Microsoft named as a worldwide Leader in IDC MarketScape for Finance and Accounting Applications for Enterprise, Midmarket, and Small Business

Microsoft named as a worldwide Leader in IDC MarketScape for Finance and Accounting Applications for Enterprise, Midmarket, and Small Business

by | Feb 15, 2024 | Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

To thrive in today’s highly complex global business environment, organizations are increasingly relying upon the technological and strategic prowess of their financial leaders. We’re continually investing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 to enable finance leaders to monitor financial operations in real time, predict outcomes, and drive strategic decision-making that hinges on insight.

We are pleased to announce that Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader in three IDC MarketScape reports—IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Enterprise Finance and Accounting Applications 2023-2024 Vendor Assessment (doc #US51405823, December 2023); IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Midmarket Finance and Accounting Applications 2023-2024 Vendor Assessment (doc #US51405023, December 2023); and IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Small Business Finance and Accounting Applications 2023-2024 Vendor Assessment (doc #US48041222, December 2023).

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Read the IDC excerpt

Dive deeper into the IDC MarketScape for Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Enterprise Finance and Accounting Applications excerpt.


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According to the IDC MarketScape for Enterprise Finance and Accounting Applications, “Consider Microsoft when you are searching for a well-established provider with the resources to innovate quickly and effectively.”

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Source: IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Enterprise Finance and Accounting Applications 2023-2024 Vendor Assessment (doc #US51405823, December 2023). Copyright IDC 2023.*

Boost productivity with Copilot for Dynamics 365

As the pace of business accelerates, the role of finance leaders has shifted. They are called to navigate a range of new challenges and responsibilities: reporting on the past, managing the present, and creating the future.

Today, financial leaders are responsible for much more than finance, as they are increasingly accountable for the strategic direction of the company. The scale and pace of decision-making has increased compared to the previous generation, which was called on to help make quarterly decisions. Now, finance leaders make critical financial decisions weekly—and in some cases, daily.

According to the IDC MarketScape for Enterprise Finance and Accounting Applications, “We will see the demand for more analytics, reporting, and data visualization tools. This trend will continue to accelerate and shape buying decisions for financial leaders.”

Our answer to this is to provide simple solutions—focusing on collaboration, productivity, AI, and insights—to help finance leaders make data-driven decisions and drive business agility and growth. According to the IDC MarketScape for Enterprise Finance and Accounting Applications, “Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot brings together Azure OpenAI and ChatGPT. Copilot is embedded in Dynamics 365, working alongside business professionals to help them create ideas and content faster, complete time-consuming tasks, and get insights and next best actions. This enables users of all technical abilities to use AI to boost their productivity and focus on more important tasks.” A great example of this is HB Antwerp, a Belgian company redefining how natural diamonds are sourced, crafted, and sold.

In 2024, the company plans to up the value of diamonds tracked to USD 1 billion. In terms of continuing to use AI like Copilot, it said that 60% of emails are written with AI, suggesting the importance of AI to the future of the company. This enables users of all technical abilities to use AI to boost their productivity and focus on more important tasks.

“There’s an unprecedented level of maturity, collaboration, and relationship to new products like Copilot, which are crucial to growth.”

Shai de-Toledo: Co-founder & Managing Partner, HB Antwerp

Optimize your operational workflow within Microsoft Power Automate

The IDC MarketScape for Enterprise Finance and Accounting Applications also noted, that, “These process mining capabilities simplify how work gets done by discovering workflow bottlenecks and further automation opportunities.” This is something that Microsoft customer, HB Antwerp, experienced firsthand. This Belgian diamond company set out to challenge the age-old opacity of the industry. 

HB Antwerp turned to Microsoft and its Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations, and Microsoft Power Apps, using ledger technologies to record immutable data points across the diamond’s journey, ensuring sustainability and visibility every step of the way. Now HB Antwerp can predict its profit more accurately, reduce errors, increase communication, and ensure maximum value for everyone involved. Miners and governments reap the financial benefits and consumers can see how their diamond purchases contribute to transforming Botswana’s economy and the lives of its citizens.

HB Antwerp has embraced the move from being just a diamond company to a data company.

“It’s about how do you mine data and create scalability on it that attracts different humans, companies, and institutions who want to be a part of the story, and that’s how we aim to grow.”

Shai de-Toledo: Co-founder & Managing Partner, HB Antwerp

From mining stones to mining data, Dynamics 365 embeds automation into the flow of work throughout, enabling business process optimization for business decision makers.

Learn more through the IDC excerpt

Curious to dive deeper? Read the IDC MarketScape for Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Enterprise Finance and Accounting Applications excerpt.

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Contact your Microsoft representative to learn more about the value and return on investments, as well as the latest offers—including Dynamics 365 Finance Premium.

Notes:

* The IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor’s position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures vendor product, go-to-market, and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a three to five-year time frame. Vendor market share is represented by the size of the icons.

The post Microsoft named as a worldwide Leader in IDC MarketScape for Finance and Accounting Applications for Enterprise, Midmarket, and Small Business appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

Access to multiple benchmarks is now live in Viva Glint

by | Feb 15, 2024 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

We are excited to announce the launch of multiple benchmarks access in the Viva Glint platform, one of our many exciting product enhancements slated for this year. Customers can now select and enable additional external comparisons in the platform for managers to toggle between when reviewing their results.  Access to multiple benchmarks has been among the most-requested enhancements by our customers, and we’re thrilled to start 2024 by introducing this feature.  


 


One of the most exciting benefits of this feature is the flexibility that this will provide to managers and administrators when reviewing results.  Organizations previously had to select just one external benchmark to display in the platform, but they can now choose from our full suite of benchmark comparisons to tailor the reporting experience for their company.   


 


For example, a multinational company using Glint’s global benchmark may decide to add access to the Japan benchmark so that their office in Tokyo can compare their results to a local comparison rather than global.  Or, a company may choose to add access to one of Glint’s high-performing benchmarks so their executive leadership team can compare their results to a more aggressive benchmark.   


 


In the past, additional comparisons could only be generated manually and offline; with this new functionality, administrators have the power to provide multiple benchmark comparisons to all managers with just a couple of clicks.  Being able to access these comparisons directly in the platform helps managers take the next step in really understanding and owning their results.  


 


The process of deciding which benchmark(s) to enable will not be that different than when companies could only choose one; we still recommend considering things like where the organization competes for talent, where large employee populations exist, or how aggressive you want the comparison to be.  Administrators will still choose one primary, or default, benchmark that all managers will see when they log in, but now managers will be able to toggle to other external comparisons that have been enabled so they can see how their results stack up to these alternative benchmarks. 


 


And though this new feature adds significant analytics power for managers, we all know that with great power comes great responsibility.  It may be tempting to add dozens of benchmarks to give managers a wide variety of benchmarks to choose from, but it may be overwhelming and confusing for less-experienced managers who need a more curated experience. In general, we recommend choosing no more than the three most relevant external benchmarks to provide a good balance of flexibility with reasonable guardrails.   


 


Also, think about the timing of when you choose to add additional benchmarks; you might consider launching multiple benchmarks availability with the rollout of your next survey cycle as you’re training (or refreshing) your managers on how to use the platform and interpret their results. 


 


So how do you get started?  This feature is available to our Viva Glint users starting on February 10, 2024 (and this is already available to our LinkedIn Glint customers). Your Viva Glint administrator will choose any new benchmarks to add, and they will then be immediately available to all managers. To enable this in your own platform, please click here for further instructions. For additional questions, please comment below or reach out to your Glint support team member.  

Security review for Microsoft Edge version 121

by | Feb 14, 2024 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

We are pleased to announce the security review for Microsoft Edge, version 121!


 


We have reviewed the new settings in Microsoft Edge version 121 and determined that there are no additional security settings that require enforcement. The Microsoft Edge version 117 security baseline continues to be our recommended configuration which can be downloaded from the Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit.


 


Microsoft Edge version 121 introduced 11 new computer settings and 11 new user settings. We have included a spreadsheet listing the new settings in the release to make it easier for you to find them.


 


As a friendly reminder, all available settings for Microsoft Edge are documented here, and all available settings for Microsoft Edge Update are documented here.


 


Please continue to give us feedback through the Security Baselines Discussion site or this post.

Adapting to change with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales: Customers’ success stories

Adapting to change with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales: Customers’ success stories

by | Feb 14, 2024 | Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

In a rapidly changing business landscape, organizations face numerous challenges in meeting their customers’ expectations and staying relevant. With the COVID-19 pandemic driving a sudden shift to remote work and the introduction of new technologies, many struggled to keep up with the pace of change and financial pressures.

In this blog post, we’ll showcase some of our recent success stories with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales customers in the financial services and manufacturing industries. From improving client relationships to streamlining operations and reducing overhead costs, each of these organizations uses Dynamics 365 Sales to overcome unique challenges and achieve outstanding business outcomes. So, whether you’re in financial services or manufacturing, join us as we explore real-world examples of how Dynamics 365 Sales can help you succeed in today’s market.

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Succeed with Dynamics 365 Sales

Streamline operations and achieve outstanding outcomes.


Learn more

Revolutionizing the finance industry: How Dynamics 365 Sales is helping financial institutions build stronger client relationships

Customers and investors of banks and insurance companies expect a personalized experience that incorporates their unique needs. Long-term clients expect these institutions to know them, and proactively approach them with services that are relevant to them. However, large financial institutions tend to spread across the globe, and different divisions must offer different services and products based not only on local markets, but also on changing regulations.

To tackle these challenges, Investec, a global financial services company, uses conversation intelligence in Dynamics 365 Sales to transcribe sales calls accurately and analyze the content. This helped build stronger client relationships, identify appropriate next steps, and ultimately save time and reduce overhead costs.

Franklin Templeton is one of the largest asset management companies in the world and prides itself on effective stewardship of its clients’ capital. After recent acquisitions, it aimed to restructure its many inherited customer relationship management (CRM) systems under one do-it-all sales platform to gather customer data efficiently. Through proof-of-concept trials, the Franklin Templeton technology team found Dynamics 365 Sales to be the best CRM solution for its pre-built integrations and user-friendly interfaces, improving its relationships with customers and streamlining its operations.

Empowering the manufacturing industry with Dynamics 365 Sales

In the manufacturing industry, companies are required to coordinate their work with multiple internal departments, partners, and customers. At the same time, buyers are looking for consistent experiences. Traditional dealer networks have been key in this industry, but now, end customers are looking for direct contact with the manufacturer. Let’s have a look at some of the successful Dynamics 365 Sales customers in this industry.

Lexmark, a global provider of printing and imaging technology, needed a sustainable path to digital transformation by overhauling its sales and reporting processes. Lack of integration between different platforms within the company and its complex product and service ecosystem made it difficult to build configurations using its old configure, price, quote (CPQ) system. Using Dynamics 365 and Experlogix CPQ, the company integrated its CRM and CPQ system, resulting in a 43% drop in quote revisions and significant reduction in time-to-quote.

Andreas Stihl AG & Co. KG, a German-based company, develops, manufactures, and distributes power tools for professional and private users in the forestry and agriculture, landscape maintenance, and construction sectors. STIHL’s customers want consistent experiences across all touchpoints—online, print, or on-site at the dealer. However, STIHL didn’t have a unified CRM system. To overcome these challenges, STIHL adopted a central solution that would bring transparency to its business processes, combining dealer and customer data. STIHL rolled out its OneCRM, basing it on Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service. This solution provides a 360-degree view of customers and specialist dealers. By implementing this solution, STIHL significantly sped up its customer support response, and improved transparency within and between its sales subsidiaries worldwide.

As a premier supplier of transportation solutions, Siemens Mobility has been for 160 years handling complex solutions that require working with many departments, customers, and partners. In spring of 2020, the company had an urgent need for a CRM solution that could keep pace with its highly collaborative selling process and intricate customer journey. In just five months, Siemens transitioned fully to the new CRM solution. Since then, Siemens Mobility has been using Dynamics 365 to personalize and streamline marketing communication and to accelerate their tender-based sales processes. Dynamics 365 is used all the way from lead acquisition to deal closure including lead generation, lead qualification, and account and opportunity management. With all these processes in the same system, Siemens can easily follow process performance across all touchpoints and continue tuning the ways of working to keep equipping the world with seamless, sustainable, and reliable transport solutions.

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Dynamics 365 provides visibility on all touchpoints within a sale or service at Siemens Mobility.

Looking ahead with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales

You’ve seen how Dynamics 365 Sales has helped five customers from the financial services and manufacturing industries achieve their sales goals. Each faced unique challenges, but they all shared a common vision: to deliver more value to their customers. They’re not done yet—some of them are already exploring Microsoft Copilot for Sales capabilities to gain further insights and guidance.

“At Investec, we are very excited to see how we can leverage Copilot and AI within the Microsoft stack to connect our internal teams and to enhance our understanding further of prospective and current clients to ensure we are providing a best-in-class experience.”

—Dan Speirits, CRM Product Manager at Investec

Join our customers on their continued journey, ensuring their success and their customers’ success with the use of Dynamics 365 Sales and Microsoft Copilot for Sales.

Learn more about:

The post Adapting to change with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales: Customers’ success stories appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

Making our generative AI products safer for consumers

Making our generative AI products safer for consumers

by | Feb 13, 2024 | AI, Business, Microsoft 365, Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Over the past year, generative AI has seen tremendous growth in popularity and is increasingly being adopted by people and organizations. At Microsoft, we are deeply focused on minimizing the risks of harmful use of these technologies and are committed to keeping these tools even more reliable and safer.

The post Making our generative AI products safer for consumers appeared first on Microsoft 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

Azure SQL Managed Instance – Log Space Growth Alert using Azure Runbook/PowerShell

by | Feb 13, 2024 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Introduction


 


There are scenarios wherein customer want to monitor their transaction log space usage. Currently there are options available to monitor Azure SQL Managed Instance metrics like CPU, RAM, IOPS etc. using Azure Monitor, but there is no inbuilt alert to monitor the transaction log space usage.


 


This blog will guide to setup Azure Runbook and schedule the execution of DMVs to monitor their transaction log space usage and take appropriate actions.


 


Overview


 


Microsoft Azure SQL Managed Instance enables a subset of dynamic management views (DMVs) to diagnose performance problems, which might be caused by blocked or long-running queries, resource bottlenecks, poor query plans, and so on. 


 


Using DMV’s we can also find the log growth – Find the usage in percentage and compare it to a threshold value and create an alert.


 


In Azure SQL Managed Instance, querying a dynamic management view requires VIEW SERVER STATE permissions.


 


 

GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE TO database_user;

 


 


 


Monitor log space use by using sys.dm_db_log_space_usage. This DMV returns information about the amount of log space currently used and indicates when the transaction log needs truncation.


 


For information about the current log file size, its maximum size, and the auto grow option for the file, you can also use the size, max_size, and growth columns for that log file in sys.database_files.


 


Solution


 


Below PowerShell script can be used inside an Azure Runbook and alerts can be created to notify the user about the log space used to take necessary actions.


 


 

# Ensures you do not inherit an AzContext in your runbook
Disable-AzContextAutosave -Scope Process
$Threshold = 70  # Change this to your desired threshold percentage

try
{
    "Logging in to Azure..."
    Connect-AzAccount -Identity
}
catch {
    Write-Error -Message $_.Exception
    throw $_.Exception
}

$ServerName = "tcp:xxx.xx.xxx.database.windows.net,3342"
$databaseName = "AdventureWorks2017"
$Cred = Get-AutomationPSCredential -Name "xxxx"
$Query="USE [AdventureWorks2017];"
$Query= $Query+ " "
$Query= $Query+ "SELECT  ROUND(used_log_space_in_percent,0) as used_log_space_in_percent FROM sys.dm_db_log_space_usage;"


$Output = Invoke-SqlCmd -ServerInstance $ServerName -Database $databaseName -Username $Cred.UserName -Password $Cred.GetNetworkCredential().Password -Query $Query

#$LogspaceUsedPercentage = $Output.used_log_space_in_percent
#$LogspaceUsedPercentage
 
if($Output. used_log_space_in_percent -ge $Threshold)
 {
        # Raise an alert
        $alertMessage = "Log space usage on database $databaseName is above the threshold. Current usage: $Output.used_log_space_in_percent%."
        Write-Output "Alert: $alertMessage"
 
        # You can send an alert using Send-Alert cmdlet or any other desired method
        # Send-Alert -Message $alertMessage -Severity "High" Via EMAIL - Can call logicApp to send email, run DBCC CMDs etc.
    } else {
        Write-Output "Log space usage is within acceptable limits."
    }

 


 


 


There are different alert options which you can use to send alert in case log space exceeds its limit as below.


 


Alert Options


 



  1. Send email using logic apps or SMTP – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/connectors/connectors-create-api-smtp


 



  1. Azure functions – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/samples/azure-samples/e2e-dotnetcore-function-sendemail/azure-net-core-function-to-send-email-through-smtp-for-office-365/


 



  1. Run dbcc command to shrink log growth – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/managed-instance/file-space-manage?view=azuresql-mi#ShrinkSize


 


Feedback and suggestions


If you have feedback or suggestions for improving this data migration asset, please contact the Data SQL Ninja Engineering Team (datasqlninja@microsoft.com). Thanks for your support!


Note: For additional information about migrating various source databases to Azure, see the Azure Database Migration Guide