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Work Remotely with Microsoft Teams During COVID-19: Tips for Success

April 3, 2020 Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Working from Home During COVID-19? Follow These Tips for Success with Microsoft Teams

A week ago, Microsoft sent out a message to more than 50,000 employees in the Seattle area. In short, it asked them to start working from home if possible. While Microsoft’s employees were already using Microsoft Teams, the almost immediate transition to working remotely meant the company quickly saw a major uptick in both chat and video meeting usage.

With so many of us now working remotely, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, Jared Spataro, has taken the time to share some tips for how to work from home effectively with the help of Microsoft Teams. We’ve summarized his advice below.

How to Get Started with Working from Home

Working remotely can be intimidating, especially when you’re first getting started. To make the transition from office-based to home-based work as smooth as possible, follow these three tips.

First, be sure to set aside a dedicated space for your home office. Microsoft Teams provides you with access to the documents and files you need, making it easy to get up and running with your ‘virtual’ office right away. It’s fine if you don’t have a proper home office already set up — just be sure to devote a specific space to working remotely, whether it’s a spare bedroom, the corner of your dining table, or another space in your home.

Next, be sure to communicate clearly with your team members. Let everyone know what your schedule is, and stick to whatever schedule you set. Provide your teammates with regular project updates directly in the relevant Teams channel. This makes it easy for team members to look back through the channel history later to get a sense of how everyone’s progressing with a given project.

Lastly, don’t forget to set boundaries from day one. When you first start working from home, it’s easy to find yourself working outside of normal office hours. But more time devoted to work isn’t necessarily better. Failing to set boundaries will quickly lead to burnout, which will ultimately reduce your long-term productivity. Be sure to mentally ‘clock out’ from your work each day, and set your laptop aside until the next morning.

Keep Meetings Focused and Effective

We’ve all been on our share of conference calls, but shifting to a 100% virtual meeting schedule can be a challenge.

There are a few things to keep in mind in order to maximize the efficiency and productivity of meetings. First, be sure to give everyone a join option in Teams, and encourage participants to use video. Being able to see people face-to-face is important. If you’re the meeting organizer, do your best to make everyone feel included. It’s easy for people to feel ignored, and some participants will struggle to make themselves heard or take part in a virtual meeting environment. Consider recording your Teams meetings (so long as your organization allows it). This gives team members the chance to review what was discussed at a later date.

Stay in Touch Socially

Working remotely can lead to feelings of isolation, which is why it’s so important to stay socially connected with coworkers. Instead of only checking in via chat when you need a question answered or have a project update to offer, be sure to make casual conversation with your coworkers, too. Sitting down to lunch? Invite everyone to ‘meet for lunch’ via video.

Keep It Fun

With all the stress that comes with the transition to working remotely, don’t forget to make an effort to keep things light and positive in the virtual workplace. Share personal updates via the Teams General channel, and invite other team members to make suggestions for how to keep the digital workplace fun and engaging.

Making the Transition to Teams

Is your organization ready to get started with Microsoft Teams? JourneyTEAM can help you make the transition quickly and easily. Plus, we can offer your organization access to a 6-month free trial of Microsoft Teams. Contact us now to learn more about work from home solutions.

Article by: Dave Bollard – Head of Marketing | 801-436-6636

JourneyTEAM is an award-winning consulting firm with proven technology and measurable results. They take Microsoft products; Dynamics 365, SharePoint intranet, Office 365, Azure, CRM, GP, NAV, SL, AX, and modify them to work for you. The team has expert level, Microsoft Gold certified consultants that dive deep into the dynamics of your organization and solve complex issues. They have solutions for sales, marketing, productivity, collaboration, analytics, accounting, security and more. www.journeyteam.com

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

Bank Builds Customer Base with Microsoft Power Platform & AKA

April 2, 2020 Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Find Out How This Bank is Building a Loyal Customer Base with the Help of the Microsoft Power Platform

Not long ago, the new CTO at a large regional bank made the decision to transform the bank’s digital processes. The technology that the bank was using at the time was outdated, particularly when it came to engaging with customers. To help this organization with its digital transformation, Microsoft sought out a technology partner that could meet the bank’s needs: AKA Enterprise Solutions.

Digital Transformation with AKA

AKA has extensive experience working with financial services organizations, and we focus exclusively on Microsoft technologies, including Dynamics 365 CRM. We aim to provide companies with flexible solutions that meet their immediate needs while also facilitating future growth.

When it comes to financial services, we’ve developed market-specific intellectual property (IP) while simultaneously working closely with the Microsoft Team. When Microsoft approached us about developing a solution for this particular customer, we knew we had the tools they needed.

The Power Platform Solution

To tackle the bank’s challenges, we scheduled a one-day workshop where we met with the organization’s team, talked through the hurdles they were facing, and developed a Power App that could meet their needs when it came to event management. Thanks to this new app, employees and branch managers can engage directly with customers, sharing details of local events to promote long term customer loyalty and improve customer relationships.

As a result of the workshop, the bank is now contemplating replacing their existing Salesforce system with Dynamics 365. Not only did we manage to solve their immediate challenges: we also left the door open for future improvement and growth.

What Makes the Microsoft Power Platform So Effective?

At this point, you might be wondering: how does the Microsoft Power Platform work to enable the development of these kinds of custom app solutions at such a rapid pace?

The Power Platform was built on the belief that organizations shouldn’t have to settle for imperfect solutions. Instead, there ought to be an efficient and affordable way to deliver customized apps — without the lengthy timelines and large budgets typically associated with custom development.

The Power Platform itself is actually comprised of three separate tools: Power Apps, Power BI, and Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow). Each of these three tools can be used independently, but they’re especially powerful when combined together.

One key aspect of the Power Platform is the fact that it’s built on the Common Data Service for Apps (CDS). This secure database in the Azure cloud provides a unified data schema for Power Platform apps. As a result, apps built with the Power Platform can integrate with Microsoft apps (such as Dynamics 365 CRM, Office 365, and more) as well as third party applications, including Salesforce.

Need a Custom CRM Solution? Turn to the Microsoft Power Platform

Thanks to the Power Platform, organizations large and small are no longer stuck settling for clunky, labor-intensive workarounds that can lead to errors and inefficiencies. It’s now possible to implement custom CRM solutions that integrate seamlessly with your company’s existing software systems — all at a fraction of the cost of a standard custom solution.

Microsoft Azure: Companies Work Remotely During COVID-19

March 28, 2020 Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Do Your Employees Need to Work Remotely? We Did It in One Weekend with Microsoft Azure: A Fast, Cost-Effective Solution

Last week, one of our longstanding clients reached out to us with an urgent need. Just like countless other organizations worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, they needed to get their employees working from home — and fast.

Shifting from an office-based to a home-based workforce isn’t just a cultural challenge for large companies: it also brings technical challenges. As a national media company, this client needed to transition roughly five hundred market managers to full work-from-home capacity.

It’s not just a matter of numbers. In addition to the challenge of setting up hundreds of employees with home office capabilities simultaneously, this company was also in the midst of transitioning to Microsoft Dynamics 365 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. full force.

The company’s existing server systems are outdated, making the prospect of providing hundreds of market managers with at-home access extremely daunting. And, of course, security is a major concern in the media industry.

Microsoft Azure: A Clear Solution

AKA was already hosting this company’s Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains (GP) system using Microsoft Azure. As Great Plains is already running in the cloud, the company asked whether we could help them do the same with other essential applications. This would give their market managers at-home access to important software.

We responded with a resounding ‘yes’. Azure is extremely flexible and powerful, giving us the ability to make any application — including third-party software — available remotely via the cloud. In this case, the solution was to set up a virtual desktop using remote-to-desktop software, adding extra servers as needed to provide additional capacity. Market managers could then access whatever software they needed from home via a secure browser.

The result? The whole project took less than 48 hours, including time for a soft launch and testing phase. We got the call from our client on Friday afternoon, and by Tuesday their entire team of market managers was working comfortably from home.

Speed, Scalability, and Reliability with Microsoft Azure

With Microsoft Azure, we have the ability to scale up the whole processing environment with just a couple of clicks. Even better, we haven’t encountered a single glitch: everything’s been running smoothly.

Best of all, though, this project was extremely affordable for our client. We didn’t have to bill for many hours, and the client didn’t need to purchase laptops or servers. Plus, since Azure is pay-as-you-use, the company won’t have to pay for 24/7 server access that they don’t actually need.

Custom Solutions for Individual Businesses

Every business is unique, and so is every solution AKA provides. If your company is in the midst of transitioning employees from an office-based to a home-based setup, you’re likely dealing with your own software and security concerns.

Your needs might be very different from those of the company outlined above. The takeaway from this client’s success story, however, isn’t about the specifics: it’s about the fact that we were able to help this company transition hundreds of employees to a home office environment in less than 48 hours, without racking up huge project costs.

At AKA, our goal is to work side by side with our partners to meet their needs—particularly in challenging times such as these. We’re here to help. Contact us now and let us know what we can do for your organization.

Article by: Greg Inks | 212-502-3900

With two decades specializing in Microsoft and Azure platforms, Greg leads AKA’s Cloud practice. He is a Cloud evangelist offering deep expertise in Cloud architectures and adoption strategy. Greg has developed subject-matter expertise and wide-ranging business acumen by working with some of the largest, most successful technology providers and client companies on the planet.

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

Beyond Sales Proposal Templates: Create Dynamic Sales Proposals in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales

March 20, 2020 Microsoft Dynamics CRM

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The last time you sent a proposal to a prospective customer, did the scene play out like this?

You spent 20 minutes finding the right sales proposal template, or worse, copying a previous proposal. Then you spent another 30 minutes personalizing it and double-checking that every blank is filled in and mention of other customers is replaced with your new customer. Then you copied and pasted your price quote (which you also spent 2 hours putting together manually). Before you sent the proposal, you spent another 20 minutes finding the right assets and attaching several supporting documents to the email, hoping the buyer would open the files and read them.

Whew! That’s a lot of work. And after all that effort, you’re still left wondering, “Did they read my email? Did the slick sheet I attached speak to their needs? Did they share the email with internal stakeholders?”

A sales proposal has a lot riding on it. And, a couple of missteps can derail a deal.

Those mistakes could be anything from overlooking a personalization field in the template, to errors in the price quote, to attaching the wrong assets.

One of the biggest missed opportunities is responding quickly to a buyer’s request for a proposal. 50 to 78% of B2B customers buy from the first vendor to respond. And, in our scenario above, it could take a few hours to pull together a quote and generate a proposal. Who has that much time to waste? And, why should your buyer have to wait that long?

xSales Responsiveness 625x327.png.pagespeed.ic.3rsiQ8htHd Beyond Sales Proposal Templates: Create Dynamic Sales Proposals in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales

If it takes too long to generate a proposal, they will move on to another vendor.

Beyond Sales Proposal Templates

Templates are a good thing. They save time and standardize corporate communications. However, sales proposal templates have their limitations. They are a good starting point when creating a standard branded template. But when they have to be manually personalized they are vulnerable to errors.

You may be thinking, “I use mail merge to pull information from Microsoft Dynamics CRM to fill in the blanks of my template.” That is more efficient, but ultimately not as effective as it could be. These types of proposals often read as cookie-cutter (because that’s what they are). Your clients deserve a better, personalized experience.

The Better Alternative: Digital Sales Proposals

319x433xDealHub DealRoom Digital Sales Proposal 461x625.png.pagespeed.ic.u7ohTlPv24 Beyond Sales Proposal Templates: Create Dynamic Sales Proposals in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales A better way to share proposals with your buyers is to generate a dynamic digital sales proposal that is personalized for each client. A digital sales proposal, or DealRoom, is a micro-website that delivers personalized content customers need to make buying decisions. All the pertinent information, such as case studies, ROI calculator, and customer reviews, are located in one place that is easy to share with internal stakeholders, instead of multiple email attachments.

DealRoom sales proposal software technology integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, enabling sales teams to generate customized business proposals that help close deals quickly. It’s a smart way to extend the value of your investment in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Not only do buyers benefit from a personalized experience, sales teams benefit as well. Using dynamic sales proposal software, they can easily collaborate on deals. And, deep sales insights on customer engagement and level of interest are collected from every DealRoom. This collective data set helps sales operations determine friction points and optimize sales content.

It’s time to go beyond sales proposal templates, and provide your customers and sales team with an optimal buying and selling experience. Learn more about DealHub’s expertise in the sales proposal software category and see a customized DealRoom. Request your demo today.

Article by: Gideon Thomas – VP Marketing & Growth, DealHub.io | LinkedIn

DealHub Configure-Price-Quote solution is rated the #1 CPQ software for ease of use, easiest setup, and best support. Sales teams configure quotes and proposals faster with fewer errors. DealHub’s highly intuitive CPQ minimizes administrative tasks, empowers sales teams to engage more effectively with buyers, and streamlines sales operations to reduce the sales cycle and increase revenue. It operates natively within Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales and includes: dynamic sales playbooks, interactive content sharing, document generation, contract management, and e-signature. Request your personalized demo to learn how DealHub will accelerate your sales process and help your team close deals faster.

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

Live Webinar: How Financial Services Firms are Using the Microsoft Power Platform to Accelerate CRM by “Minding the Gap”…Even Around Salesforce!

March 20, 2020 CRM News and Info

Have you been to London? Then it’s likely you’ve ridden the Tube (subway) and heard an announcement politely saying as you enter or exit: “Mind the gap.” This deceptively benign statement was put there to warn you to watch out for the space between the platform and the train because if you don’t “mind the gap,” you can trip or fall. That could mean going to the hospital or at the very least, having a bad day. Either way, you slow down or even end your journey to your destination—and you’ll probably slow down the train, as well.

What is the connection between minding the gap and financial services?

“Mind the gap” has been adopted by business experts as an analogy. In an Inc. article, entrepreneur Josh Linker said, “While the gaps in your organization aren’t screaming for attention, they can be a wellspring of opportunity…the rallying cry for you to explore what’s missing, what’s not there, and what could be.” The act of minding gaps in your operations could mean failing to realize your vision (or at least slowing it down) or reaching it faster.

How do you realize your vision…and realize it quickly? Use the Microsoft Power Platform to mind the gap

Nobody wants to delay realizing their goals or vision, and they certainly want to avoid missing goals and missteps along the way. You do that by identifying the gaps—processes, technologies, methodologies—then look for ways to address them with the right technology. The issue is, unfortunately, that traditional approaches of customizing off-the-shelf software that is already in place or spending lots of time and money building a custom application doesn’t work or is cost-prohibitive. That’s when it’s time to turn to the Microsoft Power Platform.

The Microsoft Power Platform: A low-code, rapid application development environment that bridges the gaps

Smart financial services firms are already using the Microsoft Power Platform to quickly and easily build apps, automate workflows, and extend solutions they already use—not just Microsoft applications. Even software like Salesforce, Oracle, and SAP can be extended by the Power Platform to bridge any gap.

This might sound too good to be true, but it works—fast and cost-effectively. Plus, you don’t have to uproot, change, or replace applications or systems you’re already using. If you’re happy with what you have but just have that one gap to fill, the Power Platform does it with finesse. Here are a just a few examples of AKA financial services clients that have put the Power Platform into action and are already seeing results:

Automated Client Reporting…From Salesforce: The asset management arm of a life insurance company was risking penalties and losing huge investors, but they didn’t want to replace Salesforce. AKA built a Power Platform solution “surrounding” Salesforce that streamlined the process, resulting in empowered, happy employees who can put their focus on delivering white-glove customer service.

Client Engagement Hub with Next Best Action…Within Dynamics 365 CRM: A global asset management firm had a goal to double sales growth, but their current system had a poor user interface, did not offer personas, and did not offer insights for next best actions. AKA designed in the Power Platform and rolled out in just 3 months a Client Engagement Hub with Next Best Action—fully integrated with Dynamics 365 CRM and Marketo.

Mobile Trade Approval App…Integrated with Salesforce: Portfolio managers for an investment firm were slammed with emails for trade approvals. They needed an easy, fault-proof way to approve/disapprove trades from mobile devices. In a one-day workshop, AKA designed a Power App that integrates with Salesforce, enabling the managers to approve trades with the click of a button on their mobile devices.

Build an app to bridge that gap

Would you like to see for yourself how the Power Platform works? Sign up for our webinar, hosted by AKA financial services experts Tom Berger and Michael Quattlebaum, where you’ll see how other financial services firms have used the Power Platform to accelerate their CRM systems by eliminating gaps:

LIVE Webcast
Bridging Gaps and Building Apps – IN DAYS, NOT MONTHS
How 5 Financial Services Firms are Using the Microsoft Power Platform to Accelerate their CRM–Including Salesforce

April 7, 2020 | 1 pm EDT / 10 am PDT

During the webcast you’ll learn about the Power Platform and what makes it the best choice above custom development or customizing existing software. We’ll discuss several typical gaps the Power Platform bridges, followed by 5 real-life examples of how the Power Platform is being used at by financial services companies.

Article by: Amy Spencer | 212-502-3900

Amy leads the team that is responsible for go-to-market strategies, messaging, and demand generation for AKA’s financial services practice. The better part of her 25+ year career has been dedicated to working for Microsoft’s most successful ERP and CRM partners, including The Taylor Group (aka ManagedOps.com & Surebridge), Navint (acquired by Tribridge and then DXC), Innovia Consulting, and now AKA Enterprise Solutions.

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

Microsoft makes Windows ML standalone to support older systems

March 19, 2020 Big Data

Microsoft today announced that Windows ML, the API for running machine learning inferences on Windows devices, will soon make its way to more places. Going forward, it’ll be available as a standalone package that can be shipped with any Windows app, enabling Windows ML support for CPU inference on Windows versions 8.1 and newer and GPU hardware-acceleration on Windows 10 1709 and newer.

That should make it easier for developers to ship AI-imbued Windows apps with feature parity. As for business and consumer users of those apps, the change should translate to improved in-app experiences.

Previously, Windows ML was supported as a built-in Windows component on Windows 10 version 1809 (October 2018 Update) and newer. Microsoft says it’ll continue to update the API with each new version of Windows, but that in the future, there will be a corresponding redistributable Windows ML package with matching new features and optimizations.

“We understand the complexities developers face in building applications that offer a great customer experience, while also reaching their wide customer base,” wrote Windows AI platform senior program manager Nick Geisler in a blog post. “Delivering reliable, high-performance results across the breadth of Windows hardware, Windows ML is designed to make ML deployment easier, allowing developers to focus on creating innovative applications.”

Windows ML lets developers use trained machine learning models in Windows apps that are written in C#, C++, JavaScript, or Python, either locally on a Windows device or on a Windows Server machine. The Windows ML runtime evaluates the trained model and handles the hardware abstraction, allowing developers to target a broad range of silicon including CPUs, graphics cards, and even AI accelerators. This acceleration is built on top of DirectML, a high-performance, low-level API for running ML inferences that is a part of Microsoft’s DirectX family.

Roughly a year into its release, Windows ML has made its way into a number of popular Windows apps. Windows Photos taps Windows ML to help organize photo collections, while Windows Ink leverages it to analyze handwriting, converting ink strokes into text, shapes, lists and more. And Adobe Premiere Pro offers a Windows ML-powered feature that takes videos and crops them to any aspect ratio, all while preserving the important action in each frame.

Microsoft also today revealed its plans to unify its approach with Windows ML, ONNX Runtime, and DirectML. Specifically, it will bring the Windows ML API and a DirectML execution provider to the ONNX Runtime GitHub project, so that developers can choose the API set that works best for their app. (The ONNX Runtime is an inference engine for the Open Neural Network Exchange, which aims to provide machine learning framework interoperability.) The Windows ML and DirectML preview is available as source as of this week, with instructions and samples on how to build it as well as a prebuilt package for CPU deployments.

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Big Data – VentureBeat

Microsoft Power Platform Improves Doc Mgmt for Major Online Weather Provider

March 16, 2020 Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Major Online Weather and New Provider Gets Document Management Under Control with the Help of the Microsoft Power Platform

As one of the largest providers of up-to-date weather information in the world, this company offers forecasts and other weather data via the Internet, TV, radio, and print media to over 1.5 billion people each and every day. They also distribute content via more than 180,000 third-party websites and serve major global businesses.

Given their sheer size and scope, it’s no surprise that the company has to manage an enormous number of contracts and various other legal documents. Up until recently, their legal and sales teams were stuck using a complicated process for contract negotiation and management that both delayed their sales cycle and created a considerable amount of unnecessary extra work.

As any salesperson can tell you, shortening the sales cycle is essential for staying competitive and maximizing growth potential. The company wanted to shorten their sales cycle, and AKA Enterprise Solutions stepped in to help.

The Microsoft Power Platform: A Clear Solution

This company has been working with AKA Enterprise Solutions for many years. AKA has focused on providing them with the technology solutions they need as they’ve continued to grow. When they approached us regarding a better solution for contract management, we were eager to assist them.

With the help of the Microsoft Power Platform, AKA designed and developed a Power App that integrates seamlessly with the company’s existing systems, including Dynamics 365 CRM, Teams, and SharePoint. This desktop- and mobile-friendly app allows the sales team to manage contracts and communicate directly with customers, all while automatically tracking and saving important data. With the company’s attorneys using Teams to discuss contract terms, the entire process is now running smoothly — and their sales team is closing deals faster than ever.

How the Microsoft Power Platform Works

For companies like this one, the Power Platform offers dynamic solutions to complex challenges.

The Power Platform consists of three separate tools: Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow), Power BI, and Power Apps. These tools were designed by Microsoft to give companies the ability to build custom apps and manage data in an efficient, cost-effective manner. They can work independently of each other, but when combined together, these tools are capable of producing custom solutions at a fraction of the cost and time typically associated with custom software.

How is this possible? The Power Platform is built on the Common Data Service for Apps (CDS), a secure Azure Cloud database. The CDS provides a unified data schema, allowing apps built on the Power Platform to integrate with other Microsoft applications (such as Dynamics 365 CRM, Office 365, and more) as well as third party applications and software platforms.

Best of all, there’s no need to alter existing systems. Apps designed and built with the Power Platform can be nested around other applications, minimizing downtime and ensuring a seamless system integration.

Let AKA Address Your Business’s Challenges with the Power Platform

Is your organization in need of the kind of dynamic solutions offered by the Power Platform? If you’re experiencing inefficiency issues or struggling with manual processes and workarounds, AKA can help.

We’ve used the Power Platform to assist more than 50 leading media companies — and we can do the same for your organization. Contact the media experts at AKA to discuss a proof of concept with the Microsoft Power Platform that can tackle your organization’s challenges.

Article by: Bryn Forrest | 212-502-3900

As Director, Government, Not for Profit, Media Industries, and Existing Customer Marketing for AKA, Bryn has more than 26 years of experience in marketing management, 17 of those with AKA. Under her leadership, AKA has been recognized by Microsoft for excellence in marketing.

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

How Millennials Make Decisions with Data in Microsoft Dynamics

March 14, 2020 CRM News and Info

Millennials have a different view on how to make decisions than previous generations. And now that 50% of the workforce is made up of millennials, knowing why and how they make decisions is crucial to having an effective business in the future.

Previous generations made a lot of decisions based on “instinct.” And while the modern workforce still needs human interpretation, they more so focus on data to make solid, confident decisions.

The Common Data Model underlying Microsoft Dynamics provides the foundation to centralize data and deliver consistent information across the organization. Visualizations help provide the context and relevance that support informed decisions. Here are just some of the benefits of this:

Instant Answers

No matter where they are working, employees can have a unified view of the financial and customer information to deliver real-time responses to the people they work with—both internally and externally.

Personalized, interactive data visualization

Microsoft uses Power BI as its business analytics solution and data visualization tool. Power BI delivers real-time insights from Microsoft Dynamics to provide visibility across the company so employees can easily connect, share, and analyze data from Excel queries, data models, and reports.

Artificial intelligence

In addition to connecting data from all departments, Microsoft Dynamics provides the gateway for the next generation of data management through artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality. Machine learning models can reveal insights from all data, including text, and images. Out-of-the-box Ai applications in Microsoft Dynamics can help employees gain new perspectives into things like predicting customer behavior or interpreting social and web interactions.

Mixed reality

Mixed reality lets employees work with cutting edge technology to visualize, collaborate, and learn. With Microsoft Dynamics mixed reality tools, workers can blend real and virtual worlds to produce visualizations, to share, imagine, understand, and design in real-time.

Millennials have grown up with information at their fingertips. They expect answers and solutions instantly to any question. In order to make proper business decisions, they need to have data easily accessible. Microsoft Dynamics gives the solution, making collaborating easy by connecting people on any device, from anywhere.

With the wave of new generation employees, the way work is being done is rapidly changing. To see why modernizing your business will help keep up with this change, download the full eBook “21 Reasons Millennials Prefer Microsoft Dynamics” at www.crmsoftwareblog.com/millennials to read 17 more reasons why Millennials prefer Microsoft Dynamics in the workspace.

Find a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partner

By CRM Software Blog Writer, www.crmsoftwareblog.com

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

Microsoft kills all third-party skills as it refocuses Cortana for the enterprise

February 29, 2020 Big Data

Microsoft today announced plans to streamline Cortana, its cross-platform virtual assistant, in future versions of Windows 10. A chat-based UI with support for both voice and keyboard will arrive in the next release, as well as features that let users check their calendars, set reminders, and perform other productivity-related tasks. At the same time, Microsoft says that it’ll remove music, connected home, and third-party Cortana app integrations as it “tightens access” on work and school accounts, and that it’ll end support for Cortana in older versions of Windows “that have reached their end-of-service dates.”

“We’re excited about how these updates to Cortana will help you stay on top of things, save time and do your best work. As we continue to innovate on Cortana … we plan to share further improvements in the coming months,” wrote Cortana corporate vice president Andrew Shuman in a blog post.

Beyond the new chat-based UI, the improved Cortana will recognize commands like “Tell me what’s next on my calendar,” “Remind me to send the ‘weekly report’ every Friday at 2 p.m.,” “Add ‘status report’ to my task list,” and others in the same vein. English-speaking users in the U.S. will see improved people-, email-, and file-finding capabilities and in-person meeting insights, but international users won’t be so lucky. Those in non-U.S. markets will initially be limited to Bing Answers and basic Cortana conversations.

Here’s the full list of soon-to-be-available skills, as per a Microsoft spokesperson:

Calendar
Join My Meeting
Reminders
Lists
Assistant Conversations/Chit Chat
Bing Answers
Alarms
Timer
Open Apps
Open Settings
People search
Media controls like “turn up the volume”

Microsoft says it plans to remove all Cortana skills and integrations that aren’t on the above list, but that it will “continually be adding additional functionality to the experience.”

Elsewhere, using Cortana in Microsoft 365 (Microsoft’s line of subscription services offered by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft Office product line) will require signing into a Microsoft account going forward. Microsoft also says it plans to turn off the Cortana services in Microsoft Launcher, its home screen experience for Android, by the end of April (as previously announced).

“This is all part of Cortana’s evolution into a personal productivity assistant. These productivity capabilities will be most beneficial to our commercial … customers,” the spokesperson told VentureBeat. “We look forward to adding additional functionality soon, and based on customer feedback will continue to evolve the experience.”

The changes come as Microsoft refocuses Cortana for the enterprise — specifically for Windows and Office customers. The assistant recently gained the ability to read email summaries and send quick-reply response in Outlook, and to schedule meetings and to deliver daily schedules and task rundowns. Email briefings from Cortana in Outlook can now suggest optimal focus times, and last year, Microsoft launched Presenter Coach, a PowerPoint service that listens to your presentations and then provides feedback on pace, use of inclusive language, and repetitive use of mannerisms like “umm” and “basically.”

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Big Data – VentureBeat

Microsoft Azure Sphere launches in general availability

February 24, 2020 Big Data

In April 2018, nearly two years ago, Microsoft announced Azure Sphere, a program to better secure the 41.6 billion internet for things (IoT) devices expected to be connected to the internet by 2025. Now, following a lengthy preview, the tech giant is this week launching Azure Sphere in general availability.

Eligible customers will be able to sign up in the coming days. Azure Sphere doesn’t have ongoing fees associated with it, but there’s a one-time cost for a chip (as little as less than $ 8.65) that includes access to all of Sphere’s components, plus OS updates for the lifetime of the chip. Alternatively, developers can license Visual Studio and Microsoft’s Azure IoT services to develop apps for Sphere “more efficiently, according to Azure IoT CVP Sam George.

“We live in an increasingly connected world,” added George, who noted last year that Microsoft’s Azure IoT software-as-a-service (SaaS) suite grew nearly 150% year-over-year from 2018 to 2019 and gained over 100 new features. “At Microsoft, we are committed to providing a trusted, easy-to-use platform that allows our customers and partners to build seamless, smart, and secure solutions regardless of where they are in their IoT journey.”

Azure Sphere

For the uninitiated, Azure Sphere is a high-level software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform with built-in communication features for cross-industry IoT devices. It comprises integrated hardware built around a secured silicon chip; the Azure Sphere OS, a custom Linux-based operating system; and the Azure Sphere Security Service, a cloud-based service that provides continuous security.

The Azure Sphere OS runs on Azure Sphere-certified chips and connects to the Azure Sphere Security Service, and it’s designed to provide a platform for IoT app development — including both high-level and real-time capable apps. It’s the first operating system running a Linux kernel and the second Unix-like operating system that Microsoft has publicly released, interestingly, the other being the decades-old and discontinued Xenix.

Microsoft Azure Sphere launches in general availability

Above: Avnet’s Azure Sphere MT3620 starter kit, which packs a MediaTek chip.

Image Credit: Avnet

Azure Sphere-certified chips and hardware support two implementations: greenfield and brownfield. Greenfield involves designing and building IoT devices with a supported (and optionally cellular-enabled) chip produced or soon-to-be-produced by MediaTek, NXP, and Qualcomm. As for brownfield, it calls for an Azure Sphere “guardian” device — the bulk of which are produced by Avnet and AI-Link — to connect existing hardware to the internet.

Azure Sphere hardware is available in several configurations, including Wi-Fi modules, development kits and dev boards (from partners like Seeed Studios and USI), and the aforementioned guardian. Speaking of, the guardian module — which doesn’t directly connect to networks — is a peripheral with a built-in Azure Sphere-certified chip that runs the Azure Sphere OS and the Azure Sphere Security Service, both of which can be configured via a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection.

Security

A core component of Azure Sphere is the above-mentioned Security Service, a cloud-based service that enables maintenance, updates, and control for Azure Sphere-certified chips. It establishes a connection between devices and the internet and various ancillary cloud services and ensures secure boot, authenticating device identity, integrity, and root of trust while certifying the device is running a vetted codebase. The Azure Sphere Security Service additionally provides the channel by which Microsoft automatically downloads and installs Azure Sphere OS updates and app updates across deployed devices.

At the hardware level, complementing the Security Service, there’s Pluton. It’s a Microsoft-designed security subsystem that implements root of trust for Azure Sphere via a combination of techniques:

A custom-designed security processor core
Cryptographic engines
A hardware-based random number generator
A public and private key generator
Asymmetric and symmetric encryption
An elliptic curve digital signature algorithm verification for secure boot
Measured boot in silicon to support remote attestation with a cloud service
Various tampering counter-measures

App development

App development on Azure Sphere OS is relatively straightforward. Using the Azure Sphere SDK for Linux or Windows and samples and solutions open-sourced on GitHub, developers can deploy apps that make use of peripherals on Azure Sphere-certified chips. The apps in question run atop a primary processor core with access to external networking or a lower-powered core as a real-time capable app, with real-time capable apps running either on bare metal or with a real-time operating system, and they can be distributed to Azure Sphere devices through the same mechanism as Azure Sphere OS updates.

Of course, development isn’t confined to Azure. The chips work with other public, private, and hybrid cloud environments including Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, which no doubt appealed to Azure Sphere’s early adopters.

Here’s a few of them:

Microsoft’s own datacenter team tapped Azure Sphere guardian modules to connect equipment and systems for the first time and build new systems.
Qiio developed an Azure Sphere-based IoT deployment solution that combines hardware, cellular connectivity, and cloud services.
Vitamix incorporated Azure Sphere into its IoT Module, a retrofit device that allows users to remotely program Vitamix blenders.
Elettrone is in the process of building an Azure Sphere energy monitoring solution to reduce waste in commercial and residential properties.
Starbucks partnered with Microsoft to deploy Azure Sphere across its existing equipment in stores globally using guardian modules.
Gojo, the brand behind Purell, plans to integrate Azure Sphere with motion detectors and connected dispensers in healthcare facilities.
Leoni, which develops cable systems for the automotive sector and other industries, uses Azure Sphere with integrated sensors to actively monitor cable conditions, creating intelligent and connected cable systems.

Microsoft in IoT

In 2018, Microsoft committed $ 5 billion to intelligent edge innovation by 2022 (an uptick from the $ 1.5 billion it spent prior to 2018) and pledged to grow its IoT partner ecosystem to over 10,000. It’s borne fruit in Azure IoT Central, a cloud service that enables customers to quickly provision and deploy IoT apps, and IoT Plug and Play, which provides devices that work with a range of off-the-shelf solutions. Microsoft’s investment has also bolstered Azure Sphere; Azure Security Center, its unified cloud and edge security suite; and Azure IoT Edge, which distributes cloud intelligence to run in isolation on IoT devices directly.

Microsoft has competition in Google’s Cloud IoT, a set of tools that connect, process, store, and analyze edge device data. Not to be outdone, Amazon Web Services’ IoT Device Management tracks, monitors, and manages fleets of devices running a range of operating systems and software. And Baidu’s OpenEdge offers a range of IoT edge computing boards and a cloud-based management suite to manage edge nodes, edge apps, and resources such as certification, password, and program code.

But the Seattle company has ramped up its buildout efforts as of late, most recently with the acquisition of Express Logic, a San Diego, California-based developer of real-time operating systems (RTOS) for IoT and edge devices powered by microcontroller units. Separately, it’s partnered with companies like DJI, SAP, PTC, Qualcomm, and Carnegie Mellon University for IoT and edge app development.

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