Dynamics 365 Commerce - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/product/dynamics-365-commerce/ Modernizing Business Process with Cloud and AI Tue, 17 Sep 2024 21:19:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/cropped-cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png Dynamics 365 Commerce - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/product/dynamics-365-commerce/ 32 32 .cloudblogs .cta-box>.link { font-size: 15px; font-weight: 600; display: inline-block; background: #008272; line-height: 1; text-transform: none; padding: 15px 20px; text-decoration: none; color: white; } .cloudblogs img { height: auto; } .cloudblogs img.alignright { float:right; } .cloudblogs img.alignleft { float:right; } .cloudblogs figcaption { padding: 9px; color: #737373; text-align: left; font-size: 13px; font-size: 1.3rem; } .cloudblogs .cta-box.-center { text-align: center; } .cloudblogs .cta-box.-left { padding: 20px 0; } .cloudblogs .cta-box.-right { padding: 20px 0; text-align:right; } .cloudblogs .cta-box { margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 20px; } .cloudblogs .cta-box.-image { position:relative; } .cloudblogs .cta-box.-image>.link { position: absolute; top: auto; left: 50%; -webkit-transform: translate(-50%,0); transform: translate(-50%,0); bottom: 0; } .cloudblogs table { width: 100%; } .cloudblogs table tr { border-bottom: 1px solid #eee; padding: 8px 0; } ]]> Copilot for Dynamics 365 Commerce revolutionizes retail with AI http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/2024/08/30/copilot-for-dynamics-365-commerce-revolutionizes-retail-with-ai/ http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/2024/08/30/copilot-for-dynamics-365-commerce-revolutionizes-retail-with-ai/#respond Fri, 30 Aug 2024 17:00:00 +0000 Discover how Copilot for Dynamics 365 Commerce can help you deliver personalized customer experiences, optimize product management, and streamline retail operations for store associates, managers, and back-office staff with AI.

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Discover how Copilot for Dynamics 365 Commerce can help you deliver personalized customer experiences, optimize product management, and streamline retail operations for store associates, managers, and back-office staff with AI.

Transformative AI in Dynamics 365 Commerce

The retail industry is facing significant challenges and opportunities in today’s digital world. AI can help you create value for your customers and stand out from your competitors. It can help you solve critical challenges such as improving customer service, refining product management, increasing store associate productivity, and simplifying finances.

Dynamics 365 Commerce now includes Copilot, which helps you improve customer satisfaction, boost sales, increase profit margins, and enhance workforce productivity with automated insights, validations, and summaries that reduce the clicks and searches needed to find information, creating a near “one-click” retail experience.

Watch this brief video to see Copilot in action.

Video of Copilot in Dynamics 365 Commerce announcement on YouTube.

Customer insights

Copilot simplifies the process of understanding your customers. It aggregates data on customer preferences from Dynamics 365 Commerce, giving you an in-depth and comprehensive view of your customers, such as their favorite product categories, preferred price ranges, and lifetime value based on recency, frequency, and monetary metrics. You can view their previous interactions with a quick glance, making it easier to resume conversations or give customized follow-ups for better customer relationships and more personalized and effective engagement. Learn more about Copilot customer insights.

Screenshot of Copilot customer insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.
Copilot customer insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Product insights

Whether you’re introducing new products or welcoming new store employees, keeping everyone informed and prepared is essential. Copilot provides comprehensive product insights, including clear and concise descriptions, key benefits, inventory levels, and discount details, empowering your staff to elevate product sales. Additionally, employees can access information on related items like accessories and bundles, promoting a cross-selling environment that enhances the shopping experience and boosts sales. By equipping store employees with the knowledge and confidence to engage customers effectively, Copilot turns interactions into opportunities, increasing customer satisfaction, sales, and the all-important average order value.

Screenshot of Copilot product insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.
Copilot product insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Report insights

Envision a scenario where synthesizing insights to assess the performance of your retail channels becomes seamless. With Copilot, it’s easy. Copilot provides instant insights, generating narrative summaries for channel reports. You’ll receive a precise and succinct overview of critical metrics such as sales, revenue, profit, margin, and overall store performance—right at your fingertips. Copilot’s real-time analysis keeps you ahead, updating summaries as new data arrives, empowering your store associates to communicate results effectively, accurately, instantly. Embrace the future of retail intelligence with Copilot and revolutionize the way you interact with your data. Learn more about Copilot report insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Screenshot of Copilot report insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.
Copilot report insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Retail statement insights

Copilot can summarize posted and unposted retail statements, highlighting key insights such as the number of affected transactions, total sales amount, and risks like returns without receipts, expense transactions, and price overrides. These insights into retail statements allow for straightforward and efficient management of financial reports and help you detect and correct discrepancies and risks in your retail statements by providing a clear summary of anomalies in transactional activity. By using Copilot-powered insights, you can identify issues without wading through numerous forms, promptly take corrective measures, and reduce the need for support inquiries to solve problems. Learn more about Copilot retail statement insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Screenshot of Copilot statement insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.
Copilot statement insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Merchandise more efficiently

Merchandising is a complex and time-consuming process that involves configuring products, categories, catalogs, and attributes for each channel. Merchandisers need to ensure that their products are displayed correctly and accurately on the online store, and that they comply with each channel’s business rules and policies. However, manual configuration is prone to human error, and it doesn’t scale for businesses that have millions of products, thousands of attributes, and hundreds of categories and catalogs across hundreds of stores.

Copilot enhances merchandiser efficiency by streamlining merchandising workflows, summarizing product settings, and automating data validation by checking for errors and inconsistencies in your product merchandising data. From the Copilot summaries, you can navigate to a list of issues and act without losing context to address problems promptly and efficiently. Your products are always correctly configured and displayed, enhancing customer satisfaction and boosting sales. Learn more about Copilot merchandising insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Screenshot of Copilot merchandising insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.
Copilot merchandising insights in Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Ensuring the ethical use of AI technology 

Microsoft is committed to the ethical deployment of AI technologies. Through our Responsible AI practices, we ensure that all AI-powered features in Dynamics 365 adhere to stringent data privacy laws and ethical AI usage standards, promoting transparency, fairness, and accountability. 

Conclusion

Copilot features for Dynamics 365 Commerce are revolutionizing the retail experience by bringing AI to store associates, store managers, channel managers in the back office, and merchandisers. They’re simplifying complex data analysis, personalizing customer service, optimizing product management, and driving business growth by improving customer loyalty, increasing sales, and enhancing profitability.

If you’re ready to take your retail business to the next level, contact us today to learn more about how Copilot can help you transform your retail business.

Copilot functionalities in Store Commerce are available starting with the following versions:

  • 10.0.39, from Proactive Quality Update 4 (PQU-4) onwards (CSU: 9.49.24184.3, Store Commerce App 9.49.24193.1)
  • 10.0.40, from Proactive Quality Update 1 (PQU-1) onwards (CSU: 9.50.24184.2, Store Commerce App 9.50.24189.1)

Copilot functionalities in back office (Headquarters) are available starting with the following versions:

  •   10.0.38 from Proactive Quality Update 5 (PQU-5) or subsequent updates
  •   10.0.39 from Proactive Quality Update 3 (PQU-3) or later versions
  •   All editions of Commerce version 10.0.40 onward

Next steps

Learn more about Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Engage with other Dynamics 365 users in our community forums to learn from their experiences and share your own.

Not yet a Dynamics 365 Commerce customer? Take a tour and get a free trial.

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Announcing public preview of Dynamics 365 Store Commerce Self-checkout http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/2024/08/05/announcing-public-preview-of-dynamics-365-store-commerce-self-checkout/ Mon, 05 Aug 2024 20:50:00 +0000 The self-checkout solution in Dynamics 365 Commerce utilizes the same Store Commerce app in self-checkout mode, allowing retailers to quickly enable self-checkout by leveraging their existing investments. It supports payment integrations, localization, hardware integrations, and extensions built for fixed tills. Key features include a simplified login for cashiers and shoppers, an intuitive interface displaying only self-checkout actions, and an out-of-box layout for scanning items, supporting loyalty, and accepting credit or debit payments.

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Despite the convenience of online shopping, many shoppers still value the hands-on experience of visiting retail stores. The instant gratification, social interactions, and serendipity of physical shopping continues to attract buyers. With the evolution of technology, retailers are seeking more automated ways to fulfill their customers’ shopping needs. Self-service checkout solutions have become a crucial component of retail businesses’ strategies aimed at enhancing the overall shopping experience.

Long lines at checkout can result in decreased sales and unhappy customers. Modern shoppers seek control, ease, and security while purchasing, leading to a preference for self-service. Retailers are adopting self-checkout (SCO) systems to offer more personal and confidential buying experiences. The growth in SCO is partly due to labor shortages and rising wage costs. RBR research predicts self-checkout terminals will grow by 90% annually worldwide, indicating a trend toward faster, self-reliant service.

While there are clear advantages, it’s essential to acknowledge and address some of the challenges through technology. These challenges encompass issues related to scanning, the overall usability of checkout devices, losses attributed to theft and inadvertent misuse, as well as the absence of personal interaction.

Discover the benefits of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerces Self-checkout Preview. Self-checkout is available as a public preview.

Self-checkout in Dynamics 365 Commerce

The new self-checkout solution in Dynamics 365 Commerce is the same point-of-sale application (Store Commerce app) in self-checkout mode. Payment integrations, localization support, hardware integrations and any extensions built for the fixed till will also work for the self-checkout app. This allows retailers to quickly turn on self-checkout by leveraging their existing investments on Store commerce app for Windows. The Store Commerce app in self-checkout mode supports the following:

  • Simplified login that allows cashiers to access the registers while also allowing shoppers to self-checkout.
  • Out-of-box self-checkout layout for a quick start allowing users to scan items, support loyalty, and pay with credit or debit.
  • Intuitive interface for shoppers that provides only the supported actions in self-checkout while disabling store associate actions.
  • Call for assistance to allow shoppers to request assistance for elevated actions like voids, overrides and discounts.
  • Browse operation that allows shoppers to browse for products that are not scannable or too big or too small to scan.
  • The ability to restrict certain products from being purchased via self-checkout using a configuration in Headquarters.
  • Offline support for business continuity even during network outage.
  • Support for store commerce peripherals such as Scanners, payment terminals and printers for self-checkout.
  • Adyen payment integration out-of-box.

Self-checkout to meet every retailer’s need

Retail sectors have diverse needs for point of sale and self-service checkout systems. Fashion retailers might prefer kiosk-based solutions for efficient scan-and-pay transactions. Grocery stores require self-checkouts integrated with weighing and bagging scale capabilities, along with cash handling machines. Store commerce self-checkout solution is built on commerce SDK and therefore is fully extensible for customers. Here are a few ways retailers can tailor the solution for their business needs.

Retailers can easily configure the default self-checkout layout to add operations that fit their business needs. For example, they can include an operation to apply coupons.

The Store Commerce self-checkout system is hardware agnostic and works across a variety of different hardware. Retailers cater to their unique needs regarding certain hardware peripherals through development of custom integrations with either the supported OPOS drivers or tailor-made SDKs.

Moreover, retailers have the advantage of integrating their existing localizations, payment methods, and additional extensions that are established within the cashier-managed workflows directly into the self-service checkout procedures.

In scenarios where cashier intervention might be necessary, such as when items with particular discounts are scanned, retailers can employ out-of-box extensions to promptly request cashier assistance.

Theft and losses in self-checkout

While self-checkout drives efficiency, there is still a high risk of theft and accidental loss as it’s easy for customers to by-pass scanning items or make honest mistakes. Retailers need to balance the efficiency of self-checkout with the need to thwart theft. Some retailers have achieved this by limiting the number of items in the checkout stand, some have eliminated cash as a payment method.

In addition, new theft detection systems are now available in the market using cameras and algorithms for spotting thefts. There are image-recognition algorithms used in combination with multiple cameras to detect shopper’s movements for theft.  Microsoft’s Azure vision, allows retailers to train the model with their own catalog and use camera-based image detection during checkout to identify and add items to the cart thereby reducing the risk of theft.

Retailers can use additional mechanisms to trigger cashier intervention for dubious scenarios such as repeated scanning of identical barcodes, unusual scanning of multiple low-priced items, items missing in the bagging area, etc .


Copilot

As we introduce Copilot features in Store Commerce, they could be leveraged easily for self-checkout. For instance, copilot can play a role while a customer is doing a price check or browsing for product availability. Voice-assistance in Copilot will help make the shopper experience smoother. Furthermore, we expect that Copilot scenarios such as product discovery, product suggestions, and personalized offers will be of high value for a shopper using a kiosk.

Future of self-checkout

Traditional self-checkout (SCO) methods often utilize kiosks, but retailers are also exploring scan-and-go options for added convenience. These allow customers to use their own devices or the store’s device to scan items and pay with their chosen method. Additionally, smart carts with integrated computerized screens are emerging, enabling shoppers to avoid traditional checkout lines for increased efficiency. However, while these innovations are gaining popularity, they might not be ideal for all merchandise types, could elevate theft risks, and might be more appropriate for stores with smaller footprints.

As Store commerce self-checkout gains wide adoption by multiple retailers in various industry segments such as apparel and fashion, department and grocery store we will keep a close eye on customers’ need and incorporate their feedback into the product.

For instance, our customers have requested that self-checkout systems include interruption features for assistance calls tailored to the retailer’s specific requirements for theft prevention or validation and provide an option for shoppers to select their preferred language.

It is becoming clear that retailers favor a hybrid model that combines human interaction with automated convenience. With the power and efficiency of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Store commerce point of sale alongside Store commerce self-checkout, we aim to provide customers and shoppers with exceptional shopping experience.

To enable Store commerce self-checkout today, please visit: Enable self-checkout in the Store Commerce app – Commerce | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn.

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AI summarization in Dynamics 365 synthesizes and simplifies complex data http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/2024/06/24/ai-summarization-in-dynamics-365-synthesizes-and-simplifie-complex-data/ Mon, 24 Jun 2024 22:00:00 +0000 As enterprises are asked to manage increasingly complex data environments, the generative AI summarization capabilities of Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 streamline operations by synthesizing complex data from multiple sources across Supply Chain Management, Finance, Commerce, and Human Resources.

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As enterprises are asked to manage increasingly complex business processes and data environments, context-aware AI summarization by Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 streamlines operations by synthesizing data from multiple sources across Supply Chain Management, Finance, Commerce, and Human Resources. By delivering clear, actionable insights from ERP data, this generative AI feature eliminates context-switching and allows users to make better decisions faster.

Transformative AI summarization in Dynamics 365

Copilot generative AI features are revolutionizing the user experience in Supply Chain Management, Finance, Commerce, and Human Resources. Insights that used to require literally dozens of clicks, searches, and views in multiple windows—and a lot of deep thinking about complex data—are now presented to the right user, at the right time, automatically. Let’s take a closer look at how Copilot aggregates data from multiple sources and displays it in easily digestible and context-aware summaries.

Vendor summary streamlines understanding of vendor performance and financials

What do we mean by “context-aware”? One meaning is that Copilot summarizes data based on the user’s role to deliver real-time, role-specific insights. Take the vendor summary, for example. Traditionally, procurement managers had to navigate multiple forms to understand vendor performance. Copilot summaries streamline these insights by providing quick access to crucial information, such as active contracts, purchase orders, late deliveries, and overdue payments. For accounts payable teams, however, the vendor summary presents essential financial details about a vendor. For both roles, the vendor summary enables faster, data-driven decisions for better vendor interactions.

Screenshot of the Copilot vendor summary in Dynamics 365.
Real-time vendor summary helps optimize supplier interactions and negotiations.

Sales order and purchase order summaries pinpoint critical items in open orders

Another perspective on “context-aware” is AI summarization based on task. Consider purchase and sales orders. Procurement and sales teams often spend significant time following up on open orders. Getting a comprehensive overview or pinpointing lines that need attention can be challenging, because the necessary data is typically spread across multiple forms. Copilot summaries consolidate the information, enabling users to easily identify critical items.

Screenshot of the Copilot sales order summary in Dynamics 365.
Copilot sales order summary highlights potential delivery issues, aiding in efficient order management and customer service.

It’s not just about summarizing data, though. AI summarization also facilitates quicker action on next steps. Copilot’s summary includes convenient one-click filtering options, allowing users to swiftly access the information they need to act.

Screenshot of the Copilot purchase order summary in Dynamics 365.
One-click filtering options right in the Copilot summary help users quickly find the information they need.

Customer summary streamlines insights by role for more effective customer relationships

When it comes to customer information, “context-aware” refers to everything that creates a relationship between an organization and its customers—information that’s often found in multiple, disparate tables, reports, and modules. Copilot addresses the challenges faced by roles such as accounts receivable agents, sales order agents, and customer account managers, who need comprehensive and role-specific information about customers that’s often scattered across multiple systems. For example, while accounts receivable teams need quick access to open invoices, sales order teams require details on open orders and shipments. Copilot consolidates all relevant data into a single, context-aware summary that’s specific to each role, allowing agents and account managers to tailor their interactions with customers, strengthen relationships, and enhance operational efficiency.

Customer events, statuses, and insights are summarized in Dynamics 365 Finance.

Warehouse worker home screen brings warehouse teams up to speed quickly

“Context-aware” can also refer to a user’s surroundings and situation. Warehouse start-of-shift stand-up meetings can miss important updates, and they don’t cover changes that happen throughout the day. Copilot’s dynamic operational summary on the Warehouse Management home screen brings warehouse workers up to speed at the start of their shifts and keeps them on top of the situation as they go about their day, helping them quickly adapt to changes and ensure daily goals are met.

Warehouse workers get up to speed fast at the start of their shifts with a dynamic overview in Warehouse Management.

Workflow history summary streamlines review and approval of invoices and expense reports

AI summarization streamlines examination of workflows by providing a concise overview of recent actions and comments, allowing approvers to quickly act without navigating through separate detail screens. Copilot summaries apply to workflows in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Finance, Commerce, and Human Resources, aiding review and approval processes and supporting informed decisions for things like vendor invoices, time-off requests, and expense reports.

Workflow history summaries help stakeholders make informed decisions about future activities.

Product preview summary consolidates product details for quick consumption

Procurement managers typically must navigate multiple forms to gather product details such as name, description, dimensions, hierarchy, life cycle state, and release policy. Copilot consolidates this information and other key product attributes in a single, concise summary, making these details quick and easy to consume.

Summary of the Copilot product preview summary in Dynamics 365.
Copilot aggregates and summarizes product information based on the user’s role.

Product detail summary streamlines inventory management

When a warehouse manager views the product detail page, Copilot’s summary focuses on relevant information that would take multiple clicks to find, such as on-hand inventory levels, purchase information like main vendor, and batch numbers that are expiring soon.

The product detail summary includes information about stock on hand and recent sales.

Employee workspace summary makes leave management easier for both HR and employees

An organization’s success relies on both employees and customers. Effective time-off management is crucial for employees to make informed decisions and for the organization to optimize time-off utilization and manage financial liabilities from unused leave. Time-off information is scattered across multiple screens in the employee self-service portal. Copilot consolidates key details like vacation and sick leave balances and potential forfeitures due to policy, and includes a link to submit leave requests, all in one summary view.

Screenshot of the Copilot employee workspace summary in Dynamics 365.
Employees can view available leave and request time off right in the Copilot summary.

Retail statement summary provides insights about risky transactions across multiple stores

Physical stores send cash-and-carry transactions to Dynamics 365 Commerce for inventory and financial updates. The store operations team must ensure proper posting, but identifying pending transactions can be difficult across multiple stores. Summaries of posted and unposted retail statements highlight stores needing attention and flag risky transactions like returns without receipts or price overrides. Brief error summaries for failed statements aid in quick resolution, enhancing store management efficiency.

Copilot summarizes retail transaction errors in Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Merchandise workflow summary streamlines managing product configurations

For retail merchandisers, the challenge lies in managing complex product configurations without errors. Copilot addresses this challenge by streamlining merchandising workflows, offering a clear summary of settings, automating data validation, and providing a risk preview to anticipate issues. Here, context-aware AI summarization enhances efficiency, reduces the risk of lost sales, and drives growth.

Screenshot of the Copilot merchandise workflow summary in Dynamics 365.
Merchandise workflow summary aids management of retail merchandise.

More benefits of context-aware AI summarization of ERP data

Beyond the specific benefits we described earlier, Copilot summaries in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Finance, Commerce, and Human Resources enhance user experience and operational efficiency in multiple ways.

  • Enhanced productivity: With key data points automatically summarized, users spend less time analyzing vast datasets and can focus on strategic decision-making and core activities.
  • Proactive problem-solving: With real-time summaries, users can anticipate challenges and address them proactively, improving business agility and resilience.
  • Improved accuracy and insight: Copilot highlights critical information and trends, reducing the risk of human error in interpreting complex data. Analysis is more accurate and insightful, crucial for effective decision-making.
  • Customized user experiences: Each summarization feature is tailored to the specific needs of different roles within an organization, ensuring that every user receives the most relevant and actionable insights.
  • Seamless integration: AI features integrate seamlessly into your existing Dynamics 365 framework, providing a smooth user experience without the need for extensive setup or training.
  • Scalable decision support: Whether for small tasks or large-scale strategic decisions, Copilot summaries meet the needs of businesses of all sizes, scenarios, and requirements.

These benefits collectively contribute to a more streamlined, efficient, and informed ERP environment, setting the stage for more advanced AI features to come.

Introducing generative AI responsibly

Integrating generative AI into ERP products presents challenges. It requires ensuring that the AI features are reliable and robust enough for mission-critical business settings. It also requires building customer trust in the AI capabilities. Our vision is an autonomous ERP system that automates and optimizes business processes with minimal human intervention. However, this is a journey we’re embarking on together to instill confidence in the results and encourage greater adoption over time.

Our approach is to gradually introduce low-risk AI features that provide immediate benefits and time savings, gather user feedback, and build excitement. This way, we can improve the AI features based on user needs and business operations, laying the foundation for more advanced AI features in the future. We prioritize the safe deployment and continuous improvement of AI features in our ERP suite and are leading the way for responsible and impactful integration of AI in the ERP landscape.

Ensuring the ethical use of AI technology

Microsoft is committed to the ethical deployment of AI technologies. Through our Responsible AI practices, we ensure that all AI-powered features in Dynamics 365 adhere to stringent data privacy laws and ethical AI usage standards, promoting transparency, fairness, and accountability.

Learn more about AI summarization in Dynamics 365

Interested in learning more about the power of AI summarization to transform your business processes with unparalleled efficiency and insight? Here’s how you can dive deeper:

Not yet a Dynamics 365 customer? Take a tour and get a free trial.

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Create Dynamics 365 implementation projects easily with the new onboarding wizard http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/2024/04/17/dynamics-365-implementation-project-onboarding-wizard/ Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:55:32 +0000 A new onboarding wizard in the Dynamics 365 Implementation Portal makes it easy to create implementation projects and access guidance, insights, and recommendations all along the way to deployment.

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We’re excited to announce a new project onboarding feature is now available in the Dynamics 365 Implementation Portal. The portal makes it easier to deploy Dynamics 365 projects successfully by guiding you from the start of your project to the end, giving you valuable insights and recommendations along the way. All you need to do to get started is create your implementation project in the portal, and the new onboarding wizard makes it easy. Here’s how:

User-friendly interface removes technical barriers. The onboarding wizard’s intuitive and user-friendly interface is designed to make the onboarding process accessible whatever your technical background. It acts as a virtual assistant, walking you through each step of project creation with clear instructions and prompts.

Projects are ready to use immediately. On completion of the onboarding process, your Dynamics 365 implementation project is instantly available, streamlining collaboration and ensuring that stakeholders have swift access to project resources.

Data is protected automatically. If the implementation project targets a tenant other than the one you’re signed in to, the onboarding wizard starts an approval flow. Two reviewers for the targeted tenant must both approve the request before information such as the customer name and telemetry insights are made available. This automatic review process ensures compliance with data protection regulations and builds trust with customers.

Successful Dynamics 365 implementations by design

The Dynamics 365 Implementation Portal is based on Success by Design, a systematic approach for successful cloud deployment that was developed by Microsoft. Success by Design provides prescriptive guidance for designing, building, and deploying your new Dynamics 365 solution. The onboarding wizard represents a pivotal advancement in the journey towards a successful Dynamics 365 implementation. By guiding you through the creation of your implementation projects, facilitating reviews, and offering relevant insights, the Implementation Portal and the onboarding wizard help your business harness the full potential of Dynamics 365 with confidence and efficiency.

Introducing the Dynamics 365 Implementation Portal project onboarding wizard

Next steps

Sign up for the Dynamics 365 Implementation Portal and read the documentation.

Learn more about the onboarding wizard.

Have feedback or questions about the onboarding wizard or the Implementation Portal? Let us know! Email us at ftd365ip-support@microsoft.com.

Not yet a Dynamics 365 customer? Take a tour and get a free trial.

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Empowering Business innovation for modernizing Retailers and manufacturers with Copilot: Unleashing Dynamics 365 Commerce investments for 2024 Wave 1 http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/2024/02/26/empowering-business-innovation-for-modernizing-retailers-and-manufacturers-with-copilot-unleashing-dynamics-365-commerce-investments-for-2024-wave-1/ Mon, 26 Feb 2024 18:45:43 +0000 Dynamics 365 Commerce is a comprehensive omnichannel solution that empowers retailers to deliver personalized, seamless, and differentiated shopping experiences across physical and digital channels. In the 2024 release wave 1, Dynamics 365 Commerce continues to innovate and enhance its capabilities to improve store associate productivity and meet the evolving needs of customers and businesses. Here are some of the highlights of the new features coming soon:

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Editor: Denis Conway

Introduction:

Dynamics 365 Commerce is a comprehensive omnichannel solution that empowers retailers to deliver personalized, seamless, and differentiated shopping experiences across physical and digital channels. In the 2024 release Wave 1, Dynamics 365 Commerce continues to innovate and enhance its capabilities to improve store associate productivity and meet the evolving needs of customers and businesses. Here are some of the highlights of the new features coming soon:

Copilot in Site builder is going global and multi-lingual:

Copilot in Site builder is a generative AI assistant that helps users create engaging and relevant content for their e-commerce sites. Copilot uses the product information and the user’s input to generate product enrichment content that is crafted using brand tone and tailored for targeted customer segments.

graphical user interface
Image: Copilot Site Builder

In the 2024 release wave 1, Copilot in Site builder is expanding its language support to include support for 23 additional locales including German, French, Spanish, and more. This feature demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to making Copilot accessible globally and empowering users to create multilingual content with ease and efficiency.

Strengthening our dedication to creating a comprehensive B2B solution for Digital Commerce by supporting B2B indirect commerce

Dynamics 365 Commerce supports both B2C and B2B commerce scenarios, enabling retailers to sell directly to consumers and businesses. In the 2024 release wave 1, Dynamics 365 Commerce fortifies its B2B investments by introducing support for B2B indirect commerce, which enables manufacturers selling through a network of distributors to get complete visibility into their sales and inventory.

graphical user interface
Image: New distributor capabilities

New distributor capabilities enable manufacturers to provide a self-service platform that simplifies distributor operations and builds meaningful, long-lasting business relationships through efficient and transparent transactions. Distributors can access product catalogs and pricing specific to their partner agreements, manufacturers can place orders on behalf of their customers with specific distributor, and outlets can track order status and history.

Dynamics 365 Commerce also streamlines multi-outlet ordering, enabling business buyers that are associated with more than one outlet organization to buy for all of them. Commerce provides the ability to seamlessly buy for multiple organizations using the same email account, enabling buyers to be more efficient.

graphical user interface, website
Image: Order for Organizations

Additionally, Dynamics 365 Commerce supports advance ordering, which is a common practice in some businesses to order products in advance to ensure they have adequate stock when needed. This feature enables customers to specify the desired delivery date and include additional order notes.

Also, introducing support for a promotions page on an e-commerce site that serves as a hub to showcase various deals and promotions that shoppers can take advantage of. The promotions page can display active and upcoming promotions.

graphical user interface
Image : Promotions Page
Adyen Tap to Pay is coming to Store Commerce app on iOS

The Store Commerce app is a mobile point of sale (POS) solution that enables store associates to complete transactions through a mobile device on the sales floor, pop-up store, or remote location. The Store Commerce app supports various payment methods, such as cash, card, gift card, and loyalty points.

a hand holding a remote control
Image: Adyen Tap to Pay

In the 2024 release wave 1, Dynamics 365 Commerce is introducing Adyen Tap to Pay capabilities into the Store Commerce app for iOS, so that retailers everywhere can accept payments directly on Apple iPhones. Adyen Tap to Pay enhances the utility and versatility of the Store Commerce app, as it eliminates the need for additional hardware or peripherals to process payments. It also enables retailers to offer a more customer-centric and engaging in-store retail experience, as store associates can interact with customers anywhere in the store and complete transactions on the spot.

Speed up your checkout process with simplified and consistent payment workflows for different payment methods on Store Commerce app

Efficiency and predictability are key to the smooth operation of a point of sale (POS) system, especially when it comes to payment processing. When store associates can process customer payments across a variety of payment types with minimal friction, customers spend less time waiting and more time shopping.

In the 2024 release wave 1, Dynamics 365 Commerce is improving the POS payment processing user experience to create more consistent workflows across payment types. The new user experience simplifies the payment selection and confirmation process, reduces the number of clicks and screens, and provides clear feedback and guidance to the store associate. The new user experience also supports split tendering, which allows customers to pay with multiple payment methods in a single transaction.

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Image: Check out process

The improved POS payment processing user experience will contribute to efficiencies in the checkout process and more satisfied customers. It will also reduce the training time and effort for store associates, as they can easily learn and master the payment workflows.

Enabling retailers to effectively monitor and track inventory of Batch-controlled products via Store Commerce app

Batch-controlled products are products that are manufactured in batches and associated with unique identifiers for quality control and traceability. Batch-controlled products are commonly used in food, chemical, and electronics industries, where the quality and safety of the products are critical.

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Image: Batch Control Products

In the 2024 release wave 1, Dynamics 365 Commerce enhances the Store Commerce app to support batch-controlled products. This feature enables store associates to scan or enter the batch number of the products during the sales or return transactions and validate the batch information against the inventory records. This feature also enables store associates to view the batch details of the products, such as the expiration date, manufacture date, and lot number.

With these new features, Dynamics 365 Commerce aims to provide you with the best tools and solutions to grow your business and delight your customers. Whether you want to create engaging and relevant content for your e-commerce site, automate and integrate your order management workflows, expand your B2B commerce opportunities, or improve your payment processing and inventory management, Dynamics 365 Commerce has something new for you.

To learn more about Dynamics 365 Commerce:

Learn more about additional investments and timeline for these investments here in release plans.

Visit our website on commerce today.

The post Empowering Business innovation for modernizing Retailers and manufacturers with Copilot: Unleashing Dynamics 365 Commerce investments for 2024 Wave 1 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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2024 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform now available http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2024/01/25/2024-release-wave-1-plans-for-microsoft-dynamics-365-and-power-platform-now-available/ http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2024/01/25/2024-release-wave-1-plans-for-microsoft-dynamics-365-and-power-platform-now-available/#comments Thu, 25 Jan 2024 16:00:00 +0000 On January 25, 2024, we published the 2024 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, a compilation of new capabilities planned to be released between April 2024 and September 2024. This first release wave of the year offers hundreds of new features and improvements.

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On January 25, 2024, we published the 2024 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, a compilation of new capabilities planned to be released between April 2024 and September 2024. This first release wave of the year offers hundreds of new features and improvements, showcasing our ongoing commitment to fueling digital transformation for both our customers and partners.

This release reinforces our dedication to developing applications and experiences that contribute value to roles by dismantling barriers between data, insights, and individuals. This wave introduces diverse enhancements across various business applications, emphasizing improved user experiences, productivity, innovative app development and automation, and advanced AI capabilities. Watch a summary of the release highlights.

Explore a heightened level of convenience when examining Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans using the release planner. Enjoy unmatched flexibility as you customize, filter, and sort plans to align with your preferences, effortlessly sharing them. Maintain organization, stay informed, and remain in control while smoothly navigating through various active waves of plans. For more information, visit the release planner.

Highlights from Dynamics 365 

Field engineer inspects electrical substation server room on a wind farm using remote assist with HoloLens2

Dynamics 365 release wave

Check out the 2024 release wave 1 early access features.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales enhances customer understanding and boosts sales through data, intelligence, and user-friendly experiences. The 2024 release wave 1 focuses on providing sellers timely customer information, expediting deals with actionable insights, improving productivity, and empowering organizations through open configurability and expanded generative AI leadership. Check out this video about the most exciting features releasing this wave.

Microsoft Copilot for Sales continues to deliver and enhance cutting-edge generative AI capabilities for sellers by enriching the Copilot in Microsoft 365 capabilities with sales specific skills, data, and actions. Additionally, the team will focus on assisting sellers on the go within the Outlook and Microsoft Teams mobile apps.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service will continue to empower agents to work more efficiently through Copilot, filtering response verification, diagnostic tools for admins and agents, and usability improvements to multi-session apps. Additionally, we’re making enhancements to the voice channel, and improving unified routing assignment accuracy and prioritization. Watch this video about the exciting new features in Customer Service.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service is a field service management application that allows companies to transform their service operations with processes and experiences to manage, schedule, and perform. In the 2024 release wave 1, we’re introducing the next generation of Copilot capabilities, modern experiences, Microsoft 365 integrations, vendor management, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Operations integration.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance continues on its journey of autonomous finance, building intelligence, automation, and analytics around every business process, to increase user productivity and business agility. This release focuses on enhancing business performance planning and analytics, adding AI powered experiences, easing setup of financial dimension defaulting with AI rules guidance, increasing automation in bank reconciliation, netting, expanding country coverage, tax automation, and scalability. See how the latest enhancements to Dynamics 365 Finance can help your business.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management enhances business processes for increased insight and agility. Copilot skills improve user experiences, while demand planning transforms the forecast process, and warehouse processes are optimized for greater efficiency and accuracy. See how the latest enhancements to Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management can help your business.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations is focused on enhancing usability, performance, and scalability in key areas such as project planning, invoicing, time entry, and core transaction processing. The spotlight is on core functionality improvements, including support for discounts and fees, enhanced resource reconciliation, journals, approvals, and contract management, with added mobile capabilities to handle larger projects and invoices at an increased scale. See how the latest enhancements to Dynamics 365 Project Operations can help your business.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides is bringing several new capabilities and enhancements including supporting high-detail 3D model support through Microsoft Azure Remote Rendering and greatly improved web content support that enable customers to build mixed reality workflows that are integrated with their business data. Additionally, support for Guides content on mobile will be generally available in the coming wave through a seamless integration with the Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile application.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Human Resources will continue to improve recruiting experiences with functionality to integrate with external job portals and talent pools and offer management. We will continue to expand our human capital management ecosystem to include additional payroll partners and build better together experiences that span the gamut of what Microsoft can offer to improve employee experiences in corporations of any size and scale across the globe. See how the latest enhancements to Dynamics 365 Human Resources can help your business.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce continues to invest in omnichannel retail experiences through advancements in mobile point of sale experiences like Tap to Pay for iOS and offline capabilities for Store Commerce on Android. The business-to-business buying experience is enhanced with new capabilities, and a streamlined order management solution for buyers who work across multiple organizations.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is delivering substantial enhancements, with a central emphasis on harnessing the power of Copilot. Available in more than 160 countries, the team is focused on Copilot-driven capabilities to streamline and enhance productivity through enhanced reporting and data analysis capabilities, elevated project and financial management, and simplified workflow automation. We have also upgraded our development and governance tools and introduced improvements in managing data privacy and compliance.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data empowers every organization to unify and enhance customer data, using it for insightful analysis and intelligent actions. With this release, we’re making it easier and faster to ingest and manage your data. AI enables quick insights and democratized access to analytics. Real-time data ingestion, creation, and updates further enable the optimization of experiences in the moments that matter. Check out this video about the most exciting features releasing this wave.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys brings the power of AI to revolutionize how marketers work, enabling businesses to optimize interactions with their customers with end-to-end journeys across departments and channels. With this release, we empower marketers with a deeper customer understanding, we enable them to create new experiences within minutes, reach customers in more ways, and continuously optimize results. Thanks to granular lead qualification, we continue to boost the synergy between sales and marketing to achieve superior business outcomes. Check out this video about the most exciting features releasing this wave.

Highlights from Microsoft Power Platform 

Microsoft Power Platform

Check out the 2024 release wave 1 early access features.

Close-up of hands holding a tablet.

Watch this video about the most exciting features releasing this wave in Microsoft Power Platform.

Microsoft Power Apps focuses on integrating Copilot to accelerate app development with AI and natural language, enhancing user reasoning and data insights in custom apps. The team is also simplifying the creation of modern apps through contemporary controls, responsive layouts, and collaboration features. Additionally, they’re facilitating enterprise-scale development, enabling makers and admins to expand apps across the organization with improved guardrails and quality assurance tools.

Microsoft Power Pages interactive Copilot now supports every step of site building to create intelligent websites—design, page layouts, content editing, data binding, learning, chatbot, accessibility checking, and securing the site. Connect to data anywhere with the out-of-the-box control library and secure the website with more insights at your fingertips.

Microsoft Power Automate is bringing Copilot capabilities across cloud flows, desktop flows and process mining. This will allow customers to use natural language to discover optimization opportunities, build automations, quickly troubleshoot any issues, and provide a delightful experience in managing the automation estate. For enterprise-scale solutions, maintenance is made easier with improved notifications on product capabilities.

Microsoft Copilot Studio brings native capabilities for extending Microsoft Copilot, general availability for generative actions, and geo-expansions to the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Norway, Korea, South America, and South Africa. We’re also introducing rich capabilities to integrate with OpenAI GPT models, along with new channels such as WhatsApp, and software lifecycle capabilities such as topic level import/export and role-based access control.

Microsoft Dataverse continues to make investments focusing on enhancing maker experience by improving app building productivity infused with Copilot experiences, seamless connectivity to external data sources, and AI-powered enterprise copilot for Microsoft 365.

AI Builder invests in three key areas: prompt builder for GPT prompts, intelligent document processing with new features and models, and AI governance improvements, including enhanced capacity management and data policies. These initiatives aim to empower users with advanced generative AI, streamline document processing, and strengthen governance across AI models within Power Apps.

Early access period 

Starting February 5, 2024, customers and partners will be able to validate the latest features in a non-production environment. These features include user experience enhancements that will be automatically enabled for users in production environments during April 2024. To take advantage of the early access period, try out the latest updates in a non-production environment and effectively plan for your customer rollout. Check out the 2024 release wave 1 early access features for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform or visit the early access FAQ page. 

For a complete list of new capabilities, please check out the Dynamics 365 2024 release wave 1 plan and the Microsoft Power Platform 2024 release wave 1 plan, and share your feedback in the community forums via Dynamics 365 or Microsoft Power Platform.

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The Composable Commerce Revolution, the Future of E-Commerce, Dynamics 365 Commerce has arrived! http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/2024/01/12/the-composable-commerce-revolution-the-future-of-e-commerce-dynamics-365-commerce-has-arrived/ Fri, 12 Jan 2024 18:22:51 +0000 The world of e-commerce has undergone a massive transformation over the past few years, and it’s all thanks to the revolutionary concept of composable commerce. This approach has taken the industry by storm, and it’s not hard to see why. Composable commerce is versatile, scalable, and innovative approach, allowing businesses of all sizes to provide exceptional customer experiences across various platforms and devices.

The post The Composable Commerce Revolution, the Future of E-Commerce, Dynamics 365 Commerce has arrived! appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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Editor:
@denisconway

Introduction:

You’re in for a treat! The world of e-commerce has undergone a massive transformation over the past few years, and it’s all thanks to the revolutionary concept of composable commerce. This approach has taken the industry by storm, and it’s not hard to see why. Composable commerce is versatile, scalable, and innovative approach, allowing businesses of all sizes to provide exceptional customer experiences across various platforms and devices.

In this article, we’ll look closer at the intricacies of composable commerce, exploring its core benefits and examining how it’s changing the game for the e-commerce industry. Get ready to be blown away by the possibilities of composable commerce!

graphical user interface, website
Image: Multiple Ecommerce Channels

Many organizations have started adopting Dynamics 365 Commerce, a composable commerce engine to enable customers to unify back office, in-store and e-commerce channels. While also serving as the single integration point for third-party channel solutions. This gives customers the key advantage of using a variety of best of breed commerce solutions to engage and deliver goods and services to their customers.

What is Composable Commerce:

Composable commerce is a contemporary approach to e-commerce that separates the front-end (presentation layer) and back-end (commerce logic) of an e-commerce platform. Unlike traditional e-commerce systems, where changes to one component can affect the other, composable commerce decouples these two layers, enabling independent development and greater flexibility. This separation allows for greater agility, faster innovation, and the ability to adapt quickly to changing market demands.

diagram
Image: Composable Commerce Diagram

In contrast, traditional e-commerce systems often have monolithic front and back ends, leading to certain limitations. Modifying the underlying codebase to change the front-end design or user experience can be complex and time-consuming. Additionally, traditional systems are not easily scalable across different devices or channels. Composable commerce addresses these challenges by allowing businesses to easily update their website’s design or incorporate new features without disrupting the core e-commerce functionality.

What options do companies have:

Businesses have two powerful options to customize their e-commerce experiences: headless commerce and composable commerce. Headless commerce allows companies to develop and update front-end and back-end components independently, enabling quick adaptation to market changes and experimentation with innovative features. Composable commerce takes flexibility and customization to the next level by enabling businesses to select modular components from different vendors, providing the ultimate flexibility to create an e-commerce ecosystem that is tailored to their unique needs.

Benefits of Composable Commerce:

To start with, the flexibility and agility of a digital environment is continuously evolving, thus using a decouple architecture business can quickly adapt to customers changing preferences. Separating the front-end from the back end ensures that branding, user experience, and functionality stay consistent across various channels. By having cohesive experience across web, mobile, social, media, voice assistant and other Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Voice Commerce, based emerging technologies lead to higher customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty.

diagram
Image: With composable commerce, businesses can provide cohesive experience to customers on various channels

In addition, scalability and performance are also greatly enhanced because businesses can independently scale each layer resulting in better resource allocation. Websites can now handle increased traffic, sales volume, and complex operations leading to faster page upload time and better user experience.

End-user Benefits:

Whether customers interact with your brand through a website, mobile app, voice assistant, marketplace, or social media platform, composable commerce ensures a seamless and tailored experience. In addition, faster loading times and improved website performance reduce the long wait time for the entire page to load, resulting in a smoother and more responsive user interface. More importantly customers are browsing via desktop, smartphone, tablet, or using voice assistants to access your products and services seamlessly. This omni-channel capability enhances convenience and accessibility for customers, meeting their expectations for a seamless cross-channel experience. Dynamics 365 Commerce enables businesses to build this experience.

graphical user interface, diagram

Customer Image: Front page ABBY Site  Easy, online contact lens ordering | Doctor Trusted | Patient Approved | Free Shipping | HelloAbby

Customer Story:

Empowering Vision: ABB Optical Group’s Intelligent Contact Lens Ordering Platform with Microsoft Dynamics 365″

Embarking on a technological evolution, ABB Optical Group introduces its Intelligent Contact Lens Ordering Platform, a game-changer crafted in collaboration with Visionet Systems Inc. and Microsoft. This innovation involved the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, Azure Cloud, and Data Lake, providing a solid technological foundation. ABB Optical aimed to transcend its legacy Patient Ordering Platform, yourlens.com, seeking a modern, intelligent, and scalable user experience. This vision materialized through the development of a robust Minimum Viable Product(MVP), introducing a microservices headless experience and harnessing the capabilities of Microsoft D365 Retail and HQ APIs, alongside Proof of Concepts.

The outcome was nothing short of transformative. The MVP’s successful pilot garnered positive feedback, propelling the rapid development of additional customer-demanded features. In just six months, Visionet spearheaded the launch of phase two of the Abby Platform, seamlessly integrating a data analytics component through Data Lake with Dynamics 365 F&O and Power BI. ABB Optical Group now stands at the forefront of innovation, offering eyecare providers and patients an intelligent, forward-thinking ordering system.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the emergence of composable commerce signifies a pivotal shift in the digital marketplace. This approach, distinguished by its modular structure, cloud-native integration, and technology-independent capabilities, provides businesses with unparalleled flexibility and adaptability. It enables businesses to customize their digital experiences, integrate seamlessly with best of breed solution providers for individual capabilities, and respond swiftly to market changes and complexities.


Learn more

Dynamics 365 Commerce delivers a comprehensive, yet composable, set of capabilities for both consumer and business-facing organizations seeking to expand beyond traditional digital commerce limitations and improve customer engagement, build brand awareness, streamline purchasing, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

To learn more about Dynamics 365 Commerce:

Visit our website on commerce today.

The post The Composable Commerce Revolution, the Future of E-Commerce, Dynamics 365 Commerce has arrived! appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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Extend your existing Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management application to unlock a new AI powered B2B digital selling experience with Dynamics 365 Commerce. http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/2023/10/31/extend-your-existing-dynamics-365-supply-chain-management-application-to-unlock-a-new-ai-powered-b2b-digital-selling-experience-with-dynamics-365-commerce/ Tue, 31 Oct 2023 17:27:57 +0000 Dynamics 365 gives us the cloud-based architecture we require to support the growth requirements of the business. The combination of Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Azure cloud services provides Peet’s with a scalable and supportable technology foundation for the future.

The post Extend your existing Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management application to unlock a new AI powered B2B digital selling experience with Dynamics 365 Commerce. appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

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The changing nature of B2B commerce

The B2B commerce landscape is undergoing a significant transformation with the rise of millennials in decision-making positions. As digital natives, they value convenience, transparency, and efficiency in their buying experiences. They expect seamless online transactions, personalized recommendations, and real-time inventory visibility. This evolving dynamic presents opportunities and challenges for B2B transactions, requiring a reinvention of supply chains to adapt to these changing demands.

To cater to these preferences, B2B e-commerce platforms are investing heavily in user experience design, implementing AI-powered recommendation engines, and providing self-service tools that enable buyers to make informed decisions without extensive back-and-forth with sales representatives.

According to a report 43% of B2B buyers prefer not to interact with a sales representative, while 83% of buyers surveyed said they would prefer paying through digital commerce.  While this trend gives more control to buyers, it also improves seller productivity, allowing sellers to spend less time taking and processing orders while spending more time engaging customers in a meaningful way.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management is an application that offers capabilities for warehouse and D365 Commerce that includes a B2B offering along with ordering management. It helps businesses overcome ecommerce and supply chain challenges with a management solution that enables them to ensure resiliency with better inventory management while also helping them orchestrate orders across their various supply chain systems. This helps businesses scale their business as they continue to grow. Customers like Peet’s Coffee are working with Microsoft to deploy B2B capabilities for Dynamics 365 in their business for just these reasons.

a screenshot of a man
Business e-commerce homepage for Adventure Works

Traditional companies in the market tend to separate out B2B and B2C commerce solutions. This has led to businesses having replicated data, digital assets, and disjointed messaging if they operate across both B2B and B2C. This has also resulted in a lack of innovation in the B2B e-commerce space driven by traditional perceptions around the B2B buyer journey. With young and tech savvy buyers now commonplace in the market, we must look beyond what has traditionally been available for B2B e-commerce and enable smarter and more intuitive buying experiences for users. This is what we set out to do with Dynamics 365 Commerce. By bringing the innovative and intelligent features of B2C to B2B e-commerce, companies can deliver curated and relevant content to their buyers and build richer B2B account relations. This includes activating capabilities like a responsive and modular UX, intelligent and AI-powered recommendations, context aware and immersive product search, shared ratings and reviews, cross channel asset management, distributed order management, and merchandising capabilities into the buyers digital purchasing experience. It also includes support for order ingestions from multiple sources including EDI through the use of our provider ecosystem.

graphical user interface, website
Unified status pane for your B2B orders

We are also enabling relevant B2B capabilities for modern businesses, including flexible partner management and onboarding tools to reach partners directly online. Dynamics 365 Commerce is highly extensible as there is not one size that fits all. Streamlining the order process is made simpler with order templates allowing for curated and simplified self-service ordering options. Business partner accounts can see relevant discounts and spot promotions, or runout offers where relevant. Grid-based order entry allows for quick and efficient order placement with clear visibility of stock and order thresholds, supported with account-based payment options for quick order approval.

graphical user interface, website
The image displays order templates, the checkout screen for a business order including shipping details, payment method and order summary.

According to a survey of purchasing managers, 70% of them would prefer self-checkout purchasing for orders worth $50,000. This preference for self-checkout is in line with the growing trend of customers preferring to manage their transactions independently, without the support of service reps.

a screenshot of a social media post
Simplified Order Conformation screen

To manage customers with fewer sales reps, organizations need to find ways to optimize their reps by increasing their productivity and reducing the time spent building quotes and invoicing. This will allow sales reps to focus their time and attention on selling.

Using Copilot to democratize marketing

graphical user interface, application
Commerce Copilot experience screeen

Peet’s Coffee Case Study

Peet’s Coffee was running their business on Dynamics 365 leveraging the SCM modules. The shape of the business had also changed to a consumer-packaged goods operation requiring more B2B sales. Peet’s Coffee leadership saw the need to improve their order taking process and found Dynamics 365 e-commerce as an ideal solution because it leverages the same platform as Dynamics Supply Chain Management. This would enable them to get faster time to value while focusing on optimizing targeted customer specific catalogs, customer specific pricing and trade agreements, easy reordering with order templates and the ability to collect payments online. The launch of their e-commerce portal culminated in an easy ordering experience, real-time prices, and increased seller productivity. Ultimately, Peet’s leapfrogged to a new state of business maturity and agility enabled by the e-commerce portal implementation.

“Dynamics 365 gives us the cloud-based architecture we require to support the growth requirements of the business. The combination of Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Azure cloud services provides Peet’s with a scalable and supportable technology foundation for the future.”

Chief Information Officer, Allan Smith Peets Coffee

Conclusion

In conclusion, businesses must reinvent their supply chains to meet the demands of millennial buyers. They must also invest in user experience design and self-service tools to provide seamless buying experiences that cater to the preferences of tech-savvy buyers. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce plays a pivotal role in this transformation, offering a platform that bridges the gap between B2B and B2C, enabling businesses to deliver curated and relevant content to their buyers, and building richer B2B account relations. The Peet’s Coffee case study exemplifies how Dynamics 365 Commerce enhances business agility and customer satisfaction in the modern B2B commerce landscape.


Learn more

Dynamics 365 Commerce delivers a comprehensive, yet composable, set of capabilities for both consumer and business-facing organizations seeking to expand beyond traditional digital commerce limitations and improve customer engagement, build brand awareness, streamline purchasing, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

To learn more about Dynamics 365 Commerce:

Learn how SCM customer can implement B2B e-commerce and best practices.

Visit our website and request a preview of B2B e-commerce today.

We have Techtalks scheduled and here are the links:

TechTalk: Extend Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management for an AI-powered B2B digital selling experience using Dynamics 365 Commerce | Dec 5, 2023



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Announcing Commerce Copilot in Site Builder  http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/2023/10/04/dynamics-365-commerce-copilot/ Wed, 04 Oct 2023 16:32:21 +0000 Dynamics 365 Commerce is thrilled to announce the preview of ‘Commerce Copilot’.

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Introducing the first AI copilot experience for Dynamics 365 Commerce 

For Merchandisers tasked with managing large product catalogs, the creation of high-quality “enriched” marketing content for their digital commerce channels can be a daunting and labor-intensive process. Especially if the Merchandiser is untrained in the creation of marketing copy. Yet it is incredibly important to have “enriched” content at the product level, where it can increase customer engagement, improve customer understanding, and drive natural search engine ranking, which all lead to higher conversion rates. 

It is for this reason that Dynamics 365 Commerce is thrilled to announce the preview of ‘Commerce Copilot’, which provides a fast and efficient way of authoring product enrichment content for your B2B and B2C digital commerce websites. 

graphical user interface, application, Word

Use Commerce Copilot to jump-start the creative process by first selecting a tone, configured by you, that aligns to your brand, like “adventurous”, “luxurious” or “bold”. Then select an audience choice from choices managed by you, like “sports enthusiast” or “college graduate”. Copilot will then use these prompts to craft compelling and engaging content that makes use of your existing product information like name, description, attributes, price and more! 

You can further augment your newly enriched content with key product highlights or tune it to be optimized for search engines. But you always remain in control and have the ability to review and modify any content before it is published! 

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The Commerce Copilot for enriched product content is now available as a public preview for digital commerce customers based in United States. Additional market availability will be enabled soon. 

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Discover new AI for Microsoft Dynamics 365 at our tenth Business Applications Launch Event http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2023/10/04/discover-new-ai-for-microsoft-dynamics-365-at-our-tenth-business-applications-launch-event/ http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-us/dynamics-365/blog/business-leader/2023/10/04/discover-new-ai-for-microsoft-dynamics-365-at-our-tenth-business-applications-launch-event/#comments Wed, 04 Oct 2023 15:00:00 +0000 AI is ready for work—the question is: What will your business do with it? Join us at the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event on October 25 and explore how to create an AI-powered business that helps people and teams be more productive, solve problems faster than ever, and focus more energy on building revenue.

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AI is ready to support work—the question is: What will your business do with it?

Join us at the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event on October 25 and explore how to create an AI-powered business that helps people and teams be more productive, solve problems quickly, and focus more energy on building revenue.

This will mark our tenth Business Applications Launch Event—a milestone in our commitment to business app innovation, our customers, and our partners. But we’re just getting started. To see what’s next—and what it means for your organization—you’ll hear directly from Microsoft leaders about their vision for AI, customer service, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and low-code solutions.

Register for a glimpse at the future of business AI, with thought leaders and Dynamics 365 experts guiding you. Be first to see the latest AI advancements in action, including:

  • The latest AI in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales that provides relevant recommendations, summarizes data, retrieves information, and performs actions within the flow of work.
  • Advanced Copilot capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service that streamline agents’ workspaces, let them see transcripts of live chats and voice calls in their inboxes, and allow them to respond to customers quickly with the right information.
  • New Microsoft Sales Copilot features that help compose emails, update customer relationship management (CRM) records, recap meetings, and offer real-time tips to help sales teams close more deals.
  • Enhanced automation in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance to help handle accounts payable and bank statements, complex tax scenarios, and e-invoicing requirements in more markets.
  • New Copilot features in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to help marketers quickly create memorable customer experiences using whole new levels of personalization for emails, images, and layouts.

Plus, learn about updates for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Human Resources—all ready to help your employees be more productive, build customer loyalty, and drive meaningful growth. You’ll also hear from Charles Lamanna, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Business Applications and Platforms, about what’s driving innovation today. Then catch some of the newest AI capabilities in action, with demos led by the people behind the 2023 release wave 2, offering expert guidance on how these updates will help you:

  • Improve insights, save time, and fuel creativity with the latest AI-powered solutions.
  • Empower your employees to focus on revenue-generating work and avoid repetitive tasks with automation.
  • Connect people, data, and processes across your organization using modern, AI-enhanced collaboration tools.
Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event promotional banner with graphic background

Insights on putting AI to work for you

The Business Applications Launch Event is more than our chance to showcase hundreds of new features and updates. It’s also a great opportunity for you to learn expert tips on how to apply these new technologies to some of your business’ biggest challenges. And if you have questions about new features, the role of AI at work, the evolution of copilots, or what’s ahead for business apps, get them answered by experts—we’ll be hosting a live Q&A chat at the end of the event, so be sure to stick around.

It’s been inspiring to see all the new features that the Dynamics 365 team has been working on, and we’re looking forward to celebrating 10 events’ worth of advancing business applications ahead.

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Business Applications Launch Event

Explore how to create an AI-powered business.

We hope you’ll join us.

Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

 9:00 AM–10:30 AM Pacific Time (UTC-7)


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