This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Introducing Copilot for the new Field Service mobile user experience
Field Service mobile is a powerful application that helps frontline workers manage their tasks, access information, and communicate updates with the back office. But we know that sometimes, using an app can be cumbersome or distracting, especially when you are busy with your hands-on work. That’s why we are excited to announce Copilot for the Field Service mobile app, a new feature that makes Field Service mobile even more user-friendly and efficient.
The new Field Service mobile (Preview) user interface has two Copilot skills that help to summarize and update work orders. Copilot update uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence to understand your input via text or voice command, then suggests form updates based on that input. While the Copilot summary provides the Frontline Worker a concise summary of their booking with the click of a button.
Let’s learn more about these features and how they work.
How Copilot Summarizes You Work
Copilot Summarize provides a quick overview of the scheduled booking for the frontline worker. This gives frontline workers a better understanding of the job to be done without needing to click through multiple forms to find the information. Copilot will summarize a booking based on the following fields related to that booking:
Another benefit of Copilot is that it can help you easily fill out forms. Instead of hunting for fields within the mobile app, you can simply tell Copilot what you want to update. Tell Copilot to update data with phrases such as:
I’ve completed all tasks and finished this booking at 10:00AM
I’ve used {product name} as part of my work to complete this booking.
I’ve completed {service task name}.
Copilot will understand your natural language input and propose updates to data on the form accordingly. All changes proposed by Copilot will be presented to the frontline worker where they can exclude or accept recommended updates.
Today the Copilot update is limited to updates of the forms within the new mobile UX only. Scope of these updates are:
Update your booking status and times
Change the state of at task to completed
Consume estimated products
Complete work order services
Complete service tasks assigned to the work order
Keep an eye out for additional enhancements and capabilities of this feature!
How to Get Started with Copilot for Field Service Mobile
Copilot Summary and Update are available for the new Field Service mobile (Preview) experience today. To enable Copilot, the org admin will need to enable the features within Field Service Settings. Once enabled, app users will find the copilot entry point in their application under the Copilot logo located in the header of the booking form.
We hope that Field Service mobile with Copilot will make your work even more productive. We would love to hear your feedback and suggestions on how to improve Copilot. Please feel free to leave comments in the Dynamics 365 Community Forum or Ideas portal. Thank you for using Field Service Mobile!
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
How often do you find yourself spending too much time reading through long and complex customer cases, trying to figure out the main problem and the best solution? What amount of cases do you handle per day, and how do you ensure quality and consistency in your responses? How do you keep track of the most relevant and updated information from multiple sources and channels?
These are some of the challenges that support agents face every day, and they can affect their productivity, performance, and satisfaction. Customers expect fast and accurate answers to their questions and issues, and they don’t want to repeat themselves or wait for long periods of time. Support agents need to be able to quickly understand the context and history of each case, identify the root cause and the best action, and communicate effectively with customers and colleagues.
This is where summarization comes in. Summarization is an AI-powered feature that provides support agents case summaries to help them quickly understand the context of a case and resolve customer issues more efficiently. It uses large language models and natural language processing to analyze and condense information from various sources and formats, such as emails, chat messages, phone calls, documents, and web pages, into concise and relevant summaries. Summarization can save you time, improve your accuracy, and enhance the customer experience.
This blog post explains how summarization works, what benefits it can bring to your support team and your organization, and how you can turn it on and use it with Dynamic 365 Customer Service Copilot, the leading AI platform for customer service.
Summarization: The gateway to generative AI Innovation
Summarization stands out as an ideal first use case, primarily due to its immediate, measurable impact on efficiency and productivity. It automates the extraction of crucial details such as the case title, customer, subject, product, priority, case type, and description. The AI-generated summaries offer context and communicate the actions already undertaken to address the issue. Summarization delivers tangible benefits, showcasing the power of generative AI in a clear and demonstrable manner.
Compared to other AI use cases, the implementation of summarization is less complex. It is a straightforward starting point for organizations new to generative AI, reducing barriers to entry and integration time. The success of summarization in enhancing productivity and achieving measurable outcomes serves as a confidence-building milestone for organizations. Experiencing the transformative power of generative AI fosters trust in the technology. Additionally, it lays a robust foundation for delving into more advanced use cases.
Starting with summarization brings immediate operational improvements. It also helps organizations to embrace the broader potential of generative AI, setting the stage for future business process innovation.
By selecting the Make case summaries available to agents checkbox, administrators can bring their organization a quick win that adds immediate business value. We have invested in summarization features to allow more customization options. Admins now can customize the format of how agents view conversation summaries. They can also customize the entities and fields that are used for case summary.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Microsoft has separated all Czech-specific functionalities into distinct applications as part of the delocalization process of the Czech version of Dynamics 365 Business Central. The process intended to pave the way for the seamless integration of Czech local functionalities on top of the Worldwide (W1) version of the Business Central.
Technical Overview
Business Central has been undergoing major changes over the past few years and one of the strategy areas is application modularization, that includes localization layers. This led to critical changes in the Czech localization layer, which has now been converted into a suite of distinct localization apps. The suite contains the following apps: Core Pack, Advance Pack, Banking documents, Cash Desk, Compensation, Advance Payments, and Fixed Assets.
To ensure that both old and new Czech functionalities work in parallel in that transition period. Microsoft made sure that the old code integrated into the Base Application was gradually cleaned up. The last step is to remove Czech specific fields from the Czech Base Application.
In the next major release of Business Central 2023 wave 2 (version 23), the following Czech-specific fields will be removed from the tables, while primary keys will be updated:
Table 1251 “Text-to-Account Mapping”, field 11700 Text-to-Account Mapping Code: Code[10]
Action Required: Upgrade to Business Central 2023 Release Wave 2
To ensure a successful upgrade to Business Central 2023 release wave 2 (version 23) Czech, perform a forced synchronization of the database schema. Microsoft will ensure a seamless upgrade process for users of the online version of Business Central. However, for those upgrading to this version using Business Central on-premises, it is necessary to set the “schemaUpdateMode” parameter in CZ Base Application to “ForceSync” to synchronize the data model.
Users who are upgrading to the on-premises version of Business Central 2023 release wave 2 (version 23) Czech and higher must verify that there are no duplicate records in both tables 1251 “Text to Account Mapping” and 1252 “Bank Payment Application Rule” after the Czech fields have been removed from the primary key. This can be accomplished either by manually deleting the data or by upgrading to any version of BC 22.x where data modifications will be included as part of the upgrade procedures. It is highly recommended to back up the data in these tables before proceeding.
Summary
Czech-specific fields that were previously part of the primary key in Table 1251 “Text to Account Mapping,” specifically Field 11700 “Text-to-Account Mapping Code,” and in Table 1252 “Bank Payment Application Rule,” “Bank Payment Application Rule Code,” will be removed in this new version.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
We are honored to announce that Gartner® has recognized Microsoft as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)—this is the fifth consecutive year we’ve received this recognition.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
As the calendar turns its page to a new year, the roles of chief financial officers (CFOs) and finance teams take center stage as they review business performance and tackle updating strategic plans. The fresh new year of 2024 will bring with it a multitude of opportunities, challenges, and transformative possibilities for financial leaders navigating the ever-evolving landscape of the global economy. In this dynamic arena, where precision meets strategy, the CFO becomes the architect of fiscal success, and finance teams are the craftspersons shaping the financial future of their organizations. And yet, many leaders struggle with the complexity involved in navigating uncertainties, taking advantage of emerging trends, and driving business performance. We’re introducing the latest advancements in our enterprise resource planning (ERP) portfolio that address these challenges to simplify how you activate business insights at every level of your organization.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance
Begin your AI-guided business performance management journey today.
Let’s break this down based on the following top business performance management challenges we’ve heard from our customers as they turn to their planning, analytics, and insights tools, then we’ll cover our new year’s resolutions for each.
Data accuracy, consistency, and integration: Poor data quality, reconciliation processes, and the integration of disparate data sources hinder accurate analysis and planning. Resolve to create a connected enterprise in 2024; our new business process-centric data models in the business performance analytics capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance will pave the way.
Complexity for users: Financial planning and analytics (FP&A) and corporate performance management solutions often have a steep learning curve, lack a user-friendly design, and are difficult for users to navigate. Resolve to empower your teams with easy-to-use tools; our business performance planning capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, generally available on December 31, 2023, will help.
Total cost of ownership: Most financial management and ERP solutions do not include business performance management capabilities as part of their core solution, and these tools need to be purchased separately, which minimizes who can use them. Resolve to lower your total cost of ownership, while maximizing business performance management; our new Dynamics 365 Finance Premium offering will provide an easy way to acquire and deploy advanced business management capabilities.
Resolution 1: Create a single source of truth for planning, analytics, and insights, making it easy to get started.
Unlocking the true potential of your finance department requires addressing the common data-related challenges and tool limitations that hinder productivity, and getting actionable business performance insights in a timely manner.
We introduced business performance analytics in February 2023 to help you analyze and improve business performance by unifying data from Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Dataverse, and other sources into an easy-to-use, business process-centric data model. You can use business performance analytics to create reports, dashboards, and insights that help you make informed decisions and optimize your operational workflow.
Business performance analytics aims to revolutionize how finance departments handle complex data by streamlining data ingestion, cleansing, and enrichment. By automating data hygiene, teams can reduce manual work, minimize reliance on IT, and lay the foundation for advanced capabilities like copilot and AI.
Create a unified data model for better planning, analytics, and insights.Analytics dashboard from Dynamics 365 Finance
Business performance analytics capabilities are currently available in preview and your administrator can request installation; your current Dynamics 365 Finance licenses allow you to try it out today.
Resolution 2: Empower people with planning and analytics tools that are easy to use.
Finance teams often face challenges with outdated data and complex tools, resulting in slow, manual processes when extracting integral information. The complexity of analytical tools often demands advanced data science skills or falls short with outdated features, hindering the discovery of valuable insights crucial for enhancing business performance. In the pursuit of agile decision-making, finance leaders must overcome these hurdles and ensure access to robust, timely insights that drive action.
We introduced our vision for extended planning and analysis (xP&A) back on May 31, 2023. On December 31, 2023, we’ll deliver on this vision with the general availability (GA) of business performance planning capabilities that equip our Dynamics 365 Finance customers with a comprehensive view of financial and operational performance. These capabilities simplify and automate planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and analytics by integrating with familiar Microsoft Power BI and Excel environments.
Create strategic financial plans with Dynamics 365 Finance.
Your administrator will be able to access these capabilities for installation after the GA date from the Power Platform admin center.
Resolution 3: Optimize costs while ensuring people have the tools they need and that they’re easy to buy.
The total cost of ownership for many business performance management solutions can be notably high due to various factors such as initial software licensing fees, implementation costs, and customization expenses. Integration challenges with existing systems may necessitate additional resources, and the need for skilled personnel to manage and optimize the solution can incur ongoing labor costs.
Our approach is to include planning, analytics, and insights as capabilities within Dynamics 365 Finance, while providing interoperability with familiar tools like Excel and Microsoft Power BI. This strategy allows our customers to minimize the high costs associated with many FP&A and xP&A solutions. This ensures that individual users have access to the capabilities they need to successfully complete their work, while not having to pay for unnecessary functionalities. We’re introducing a new offering to help realize this goal. Dynamics 365 Finance Premium will equip users with the tools needed to build advanced financial plans, budgets, analytics, and insights. This license will only be needed for roles within the organization that are responsible for creating strategic plans, budgets, reports, and insights. Welcome to a new era of financial empowerment, where success is not just measured but strategically crafted.
Modernize business performance management
In navigating the complexities of today’s economic landscape, CFOs recognize the indispensable need for advanced planning and analytical tools to effectively steer their organizations through uncertainties, foster innovation, and ensure both short-term resilience and long-term prosperity. With these new capabilities in Dynamics 365 Finance, CFOs can empower finance and business leaders with the essential tools to not only anticipate risks but also drive strategic innovation. In the face of modern economic challenges, more advanced corporate performance management becomes essential for financial leaders, offering a robust foundation to fortify their organizations, ensuring they not only weather the current storms but emerge stronger and more resilient for the challenges of tomorrow.
We’ve made planning and analytics easy for customers to get started, in familiar tools that are easy for finance users to use, and we’ve made the buying process simple with the Dynamics 365 Finance Premium offering. Ensure your organization is ready to adopt the new business performance planning capabilities and start 2024 with a better view of your strategic plans.
Learn more about Dynamics 365 Finance
Begin your AI-guided business performance management journey today. Learn more about Dynamics 365 Finance and our finance solutions to get a better understanding of how this new offering will add additional business performance management capabilities for our customers.
Recent Comments