Fuel automation and innovation with Power Apps for the Telco Industry
The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Telecommunications Accelerator expands the Common Data Model to include 16 new attributes based on a subset of the specifications of the TM Forum Open Digital Framework and in response to input provided by Microsoft’s broad ecosystem of Telecommunications ISV and System Integrator partners. Like the seven other industry accelerators already published, this new Telecommunications Accelerator extends and customizes the capabilities of the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 products to enable telco-specific application design and development and fuel new innovation and automation for network operators, internet service providers, and mobile carriers.
The new data entities included in this first release of the Dynamics 365 Telecommunications Accelerator are centered around the new “Place” entity. The TM Forum specifications define a “Place” as the combination of a geographic street address, location, or map point with a local designation, position, or inner space or container, such as Port 3 on a server in rack 16 of a server room in the east wing of a university campus. ”Places” can then be used by any telecom network process, business operations system, or other cloud-connected technology that interface and connects to the same data model using Microsoft Dataverse. The goal is to enable the rapid development and deployment of new solutions or automation to address current business challenges such as improved address management, enhanced field service and truck management, improved subscriber management, personalization in packaging and bundling, network management, customer self-care, network optimization and planning, or any other business optimization.
This release of the Dynamics 365 Telecommunications Accelerator includes two sample Power Platform applications to better understand the physical locations a network serves, and to build entities and locate network components to provide the best experience for your customers.
The first sample solution called “Place Management” includes forms, views, business logic, and rich graphic user interface or PCF controls that directly integrate both Azure Maps geospatial capabilities as well as sample Microsoft Power BI dashboards to showcase how easy it is to combine a variety of relevant Microsoft technology for use by the telecommunications industry.
The second sample solution called “Telco Sales” showcases how you can take the standard out-of-the-box Dynamics 365 Sales application and add new features customized for specific telecommunications operations, such as service address tracking, street address normalization, serviceability checks, and lead qualification. For example, a built-in lead qualification wizard walks a user through a variety of pre-check steps needed to confirm whether a potential customer’s service address is within the network’s reach and whether there is nearby network equipment available that can serve the customer’s requirements. These sample applications provide a great starting point for developers looking to build and deploy solutions for telecommunication operators and their networks.
Our founding partner for the development and release of the Dynamics 365 Telecommunications Accelerator is ETI Software Solutions, a global leader in communications technology and services with over 100 Telco-specific integrations of next-generation IP that automates provisioning, service automation, and device management. ETI has tailored Dynamics 365 for telecommunications and broadband providers, with functionality that spans the full subscriber lifestyle.
The ETI/Microsoft partnership throughout the development of the Dynamics 365 Telecommunications Accelerator has been outstanding. ETI’s expertise in the industry and their depth of understanding of the data attributes that will be of most value in the development of new Telecommunications industry solutions had a significant influence over the scope and functionality of today’s release. Our collaboration also helped us address critical considerations such as the need to align the accelerator with industry-specific data standards as defined by the TM Forum.
All told, the accelerator’s extension of the Common Data Model in combination with the integration of Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Azure will empower ETI to rapidly bring to market new solutions to enable Telecommunications organizations to deliver transformed customer experiences through subscriber portals, customer service, field service, finance, device management, and more.
“A shift from network-centric to subscriber-centric organizations is driving digital service provider transformation. Having a single system of record that includes geospatial data, network and device data, and subscriber data unlocks the potential for proactive insights that everyone is dreaming about,” explains Peter Pizzutillo, ETI Vice-President of Sales and Marketing. “Our solution with Microsoft provides a secure, scalable, and extensible foundation that helps digital service providers eliminate complex and aged architectures, and realize advanced capabilities (analytics, AR, and RPA) faster. That’s why we are excited about all the possibilities of what ETI and Microsoft can do together to accelerate innovation and drive business growth for our customers.”
To learn more about the Dynamics 365 Telecommunications Accelerator, watch this short demonstration video prepared by the team at ETI Software Solutions. Additional content—including upcoming live webinars to learn more directly from ETI and Microsoft—will be available soon.
Get started right away with a test drive of the new Dynamics 365 Telecommunications Accelerator on AppSource. You can interact with a preconfigured environment that demonstrates the accelerator’s key features and benefits without the need to set up or use your own Azure or Dynamics 365 subscription. Once you are ready, the data model, solutions, application and data samples, Power BI reports, and UX controls that come with this release of the Telecommunications Accelerator are available to any Power Platform developer from the “Get It Now” feature on AppSource or also for download on GitHub, with additional supporting documentation and configuration information located on Microsoft Docs.
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