This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
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.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
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.
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.
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:
[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 Microsoft Ignite 2023 conference has been a showcase of ground breaking AI advancements, offering a wealth of opportunities for the enhancement of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions. These technological strides are more than just innovations; they are pathways to augment the functionality, efficiency, and user experience of ERP systems.
Image: Anupam Sharma & Rupa Mantravadi showcasing Copilot Scenarios in Dynamics 365 AI ERP Applications
Top 10 Insights and Opportunities for ERP Applications:
This blog explores how the top 10 key insights from Ignite 2023 can be leveraged to enhance ERP products, benefit their users, assist ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) in developing custom solutions, and support the core business users of these ERP systems.
1. Revolutionizing Productivity with Copilot in Microsoft 365:
Microsoft 365 Copilot:
This innovation is a testament to Microsoft’s commitment to enhancing workplace efficiency and creativity. Its integration across applications like Outlook, Excel, and Teams exemplifies Microsoft’s vision for a seamlessly interconnected work environment.
Opportunity for ERP:
Incorporating ERP-focused Copilot plugins into M365 applications can revolutionize ERP workflows through the automation of routine tasks and the provision of intelligent insights from the ERP system for decision-making within the productivity suite. Such integration is poised to significantly boost time efficiency and improve accuracy for ERP system users.
2. Extending Copilot’s Reach:
Diverse Integration:
Expanding Copilot to aid in the completion of tasks across diverse roles and functions, such as business processes and IT administration represents a strategic initiative to integrate AI thoroughly into all facets of work.
Opportunity:
Expanding Copilot into ERP systems can provide tailored assistance in various ERP areas like financial planning, supply chain management, operations, human resources, commerce etc. offering a more intuitive and guided user experience.
3. Strategic Enhancements:
Bing Chat Enterprise Transition:
The transformation of Bing Chat into Copilot (copilot.microsoft.com) offers an opportunity for ERP systems to utilize enhanced external signals for improved demand planning, supply chain risk management, and support functions.
Copilot Studio:
This tool can be utilized by ISVs and ERP developers, enabling them to craft tailored AI solutions that integrate flawlessly with core ERP systems, thereby improving functionality and user experience. It also offers administrative capabilities to refine core ERP Copilot skills with additional grounding, topics, and more.
4. Data and AI Synergy with Microsoft Fabric:
Unified Data Handling:
Integrating Microsoft Fabric with AI tools and making this GA (Generally Available) is a significant step towards enhancing data-driven decision-making.
Opportunity:
Microsoft Fabric’s integration can enhance data-driven decision-making in ERP systems. It can unify data from various sources, providing a more comprehensive view for analytics and reporting within ERP systems.
5. Advancements in Azure AI platform:
Model-as-a-Service:
Simplifies the integration and customization of AI models, marking a significant advancement in AI application development.
New AI Models:
Introduction of GPT-3.5 Turbo, GPT-4 Turbo, and DALL·E 3 revolutionizes AI application development.
Opportunity:
The integration of advanced AI models like GPT-3.5 Turbo and GPT-4 Turbo into ERP systems can enable more sophisticated data analysis using tools like advance data analytics, code interpreter and predictive modeling, aiding in strategic business planning and forecasting.
6. Enhanced Cloud Infrastructure and NVIDIA Collaboration:
Azure Maia and Cobalt Chips & Azure Boost:
These advancements supercharge AI workloads and improve storage and networking, enhancing ERP system efficiency and scalability.
NVIDIA AI Foundry Service:
This partnership boosts AI model development, leveraging NVIDIA’s tools with Azure’s infrastructure.
Opportunity:
These innovations enable faster processing and robust AI capabilities in ERP solutions, facilitating advanced analytics and decision-making.
7. Ethical AI Deployment:
Responsible AI Initiatives:
Emphasizing ethical use with initiatives like the Copilot Copyright Commitment and Azure AI Content Safety.
Opportunity:
The focus on responsible AI use ensures that ERP solutions remain compliant with legal standards and ethical guidelines, building trust among users and stakeholders.
8. AI Integration in Windows Experiences:
Windows 11 AI Tools:
Aiming to make AI more accessible and position Windows as the prime platform for AI development.
Opportunity:
Enhanced AI tools in Windows can improve the accessibility and usability of ERP solutions, offering a more seamless and integrated experience across devices and platforms.
9. Enhanced AI-Driven Security Solutions:
Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR Integration:
Creates a unified security operations platform, enhancing threat protection.
Opportunity:
The integration of advanced security solutions can bolster the security of ERP systems, protecting sensitive business data and ensuring compliance with industry standards.
10. AI Skill Development and Credentials:
Microsoft Applied Skills Credentials:
Covering various aspects of AI, these credentials are crucial for validating expertise in this rapidly evolving field.
Opportunity:
Providing training and credentials in AI can empower ERP professionals to leverage AI capabilities effectively within Dynamics 365, enhancing the overall value and utility of ERP solutions.
Image:This year’s theme highlights Microsoft’s full embrace of its identity as the “Copilots company.”
Microsoft Ignite 2023 has opened a new chapter in the evolution of ERP applications, with AI at its core. By embracing these AI advancements, ERP solutions can be significantly enhanced, redefining how businesses leverage these systems for strategic and operational excellence.
Learn More
Interested in learning more about Copilot’s in-app help guidance? Here are your next steps:
Read the Copilot Product Documentation:
For comprehensive and detailed information about Copilot’s capabilities and functionalities, be sure to check out our product documentation. You’ll find in-depth insights into how Copilot can enhance your experience with Dynamics365 Supply Chain Management –
Read the Responsible AI FAQ for Copilot and its capability of generative help and guidance.
If you’re already using Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, you can enable and experience Copilot’s capabilities to streamline your operations. Here’s how:
Step 1: Enable Copilot Feature: Follow our documentation for existing customers to learn how to enable this feature. Once enabled, you’ll have access to Copilot’s powerful in-app help guidance within Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.
Step 2: Access Copilot – Locate the Copilot icon at the top of your screen within Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, then click on it to open the conversational sidecar experience. Copilot will introduce itself and encourage you to ask questions.
Step 3: Pose Your Question – In any uncommon or challenging task within the application, simply ask Copilot for guidance. For better results, especially when seeking documentation-related in-app help, consider starting your questions with ‘How.’
Step 4: Instant Guidance – Copilot will provide you with step-by-step guidance; all responses are grounded by our public documentation.
Please note that Copilot’s capabilities are exclusively available to existing Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management customers. If you’re one of them, don’t miss out on the opportunity to enhance your user experience and streamline your operations with Copilot.
Join Copilot for finance and operations apps – Yammer
Stay informed about the most recent Copilot by becoming a member of our Copilot for finance and operations Yammer Group . Share your Feedback and be the first to know about the latest enhancements.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Introduction:
In the ever-changing landscape of contemporary business, effective supply chain management is paramount. Central to this complex system is the critical process of demand planning and forecasting, which profoundly impacts a company’s capacity to fulfil customer requirements, optimize inventory, and maintain a competitive edge. This article explores the significance of demand forecasting and how Microsoft seamlessly incorporates it into its new demand planning in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.
The Crucial Role of Demand Planning and Forecasting:
Precise demand planning and forecasting play a pivotal role in diverse facets of business operations, yielding advantages throughout the entire supply chain:
Accurate Inventory Management: Precise demand forecasting optimizes inventory levels, finding the balance between excess stock and stockouts.
Customer Satisfaction: Accurate forecasting ensures products are available in the right place at the right time, enhancing customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
Cost Reduction: Effective demand forecasting minimizes holding costs for excess inventory and reduces costs associated with stockouts.
Resource Allocation: Anticipating demand aids in efficiently allocating resources, including labor, production capacity, and raw materials.
Improved Collaboration: Accurate forecasting fosters collaboration across the supply chain, enhancing coordination between suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers.
Long-term Planning: Strategic planning benefits from accurate forecasting, aiding businesses in adapting to changing market conditions and trends.
Competitive Advantage: Organizations responding effectively to market changes gain a competitive edge.
Image: Snapshot of demand planning in Dynamics Supply Chain Management
Exploring a Range of Demand Forecasting Models:
Below is a concise examination of diverse forecasting models employed in general Supply Chain demand planning, accompanied by insights into their potential applications within a business context.
Qualitative Forecasting:
Delphi Method: In the tech industry, when forecasting the demand for a new product, experts from different fields like engineering, marketing, and finance may anonymously provide input through multiple rounds of questionnaires.
Market Research: A smartphone company might conduct extensive market research, including customer surveys and competitor analysis, to forecast demand for its next flagship device.
Time Series Analysis:
Prophet: In the retail sector, employ Prophet time series analysis for precise demand forecasting, enabling efficient inventory management, minimizing stockouts, and maximizing profitability.
Exponential Smoothing: A fashion retailer might use exponential smoothing to predict future sales based on the recent trend in sales for specific clothing items.
ARIMA: A beverage company could apply ARIMA models to forecast demand for a seasonal drinks during holidays.
Best Fit: In healthcare, ‘Best Fit’ involves selecting the optimum statistical model to capture dataset patterns. Applying best-fit time series analysis anticipates patient needs, optimizes resource management, and enhances operational effectiveness for improved outcomes and satisfaction.”
ETS (Error-Trend-Seasonality): Hospitality and Tourism, utilize ETS models to forecast hotel bookings and tourism trends, enabling businesses to optimize pricing strategies and allocate resources efficiently based on seasonal fluctuations.
Causal Models:
Regression Analysis: An automobile manufacturer might use regression analysis to predict the impact of advertising spending on the demand for a particular car model.
Econometric Models: In the energy sector, econometric models could be employed to forecast electricity demand based on economic indicators such as GDP and population growth.
Machine Learning Models:
Neural Networks: An e-commerce platform might use neural networks to predict customer demand for various products by considering factors like browsing history, purchase patterns, and customer demographics.
Random Forest: A retail chain could employ a random forest model to forecast the demand for different product categories based on historical sales data and external factors like economic trends.
Judgmental Forecasting:
Expert Input: In the pharmaceutical industry, stakeholders may provide expert opinions to forecast the demand for a new medication, considering factors like regulatory approval, market acceptance, and healthcare trends.
These forecasting models offer diverse approaches, catering to various industries and scenarios.
Demand forecasting in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
In the context of demand planning in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, the efficiency of demand forecasting is bolstered by a robust suite of features. The system taps into the potential of built-in out-of-the-box AI-powered algorithms, integrates existing models, utilizes the capabilities of Custom Azure Machine Learning (AML), advanced forecasting models, forecasting profiles, and streamlined data hierarchy management to enhance the precision of demand planning. Through the seamless integration of these elements, the platform guarantees the accuracy of demand forecasts, facilitates the smooth identification and handling of outliers, and adeptly oversees various facets of the supply chain.
Built-in AI Algorithms:
Access to pre-configured and out-of-the-box AI-based models like Arima Prophet, ETS, and outlier removal without the need for additional configuration provides users with a powerful and user-friendly forecasting solution. This feature enables businesses to quickly leverage advanced forecasting techniques, enhancing the accuracy of predictions.
Image: Prophet Forecast – Output
Advanced Forecasting Models:
The platform supports advanced forecasting methods such as ARIMA, ETS (Error-Trend-Seasonality), Prophet, and Best fit, ensuring a high degree of accuracy in demand forecasts. Leveraging the capabilities of custom Azure Machine Learning (AML), this flexibility empowers businesses to customize their forecasting strategies based on the distinct characteristics of their products and the dynamics of their market.
Image: Advance Forecasting Model selection
Use your own Forecast Models
If you’ve created your own forecasting models or utilize Azure Machine Learning within Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, you can leverage the collaborative editing features within the app to directly invoke your custom models. This allows you to seamlessly integrate your pre-built models alongside the out-of-the-box models provided, tailoring your forecast for optimal accuracy.
Forecasting Profiles:
Users can craft and manage forecasting profiles, streamlining calculations and facilitating the application of outlier removal techniques. This feature adds a layer of customization to the forecasting process, allowing organizations to adapt to specific business requirements and scenarios.
Outlier Detection and Removal/Handiling:
Detecting outliers in demand planning is a vital component of forecasting and supply chain management. The identification of outliers plays a key role in enhancing the precision of demand forecasts and ensuring the appropriate handling of anomalies. This process is streamlined through the intuitive Outlier Detection capabilities embedded in demand planning within Dynamics Supply Chain Management.Detecting and eliminating outliers is a pivotal stage in data preprocessing, essential for enhancing the accuracy and dependability of statistical analyses and machine learning models. Employ advanced methods, particularly the Interquartile Range (IQR) and Seasonal-Trend Decomposition using LOESS (STL), to skillfully pinpoint and preemptively manage outliers. This strategic approach contributes to improved precision and effectiveness in data analysis.
Outlier Removal/Handling Techniques:
Leverage sophisticated approaches, notably the Interquartile Range (IQR) and Seasonal-Trend Decomposition using LOESS (STL), to adeptly identify and proactively address outliers for enhanced precision and effectiveness in data analysis.
Image: Outlier Configuration – Interquartile Range (IQR)
Data Hierarchy Management:
Efficient data hierarchy management is crucial for granular forecasting and optimizing supply chain operations. Demand planning in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management provides comprehensive hierarchy management across products, locations, and time:
Product Hierarchy: A retail electronics company organizes its product catalog with a hierarchical structure, starting broadly with categories like smartphones and laptops and becoming more granular with specific brands and models. This detailed hierarchy enables the company to forecast demand patterns at a specific product level, enhancing inventory management.
Image: Product Hierarchy set up
Location Hierarchy: The company optimizes distribution based on a location hierarchy that spans global, regional, and local levels. Understanding variations in demand by region helps in strategic decision-making for supply chain management, ensuring efficient allocation of inventory to meet the unique demands of each location.
Image: Location Hierarchy set up
Time Hierarchy: Capturing seasonality and trends through time hierarchy management, the company analyzes daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly variations in demand. This temporal sensitivity enhances the accuracy of predictions, allowing the business to adjust inventory levels and marketing strategies to meet fluctuating consumer preferences throughout the year.
Image: Time Hierarchy set up
Enhanced Integration with data:
Demand planning in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management seamlessly integrates your data, further enhancing the capabilities of the demand forecasting solution:
Image: Data Integration options
Virtual Entities:
The platform supports the extension or creation of custom entities within Microsoft Finance and Operations, enabling integration with additional data sources. This flexibility ensures that businesses can incorporate diverse datasets into their demand forecasting models.
Finance and OperationsIntegration:
The smooth export of planned data back into Microsoft Finance and Operations marks the culmination of the supply chain planning cycle. This closed-loop integration guarantees that the generated demand forecasts are directly incorporated into the broader finance and operations context, promoting consistency and accuracy throughout the organization. Users have the flexibility to plan across various instances of Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations at a higher level and selectively export specific parts of the plan to designated locations.
Image: Finance and Operations integration
Azure Data Explorer (ADX):
Efficient data storage, aggregation, and disaggregation in Azure Data Explorer optimize performance. This integration allows businesses to harness the power of Azure’s data capabilities for more robust forecasting and analytics.
Conclusion:
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management’s demand planning feature provides a comprehensive solution for demand forecasting. This solution incorporates outlier detection, advanced forecasting models, seasonality analysis, and robust scenario planning capabilities. The integrated approach enables businesses to make well-informed decisions, adapt to changing conditions, and maintain a competitive edge in a dynamic market environment. Demand planning and forecasting are crucial aspects of effective supply chain management, enhancing agility, responsiveness, and competitiveness in today’s dynamic marketplace.
The article explores various forecasting models and demonstrates their real-world applications. Dynamics 365’s features, such as built-in AI algorithms, advanced forecasting models, forecasting profiles, outlier detection, and data hierarchy management, are highlighted as key elements that improve accuracy.
Additionally, the platform’s integration capabilities with Azure Data Explorer and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management are emphasized, creating a closed-loop system that optimizes forecasting accuracy and extends its impact across the organization.
To navigate the complexities of supply chain management, businesses can strategically leverage Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. This proactive approach allows them to adapt to future challenges, gain a competitive edge, and foster sustained success in the ever-evolving landscape of modern business.
Learn More
Access the demand planning solution, Documentation, and Workshop:
To access the demand planning Application and learn more about its features, follow the provided links. Additionally, don’t miss the upcoming demand planning workshop in Denmark to dive deeper into this transformative tool.
Access the demand planning in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management:
To install the latest version of the demand planning application, ensure that you are using Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, and then visit the Power Platform Admin Center. Search for the Dynamics 365 demand planning Application and follow the installation process.
If you’re interested in learning more about our demand planning Application, we’ve prepared an extensive collection of highly informative documents for your review and easy access.
We’ve taken extra steps to create a series of informative demo videos that will not only guide you through the application but also showcase a multitude of features available in the demand planning Application.
The forthcoming demand planning Workshop, to be held at Microsoft’s facility in Lyngby, Denmark, is geared towards introducing the new demand planning application to both Customers and Partners. Furthermore, it will provide an in-depth exploration of the product’s features and capabilities.
The workshop will also cover various important topics, including:
Exploring the contents of the Public Preview October 21st and December update.
Engaging hands-on lab activities.
Participating in a user experience (UX) study or exercise.
Understanding how these developments align with the broader context of Supply Chain Planning.
An overview of Copilot for demand planning.
Customer insights and feedback.
Please note that a more detailed agenda will be provided to attendees as the workshop date approaches.
Join our Yammer group to stay updated with monthly evaluations, scripts, and videos related to the demand Planning Application. Your journey to supply chain transformation begins here.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
In today’s data-driven world, businesses rely on customer data to fuel their marketing strategies. They need to access, analyze, and act on this data to power personalized experiences that drive return on marketing investments. However, this comes with the challenges of (1) configuring systems like a Customer Data Platform correctly and (2) ensuring high data quality within these systems.
A Gartner research study1 reported that high quality data provides “better leads, better understanding of customers, and better customer relationships” and that “every year, poor quality data costs organizations an average of $12.9 million.” This is why it is crucial to understand the current configuration state of your Customer Insights – Data environment and the quality of your data; addressing these challenges is the key to unlocking the most relevant and impactful insights about your customers.
We recently shipped generative-AI powered features in D365 Customer Insights – Data to help organizations improve data quality and configuration with Copilot so they can empower business users with the best insights to deliver highly personalized customer experiences.
This blog post will share more information on how you can improve data quality and configuration with Copilot. With these features you can:
Review the current status of your Customer Insights – Data environment,
Understand the overall health of your data,
Consult which insights can be generated successfully from your data,
Act on recommendations to unlock more insights.
To illustrate how these features work, let’s see how they can be used to improve the speed and quality of an email marketing campaign to target high lifetime value customers with a ‘thank you’ discount on their next purchase.
Quickly know if your jobs have run successfully, and where to go if not with Copilot
Contoso Coffee recently implemented Customer Insights – Data, which involved integrating source data from various systems and creating unified customer profiles. To ensure that everything was running smoothly, they checked the system settings. Environment Status Summary, a Copilot feature not only highlighted a recent issue, but also used AI to identify where the issue occurred and provided a direct link to investigate. Thanks to this feature, Contoso’s IT Team was able to quickly fix a skipped customer profile job that would have otherwise blocked them from generating insights for an upcoming email marketing campaign. With the problem resolved in minutes, they could focus on re-engaging high lifetime value customers in a timely manner.
Understand your overall data quality with Copilot
Now that Contoso’s environment is running smoothly, they want to quickly understand the general health of their data estate.
They review a summary of their data quality on the Home Page by the Data Prep Report, a Copilot feature. This summary includes a data quality grade, which insights are available, the most critical data quality issues, and a link to a detailed data prep report to learn more. Using this summary, Contoso can see that their data quality is medium with a 75% score. They are able to generate some insights, but not the customer lifetime value prediction they want for their email marketing campaign.
If not for this summary, Contoso would have attempted to configure, train, score, and run a customer lifetime value prediction that would have failed completely or had low-grade results. The summary show where their data stands. Thus they don’t have to go through the frustration of trying to generate insights based on unusable data.
See which insights can be generated successfully from your data
Next, Contoso wants to deep dive the report to understand the next steps to build their email campaign. They click into the full Data Prep Report, which informs them that they can generate churn predictions, segments, or measures based on their current data. However, they want to pursue a customer lifetime value prediction to support their campaign. They filter the report to review the detailed issues and recommendations specific to customer lifetime value and see the issues listed in priority order from highest to lowest severity. The report gives them the targeted, easy-to-digest information they need to know how to proceed.
Act on recommendations to unlock more insights
Finally, Contoso engages their IT Team to act on the detailed issues and recommendations. The IT Team follows the recommendations by taking the suggested actions such as adding more data incorporating products with a sufficient number of purchases. With minimal time, effort, and ambiguity they are able to improve their data and light up the customer lifetime value prediction they want for their marketing campaign.
Create and use high-impact insights in marketing campaigns
With the help of Environment Status Summary and Data Prep Report, Contoso Coffee is able to get their Customer Data Platform environment set up correctly and resolve their top data quality issues effectively. By improving data quality and configuration with Copilot they are able to instantly get rich insights, such as customer lifetime value predictions, which are conveniently available out-of-the box in Customer Insights – Data. This lets their marketing team focus on launching an effectiveemail campaign that provides relevant and in-the-moment offers to their highest value customers to drive business results. Consult our product documentation and start using these AI-powered features today to achieve similar results!
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