{"id":6352,"date":"2021-03-11T12:13:52","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T20:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=6352"},"modified":"2023-06-13T15:28:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T22:28:28","slug":"incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/","title":{"rendered":"Incentives for buying Microsoft devices boosted by automation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
<\/div>\n

This content has been archived, and while it was correct at time of publication, it may no longer be accurate or reflect the current situation at Microsoft.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

The team at Microsoft that hands out incentives for buying Microsoft devices wonders if there can be too much of a good thing.<\/p>\n

Microsoft\u2019s Incentive Claims Management team had a problem\u2014the program it uses to set pricing deals for distributors who sell Surfaces and other Microsoft hardware devices had outgrown its tools.<\/p>\n

Rather than put bandages on bandages, let\u2019s really fix the problems so they don\u2019t have to come back again.<\/p>\n

– Azharuddin Mohammed, senior software engineering manager, Incentive Claims Management<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Their aging system was getting overwhelmed by the volume of requests coming in the door. As many as 15,000 Microsoft partners use the platform to look for deals across at least 50 countries, all with varying taxes and regulations. Making matters more challenging, each promotion claimed was being reviewed and validated line by line by a small, overwhelmed team of Microsoft employees and vendors.<\/p>\n

This bottleneck of manual processes created noticeable difficulties for customers, evidenced by growing numbers of help desk tickets\u2014up to 100 per week.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of partners, resellers, and distributors were having problems,\u201d says Azharuddin Mohammed, a senior software engineering manager for Microsoft\u2019s Incentive Claim Management team. His team is part of Microsoft Digital, the organization that powers, protects, and transforms Microsoft. \u201cWe had to set up a separate team just to focus on these problems. So, we said, let\u2019s try to normalize the issues curve. Rather than put bandages on bandages, let\u2019s really fix the problems so they don\u2019t have to come back again.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Learn how Microsoft applied Azure Cognitive Services to automate partner claim validation.<\/a> Find out how Microsoft has automated revenue processing with Power Automate.<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n

A cookie-cutter approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why form each cookie by hand when there\u2019s a more efficient way?<\/p>\n

Mohammed\u2019s team knew that many of the errors identified in users\u2019 claims were pretty generic. The claim file that a distributor submits when buying Microsoft devices may typically contain hundreds of claim lines that correspond to a possible deal or promotion for which they might be eligible.<\/p>\n

With the old claim validation process, an operations team member would inspect each line item and then send feedback to the partner, identifying any errors, such as a duplicate claim or incorrect claim code, that they needed to correct before it could be processed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought it was wasted hours and effort for people to be validating line by line based on old system rules that are pretty cookie-cutter,\u201d says Isa\u00ed Badaraco, an operations program manager who leads business architecture for the Surface Pricing Program. \u201cThings like that could be totally automated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus began a six-month project to create a new toolset called the Microsoft Devices Pricing Program. That would automate the claims validation process for buying Microsoft devices, ultimately reducing the validation period from three to four days down to about 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

Mohammed\u2019s team used Microsoft\u2019s Power Platform, including Power Apps, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Power Automate to create an end-to-end processing platform with a highly configurable business rule engine and telemetry capturing that eliminates many lines of custom code for claim validation and error alerting. As a result, fewer program bugs are generated and issues can be identified before they become incident tickets reported by business to the Directly Responsible Individuals (DRI) teams.<\/p>\n

After development, the testing phase proved challenging, given that there were 300 test cases, a very small team, and a tight four-week schedule.<\/p>\n

The first two weeks saw an intimidating failure rate of 40 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a massive gap that we needed to close in the last two weeks,\u201d Badaraco says. \u201cWe ended up enlisting the help of the dev team to assist us, and from there we brought it down to 15 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another hurdle was making sure users were ready for the change. Badaraco\u2019s team created multiple different training decks for different personas, and he personally conducted seven different webinar sessions for various stakeholders over a period of three weeks.<\/p>\n

Finally, with the data migration to the new tool complete, the new claims validation process for buying Microsoft devices was deployed to partners in September.<\/p>\n

The 48 hours of manual effort now happens under full automation within minutes. Microsoft\u2019s distribution partners can fix their claims issues immediately without help. What\u2019s more, the flood of 100 weekly help tickets has trickled to close to zero.<\/p>\n

The people addressing tickets are also back to doing the jobs they were hired to do. \u201cYou can\u2019t run faster with a broken leg,\u201d Mohammed says. \u201cAll those people fixing the legs are now back to running.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Graphic
Microsoft\u2019s old incentives claim validation process involved seven individual steps that often took more than 48 hours to complete. The new streamlined automated process is five steps long and takes about 30 minutes to complete.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A model for DRIs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Microsoft has more than 5,000 different DRI teams. Mohammed believes their new business-agnostic model can help other teams reduce their volume of tickets as well.<\/p>\n

When you have a very strong process, it makes a positive impact on your business.<\/p>\n

– Azharuddin Mohammed, senior software engineering manager, Incentive Claims Management<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a DRI, what are the best practices that will help you improve your feedback loop and sustain your application to make your product better?\u201d Mohammed says. \u201cWhen you have a very strong process, it makes a positive impact on your business. In our example, it’s the Incentive Management Platform, but it could be anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Graphic
Microsoft developed the Continuous Feedback Framework to reduce the number of complaints that it received about its incentives program. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To that end, Mohammed\u2019s team has hosted a series of webinar training sessions sharing these best practices and demonstrating their model of reverse engineering to apply the framework every time a new feature is released.<\/p>\n

\u201cMicrosoft Digital dedicates certain bandwidth to engineering fundamentals,\u201d Mohammed says. \u201cSixty percent goes into developing new features, while 40 percent is dedicated to maintaining current systems in production. Our ability to reduce that 40 percent to less means that we can focus more on innovation while keeping the fundamentals strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn how Microsoft applied Azure Cognitive Services to automate partner claim validation.<\/a><\/p>\n

Find out how Microsoft has automated revenue processing with Power Automate.<\/a><\/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. The team at Microsoft that hands out incentives for buying Microsoft devices wonders if there can be too much of a good thing. Microsoft\u2019s Incentive Claims Management team […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":6347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_hide_featured_on_single":false,"_show_featured_caption_on_single":true,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[674],"class_list":["post-6352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","m-blog-post"],"yoast_head":"\nIncentives for buying Microsoft devices boosted by automation - Inside Track Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Microsoft is using automation to reboot its incentives program for buying Microsoft Surface devices and other Microsoft devices.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Incentives for buying Microsoft devices boosted by automation - Inside Track Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Microsoft is using automation to reboot its incentives program for buying Microsoft Surface devices and other Microsoft devices.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inside Track Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-11T20:13:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-13T22:28:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/03\/10115_wordpress-hero.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1294\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Inside Track \u2013 retired stories\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Inside Track \u2013 retired stories\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/\",\"name\":\"Incentives for buying Microsoft devices boosted by automation - Inside Track Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/03\/10115_wordpress-hero.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-11T20:13:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-13T22:28:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/59e5f7b07dae629412c990cc1a63b575\"},\"description\":\"Microsoft is using automation to reboot its incentives program for buying Microsoft Surface devices and other Microsoft devices.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/03\/10115_wordpress-hero.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/03\/10115_wordpress-hero.jpg\",\"width\":2300,\"height\":1294,\"caption\":\"Azharuddin Mohammed is helping Microsoft retool the way it offers incentives for buying Microsoft devices like the company\u2019s popular Surface line. (Photo by Azharuddin Mohammed)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Incentives for buying Microsoft devices boosted by automation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Inside Track Blog\",\"description\":\"How Microsoft does IT\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/59e5f7b07dae629412c990cc1a63b575\",\"name\":\"Inside Track \u2013 retired stories\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/ee0de87c339052d5d84852473bd7f213\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24a8c329ab32afd1bc23fd1658d1acc2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24a8c329ab32afd1bc23fd1658d1acc2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Inside Track \u2013 retired stories\"},\"description\":\"The content on this page was crafted to highlight a specific moment in time or the solutions that have led us to where we are today. It offers valuable insights into our journey and the progress made over the years. Check out the Inside Track blog page for our up-to-date stories around Microsoft.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/author\/insidetrackarchive\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Incentives for buying Microsoft devices boosted by automation - Inside Track Blog","description":"Microsoft is using automation to reboot its incentives program for buying Microsoft Surface devices and other Microsoft devices.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Incentives for buying Microsoft devices boosted by automation - Inside Track Blog","og_description":"Microsoft is using automation to reboot its incentives program for buying Microsoft Surface devices and other Microsoft devices.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/","og_site_name":"Inside Track Blog","article_published_time":"2021-03-11T20:13:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-06-13T22:28:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2300,"height":1294,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/03\/10115_wordpress-hero.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Inside Track \u2013 retired stories","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Inside Track \u2013 retired stories","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/","name":"Incentives for buying Microsoft devices boosted by automation - Inside Track Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/03\/10115_wordpress-hero.jpg","datePublished":"2021-03-11T20:13:52+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-13T22:28:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/59e5f7b07dae629412c990cc1a63b575"},"description":"Microsoft is using automation to reboot its incentives program for buying Microsoft Surface devices and other Microsoft devices.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/03\/10115_wordpress-hero.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/03\/10115_wordpress-hero.jpg","width":2300,"height":1294,"caption":"Azharuddin Mohammed is helping Microsoft retool the way it offers incentives for buying Microsoft devices like the company\u2019s popular Surface line. (Photo by Azharuddin Mohammed)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/incentives-for-buying-microsoft-devices-boosted-by-automation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Incentives for buying Microsoft devices boosted by automation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/","name":"Inside Track Blog","description":"How Microsoft does IT","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/59e5f7b07dae629412c990cc1a63b575","name":"Inside Track \u2013 retired stories","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/ee0de87c339052d5d84852473bd7f213","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24a8c329ab32afd1bc23fd1658d1acc2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24a8c329ab32afd1bc23fd1658d1acc2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Inside Track \u2013 retired stories"},"description":"The content on this page was crafted to highlight a specific moment in time or the solutions that have led us to where we are today. It offers valuable insights into our journey and the progress made over the years. Check out the Inside Track blog page for our up-to-date stories around Microsoft.","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/author\/insidetrackarchive\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/uploads\/prod\/2021\/03\/10115_wordpress-hero.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9hcZA-1Es","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6352"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11398,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6352\/revisions\/11398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6352"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}