Intrastat is the system the European Union (EU) uses to collect statistics on the trade in goods among EU member nations. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central customers that operate in the EU can use the Intrastat Report to meet their monthly reporting requirements. With 2022 release wave 2 of Business Central, we’re introducing a redesigned Intrastat reporting experience with extended features. Here’s what you need to know.

Test in a sandbox first

The new experience is disabled by default. You’ll need to enable it on the Feature Management page in Business Central. We suggest you enable and test it in a sandbox environment with a copy of your production data first. Once you activate the new user experience in your production environment, you can’t go back to the old Intrastat functionality.

New Intrastat reporting experience

The old Intrastat Report was based on journals. In the new report, you’ll see a list of entries, and when you create a new Intrastat Report, it opens on the document page.

Additionally, Intrastat reporting is no longer part of the base application, but is now an extension.

Enhanced functionality

• Data Exchange Framework for reporting. Almost all EU countries require a file for reporting. Previously we created a hardcoded file. Now we use the Data Exchange Framework, and you can easily create timestamped files for export. We include prepared formats for countries for which we have localizations. You can change the out-of-box report or make your own, especially if we don’t have a localization for your country.

• Configurable Checklist Report. After you fill in the Intrastat Report, you can run a configurable Checklist Report to make sure the information you entered is correct, and that all fields you indicated are mandatory have been entered.
• Fixed asset reporting. You can also include fixed assets in your report.
• Weight and supplementary unit management. For both goods and fixed assets, you can easily configure the weight and supplementary unit of measure and, if needed, recalculate weights and supplementary units without changing any other values.
• Manual corrections. You can manually correct your lines, and edited lines are indicated.
• More report configuration options. The new Intrastat Report configuration has more options, and you can also adjust your reporting in the Data Exchange Definition settings. You can set file export preferences, default values, which country will be the base for reporting, how to treat VAT numbers, and more.
• Service Declaration is coming soon as a separate app. Service Declaration, or Intrastat for Services, will be available in November 2022 as a separate app. Business Central will report services that come from the purchase and sale of items configured as services, resources, and item charges.

Technical information

• Now modularized and open source. With the new Intrastat application, the Business Central development team continues to apply the strategy of modularizing the common application layer (base application). At the same time, we’re providing more capabilities for partners to contribute by making both the Intrastat app and report formats open source.

• Developed for extensibility. The central part of the design is the Intrastat core app. The app allows a partner to define business in two ways:
  • Use the app logic with the report format exposed through the Data Exchange Framework to generate the report
  • For a heavily customized solution, define logic through the standard report configuration on the VAT Report Configuration page (suggest lines, content, response handler, and validation object)

    To support extensibility, the app has 47 integration events. If you need to submit more than that, use the standard process.

• Customizable formats. After receiving many requests to allow easier report format modifications, we decided to expose the format through the Data Exchange Framework to support text and XML files. Microsoft will continue to provide changes in accordance with local market law requirements, but users may customize the format and keep their own version of the format definition. The Intrastat core application will have a common format defined in DataExchDefMap.xml in the AppResources folder.
• Country formats. The Intrastat core extension supports all countries and follows the existing Intrastat logic. For several countries, the required Intrastat format is significantly different. Microsoft is releasing country-specific apps, which will be developed on top of the Intrastat core app. Both Intrastat core and country apps will be preinstalled by default but must be enabled in Feature Management. Developers can choose to develop their solution on top of a common application layer, the Intrastat common application, or an Intrastat country app.
• Open-source app. Our goal is to open the source code completely, both the app code and report formats. The formats will be exposed as Data Exchange Framework schema and shared through GitHub. Like other first-party apps, the app code will be available on GitHub at ALAppExtensions/Apps/W1 at main microsoft/ALAppExtensions (github.com).

When will the new Intrastat reporting experience be available?

The new Intrastat experience is available starting in October 2022 with 2022 release wave 2 for all countries using the W1 version and country apps for Austria, Spain, and Sweden. Other country-based apps for Microsoft localizations only will be available in November 2022. Service Declaration will be available as an additional app in the same release starting in November.

For EU countries without Microsoft localization

What if you’re in an EU country where Microsoft doesn’t provide localization? In that case, partners can start by adding country-based features on top of the Intrastat core app as soon as the W1 version is available.

If you see some obstacles in this process, please contact us. Our intention was not to create a new Intrastat only for Microsoft localizations, but to create a solution that our partners can easily extend to meet local requirements.

Action needed

You should transition to the new Intrastat app soon. The existing Intrastat functionality will be supported until 2023 release wave 2 to provide enough time for a smooth transition. However, we encourage Business Central customers to move to the new Intrastat app before then.

Important notes:

• Existing Intrastat functionality is being deprecated. The Intrastat objects in the base application (27 in total) will be tagged for obsoletion and will be available until 2023 release wave 2.
• The transition process is one-directional. Once you move to the new Intrastat app, users will not be able to return to the old experience.
• No data will be transferred in the transition.
• There is no overlap between the existing and new Intrastat objects, so there is no risk of data corruption.
• Users who try to access existing Intrastat pages will be redirected to the new experience.
• To modify the assisted setup, use the following setting:
  [EventSubscriber(ObjectType::Codeunit, Codeunit::"Feature Management Facade", 'OnAfterFeatureEnableConfirmed', '', true, true)]

Learn more

For more information about the new Intrastat reporting experience, read the documentation:

Work with Intrastat Reporting – Business Central | Microsoft Learn

Set Up Intrastat Reporting – Business Central | Microsoft Learn

Learn about more globalization features in Dynamics 365: Reduce complexity across global operations with Dynamics 365 – Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog

New to Dynamics 365 Business Central? Try it for free.

The post Intrastat reporting redesigned in Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Customization is one of the most effective tools to ensure users are maximizing application capabilities by tailoring them to their organization or individual use cases. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales users love the sales accelerator experience, where they get a prioritized list of customers and an optimized workspace. It is a modern view that provides seamless navigation and relevant guidance regarding the next best activity the user should take, without multiple context switches. However, our users told us they needed more flexibility to customize work item cards according to the requirements and use cases of specific organizations or users. That flexibility is now available.

The new work item experience enables users to customize work item cards according to their needs and organizational requirements. With key information visible in the work item cards and relevant filters and sorting mechanisms easily available, users can make quick, informed decisions about the next entity or sales workflow to select, just by glancing at the curated worklist.

The key highlights of this feature include: 

• Modify the information, icons, and action buttons displayed in a work item card so that the most relevant data for Sales entities is always available
• Control the customization at the organization (admin) and user levels

Let’s understand the capabilities in detail and how you can benefit by customizing work item cards across your sales scenarios.  

What is work item card customization? 

The ability to customize work item cards is a new capability offered as part of the sales accelerator workspace. It allows users to customize the design, content, and structure of work item cards to display the most relevant and valuable information in the work item. Users can personalize work items for each entity type they work with, by adding, removing, or modifying icons, activities, and the number of rows or the number of fields in each row, which are displayed as part of the out-of-the-box card structure. Users can view the fields and activities that are relevant for them in any ongoing sales processes. 

Who will benefit from customized work item cards? 

Work item card customization is beneficial to individual users, business admins, and sales managers, as this feature provides control at both organizational and user levels. 

Work item card customization is available for business admins without having to change any settings. If you have an admin role in your organization, you can start using the feature right away to customize work item cards. Define the work item card structure that will be visible in the worklist of the sales accelerator workspace for all relevant entities in accordance with your organizational directives or sales scenarios.

As an admin, you can lock customization to ensure that users are not able to make any modifications to work item cards without reaching out to you.

If allowed, users can define the work item card structure for all relevant entities according to their own requirements and advantages. The customized view is visible only to the user, and they can always restore the default card view with a single click.  

Below are some of the use cases for customizing the work item card: 

• If sellers are directed to prioritize opportunities based on the estimated revenue, an admin can update the structure of the Opportunity work item to show the “Estimated Revenue” field.
• To pick up an opportunity based on a field like “Rating,” which is not part of the Opportunity entity card, users can modify the card structure to add the field.
• In cases where lead cards are displaying information that isn’t relevant for the user’s work, they can remove unneeded fields and keep the ones they find relevant. 

How to customize work item cards? 

A card designer with dynamic preview options allows users to view their changes as they are making them, reducing design errors and minimizing rework while modifying the card structure. The designer comes with a one-click “Reset to Default” option available at any point in case they want to return to the out-of-the-box card structure for an entity.  

Users can make the following customizations using the card designer: 

• Modify the card icon to add an image, initials, or record or activity type associated with the record 
• Add up to three fields and three icons in a single row 
• Add up to four rows 
• Remove rows or fields (a minimum of one row is required) 
• Add action options from an available set (skip, preview, assign, mark complete, etc.) to perform the actions without having to delve into the form details of each entity

The card designer allows users to update the design and structure for all the sales entities by selecting the relevant one from a list. Changes that admins make are reflected in work item cards for all users. Users can modify and save their own card structure, which overrides the out-of-the-box or admin-defined structure.

Next steps 

To start designing your own customized work item card view in the sales accelerator workspace, check out the documentation: Customize the appearance of work items in sales accelerator | Microsoft Learn

If you are not yet a Dynamics 365 Sales customer, check out theDynamics 365 Sales webpagewhere you can take a guided tour or get a free 30-day trial.

The post Customize work item cards to boost seller productivity appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

When you’re crafting marketing and sales strategies, an important way to drive engagement and purchases is by personalizing your marketing campaigns, journeys, and content to your customer segments. One method for segmenting your customers is by their potential value. AI can help predict their potential lifetime value so you can create segments of high-value and low-value customers. As with all AI, the more data the AI model has, the more accurate its predictions will be. Now you can use Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to include selected customer profile attributes in the customer lifetime value (CLV) predictive model. This post will share what customer profile attributes are, how to use them in the CLV model, and what’s new in the overall experience of using the model.

AI: It’s all about the data

The type of data that’s provided to an AI model can influence the accuracy of its predictions. Transaction data, which AI models use to predict transaction value in the future, can become more accurate by adding customer data. The more customer data you provide to a model, the more accurate and targeted the segments of “high-value” and “low-value” customers will be. As a result, marketing campaigns that target those segments can speak more directly to the individual traits of your customers, driving engagement and sales.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights is introducing a new feature for the CLV out-of-the-box predictive model that allows you to select customer profile attributes to include in the prediction. You can select from 18 commonly used attributes, in any combination, to include as an input to the model.

What is the customer lifetime value prediction model?

The CLV prediction model predicts the potential valuerevenuethat individual active customers will bring to your business in a future period that you define. The model can help you to:

• Identify high-value customers.
  • Target individual high-value customers.
  • Create strategic customer segments based on customers’ potential value to run personalized campaigns with targeted sales, marketing, and support efforts.
  • Recognize and reward high-value customers through loyalty or rewards programs.
• Identify characteristics of high-value customers.
  • Guide marketing and sales strategies by optimizing factors that increase customer value; for example, by incentivizing more frequent visits or using upsell campaigns to encourage larger transaction totals.
• Optimize sales or marketing strategy and allocate budget more accurately for customer outreach.
• Identify medium-value and lower-value customers to create strategies to improve their value.

What are customer profile attributes?

Attributes are the fields in a customer profile (or in any Common Data Model entity). Customer Insights uses both standard entity definitions and its own entities, including CustomerProfile. The CustomerProfile entity includes dozens of attributes that define the characteristics of your customers, such as their birth date, first name, last name, and gamertag.

What is the model doing with these attributes?

Customer attributes can serve as extra sources of information to make customer lifetime value prediction more personal. Personalizing these predictions helps to customize the model to your use case without requiring you to develop fully customized AI models.

The profile attributes that you select during configuration are added to the model and considered alongside required input data. The model’s results page shows how much the attributes influenced the prediction.

As illustrated in the figure below, the CLV model creates a table of the features of transaction activities, such as average transaction value and transaction frequency, with one row for each customer. It augments the table with features of other activities, such as the number of days since the last retail product web review. Now, you can include customer profile attributes such as gender and date of birth as features in the activities table as well, to determine how those factors affect the prediction.

How has the experience of configuring the CLV prediction model changed?

The high-level experience of configuring the CLV model hasn’t changed. The only difference you’ll notice is that now you can use the Additional data (optional) step to boost model insights with additional customer data, in addition to activity data.

As shown in the following screenshot, you’ll need to map one or more of the 18 possible customer profile attributes to a field in the activities table for the model to include them.

Adding customer profile attributes to the model is optional. If you choose to use them, you can map as few as one or as many as 18. The CLV model will consider all attributes for which you’ve provided a mapping and decide whether they’re influential in identifying your predicted high-value and low-value customers.

What changes will I see in the CLV prediction model?

You can review your prediction results on the My predictions tab in Intelligence > Predictions. Select a prediction to view its results page.

You’ll see the results of using customer profile attributes on the results screen. More information about the results page is available in the product documentation. The model will decide which of the customer profile attributes are influential in the customer lifetime value prediction and will show them alongside other influential factors on the results page.

The results page is the easiest way to know whether the attributes you mapped were used in the prediction. The influential factors table shows the importance for predictive ability that the model assigned to each of the aggregated factors. If a mapped attribute had zero or very little impact, you might infer that that characteristic of your customers doesn’t affect their potential lifetime value.

The factors are aggregated because it’s a simpler way to understand hundreds of factors that are similar. For example, the model aggregates the importance of all location-related fields under a single factor called Location.

Could adding customer attributes make my model biased?

Like all AI features that are developed at Microsoft, all the out-of-the-box predictive models in Customer Insightsincluding the CLV modelare subject to rigorous Responsible AI principles. We follow these principles to ensure that our AI features meet our standards for developing ethical solutions that you can trust. Because you bring your own data to these models, it’s important to understand that any bias that’s present in your data might influence the predictions to be biased as well.

Let’s say that Contoso Coffee is hosting an event to launch a top-of-the-line espresso machine. Wanting to target high-value customers to invite to the launch, they use the CLV model and include the customer profile attributes Location and Occupation in the prediction. They find that their highest-value customers live in affluent suburbs and work in particular occupations.

A closer look reveals the bias hidden in the prediction when it includes just Location and Occupation: assuming that where a customer lives or what they do for a living are the only attributes that indicate a high-value customer. Selecting only a subset of customer profile attributes can be a type of bias.

Three ways to avoid bias in customer lifetime value prediction

To avoid introducing bias into your predictions, make sure the source data is fair. You can use tools like Fairlearn to check the data you’re ingesting into Customer Insights.

You can train your model in a way that avoids bias, too. It’s as easy as including as many customer profile attributes as you can map, to allow the model to consider them as influential factors.

Finally, you can avoid bias when you review your results. Take the model’s influential factors list into consideration and avoid “cherry picking” customer attributes that serve a hypothesis you might have.

Returning to our Contoso Coffee example, should they include Location in their model? Certainly. They want to make sure guests they invite can easily travel to the event, so that’s a fair use of the Location attribute. But they should consider other attributes to help them make a fair decision and capture the best audience to invite.

Why might my mapped attributes not be used?

If a customer attribute you mapped doesn’t appear in the influential factors table, this might be why:

• You might have mapped the attribute incorrectly. Map it correctly, and then run the model again.
• The model didn’t find it to be influential compared to the transaction and activity data.
• Data quality issues made the attribute unusable.

Customer Insights checks the data quality of mapped attributes before using them in the model. For example, if most entries for an attribute are missing, we consider that attribute unreliable for prediction. The model doesn’t use it and it doesn’t appear in the influential factors list, but it does appear in the input data usability report.

When is this feature available?

Customer profile attributes are available now in the CLV prediction model in Customer Insights.

Learn more

• Read the product documentation.
• Read a more in-depth version of this post in the Business Applications Applied AI Insights Blog.
• Check out our previous posts:
  • Unlock insights and power personalized experiences with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
  • Extending Dynamics 365 Customer Insights with Azure ML-based custom models
• New to Dynamics 365 Customer Insights? Already using it but want to try out CLV customer profile attributes with demo data? Start a trial.
• Want more information? Reach out through the Customer and Partner Voice channels or share a suggestion on the Dynamics 365 Application Ideas page.
• Want to engage with the wider community? Ask a question, share an idea, and connect with other Customer Insights partners and users in the Customer Insights forums.

The post Personalize your customer lifetime value predictions with customer profile attributes appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The new Customer Service admin center unifies and simplifies administration across the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service suite. We’re deprecating the old standalone administration experiences in the service management area of the Customer Service Hub, Omnichannel admin center, and app profile manager. Support for these experiences will end in April 2023. We want to make sure your admins and other IT professionals have the information they need to prepare for these changes.

Start using the unified admin center now

If you haven’t already tried the new Customer Service admin center, you’ll find it’s more efficient than the old standalone admin experiences it’s replacing. All in one place, you can set up and manage cases, channels, knowledge articles, queues, routings, automatic record creation rules, agent experience profiles, insights, schedules, and more.

Here are just a few of the improvements in the new unified admin center:

• We’ve consolidated administration experiences across the Customer Service Hub, Omnichannel admin center, and app profile manager.
• Get step-by-step guidance when you’re setting up a channel.
• We’ve added a search feature to help you easily find administrator settings.
• The reorganized site map is now task-oriented and adapts to the capabilities you’ve provisioned. Based on core Customer Service, if you have provisioned Omnichannel for Customer Service, then other features are automatically available.
• Overview pages for each area list at-a-glance information with deep links to manage features.
• Landing pages for each feature provide an overview of all the capabilities.

Deprecation of standalone admin experiences

With the release of the Customer Service admin center, we are announcing the deprecation and end of support of the following standalone admin experiences in April 2023:

• Service management area in the Customer Service Hub
• Omnichannel admin center
• App profile manager

Starting in October 2022, the Omnichannel admin center and the service management area in the Customer Service Hub will be hidden by default in newly created organizations and environments. You have the option to bring them back, but we recommend that you start using the new Customer Service admin center as soon as possible.

The app profile manager standalone experience will be removed in April 2023.

Action needed: Move to unified admin center now

If your organization is using any of the standalone admin experiences listed above, we recommend you move to the new unified app as soon as possible. The app is automatically installed in all Customer Service organizations and is available on the Dynamics 365 app page.

All existing setups will appear in the Customer Service admin center. If you have customizations, you can migrate them to the new app. No other migration is needed.

Next steps

Get started with Customer Service admin center and read the FAQ.

Contact Microsoft Support if you have questions or need help as you move to the new Customer Service admin center.

Thank you for being a valued Microsoft Dynamics 365 customer.

The post Unified admin center replacing Customer Service standalone experiences appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

We are excited and honored thatGartner has recognized Microsoft as a Leader in their 2022 Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises.* This evaluation of Microsoft was based on specific criteria that analyzed our overall Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute.This is the second year in a row we’ve been recognized as a Leader. As Product-Centric enterprise customers transition their mission-critical enterprise resource planning (ERP) processes to the cloud, we believe they look to recognized vendors for the technology to transform and realize business value. We’re honored to be recognized in this space.

An integrated enterprise ERP solution

Both Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Dynamics 365 Finance offer organizations the standard capabilities they expect in an ERP solution but delivered on a modern, open, and cloud-based architecture that empowers composability and scalability. These solutions can work as stand-alone products or together as an integrated, extensible solutiongiving businesses the flexibility to work the way they want.

Building a Leader

At the heart of our vision is the relentless desire to empower organizations to enable a resilient and sustainable supply chain, and it is through this vision and dedication that we have built a Leader. Let’s explore the qualities we believe put us in this category.

Cloud-native ERP integrated with the Microsoft technology stack

Dynamics 365 is a cloud-native application that runs, and was built on, Microsoft Azure. This seamlessness between cloud and application helps organizations to scale as their business grows and to protect their data with security tools from Microsoft. Companies can drive innovation with continuous updates, which are quality validated and controlled by the customer, allowing them to set the pace of change while also leveraging the latest and greatest feature updates. It also allows organizations to use Microsoft Power Platform. Power BI can bring insights to the surface, and Power Automate can streamline processes by automating repetitive tasks with no-code tools embedded in Dynamics 365. The underlying Microsoft Dataverse architecture also makes it easy to integrate with third-party applications for niche requirements or communicate with customers and suppliers when order or shipment information is updated.

Dynamics 365 integrates natively with Outlook and Teams, enabling companies to use the tools they already have and are familiar with to augment their finance and supply chain tasks. Stay in the flow of work with embedded Teams integration, which allows cross-team collaboration on things like supply and demand planning.

Embedded advanced analytics on a composable platform

Dynamics 365 incorporates embedded Power BI dashboards, which puts the data you need at your fingertips and in the context of modules like warehousing and procurement. For example, with Power BI, you can gain a single view of your warehouse performance to optimize location capacities and make efficient labor scheduling decisions.

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Dynamics 365 Finance are built on a composable platform, making it easy to extend your solution with Power Platform, providing low-code tools like Power Apps and Power Automate. Where ERP customizations were once a heavy, time-consuming task, these tools empower end users to customize their solutions and build apps so you can work the way you want. Furthermore, users can leverage prebuilt customizations and industry-specialized solutions from our ISV partner network to help speed development even further. Internally at Microsoft, we’re leveraging Dynamics 365 and custom Power Apps to enable a circular economy at our Microsoft Circular Centers.

Flexible manufacturing capabilities

Modern manufacturers require nimble solutions and flexible systems to adapt quickly to changing demands and production processes. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management features a logical and intuitive UI designed for modern production floor execution, whether you’re running discrete or continuous processes.

Additionally, while some manufacturers may use the native functionality in Dynamics 365 to control their manufacturing activities for machines, equipment, and personnel, many manufacturers are implementing manufacturing execution systems (MES) to meet advanced and bespoke manufacturing requirements. For manufacturers that have either built MES solutions in-house over a number of years or have implemented a third-party MES, integrating an MES with ERP can be challenging. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management takes the pain out of integrating with your MES by leveraging the power and simplicity of application programming interfaces (APIs). Data exchange is fully automated and occurs in near real time, keeping data current in both systems with no manual data entry required.

Investing in innovation with global coverage

We are thrilled to be recognized as a Leader again in this year’s Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises.* But our ambitions don’t stop here. We are continuing to invest in making Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Dynamics 365 Finance even better with innovations that will make our products smarter and more efficient for for enterprises of all scaleglobal, large, and mid-market.

Learn more

To learn more about Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management or Dynamics 365 Finance, request a demo or take a tour today.

Magic Quadrant reports are a culmination of rigorous, fact-based research in specific markets, providing a wide-angle view of the relative positions of the providers in markets where growth is high and provider differentiation is distinct. Providers are positioned into four quadrants: Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries, and Niche Players. The research enables you to get the most from market analysis in alignment with your unique business and technology needs. View a complimentary copy of the Magic Quadrant report to learn more.

*GARTNER and Magic Quadrant are registered trademarks and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

**This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Microsoft.

Source: Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises,” Greg Leiter, Dixie John, Robert Anderson, Tim Faith, September 26, 2022.

The post Microsoft recognized as a Leader in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.