exactly what you need without the hassle?

Available in early 2024, conversational chat using Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central helps you answer questions quickly and easily, locate records faster, and even learn new skills—all using natural language. Save time and effort by navigating to documents without having to use traditional menus, and rapidly onboard new users with answers to questions on how, when, or why to do things. Copilot is your everyday AI companion, helping you to speed through tasks, build momentum, and free time for your most impactful work. 

Streamline month-end tasks with enhanced bank reconciliation

Reconciling bank statement transactions with your financial system has often been a tedious monthly chore. Meticulously matching every line item to new or existing accounting entries takes time (and isn’t the most exciting way to spend an afternoon.) In the past, Business Central helped by auto-matching many of the simple one-to-one transactions, but the logic wasn’t able to decipher more complex scenarios such as when multiple charges were paid in a single transaction.

Now, Copilot in Business Central makes bank reconciliation even easier by analyzing bank statements that you import into Business Central, matching more transactions, and proposing entries for transactions that weren’t auto-matched. By comparing and interpreting transaction descriptions, amounts, dates, and patterns across fields, Copilot can help you improve the accuracy of your bank reconciliation while reducing manual effort.

Unlock creativity with marketing text suggestions

Copilot in Business Central helps product managers save time and drive sales with compelling AI-generated marketing text suggestions. Using key attributes like color and material, Copilot can create product descriptions in seconds tailored to your preferred tone, format, and length. Once you’ve made any adjustments, you can easily publish to Shopify or other ecommerce platforms with just a few clicks. Discover how Copilot can help you banish writer’s block and launch new products with ease.

Boost customer service with inventory forecasting

Effective inventory management is crucial in a competitive business environment as it can significantly influence a company’s success and customer retention. This process involves balancing customer service with cost control. Maintaining low inventory reduces working capital, but risks missing sales due to stock shortages. Using AI, the Sales and Inventory Forecast extension uses past sales data to forecast future demand, helping to prevent stockouts. Once a shortfall is identified, Business Central streamlines the replenishment process by generating vendor requests, helping you keep your customers happy by fulfilling their orders on time, every time.  

Reduce risk with late payment prediction

Managing receivables effectively is vital for a business’s financial wellbeing. With the Late Payment Prediction extension, you can reduce outstanding receivables and refine your collections approach by forecasting if outstanding sales invoices are likely to be paid on time. For instance, if a payment is anticipated to be delayed, you could modify the payment terms or method for that customer. By proactively addressing potential late payments and adapting accordingly, you can minimize overdue receivables, reduce risk of non-payment, and ultimately improve your financial performance.

Improve financial stability with Cash Flow Analysis

Powered by AI, Business Central can create a comprehensive Cash Flow Analysis to help you monitor your company’s cash position. Cash flow is a critical indicator of a company’s solvency, and cash flow analysis is an important future-focused planning tool that helps you maintain control over your financial health and make proactive adjustments to meet all your financial commitments. With insights from Business Central, you can pivot quickly to safeguard your company’s fiscal wellbeing, such as obtaining loans to cover cash shortfalls or cutting back on credit when you have surplus cash.

Work smarter with Copilot in Business Central

Copilot in Business Central gives your company an edge with AI-powered innovations that are a catalyst for unleashing human potential, fostering creativity, and driving efficiency in ways previously unimaginable. The integration of AI into everyday business processes is not just about staying ahead in a competitive market, it’s about redefining what’s possible in the workplace. With Business Central, your company is empowered to navigate today’s complex business environment with agility, precision, and a renewed focus on what truly matters.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Work smarter, adapt faster, and perform better with Business Central.

Download the guide

Sources

¹ Microsoft Work Trend Index Annual Report, May 2023

The post Transform the way work gets done with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

This post is co-authored by John Ryan, Manager Functional Architect Dynamics 365 Field Service, Avanade.

One of the most exciting things about the introduction of AI into tools people use every day to do their jobs is the way AI can help revolutionize the way people work. Especially at the frontlines of business, AI provides organizations with innovative and personalized ways to serve customers. According to IDC, 28% of organizations are investing significantly in generative AI.¹ This is what’s exciting about the introduction of Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service.

No doubt about it: modern solutions like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service have already come a long way in helping frontline workers be more productive and efficient in helping customers. But Copilot takes things to the next level by bringing the power of next-generation AI to the frontlines, enabling faster resolution and better service.

Streamline Field Service operations with Copilot

Copilot provides a leap forward in the field service space.

Read how

Enabling next-level support with Copilot for Field Service in Outlook and Microsoft Teams

Email has long been a critical communications tool for frontline managers and technicians. New data from Microsoft’s 2023 Work Trend Index Annual Report reveals that over 60% of frontline workers struggle with having to do repetitive or menial tasks that take time away from more meaningful work.² Now, the Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service Outlook add-in can streamline work order creation with relevant details pre-populated from emails.

So, what does that mean, exactly? Copilot can also optimize technician scheduling with data-driven recommendations based on factors such as travel time, availability, and skillset. Frontline managers can see relevant work orders and review them before creating new work orders, and they can easily reschedule or update those work orders as customers’ needs change. In addition, organizations can customize work orders for their frontline needs by adding, renaming, or rearranging fields. Even better, Copilot can assist frontline managers with work order scheduling in Microsoft Teams, saving time and effort to find the right worker for the job.

Frontline managers can also easily open the Field Service desktop app directly from the Copilot add-in via Outlook or Teams to view work orders. There, they can see booking suggestions in the work order and book a field technician without opening the schedule board. The booking is created in Microsoft Dataverse and also gets recorded on the Field Service schedule board automatically. All this saves frontline managers valuable time because they can stay in the flow of work, reduce clicks and context-switching between apps, and create work orders quickly without copy/paste errors. In the Field Service app, they can also review work order list views and edit a work order right in the list without having to reopen it.

Getting answers faster with natural language search with Copilot in Teams

Searching work orders to find specific details about customer jobs or looking for information about parts inventory used to mean switching between apps and searching across different sources for information. Now, to search for work orders or other customer data, agents can ask Copilot through a Teams search. They simply ask what they’re looking for using natural language, and Copilot will return specific information related to their work orders in Dynamics 365 Field Service including status updates, parts needed, or instructions to help them complete the job. The more agents use Copilot, the more the AI assistant learns and can assist agents at their jobs. The future is now.

Empowering field technicians with modern user experience

Frontline managers aren’t the only team members getting a productivity boost from more modern tools. The new Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile experience, currently in preview for Windows 10 and higher, iOS, and Android devices, empowers field technicians by giving them all the relevant, most up-to-date information they need to manage work orders, tasks, services, and products and get their jobs done thoroughly and efficiently. This modern user experience supports familiar mobile navigation, gestures, and controls to streamline managing work order Tasks, Services, and Products. Technicians can save valuable time by quickly updating the status of a booking, getting driving directions to a customer site, and changing or completing work order details. They can even get detailed information about tasks with embedded Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides, which provide step-by-step instructions, pictures, and videos.

Changing the game for frontline technicians with Copilot in mobile

For field service technicians, having Copilot generate work order summaries that include concise, detailed descriptions of services as well as pricing and costs is a game changer. Work order summaries are generated by Copilot on the fly, synthesizing information from various tabs and fields to break down tasks, parts, services, and problem descriptions into a simple narrative, making it easy for technicians to understand job requirements. And because field technicians often need to work with their hands, they can use the voice-to-text feature to update work orders by describing details including exactly what they did on a job, when they started and finished, and what parts they used. When the work is completed, they can use the app to collect a digital signature from the customer or use voice-to-text to capture customer feedback.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service is a leap forward in the field service space. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

Learn more about the AI-powered experiences in Dynamics 365 Field Service, Teams, and Microsoft’s mixed reality applications for your frontline workforce announced at Microsoft Ignite 2023:

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

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

[2] 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.

The post Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service helps take field support to the next level appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.