February 2021 - Business Intelligence Info

Monthly Archives: February 2021

New Customer Experience Needs and Commerce Trends for 2021

February 24, 2021 CRM News and Info

By Jack M. Germain

Feb 24, 2021 5:08 AM PT

As consumers get comfortable with their newfound digital wallets and gift cards, marketers must continue to adapt their strategies to changes in shopping behavior to better finesse the customer experience.

Both consumers and vendors have had non-stop adjustments. Lockdowns and social distancing requirements accelerated the adoption of new technologies. Commerce trends that were on the horizon pre-COVID-19 were suddenly adopted at a brisk pace. Online food ordering, curbside pickup, and BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store) are presenting new challenges to store owners and brand marketers.

Commerce analysts do not see consumers shedding their newfound buying options in the wake of a post-pandemic marketplace. Concerns for health safety, social distancing, and remote working will remain as the center stage in the daily lives of millions of shoppers.

So brands must continue to assess how they can best meet the dramatically changing landscape of commerce. How brands deliver customer experience (CX) will determine where and how consumers continue to shop.

Four trends about customer experience and the new commerce will define 2021 and beyond, according to Jennifer Conklin, sector lead of unified commerce at Capgemini North America. Contactless customer experience, omnichannel shopping, personalization and changing customer journeys, and voice commerce will power the customer experience engine going forward.

“Consumer shopping and spending behavior have significantly shifted since the pandemic began in March 2020. Recent Capgemini research showed that 48 percent of holiday season purchases were for essential items, with consumers prioritizing clothing (36 percent), beauty/personal care products (21 percent), and electrical items (21 percent),” Conklin told CRM Buyer.

As for luxury products, Capgemini research showed that 47 percent of consumers expected a decrease in spend over the holidays while 29 percent predicted an increase in luxury purchases, she noted.

New Normal Sales Tools

Not all analysts are confident that consumers will ever return to brick-and-mortar stores as their primary shopping suppliers. Conklin is sure the four commerce drivers she identified have staying power. Her reasons make sense.

A contactless customer experience is one of the main demands indicated by consumers. Retailers that rolled out simple curbside options during the pandemic will put high-tech BOPIS and curbside offerings in place. Many shoppers still do not want to linger and browse in-store.

Omnichannel shopping has proven its value to shoppers looking for reliable delivery and better pricing options. Merchants who demonstrate that they are able to quickly get products to consumers, resolve issues with customer service, and provide fast delivery and returns will be the ones that thrive.

Personalization and changing customer journeys are the new sales tools. As brands look to understand new customer journeys, they must get creative online to improve engagement and increase customer loyalty, Conklin suggested.

Voice Commerce is the shopping tool just as voice commands are finding new uses in smart homes and electronic gadgets. Retailers will try to figure out how they can use voice to make the customer experience even more engaging.

Safety is still at the forefront of consumer concerns, noted Conklin. Last year, Capgemini research revealed that 77 percent of consumers expect to increase their use of touchless technologies to avoid interactions that require physical contact.

Her company’s research found that 59 percent of consumers prefer to use voice interfaces in public places during the pandemic. Researchers do not expect that percentage to shrink in a post-pandemic era.

“If this is not on merchants’ 2021 digital road maps, it needs to be added,” she urged.

The Journey Counts

To better understand the changing directions of shopping journeys, merchants should inject more effort by adding a personalization element, according to Conklin. This helps the customer feel known and valued as they make their purchasing decisions.

“While there are several degrees of personalization capabilities, merchants can start small by incentivizing customers to create account profiles and fine-tune their segmentation efforts so the organization can reach out to the customer with the right message at the right time,” she offered.

Data also plays an integral role when it comes to the success of personalization and omnichannel efforts. Companies need to ensure they are working with one central view of their customer across the organization from sales, service, marketing, and commerce, Conklin said.

“No matter who in the company is communicating with the customer, they need to have the relevant data at their fingertips to be successful in their role. This is also critical in order to deliver a consistent, seamless experience to the customer across every touchpoint in the customer journey,” she explained.

This data and direct customer feedback can influence product sets as well. That enables retailers to further refine their inventory strategies cross-channel/cross-market, she added.

What’s Ahead

Consumers’ modes of interaction and habits have changed and are continuing to do so as we adapt to the “new normal,” according to Durk Stelter, CRO of Linc, a CX automation platform provider in Sunnyvale, Calif. This year will bring further transition and change to retail. Shoppers’ expectations continue to rise for anywhere, anytime interactions with brands.

“As the fixed boundary between workplace and home has eroded, so has the divide between daytime computer use and leisure time on mobile. Amidst overlapping worlds, digital shopping has become omnipresent and around the clock — shifting among devices and following shoppers around their homes, into their cars, and on their cautious forays into the outside world,” Stelter told CRM Buyer.

These trends will stick for now. However, as stores reopen, the trends will likely evolve, creating more cohesion between the online and in-store experience, suggested Shelly Socol, co-founder of 1R, a digital commerce and retail strategy agency in New York City. The online buying experience will continue to evolve and grow so it is inevitable that the trends will morph.

“However, the trends we are seeing today are ahead of their time due to the pandemic. Both merchants and consumers have progressed by leaps and bounds over the past year, Socol told CRM Buyer.

Merchants have been forced to build more robust shopping experiences and offer high-touch customer service. Consumers, on the other hand, have had to get used to shopping online more often, she described.

“What might have been once foreign and uncomfortable for them has become a standard, and it is likely consumers will not revert back to shopping only in-store even when they are fully open,” predicted the 1R co-founder.

Differing CX Realities

Managing CX is becoming different now for in-store commerce versus e-commerce, according to Capgemini’s Conklin. In-store traffic remains at an all-time low. But e-commerce channels have invested heavily in robust customer experience capabilities.

“Since customers do not want to browse and shop in-store, the online digital experience needs to mimic the in-store experience. This means intuitive navigation, detailed product pages with full imagery, and personalized technology to foster loyalty,” advised Conklin.

Brands and retailers will also start to invest more in immersive technologies to bring products to life and embed this functionality into their sites, she noted. This will enable customers to configure products using a 3D configurator, augmented reality, or virtual photography.

“Once the pandemic subsides, the in-store shopping experience will return and likely be more immersive than ever before. Stores will likely carry less inventory and allocate space to be utilized for unique and engaging experiences such as product demonstrations, classes, spa treatments, cafes, and so much more where customers can spend time in-store,” she predicted.

CX in general has dramatically changed since the pandemic started. Customers expect 24/7 individualized personalization support on everything from pre-purchase information, to order support, returns, and loyalty and membership information, observed Linc’s Stelter.

“The rising degree of difficulty for customer service interactions requires organization-wide responsiveness and flexibility. As brands increasingly turn to automated solutions to help manage the volume of inquiries, the quality of digital-human interactions is crucial,” he said.

Create Seamless Shopping Experiences

A primary consideration is changing how marketers use chatbots, as Stelter sees it. To meet the challenges of 2021, digital interactions must be adaptive and empower the consumer to drive the conversation.

In order to improve their customer experience, merchants need to focus on accessibility, noted Meghan Brophy, retail and e-commerce analyst at Fit Small Business. That is one aspect of online shopping that has been neglected for too long.

“To truly offer a great customer experience, merchants need to make online shopping accessible to all. Simple changes like labeling form fields, adding alt text to images, and not using strikethroughs to show sale prices can make a big difference,” she told CRM Buyer.

More important than ever is for consumers to have a seamless shopping experience. Shoppers are starting and completing buying journeys using a mix of channels, and they all need to work together smoothly, explained Brophy.

For example, a customer might start on a brand’s Instagram page and add items to the cart. Then the customer visits the website later to complete the purchase and picks up the order in-store.

Many options exist for brands to maximize the online customer experience. Helpful and fast customer service is key, in addition to free shipping and easy returns. SMS is also a rising form of communication with consumers and is becoming a must, offered 1R’s Socol.

Brands should also build and utilize flexible landing pages populated with both content and products. These pages can form the foundation for marketing purposes to drive traffic. Brands can create storytelling experiences that complement the website and allow the brand to produce unique content for different target audiences.

Jack%20M.%20Germain New Customer Experience Needs and Commerce Trends for 2021
Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open-source technologies. He is an esteemed reviewer of Linux distros and other open-source software. In addition, Jack extensively covers business technology and privacy issues, as well as developments in e-commerce and consumer electronics. Email Jack.

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A data transformation problem in SQL and Scala: Dovetailing declarative solutions

February 24, 2021 BI News and Info

Part I: Problem Space, SQL Server Simulation and Analysis

This article covers an interesting approach to a software problem. The software to be built must transform data in an operating system file. Would it make sense to include SQL Server in the development environment?

Solving problems first in T-SQL provides result sets against which software results can be compared. Adding to that, query execution plans may serve as blueprints for software development.

In this Part I of the series, I’ll fashion business rules, requirements, and sample data into a denormalized table and query. The query’s WHERE clause includes several logical operators, but its query plan is trivial. To get one that can serve as a software design model, I’ll rewrite the query’s logical connectives as their set operator equivalents. The new query plan is more complex but suggests a logical approach for the software effort.

In Part II, you’ll see T-SQL components realized as structures you know: lists, sets, and maps. What you may not know, though, is how to code algorithms declaratively – e.g. without long-winded loops. The software makes extensive use of map functions, which take functions as arguments and are supported to varying degrees in many Visual Studio languages.

For this article, you’ll need development experience in a relational database and some knowledge of relational theory. For the next, any experience in an imperative or declarative language suffices. Though I’ve written the code in Scala and solely in the functional paradigm, I hope to present just enough background for you to grasp the core strategy of the solutions.

You can download the complete files for both articles.

Problem Space: Ice Cream

Ice cream manufacturers and retailers, whom I’ll refer to as makers, purvey many flavors. Here are the business rules:

There is a many-to-many relationship between makers and flavors.
There is a many-to-one relationship from flavor to base flavor (functional dependency: flavor → base flavor).

The term base flavor is an article device not an industry standard.

Participation is mandatory in both. This illustration shows the relationships for five of twelve rows from the operating system file in entity-occurrence style:

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Figure 1. Many-to-many and many-to-one relationships

This is the statement of the data manipulation requirement to be done on the operating system file in software:

For rows in which maker names end in ‘Creamery’ or the base flavor is Vanilla, further restrict these to their flavors being Mint, Coffee, or Vanilla. Return result for all three columns.

The reference to maker name of suffix ‘Creamery’ will result in a non-searchable argument (SARG) that will be handled transparently by the T-SQL but must be addressed directly in the software.

There is a subtle incongruity between the business rules and the data transformation requirement. Do you see it? The file and table will have the same twelve mockup rows but imagine thousands in a real project and how this could impact performance. I’ll point out the issue and resolve it later in a query and take what was learned when developing the software.

Problem Space: The Ice Cream Database

The goal of the table in the simulation database simply is to mirror the data in the file. The many-to-many relationship implies that (Maker, Flavor) is the sole candidate key. Since flavor → base flavor, the table would not be normalized; in fact, it is an intersection table in violation of 2NF. Further, there are no foreign keys or other tables as they would add nothing for the software design.

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Figure 2. File sample rows having redundancies – not in 2NF

Denormalization is visible in rows 5 and 6 and in 11 and 12. The non-clustered covering index (added post-population) will give a better query execution plan (query plan). More importantly, it will be matched by a key structure in the software – I’m tuning the database only to the extent that it will be relevant later.

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Figure 3. Denormalized intersection table and covering index creation

All database work was done in Azure Data Studio connecting to a local copy of SQL Server 2019. The script is in the download.

Solution Space: T-SQL Queries

The first goal is to create a result set against which the software result can be verified. Adhering to the business rules and requirements, the query constrains on four logical (Boolean-valued) operators, LIKE, IN, AND, and OR:

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Figure 4. Original query that creates rowset for software verification

This is the query outcome over the sample rows:

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Figure 5. Verification rowset with single-step query plan.

The Index Seek operator over the covering index expands the IN() operator, which implies logical OR, into Seek Keys (for a range scan count of 3), and further constrains on the Predicate as expected:

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Figure 6. Bottom part of expansion for Index Seek operator

All is correct to this point, and I can convert the index into a structure that will be used twice in software. However, the trivial query plan is not as useful as it could be. Relational theory is based on set theory, and the query rewrites next will more directly reflect this. This is important because the transformation algorithms in the software will all be set-based.

Query Rewrite I

The second goal, as you recall, is to fashion a query whose query plan will serve as a model for the software design. The trick I’ll employ is to replace the logical connectives OR and AND with their T-SQL equivalent set operators UNION and INTERSECT.

text description automatically generated 1 A data transformation problem in SQL and Scala: Dovetailing declarative solutions

Figure 7. Query rewrite using set-based operators

It produces the detailed query plan I’m looking for:

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Figure 8. Query plan for Figure 7

The outer input uses the same non-clustered covering index and Seek Keys for range scans (scan count remains 3) as the original query but without the Predicate. Instead, each outer row directly joins via Nested Loops (Inner Join) on all columns to the rowset produced by the union of the Creamery and base flavor rows (discussed next). The Nested Loops operator, then, accomplishes a row-by-row set intersection.

In the inner input to Nested Loops, the upper Clustered Index Seek on the primary key is for the LIKE(% Creamery) condition. Although the value to the LIKE logical operator is a non-SARG, a true index seek range scan (not table scan) is done on each outer row’s (Maker, Flavor) prefix, during which the LIKE Predicate can be applied. The lower Clustered Index Seek parallels the upper, differing only in the predicate condition: BaseFlavor = N‘Vanilla.’ Since the Inner Join is done on the superkey – i.e. all columns – and since flavor → base flavor, either lower input branch can produce at most one row. If both produce a row, they must, therefore, be the same row.

The Concatenation simply appends one output to the other – think UNION ALL in T-SQL. To get the T-SQL UNION, then, the Stream Aggregate (Aggregate) operator collapses duplicates via grouping (and no aggregate expressions are computed). Specifically, both Concatenation and Stream Aggregate show only the same Output List, which consists of column header Union 1004, Union 1005, and Union 1006, and their rows are returned to the query.

This query plan lends all the information needed to create index simulators and filter and map operations and algorithms in the software. An optimization, though, remains unaddressed – so almost all.

Query Rewrite II

There is no index on the BaseFlavor column, but in the middle subquery from Figure 7 above, BaseFlavor is constrained on value ‘Vanilla.’ This suggests that the lower-level software might need a data structure(s) and algorithm(s) to support the restriction. To start the analysis, I’ll create this covering index, which parallels that on the Flavor column:

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Figure 9. Covering index on BaseFlavor key

The proposed index has no effect on the query plan in Figure 8 above, nor the original query plan in Figure 5. This is not proof, though, that separate resources are not needed in software to enforce the restriction.

The next illustration shows the subquery run in isolation. A minor point is that the Query Optimizer chooses an Index Seek on the new index in place of an Index Scan using IX_MakerFlavor_Flavor. The central point is that subqueries that form part of a larger, single-statement T-SQL query will be translated into individual software resources that can and will be accessed in isolation.

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Figure 10. Query in lower half of UNION run in isolation

Now rerun the query but this time constrain the ‘Vanilla’ value by the Flavor column:

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Figure 11. Constraining on Flavor column yields two fewer rows

This is not an idle thought experiment. The former result set contains two extraneous rows – column Flavor values being ‘French Vanilla’ and ‘Cherry Vanilla’ – that are not in the result set from Figure 4. The software effort needs a decision as to which constraint to enforce. Whether in queries or software transformations, performance is better served when rows not needed are culled early. The question I posed early on regarding the mismatch between the business rules and requirement can now be restated: Can the restriction on BaseFlavor be replaced by that on Flavor and still be correct?

Constraining on the one side of a many-to-one relationship as does the top query form (BaseFlavor) is not wrong per se but is the root of the performance issue here. A business rule, however, signals the solution. The second states flavor → base flavor. Given this, and since the query’s set intersection operation removes rows not matching on the Flavor column, the T-SQL can constrain on the many side (Flavor) without affecting correctness. The implication for software is that it obviates the need for special structures – those for simulating the proposed index to start the section – and handling (algorithms), as will be made clear in Part II.

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Figure 12. Query in final form

Testing: A Note on the Sample Data

Say set A denotes the rows produced by the query that restricts on the three flavor names and set B the rows from the union of the two other queries. Given the sample data, it happens that A B and hence B ∩ A = A. Therefore, the query on flavor names alone yields the same result as the full query and the knowledge of which can aid testing.

It is important to realize that this outcome is entirely data-dependent. The proper subset relationship may not hold over an operating system file having different data, and the software will make no assumptions regarding this limited analysis. In general, it is never a good idea to deduce business rules from data that can change over time. With that caveat in mind, sample runs done here and in software over these rows can only boost confidence in results.

In Conclusion

You saw how business rules and software requirement were mapped to a single intersection relational table in which normalization and referential integrity were nonessential. The initial query on the table provided the rowset against which the software result could be verified, but its query plan was inadequate as a pattern from which the software design could proceed.

Rewrites using T-SQL set operators did yield a query plan as software blueprint and provided other insights as well, chief among them the optimization of the base flavor column.

Last Word

Neither loops nor branches were used in any of the T-SQL work, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. They are – visible underneath in the query plans, which describe the process steps (operators and data flow) the SQL Server database engine follows to produce results. A salient example of looping is the Nested Loops operator used in the T-SQL rewrite query plan to match each outer row to an inner row, i.e. perform the INTERSECT. This style of coding, in which the logic of the computation is expressed rather than the lower-level control flow detail, is declarative programming, and is a major theme of this series. (The latter being imperative programming.)

The next article, which uses functional programming to solve the series’ problem, continues in this vein. The logic written to the map and filter functions encapsulated in the data structures is again compact and elegant, even as the compiler translates it to control flow statements.

Translating insights gained here into functional programming will be straightforward but not paint-by-numbers simple. You may have found this discussion challenging – I hope stimulating – and may find Part II the same as well.

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SQL – Simple Talk

George Wallace Joins Laverne Cox For Comedy Titled ‘Clean Slate’

February 24, 2021 Humor

Norman Lear is getting into business with IMDb TV. He has set two projects in development at the Amazon-owned free streaming service including the Laverne Cox-George Wallace comedy Clean Slate, which previously was in development at Peacock.

The streamer is working with Lear’s Act III Productions and Sony Pictures Television, where Lear is under an overall deal, on Clean Slate and Loteria.

Clean Slate, which initially was announced as part of NBCUniversal’s development slate in January 2020, is set to star Cox and Wallace. The half-hour comedy follows Henry (Wallace), an old-school car wash owner who is thrilled that his estranged child is returning home to Alabama after 17 years. However, Henry has a lot of soul searching to do when the child he thought was a son returns as the determined, proud trans woman Desiree (Cox).

Cox and Wallace wrote the story with Dan Ewen, who wrote feature film Playing with Fire and is rebooting the Ernest franchise. Ewen wrote the pilot script and will act as showrunner and exec producer. Cox will also exec produce alongside Lear and Brent Miller. Wallace will be a producer.

Meanwhile, the hourlong drama Loteria, which is based on the card game, follows two estranged teen siblings who set off on an adventure across Mexico to collect 16 magical Lotería cards, unearthing the power of their history and culture in the hope of reuniting their family.

Felipe Vargas, whose fantasy short film The Guide was picked up by Dust in 2019, wrote the script and will co-exec produce. Lear and Miller will exec produce with creators Alberto Belli and Juan Pablo Reyes.

Source: Deadline

Cedric The Entertainer Joins Devon Franklin To Support Urban One’s Future Makers Campaign with AT&T

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The Humor Mill

How Microsoft Azure DevOps and Dynamics 365 CRM Work Together to Improve Service Responsiveness

February 24, 2021 Microsoft Dynamics CRM

An upset customer calls. My system is down! This feature doesn’t work! While many issues are open and closed cases (or are the result of user error), there may be bugs that need to be addressed by the development team. Having a centralized place for your customer information is just one CRM function. Your CRM can also reduce inefficiencies in application support and management, especially when effectively connected to other systems. Integrating applications such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM with Azure DevOps services amplifies case management capabilities for your development and support teams to escalate support cases and create work items to get problems resolved faster.

Outside of tech support’s ability to keep their cool when faced with high-stress situations, they must also act quickly. The more complicated the process and more systems involved, the longer it takes to get the ticket assigned to the right person or team. To help meet troubleshooting service goals, you need an open flow of communication right back to the source — the software development team.

Azure DevOps covers every step in the application lifecycle from planning, collaborating and testing, deployment, and beyond. If your business develops and/or hosts web or mobile apps, Azure DevOps services, integrated with Dynamics 365 CRM, can provide the full visibility across projects that your software development and tech support teams need.

Azure DevOps Services

Azure is a flexible public cloud computing platform that provides Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). Continuous delivery (CD) and continuous integration (CI) pipelines enable your software development teams to get a constant flow of updates — new features, configurations, bug fixes — into production and delivered to your customers quickly and safely.

Microsoft Azure DevOps services allow you to build, test, deploy and manage applications and services. Your software development teams can use all these DevOps services together, or mix and match to use only what you need as part of your existing workflows.

Depositphotos 120503924 xl 2015 625x417 How Microsoft Azure DevOps and Dynamics 365 CRM Work Together to Improve Service Responsiveness — Business meeting between four upper management board members in the new modern office conference room with technology integrated in the form of an electronic tablet.

Azure Boards: Agile tools, Kanban boards, team dashboards, built-in scrum boards and more — Azure Boards is where your team will plan, track and discuss projects at every stage in the lifecycle. Backlog tracking and powerful analytics give insight into project status. With visualizations and tracking tools, your team can easily track any code changes that are linked directly to work items.

Azure Pipelines: Azure Pipelines comprise the whole end-to-end story of how you write code and get it into production. An integrated set of features allow you to automatically build and test your web, desktop and mobile applications and deploy to any cloud or on-premises. It works with just about any language or project type including Node.js, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, C/C++, .NET, Android and iOS apps, as well as support for YAML so you can have pipelines versioned with your code.

Azure Test Plans: A browser-based test management solution, Azure Test Plans provides all the capabilities to test with confidence before deployment. This includes planned manual testing, user acceptance testing, exploratory testing, and gathering feedback from stakeholders. You can test across desktop and web apps, as well as capture data as tests are executed.

Azure Artifacts: Package management with Azure Artifacts simplifies complex build jobs and allows your teams to create and share Maven, npm, NuGet, and Python package feeds. Artifacts provide a place to push your packages so that they can be consumed by the rest of the team or partners. Sources can be public and private.

Azure Repos: This is where your source control is stored that gets published to the artifacts. Unlimited, cloud-hosted Git repos allow developers to collaborate on code.

Depositphotos 218890680 xl 2015 625x417 How Microsoft Azure DevOps and Dynamics 365 CRM Work Together to Improve Service Responsiveness — Working together in office. Business concept with double exposure effects

Before deploying Azure DevOps tools for your software development teams, it is wise to pre-plan how you will support and operate services in the cloud. To learn more about some of the key questions to ask before moving forward, read the full blog.

Get Started with JourneyTEAM

JourneyTEAM was recently awarded Microsoft US Partner of the Year for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (Media & Communications) and the Microsoft Eagle Crystal trophy as a top 5 partner for Dynamics 365 Business Central software implementations. Let JourneyTEAM show you the benefits of integrating Dynamics 365 and Azure DevOps Services. We can provide demos and full custom introductions. Contact JourneyTEAM today!

Article by: Dave Bollard – Chief Marketing Officer

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

The Benefits of Dynamics 365 Online Versus On-Premise

February 24, 2021 CRM News and Info

3804435900 The Benefits of Dynamics 365 Online Versus On Premise

Today, almost everything is in the cloud. And if your organization isn’t yet, you may be missing out on enhanced security, cost savings and new features. Specifically, I’m talking about Dynamics 365 Online vs On-Premise. As you may know, Microsoft has long had an on-premise version of Dynamics 365 which definitely has had its benefits, from giving clients the freedom to choose their hosting platform to giving them more development flexibility, within the constraints of the application. And back when Microsoft introduced an online version for Dynamics 365 (previously called CRM), on-premise seemed to have the most benefits. However, a lot has changed since then and now, being on-premise vs online can be costly for an organization, not to mention you will miss out on a lot of cool stuff.

Top Benefits of Migrating to Dynamics 365 Online

Enhanced security and reliability
- Your sensitive data is protected and stored in Microsoft owned state-of-the-art data centers
  - Did you know? Microsoft also provides compliance for the United States public sector, for government entities that qualify
- Microsoft provides a 99.9 percent uptime service-level agreement (SLA)
Scalability and flexibility
- Easily add new users with integration to Azure Active Directory
- Easily add more storage with a few clicks
Free up your IT resources
- Microsoft will manage the software and maintenance tasks for you, including deploying patches to fix bugs
  - No need for your IT team to maintain server updates, application updates, operating system updates, IIS updates, and the list goes on
- Microsoft will automatically push upgraded versions, which include new features (many of which are NOT available on-premise)
- Microsoft manages server backups, but an admin can easily create a backup of your data and customizations with just a few clicks
Easier to connect both your CRM and ERP data together
Access to pre-built apps in Microsoft’s AppSource
- Alternatively, your Microsoft partner can build a unique app using the Microsoft Power Platform and tailor it just for your business needs
Empower your organization with tools such as AI Builder which allows you to transform data to something more meaningful, including predictive analytics
A wider arrange of support options
- With your online subscription, you have unlimited support to Microsoft resources
- A growing community of other resources as more organizations turn to Dynamics 365 online

This isn’t at all an exhaustive list, but are some of the top benefits that we think of when using Dynamics 365 Online vs On-Premise. Already on a Dynamics 365 On-premise environment? We have a long history of helping our various sized clients transition from on-premise to online. While there is a variable cost upfront to do this (for large organizations, we recommend a phased approach), the long term benefits will pay off in the end. Additionally, as Microsoft invests more in Dynamics 365 Online vs On-Premise, we predict that someday they may sunset On-Premise.

Contact Beringer Today!

If you have questions about migrating from Microsoft Dynamics 365 On-Premise to Online, give us a call.

Beringer Technology Group, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training, Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

TODAY’S OPEN THREAD

February 23, 2021 Humor

Got something interesting?

Just feel like bitching?

Need to unload?

Have at it in the comments.

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ANTZ-IN-PANTZ ……

Simplifying the SMB Customer’s Journey with Microsoft Dynamics 365

February 23, 2021 Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Customers are more informed than ever. That’s changed how they evaluate, buy and use the goods and services they purchase. But this change isn’t a problem; rules change all the time, and people adapt. The intelligent customer is here to stay. It doesn’t mean that they know every nitty-gritty detail about the product or service that you will offer, but surely, they are not ready to let their guard down and neither want to be hoodwinked.

With customer experience now becoming more important than ever, the key to increasing customer loyalty is comprehending the customer journey, mapping it correctly, and optimizing processes for recurring satisfaction and retention of customers. Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a great solution to start planning an effective customer experience strategy. It is an integrated platform that enables small to midsize businesses to quickly and easily interact and respond with customers, empower employees, and improve service delivery.

SMB customers journey with Dynamics CRM AhaApps 1 625x352 Simplifying the SMB Customer’s Journey with Microsoft Dynamics 365

So, what is the customer’s journey?

The main goal of any company is to sign on new clients, for the business, revenue, and profit to increase. As a result, sales and marketing teams collaborate to provide the best possible buying experience for the prospective client; this includes mapping out the journey that the prospect will tread while engaging in the buying process. Creating a customer journey helps one understand how prospects progress from the discovery stage until the delivery period.

Every single interaction a customer has with an SMB about the product or service is incorporated in the customer journey.

Dynamics 365 and the customer’s journey

With this CRM for SMBs, you can streamline the sales process by which clients start discovering a product or service, assess whether it meets their requirements, look for a good offer, and finally seal the deal.

For an SMB entrepreneur, the Dynamics 365 customer journey helps you through automated messaging, activity generation, interactive decision points, and more. Your sales team will be able to identify a target segment and create a simple email campaign that talks to the prospects of that segment or create an elaborate customer journey that helps you plan, automate, and monitor the entire journey as prospects transfer from discovery, through nurturing and with a bit of luck and a lot of marketing zest moving on to becoming a qualified customer.

With this CRM, mapping out this conversion from prospect to the customer helps SMBs work out exactly why they should be nurturing them throughout the path towards the finish line.

Optimizing the steps in the customer journey

For your clients to be happy at every milestone and enabling a seamless and hassle-free journey, it is so important for you to keep in touch with them- before, during, and after the deal has been signed. With D365, you can optimize the journey at each stage and make it the best experience of your client’s life.

The awareness stage is when prospects identify their challenge or opportunity, they want to chase and discover your product or servicethat can meet their requirements. Dynamics CRM helps sales reps to generate leads across various sources like emails, LinkedIn, webinars, and events. If a buyer has been searching for a particular service, you could break the ice and send them an email, just talking about what they need. With contact information that is always updated, you can effortlessly take your leads into Dynamics 365 and create insights from your campaigns to increase impacts. It helps you create content that targets the right audience at the right time using the right campaigns, which generates better conversion rates. And it streamlines the sales pipeline as well.

Consideration

This is the stage when prospects have identified and defined the goal or challenge and have addressed it. Now, with Dynamics 365’s marketing automation option, you can choose from a multitude of different methods to nurture leads: create a marketing list, one-time email, weekly offers, or monthly newsletters. You can send personalized messages at specific intervals to keep in touch with the prospects. By updating their details into the list, you can select a suitable means of communication to start their customer journey.

Now in this stage, the buyers take the call whether to go with your company or not. The focus here is on the price, the ROI, and the value proposition, and they would want a face-to-face interaction at this stage. They also want an assurance that by signing the contract, they haven’t made a mistake. Dynamic 365 helps your sales team to track the most significant information about the sales process. This makes the purchasing process effortless for the customers as they receive the right information. With advanced personalization, you can view a customer’s order history, preferences, and other details that help in providing a remarkable experience.

Customer loyalty and retention go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other and if your client is happy with your service or product, he/she will ensure that your brand’s name is popularized through word of mouth. Unfortunately, most companies end their ties after the deal is done especially when the customer is looking for an after-sale support. Dynamics 365 enables you to offer the best possible experience throughout the customer journey leading up to ongoing service, and after-care support, ensuring you maintain a long-lasting relationship with your clients. It helps you to set timely follow-ups, provide reminders and alerts to proactively engage with customers.

In the end

Customers have become more cognizant about their requirements, what kind of service or product they need. With the spur in digitization, they do their thorough research before they reach out to an organization for a solution. It’s no longer a business that is calling the shots anymore. SMB entrepreneurs are changing what they have to offer based on the customer of today. And with a plethora of options available for the prospective client, it has become almost mandatory to create a unique and ever-lasting relationship with your clients.

Using Dynamics 365 for marketing can not only simplify the buyer’s journey but help you improve customer experience and increase revenue and embark on the road to success. Start by asking yourself the questions about the existing CRM. Or, you can download our eBook – Take the Challenge: 15 Questions to Identify the Gaps in Your CRM Processes.

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

FundGuard raises $12 million to help manage assets with AI

February 23, 2021 Big Data

FundGuard, an AI-powered software-as-a-service investment management platform, today announced that it closed a $ 12 million funding round. The investment will spur product development to support existing partnerships, FundGuard says, in addition to helping to meet demand from alternative funds and insurers.

AI is increasingly being used to manage assets toward the goal of maximizing returns on investments. For example, trading algorithms leverage AI to devise novel signals and execute trades with lower overall transaction costs. AI can also bolster risk modeling and forecasting by generating insights from previously untapped data sources.

For its part, FundGuard offers a cloud-based investment funds solution powered by AI. It’s designed to help asset and fund managers administer investments across mutual funds, ETFs, hedge funds, insurance, and pensions with utilities that execute reconciliation, exception management, and reporting.

FundGuard can apply AI to automatically identify and resolve data mismatches and breaks for things like positions, general ledger, and trades. At a more basic level, the platform’s algorithms can perform portfolio validation checks and benchmarking as well as investment news research, anomaly detection, and exceptions resolution.

Using FundGuard, managers can add layers of oversight for more detailed reviews of cash, corporate actions, and holdings movements, with day-to-day change summaries. They also get access to sets of predefined controls and customizable thresholds for rules-based trading.

There’s growing interest from the private sector in such technology. A report the Bank of England published in October 2019 found that two-thirds of financial services in the U.K. use AI and that many expect to more than double the number of business areas to which they apply AI within the next three years. Be that as it may, skepticism abounds — Canada-based Horizons vowed to revamp its AI-powered exchange-traded fund after a year in which it “significantly underperformed.”

But FundGuard cofounder and CEO Lior Yogev is quick to beat back skepticism. “We are seeing growing demand for our innovative cloud-native and API-first platform from banks and asset managers globally,” he said in a press release. “Our team is excited to be able to accelerate our mission to drive efficiencies through AI, enhance investor transparency and digital engagement, and provide a single source of truth for funds.”

New York- and Tel Aviv-based FundGuard’s series A financing announced today was led by Team8, Blumberg Capital, LionBird Ventures, and JPMorgan operating committee members Heidi Miller and Jay Mandelbaum. It brings the company’s total raised to date to over $ 16 million.

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Big Data – VentureBeat

How to functionally create N*n lists of ordered pairs using Outer (or similar) where n is dynamic / recursive?

February 22, 2021 BI News and Info

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Recent Questions – Mathematica Stack Exchange

No Pain, No Gain

February 22, 2021 Humor

Rick Perry, former governor of Texas and former Secretary of Energy, said “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business.” Of course, what would Perry know about energy? Ironically, the Department of Energy’s main job is to manage our nation’s nuclear stockpile, not to make sure that citizens have heat and power. Perry didn’t seem to realize that when he took the job.

On the other hand, I kinda agree with his idea of suffering being good for the soul. After all, being without electricity might just be what it takes to wake Texans up, so that they finally get rid of that worthless pile of “sheee-it” Ted Cruz.

CNN reports that while Cruz was fleeing Texas for warmer climes, Democrats got to work solving the problem. Beto O’Rourke (who came close to unseating Cruz in 2018) “ran a virtual phone bank to contact senior citizens in Texas, to connect them with resources during the disaster.” At the same time, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez launched a fundraiser on Twitter that raised at least $ 2 million to help Texans, and she is going to personally fly to Texas to help distribute supplies.

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Political Irony

Monthly Archives: February 2021

New Customer Experience Needs and Commerce Trends for 2021

New Normal Sales Tools

The Journey Counts

What’s Ahead

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Part I: Problem Space, SQL Server Simulation and Analysis

Problem Space: Ice Cream

Problem Space: The Ice Cream Database

Solution Space: T-SQL Queries

Query Rewrite I

Query Rewrite II

Testing: A Note on the Sample Data

In Conclusion

Last Word

George Wallace Joins Laverne Cox For Comedy Titled ‘Clean Slate’

Cedric The Entertainer Joins Devon Franklin To Support Urban One’s Future Makers Campaign with AT&T

How Microsoft Azure DevOps and Dynamics 365 CRM Work Together to Improve Service Responsiveness

The Benefits of Dynamics 365 Online Versus On-Premise

Top Benefits of Migrating to Dynamics 365 Online

TODAY’S OPEN THREAD

Simplifying the SMB Customer’s Journey with Microsoft Dynamics 365

So, what is the customer’s journey?

Dynamics 365 and the customer’s journey

Optimizing the steps in the customer journey

Consideration

In the end

FundGuard raises $12 million to help manage assets with AI

VentureBeat

How to functionally create N*n lists of ordered pairs using Outer (or similar) where n is dynamic / recursive?

No Pain, No Gain

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