This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Every day, retail stores are providing enhanced customer experiences and streamlining operations with the in-store solution from Dynamics 365 Commerce. That technology is getting an update that will improve IT operations and usability.
The Store Commerce for Windows application (preview) allows more deployment choices, better performance, easier updates, and better long-term framework support in Windows and Azure DevOps. Store Commerce is a shell app for Windows that uses the Microsoft Edge WebView2 control to render the existing point-of-sale (POS) UI, either from the Cloud POS or embedded (with offline mode). It continues to provide all existing functionality, including offline support, native hardware integration, and the UI experience.
In addition, the new Commerce SDK supports sealed core product installers and independent packaging for customizations for the existing Modern POS app and the Store Commerce app. The installers for the core application and extension packages are separate, so customers and partners can install and update them independently. Customer extensions will require a one-time migration from the existing Retail SDK to the new Commerce SDK.
Next steps
Make plans now to adopt the technology upgrade coming to the in-store solution. Key capabilities will be available for preview in 2022 release wave 1 (Dynamics 365 Commerce 10.0.26 release). For full details, including the motivation and release timeline, download the technical paper, Modernizing the Dynamics 365 Commerce in-store technology stack.
Migration from the legacy Retail SDK to the Commerce SDK will require a number of code changes to existing customizations, as called out in the Commerce SDK migration guide. Review the list of required changes carefully to effectively plan the migration for your organization.
Our team is eager to work alongside your team to support and help you plan your migration. You can reach us through our regular support channels, your FastTrack Solution Architect, or the Dynamics 365 Commerce Community, in the Store Operations and POS app category.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
The pandemic has sped up the adoption of digital technologies to obtain data insights. The multi-year collaboration between FedEx and Microsoft, announced in May 2020, aims to reinvent commerce and provides businesses with actionable insights to win in an increasingly competitive landscape. And on January 24th, we announced a new cross-platform “logistics as a service” as the next phase of this collaboration to help transform commerce by combining the global digital and logistics network of FedEx with the power of Microsoft’s cloud, including Microsoft Dynamics 365. This blog explores how this next step brings a unique integration between FedEx and Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management. We are making this pre-built connector available for preview for all applicable markets during the second half of 2022.
Faster and more cost-effective delivery
According to McKinsey & Company, a positive customer experience is hugely meaningful to a retailers’ success: it yields 20 percent higher customer-satisfaction rates, a 10 to 15 percent boost in sales conversation rates, and an increase in employee engagement of 20 to 30 percent.1 The combination of consumers’ expectations for fast delivery with the business requirements to maintain profitability margins makes it even more challenging for organizations to offer faster, cost-effective delivery options.
The FedEx integration with Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management tackles this challenge by pairing orders with near real-time transportation network data and inventory insights so that brands can optimize fulfillment and deliver on their order promise with increased precision. And retailers can predict shipment delays and proactively overcome them by selecting alternative ways to fulfill the order on time and in full while staying profitable.
Near real-time delivery status communications
Manufacturers, distributors, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, and retailers understand that success depends on their ability to consistently deliver a delightful customer experience, which is increasingly a function of a retail supply chain. A recent Gartner survey found that 83 percent of companies demand that supply chains improve customer experience (CX) as part of the digital business strategy.2 Retail supply chains can improve the customer experience by offering near real-time delivery status communications for customer orders. And this is one of the enhancements that customers can look forward to as part of our collaboration with FedEx.
Through Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management’s integration with FedEx, it will be possible for brands to ensure a delightful customer experience by providing near real-time communications on the delivery status that consumers desire and expect.
Convenient and frictionless returns
Providing easy returns is no longer optional for retailers. In fact, according to Statista, 86 percent of global consumers look for easy returns when deciding where to buy, and 81 percent are likely to switch to a competitor if they had a bad return experience.3 With so much at stake, it is not surprising that retailers are looking for ways to leverage technology to offer convenient, frictionless returns. By partnering with FedEx, Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management further enables brands to reliably provide free two-day shipping options to reduce shopping cart abandonment and effectively compete in the increasingly digital commerce landscape.
Through the partnership, organizations can also offer a better returns experience for their customers. End-customers will enjoy hassle-free returns options with the 60,000+ FedEx drop-off locations, convenient at-home pickups, and eco-friendly alternatives supporting sustainability initiatives such as printer-less QR code returns labels and no-box returns.
In addition to the enhancements that our partnership with FedEx will bring to Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management, customers also benefit from the ability to get up and running quickly without the need for costly rip and replace processes of existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. And because Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management is built on a modern and open platform with out-of-the-box, pre-built connectors to a large ecosystem of order intake, shipping, and tax calculation partners, organizations can scale business. It also allows companies to accept orders from any order source, such as online e-commerce, marketplaces, mobile apps, or traditional sources such as electronic data interchange (EDI). And users can fulfill those orders from a mix of internal warehouses, third-party logistics providers, retail stores, or drop-ship partners locations.
What’s next
We have seen that Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management is driving improvements in retail supply chains through its FedEx collaboration. We have also shown how the upcoming integration with FedEx will help brands deliver modern, more delightful experiences directly to customers, including faster, more cost-effective delivery, near real-time communications on status delivery, and convenient and frictionless returns. If you are ready to apply an intelligent order management solution to drive improvement in these areas, we invite you to take our guided tour or get started today with the Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management free trial.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
The new era of digital has ushered in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as well as make-or-break challenges. Fast-moving organizations are seizing the moment to capture a sizable audience. But keeping customers is more difficult than ever. Organizations, facing mounting privacy regulations coupled with wary customers, are moving beyond third-party data to zero-party data for powering customer experiences. They are taking a hands-on approach and amassing customer data directly, according to a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal.1 In the wake of disruptive changes, organizations are turning to trusted solutions like Microsoft Customer Experience Platform.
Savvy organizations see privacy as a challenge that can become a strategic opportunity to build trust with customers and differentiate themselves against competitors. They’re embracing transparent and ethical data practices built around zero-party data, which in combination with existing data, makes it easy to deliver highly-personalized experiences that customers actually wantand avoid privacy mishaps. Respecting customer privacy requires a holistic approach encompassing data collection, utilization, and governance. For example, organizations need to ensure that analytics and artificial intelligence initiatives utilize only permissible customer data, which may be highly-sensitive in nature.
Fuel personalization with zero-party data
The majority of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. However, this expectation is met with wariness about sharing personal information and fear that data will be misused, or that they will be inundated with a barrage of advertisements, emails, and intrusive outreach. Zero-party data is key to achieving privacy-aware personalization.
Zero-party data is a form of self-reported data a consumer willingly and actively provides a brand. Customers knowingly and intentionally share this data with an organization in order to get a more personalized experiencesuch as a tailored recommendation, pricing, or access to additional resources. Organizations have opportunities to collect this data across the entire customer journeywhile the customer is on the website, social channels, email, inside a mobile app, or even in personthrough loyalty programs and creative approaches like sweepstakes, newsletters, quizzes, polls, and QR codes. Unlike first-party data which is based on historical events and requires interpretation, zero-party data is explicit data that reflects customer motivations, desires, interests, and preferences. Just as important, zero-party data has moved from buzzword to data hero, becoming an essential part of an organization’s digital strategy and countering the eminent demise of the much relied upon third-party cookies.
Don’t count out other sources of data
Nothing beats zero-party data for quality and consent, but there’s still a role for other types of data in your marketing mix.
First-party data, for example, remains an essential source of customer insight. Like zero-party data, first-party data is data about a company’s customers collected and owned directly by the company. Types of first-party data include web and app behavior, purchase history, loyalty status, or call center interactions. And although the methods used to obtain first-party data aren’t always as straightforward or transparent as those used to obtain zero-party data, it’s nonetheless valuable data that will help accelerate the pivot from third-party data.
Third-party data, like those that come from external sources like third-party cookies that track web browsing or advertising, has a place at the table (along with second-party data, which is someone else’s first-party data). The goal is not to banish third-party data entirely; instead, it’s to decrease reliance on third-party data while simultaneously increasing the collection of zero-party and first-party data.
Approach privacy as a fundamental human right
As organizations across every industry face the imminent deprecation of third-party cookies and mounting regulations, the right partner and technology are key. With the right solutions, organizations can respect consumer privacy without compromising the personalized experiences that customers value. For organizations that approach privacy as a fundamental human right, the return on investment will encompass an entirely new relationship with customersone that is built on trust and mutual engagement.
That’s where Microsoft Customer Experience Platform comes in. Microsoft has worked with customers around the world, and their marketing leaders consistently emphasize that to meet today’s expectations of privacy and personalization, they need to deliver consent-aware engagement along the entire customer journey, powered by insights based on zero through third-party datasomething they struggle with because of the proliferation of data sources scattered across multiple systems, making it impossible to gain a complete view of the customer that’s essential for connected experiences. With privacy and consent built into the platform, organizations can be rest assured that data is responsibly collected, utilized, and governedthe foundation for meaningful engagement, raving fans, and lasting customer relationships. To learn more, read the related Microsoft Customer Experience Platform blog post and visit Microsoft Customer Experience Platform.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
For SOLEVO Grouplike many other businesseshaving a finance system that meets their needs for agility, flexibility, and scale was incredibly important, so in 2019, they implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. Paired with interconnected tools such as Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics 365 gave them a high degree of visibility into the past and present state of their business, but SOLEVO wanted more insights into where the business was headed.
SOLEVO was one of our first customers to implement finance insights, gaining access to more accurate payment predictions and cash flow forecasts, as well as prescriptive tools that would streamline the budgeting process. We recently sat down with Martin Sengel, the CIO of SOLEVO Group, and Vacaba Diaby, SOLEVO’s Global Credit Risk Officer, to learn about their experience working with finance insights and hear how it was transforming their business.
Interview with SOLEVO
What business goals and challenges are you trying to solve for? What are you hoping finance insights can unlock to help achieve this?
“Our Global Risk Officer at SOLEVO wanted to have more insights on Customer Payments, especially to take automatic actions based on the historical analysis for each customer. We hope that finance insights can help us setup a process more proactive and help him get a better overview. We wanted to have a Cashflow forecast directly in Finance Operations in combination with an optimization our budget for each department.”
Why was Microsoft the right solution? What were the key benefits that lead you to choose Microsoft for your business solutions? Were AI and machine learning (ML)-powered capabilities a key differentiator in your vendor selection process?
“Microsoft was the right solution for us to replace our old ERP systems back in 2019. We wanted a global solution that support not only ERP Processes but also a publisher who has a perfect fit and understanding of our business, offering regular updates and evolutions and a range of interconnected tools such as Power Platform, Cloud Azure and all Dynamics 365 applications. Dynagile Consulting was the right partner to help us integrate Dynamics 365 Finance Operations in all our countries and help us right now to leverage the ERP with the Power Platform, Azure Data and now AI and ML including of course finance insights. AI and ML-powered capabilities was indeed a key selection for us when we had taken this selection.”
How will finance insights help you re-imagine the way you operate your ERP business and respond to customers and trends? What is the impact of being able to operate in this new way?
“Finance insights will help us to have intelligence/insights on our data in the system. Top management of SOLEVO have already Power BI Reporting to investigate the past, but what about the future/predictions? Finance insights will provide for us directly in the ERP some key elements for our key users to take action. It will save time, and therefore money, with an end-to-end automated solution process. Budgeting processes will be reduced every year now, a more accurate and intelligent company cash flow and when we will receive payments. At the end, it will provide a rich and intelligent financial system that drives decision making and helps us take actions to respond effectively to current and anticipated business challenges.”
What kinds of insights do you hope to gain from the solution, especially with regards to revenue, growth, and planning? How will you be able to make more intelligent decisions and drive operational efficiency through these insights and business automations?
“With COVID-19 challenge, it was very important for us to have a better accuracy on the Customer Payment Predictions and an intelligent Cash Flow forecast. All the way of the three solutions provided by finance insights, this will speed up all our finance processes facilitating the planning of our teams. Of course, that will lead to drive operational efficiency and therefore to revenue.”
Do you have any details on specific scenarios being enabled or problems that will be solved by the deployment of these technologies?
“For example, thanks to finance insights, one of our use cases will be automating credit collection letters and notifications to our Global Risk Officer with the Customer Payment Prediction based on each customer for each legal entity. Based on the confidence score and on the estimated average number of days late which is refreshed every day with our latest data from Dynamics 365 Finance and scored for new or updated rows we will send a notification via Power Automate to the end customer and the regional CFO, if we found this customer as high-risk.”
Learn more
In a short time, finance insights have already had a significant impact on SOLEVO’s business, bringing a layer of intelligence to their operations. Not only has it provided more accurate forecastscritical for strategic planningit has saved them time and money by allowing them to automate processes, such as automating credit collection letters and notifications. With a rich and intelligent financial system in place, SOLEVO is now better positioned to make strategic decisions and respond more effectively to current and future business challenges.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
If sales were simple, then every seller and every sales organization would be successful. But there’s more to it, especially in the current landscape.
We’re seeing a fundamental shift in the way customers want to engageinstead of relying only on direct contact with sellers, customers more frequently use digital channels to get answers to questions and even to make purchasing decisions. The seller is moving from guiding every step of the sales process to being a trusted advisor. To fill this role, sellers must regroup and look for other ways to make a difference to their customers.
One way is through understanding the complete 360-degree view of the customer. The seller is not limited to just information from their sales force automation system, but can use data and insights on customers from across the organization. A 360-degree view provides a way to maximize the limited time a seller has with a customer and to engage them in a personalized, relevant conversation for a greater chance of success. But sellers today are suffering with digital overload from disparate systems that draw focus and time away from their customer engagements. How do we help sellers focus on actions that accelerate revenue?
The cutting-edge AI and collaborative capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales take the 360-degree view of the customer and give sellers the power to focus on the highest priority activity that has the best chance of moving the opportunity forward. Sellers can learn from customer history, access information from external data sources, and get next best actions to takeall within one tool, all within the sellers’ control.
And now, four AI-powered and collaborative digital selling capabilities, previously available only to Dynamics 365 Sales Premium customers, are available for all Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise customers. You can now use these capabilities in your current environment, with your data and in real sales calls, transforming how your sellers engage with customers.
Digital selling capabilities in action:
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The AI capabilities in Dynamics 365 Sales are a seller’s superpower. Sellers see, and can act on, suggested actions and collaborate with colleagues all within their flow of work. AI assists in that flow of work, identifying and suggesting actions, but the seller is in control on what to do next.
AI recommendations aren’t just in the context of working on an active deal. Sellers and managers can be proactive and drive successful deal closures with prioritized AI driven recommendations on at-risk or stalled deals. Sellers can see account relationships that are at risknot just customers with active deals.
We believe sellers will be more productive and close more deals with these digital selling tools assisted by AI. That is why we are enabling them for Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise customers. We want sellers to be able to experience this new level of productivity and customer connection.
It’s easy to activate these features on your existing Dynamics 365 Sales product, just follow the in-app ‘Get started with digital sales’ guidance, complete with step-by-step videos.
Help sellers accelerate revenue in these four ways
1. Allow real-time call insights to drive better call outcomes. Conversation intelligence uses analytics and data science to help a seller be more efficient and productive. Calls are recorded and analyzed in real time with key insight and committed actions generated in the call conversation. We even programmatically generate meeting summaries to save time in capturing the outcome of a call.
2. Enable sellers to collaborate more effectively in the moments that matter. Sales is a team sport. Sellers need to access subject matter expertise in the context of a deal, collaborate with account teams across the globe, and share artifacts with customers throughout the sales lifecycle. With Microsoft Teams chat embedded within Dynamics 365, you can collaborate with stakeholders directly from within Dynamics 365. This allows you to use Dynamics 365 data as an organizing layer for your Teams collaboration activity and link chats to Dynamics 365 records, such as leads or opportunities, for convenient access for all participants.
3. Help sellers prioritize activities that will have the highest impact. The sales accelerator in Dynamics 365 Sales helps sellers to sell smartly by building a strong and prioritized pipeline, offering context, and surfacing automated recommendations throughout a sales sequence that helps to speed the sales process.
4. Help sellers focus on the leads and opportunities that are most likely to close. Predictive lead and opportunity scoring uses machine learning models to calculate a score for open leads and opportunities. The score is designed to help a seller prioritize their day and identify records which require immediate attention. With effective prioritization sellers should be able to quickly tackle the right leads and opportunities to increase conversion and close rates.
Conversation intelligence, sales accelerator, and lead and opportunity scoring are available in limited capacity each month, with enough quantity to see the daily productivity difference. Customers who hit the monthly limits, or simply want to enable broader use of these benefits, can upgrade to Dynamics 365 Sales Premium. Note that Microsoft Teams chat is not limited in capacity and is available to all Sales Enterprise and Sales Premium customers.
Digital selling is here to stay
With conversation intelligence, sales accelerator, and lead and opportunity scoring, sellers get best-in-class AI capabilities to remember the actions they have committed to, summarize meetings, and help prioritize their worklist. All of this helps your sellers to be more productive and save time by removing manual effort, spending more time selling.
I’m excited to share this update and encourage you to switch to these Dynamics 365 Sales Premium capabilities to take your business to the next level with best-in-class selling solutions.
Learn more
To learn more about these digital selling capabilities, click the links to these online documentation and video resources.
If you’re not already a Dynamics 365 Sales customer, to learn more about how your organization can supercharge your digital sellers, visit the Dynamics 365 Sales webpage and sign up for a free trial.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
The past year has cultivated many personal and professional changes. No person or industry has been untouched. Even field service has embraced seismic changes as a result of the ongoing global pandemic. For many field service organizations, being dispatched to the customer’s location to diagnose and resolve an issue became more complex than ever before. In response, a shift began within field service to less hands-on, more remote, and more dynamic and proactive service operations.
We believe this placement recognizes Microsoft’s continuous investment and authority across our service solution and cloud functionality.
IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor’s position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures vendor product, go-to-market and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a 3-5-year timeframe. Vendor market share is represented by the size of the icons.
Noted capabilities
IDC MarketScape objectively noted the strengths, challenges, and considerations of each vendor. For Microsoft, the IDC MarketScape noted one of our strengths as “The ability to deliver specific capabilities to support the market is critical to rapid adoption and ROI. Customer references also noted that Microsoft’s integration with other enterprise applications and technical capabilities of the application helped speed deployment and achieve value quickly.”
IDC MarketScape also noted “Microsoft’s primary challenge with regard to field service management is with regard to industry-specific innovations. Microsoft has established a culture of innovation around many of its products and highlights service-specific offerings, which demonstrate the future of field service collaboration and execution. However, manufacturers and some service organizations lag behind those in other industries, and companies like Microsoft will need to provide both transformative offerings and incremental innovations that closely align with the risk aversion of the specific subvertical industry.” Fortunately, Microsoft caters to everyone from the intrepid to the risk-averse with both transformative offerings and incremental innovations that closely align with the customer’s palatable level of risk.
The study advised “Manufacturers and service organizations should consider Microsoft when they are looking for an integrated field service product offering that can seamlessly integrate IoT data, remote collaboration, AI, and AR/mixed reality capabilities to enable more predictive and proactive service outcomes. The ability to collaborate in real time and have on-demand insights is transforming the way field service and support can be conducted. Microsoft is helping manufacturers that are on this journey around servitization and the convergence of AI, IoT, and AR in the field.”
And the transformation is occurring in real-time. Take for example, Burckhardt Compression, a global leader in manufacturing and servicing, headquartered in Switzerland. The company builds and services massive compressors weighing up to 240 tons, creating pressure three times higher than at the deepest point in the ocean. This high pressure transforms gas to a liquid state so it has less volume and is transported easier. If the compressor fails, the liquid turns back to gas and the build-up of pressure can be critical for the ship and the crew.
Because maintenance is so critical, Burckhardt Compression had to send a service engineer to wherever the compressor was locatedwhich was time-consuming, resource-intensive, and simply not scalable. To provide support at any location, Burckhardt Compression adopted Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service for field service management and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, a mixed reality application. Now remote service engineers have access to real-time service data and can support the ship’s technicians by engaging in on-demand video chat, providing instruction augmented with a schematic overlay, and creating markups onscreen over the actual compressor. And a case is automatically created in Dynamics 365 Field Service when a call is initiated by Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, and a recording of the repair work is saved.
Burckhardt Compression is serving customers faster by eliminating travel time and sharing expert knowledge across the globe in a matter of minutes increasing trust, safety, and business continuity. Now the company is looking to expand to add non-Burckhardt compressors to its service roster, thereby expanding its market presence and generating additional revenue. Burckhardt Compression is just one of many manufacturing and servicing organizations that have reaped value by deploying Dynamics 365 Field Service and harnessing its capabilities to build stronger, more collaborative, and proactive service delivery.
The bottom line
Many service organizations consist of dispatchers answering service calls, putting customers on hold, asking the same questions repeatedly, while searching for the next available technician to dispatch. This process is inefficient, costly, and unsatisfying to the customer.
The world of field service is changing. Today, service organizations are evolving into profit centers, redefining business models, and creating powerful and fulfilling customer experiencesall supported by leading edge solutions like Dynamics 365 Field Service.
We’re excited to be positioned as an IDC MarketScape Leader and are committed to bringing you the best and most featured field service application available. Depend on the multidimensional capabilities of Dynamics 365 Field Service to help you better personalize customer engagements, improve employee effectiveness, and optimize service operations now and tomorrow.
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