{"id":10725,"date":"2019-08-20T16:19:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T23:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=10725"},"modified":"2023-06-15T13:47:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T20:47:07","slug":"microsoft-dynamics-365-and-ai-automate-complex-business-processes-and-transactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/microsoft-dynamics-365-and-ai-automate-complex-business-processes-and-transactions\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Dynamics 365 and AI automate complex business processes and transactions"},"content":{"rendered":"
This content has been archived, and while it was correct at time of publication, it may no longer be accurate or reflect the current situation at Microsoft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Dynamics 365 and AI are at the center of Microsoft\u2019s complex business contracts and transactions worldwide. They automate business processes and accommodate customized workflow management for all their globally distributed business units. Moving Microsoft contracts and transactions through a structured process helps them coordinate people and work efficiently.<\/p>\n
At Microsoft Digital, we\u2019re using Microsoft Dynamics 365 to manage and automate our complex business processes and workflows. We track thousands of messages, orders, agreements, and amendments each day and we require a robust management system to efficiently process and manage our contract and transaction landscape. Therefore, Microsoft Digital developed COSMIC, or Customer Obsessed Solution Management and Incident Care, which is a contract and transaction-case management solution built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 with Microsoft Cognitive Services and Microsoft Bot Framework. COSMIC streamlines the tasks required to complete a transaction and call a case with a structured, system-guided workflow. It provides a clear end-to-end view of case progress and helps Microsoft track vendor performance and manage outsourced operations more efficiently.<\/p>\n
The 100,000-person Microsoft partner and customer network generates more than $100 billion of revenue each year. Contract and transaction-case management and administration spans 13 internal business units, such as Channel\u00a0Incentives, Microsoft\u00a0Business\u00a0Services, Volume Licensing, and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), as Figure 1 depicts.<\/p>\n
Microsoft largely outsources contract operations to vendors in multiple Regional Operations Centers (ROCs) worldwide, as the following data points illustrate, including that ROCs:<\/p>\n
Revenue processing is complex. Therefore, to remain competitive, we must digitally transform our business while simultaneously continuing to protect our revenue stream.<\/p>\n Interacting with our partner and customer network, and managing the multitude of relationships within it, is a huge undertaking. Our previous management toolset didn\u2019t allow us to capture and assess the complete relationship landscape, which made it difficult to quickly determine the status and overall health of individual relationships, contracts, and transactions.<\/p>\n Furthermore, with our previous case-management system for contracts and transactions, the agents managing those contracts and transactions had to maintain large amounts of case-specific knowledge. Agents had to know unique rules to work cases to completion and had to undergo extensive training on the system. Case tracking was not intuitive, and the system couldn\u2019t grow to meet business needs. From a business perspective, multiple data entry points requiring human intervention resulted in redundancy and errors. We could summarize our high-level problems in three points:<\/p>\n Therefore, to drive our digital transformation, Microsoft needed a solution with a holistic, end-to-end view of customers, and that accommodated users, partners, and the Microsoft field organization. These agents must manage contracts and cases at any stage, from start to finish, and they required more nuanced ways to assess and refine business processes. Enter COSMIC.<\/p>\n Using Dynamics 365 as its foundation, COSMIC offers critical case and contract management for Microsoft. Built on a concept that matches case tasks to qualified agents,\u00a0workflow management<\/i>\u00a0in COSMIC is a configurable system that drives, tracks, and supports cases from intake to resolution. It uses attributes to automate case workflow and efficiently leads certified agents through each stage of a transaction. In COSMIC, you must complete each stage before you can proceed to the next. COSMIC segregates agent duties if local regulations require it, and it gives agents necessary SOX controls. Figure 2 illustrates a representative workflow and each stage:<\/p>\n Our automated workflow breaks the case and contract management process into standardized steps. At each step, we have visibility into that specific step and automated controls that enable our agents to support the system-guided process. The workflow process has seven major steps:<\/p>\n Microsoft needs to monitor and optimize the management of contracts and transactions, which COSMIC enables us to do.\u00a0Business process management<\/i>\u00a0in COSMIC enhances and refines our control and analysis, optimization capabilities, and agent-performance assessment. COSMIC ensures that agents configure business transactions specifically for the business unit to which they apply.<\/p>\n Our team evaluated different software options and chose\u00a0Dynamics 365 for Customer Service<\/a>\u00a0as the foundation for COSMIC. Dynamics 365 for Customer Service offers multiple out-of-the-box features that we could integrate immediately into our case-management process and also provides an integrated solution for the needs of Microsoft Business Process Operations.<\/p>\n Additionally, the Dynamics 365 platform offers built-in enterprise-level scalability, security features, and performance, and allowed us to build COSMIC into a modern engineering software platform with reusable services. This increased our expansion and integration capabilities. At its core, COSMIC is a collection of services conjoined with Dynamics 365 for Customer Service workflow processes to create a system-guided workflow solution.<\/p>\n Dynamics 365 allows us to turn on and turn off COSMIC features, depending on what functionality we need at any given time. This means we avoid costly code customization, and maintenance of that code. Long-term, it simplifies Dynamics 365 application upgrades and allows COSMIC tenants to adopt new features and capabilities faster.<\/p>\n Our previous solution required agents to be the primary driver of the business-process workflow within the case-management environment. Agents made decisions and advanced workflows, utilizing multiple systems within the workflow. They had the weighty responsibility for executing the process, which was vulnerable to human error.<\/p>\n Therefore, we set several important goals to drive creation of a new solution, including that it must:<\/p>\n COSMIC serves as the foundation for system-driven workflow, but it\u2019s also a flexible and modular foundation, based on service-focused design. We can expand COSMIC functionality easily with new services, and we can leverage or repurpose any services that we use across the platform to create new functionality. Services provide critical functionality, and we\u2019re continuing to build and optimize the services that COSMIC uses to drive efficiency and business value. The following sections detail examples of services that we\u2019re integrating with COSMIC, including:<\/p>\n Email is the primary COSMIC interface between our customers and agents. In the past, status messaging within our system was not intuitive, and we had latency issues. When our field organization wanted to review case information or ask agents questions, they had to communicate outside COSMIC and those exchanges weren\u2019t necessarily captured or tracked as part of a case.<\/p>\n However, we\u2019ve extended the COSMIC customer interface by using the Omnichannel Chat service and Microsoft Teams to provide interactive chat functionality. Omnichannel enables our customers to interact with an automated chat bot and the agent in an interwoven human and AI experience. Additionally, Omnichannel enables us to use our knowledge bases and information systems to answer common questions using an automated chat bot, while continuing to provide a human point of contact for interactions that require agent intervention.<\/p>\n Omnichannel uses AI and Microsoft Teams, the latter of which enables people within Microsoft to receive instant case updates, add notes directly to a case in COSMIC, and follow a case using auto notifications. Our agents and customers can check the status of transactions and holds, add information to advance a case, and submit a COSMIC case number in Microsoft Teams. A bot provides options for interacting with or following a case via Microsoft Teams, and the COSMIC bot interaction is logged into case data so that it appears in relevant dashboards. COSMIC will replicate case status is on any device that is running Microsoft Teams.<\/p>\n We\u2019re using digital data capture to digitally transform our business by taking customer-submitted information and transforming it into digital values that COSMIC can understand and manipulate. It\u2019s a suite of services that address the many ways that we receive customer input and it provides several capture methods, including that it\u2019ll:<\/p>\n For example, a customer might submit information through one of our external portals or by email. Most documents that customers submit to COSMIC receive a document number, and the system uses that number to identify fields and updates the applicable case with that information. The API\u2019s OCR capability scans and validates document data, and then sends a summary to the applicable agent. This reduces average handling time for agents by eliminating the need for routine manual validation and data entry, and it empowers agents to prioritize more critical activities. We\u2019re continuing to build the APIs and the suite of services to accommodate new information-capture scenarios and apply SOX controls and validations.<\/p>\n In our ideal state, COSMIC will automatically read and validate documents, so an agent doesn\u2019t have to manually interact with them. However, if the process breaks, an agent can review the case. We\u2019re not saying that having manual steps isn\u2019t acceptable. It is, if there\u2019s no mechanism whereby you can automate certain steps. However, you have to know where those manual steps are so that you can locate and troubleshoot a breakdown and thereby remove a process defect.<\/p>\n Email analytics offers automated translation services, which means that certain tasks can be language\u2014and location\u2014agnostic. Email analytics also is an easy way to measure customer satisfaction.<\/p>\n The Translator Text API provides automated translation services. For example, a customer can submit an order in German, and then the API can translate it and a Spanish-speaking agent can process it. Therefore, not all agents must be multilingual, which gives us flexibility in how we perform certain tasks.<\/p>\n Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services<\/a>\u00a0are services that provide a text-sentiment analysis score for email and text messages, which help us gauge customer likes, dislikes, wants, and needs, and also measure the quality of customer interactions. The Text\u00a0Analytics\u00a0API returns a numeric score between 0 and 1. Scores close to 1 reflect positive customer sentiment, while scores close to 0 indicate negative feedback. This feature is critical when we assign cases based on customer experience. We may want to assign a senior agent to a case if the sentiment is low. Figure 3 illustrates an email that Cognitive Services translated from Spanish to English, and then assigned a sentiment score utilizing a smiling emoji:<\/p>\n The Attachment Management solution manages notes and email attachments using Azure Blob storage, and then attaches them to a case workflow. It optimizes Dynamics\u00a0365 storage and provides retrieval on demand and provides a document-retention system in COSMIC. It can manage multi-attachment upload and download controls, such as drag and drop, one-click download of multiple attachments, and attachment preview.<\/p>\n Our business workflow must adhere to several business, program, and compliance policies. Previously, our policy-validation processes required that agents manually confirm compliance for each policy component before the case could proceed. However, the Automated Validation functionality allows us to leverage our digital data-capture results to analyze case data and apply automated, predetermined policies against a case workflow. If Automated Validation is unable to confirm compliance, COSMIC workflow forwards the case to an agent who remediates and then continues the workflow.<\/p>\n Automated Validation enables our agents to focus on the tasks that most require their intervention, and it makes our workflow process much faster. We also have full visibility into these processes within the system because workflow validation and remediation tasks all happen within COSMIC. This holistic view enables intelligent analytics and audit capabilities.<\/p>\n We built an internal agent interface that centralizes the agent experience within COSMIC. All agent work and interaction with a case happens within this interface. We can use digital capture and automated validation to centralize all necessary case data in COSMIC and create an end-to-end experience for agents, who never need to leave COSMIC. We created this interface in Microsoft PowerApps, leveraging the platform\u2019s capabilities to create an easy-to-use interface that doesn\u2019t have a large amount of code and complexity behind it.<\/p>\n Dynamics 365 for Customer Service supplies the system-guided base for COSMIC. We use Dynamics 365 to control the end-to-end workflow starting with an email or paper submission to the final outbound case email, and all of the triage, validation, data-entry, and submission processes that happen in between. We use Microsoft Azure services, Microsoft Power BI, and PowerApps to build and add services that integrate with COSMIC, creating functionality that supports the core COSMIC capabilities.<\/p>\n We\u2019re also using the COSMIC API to create integration possibilities with existing business applications and systems of record, such as SAP, to use data in these systems to supplement the workflow data stream and provide comprehensive workflow management. Figure 4 illustrates how the API enables us to integrate with these services without the need for complex code workarounds, and it enables a smoother transition to digital transformation:<\/p>\n We\u2019ve made COSMIC publicly available through\u00a0Microsoft AppSource<\/a>, at which you can search for assets\u00a0published by Microsoft Labs<\/a>, including:<\/p>\n We utilized agile software development, with an emphasis on failing fast, learning, and attaining the right functionality at the last minute. We committed to configuring existing software features rather than creating labor-intensive custom code, such as:<\/p>\n The reality is that business is complex, and that complexity drives unique business-unit needs. However, we had situations in which we needed specific functionality, so we created new components. We created customized and reusable components\u00a0which are publicly available at\u00a0Microsoft AppSource<\/a>.<\/p>\n COSMIC has provided numerous benefits, as it enabled us to streamline, simplify, and remove redundant back-office work. It\u2019s now easier to see across our system, and our detailed, structured workflow helps us quickly find bottlenecks and troubleshoot issues. At the same time, we\u2019re taking advantage of cloud technologies for AI and machine learning.<\/p>\n There are numerous other ways in which we benefit from COSMIC, including using it to:<\/p>\n Here are our best practices for using COSMIC:<\/p>\n Now that our COSMIC platform is in place, we\u2019ll integrate more tools that will improve automation, AI, and machine learning at all steps of our transactions. We expect that service-level agreement (SLA) fails should decrease as our partners quickly and efficiently get the information that they need. Some highlights to which we\u2019re looking forward are:<\/p>\n Digital transformation goes beyond technology. Business leaders must reimagine old business models and embrace a new way of bringing together people, data, and processes to create value for their customers. They also need to capture new opportunities for their organizations through intelligent systems.<\/p>\n Business challenges today are familiar: engaging customers, empowering employees, optimizing operations, and reinventing the value we offer customers.<\/p>\n At Microsoft, we\u2019re continuing our digital transformation and are excited to be using Dynamics 365 as the foundation for COSMIC to provide us with key strategic advantages, such as:<\/p>\n The COSMIC solution took a very complex transaction and contract-processing landscape that was operated by multiple vendors in several operations centers around the world, and streamlined it into a system that supports a consistent and structured workflow. In the process, the system has enhanced our outsourced business model, driven automation deep into our case-management workflows, and allowed us to closely monitor vendor performance and calibrate our business processes. COSMIC\u2014built on Dynamics 365 for Customer Service and other cloud technologies\u2014is the next generation of intelligent business applications that enables us to grow, evolve, and transform to meet business needs and capture new opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This content has been archived, and while it was correct at time of publication, it may no longer be accurate or reflect the current situation at Microsoft. Dynamics 365 and AI are at the center of Microsoft\u2019s complex business contracts and transactions worldwide. They automate business processes and accommodate customized workflow management for all their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":10728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[674],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nRecognizing the need for complete relationship management<\/h2>\n
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COSMIC–a new, automated workflow management system<\/h2>\n
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Using Dynamics 365 to create a foundation for business-process workflow<\/h2>\n
Adopting system-guided workflow<\/h3>\n
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Extending COSMIC with services<\/h3>\n
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Omnichannel Chat<\/h4>\n
Digital data capture<\/h4>\n
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Email analytics for translation and sentiment analysis<\/h4>\n
Optimized attachment management<\/h4>\n
Automated Validation<\/h4>\n
PowerApps agent interface<\/h4>\n
COSMIC technology platform<\/h2>\n
COSMIC API<\/h3>\n
COSMIC on AppSource<\/h3>\n
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Configuration rather than creation<\/h3>\n
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Customize occasionally<\/h4>\n
Benefits<\/h2>\n
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Best practices<\/h2>\n
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Looking ahead<\/h2>\n
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n
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