Technology
has enabled digital transformation for many industries. The transformation
impact has been more evident in services and service related firms. We have
seen the evolution of new business models (example - Uber, Bitcoin) or new
delivery and consumption channels (example - Netflix). Manufacturing firms have
been typically lagging in the innovation, adoption and execution of digital
transformation.
Microsoft
provides cloud business apps like Dynamics 365, and Azure services to enable digital
transformation like, Azure messaging service along with the Power Platform apps
(Microsoft Flow, Power Apps and Power BI). They have largely been implemented
and coupled with Dynamics 365 customer engagement - for Sales, Service and
Marketing business applications. With the upcoming release wave 2, Fall 2019,
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations will now be enabled to connect
with Microsoft Flow, Power Apps and Power BI (the Power Platform) and Azure
services. This will be the enabler and driving force in leading digital transformation
in manufacturing firms using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.
- Integrations - In a multi-cloud and multi-app world it is essential for business apps to be able to talk and share information with each other. This requires a cloud based integration services capability like Azure messaging service. It also requires the ability to collect and store vast amount of data from multiple applications - a cloud data warehouse like Azure Data lake. The new release with data feeds feature will enable near real time export of data from Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations to both Azure messaging service and Azure Data lake.
- Business events &
Microsoft Flow - Business events is a great new feature that enables
external systems to receive notifications from Dynamics 365 F&O. The
business event can send data to Azure service bus or be a trigger for Microsoft
flow. This opens new opportunities to drive an outside processes based on
events happening within D365 F&O. Some of the use cases for business
events are -
- Customer or Vendor on boarding
- On boarding a new customer or vendor has been a manual business process
- which may require getting the necessary business qualification details,
evaluation and manager approval. When a customer or vendor is created a
business event can be triggered that will enable the necessary flow
actions for sending a questionnaire, verifying business information and
triggering approvals.
- Sales Order or Purchase Order
confirmation - When a Sales order is entered or a PO confirmed by vendor a
business event is triggered. Various external processes needs to be
enabled based on the Sales Order or Purchase Order entry and
confirmations. This can be the picking and shipping process at an external
warehouse to order planning and preparation for transportation, arrival
and production. This can be enabled using Microsoft flow.
- Financial period end closing
process automation - Every finance team follows a certain process for
their quarterly or year end closing. The business events can be triggered
on completion of a particular task and the team can be informed to start
the next task using Microsoft flow. Also once the new period is opened the
AP / AR team can be alerted to enable them to start entering data for the
new period.
3. Power Apps and Common Data Service with F&O -
The wave 2 release will enable dual write capability for Finance and Operations
data to be in Common Data Service near real time. "This will allow
businesses to exchange near real-time data seamlessly in a synchronous
bidirectional fashion, beyond application boundaries" thus provide users a
"One Dynamics 365" experience. This is to be released in phases with
Phase-1 for Customers, Vendors and Products data and Phase-2 for the inventory
and financial transactional data.
I
can imagine the possibilities of creating power apps for F&O users and
sharing the data with customer engagement. Add to it the ability to use
PowerApps Control Framework (PCF) with F&O data would be amazingly useful
for businesses.
4. AI insights- The above integration features now enabled
to design and implement new AI capabilities. This now enables the Finance and
Operations data to be integrated with data from other business apps in Azure
Data lake and be able to get actionable AI insights to drive business
transformation. Power BI data flows can now be enabled with the data in Azure
data lake to generate insights using AI models. It will be possible to bring in
the PowerBI custom visuals directly into Dynamics 365 F&O. In addition
Azure IOT data can be coupled with Dynamics 365 F&O data to get more
insights.
This
all may still feel like a dream but it is becoming a reality and coming to your
F&O apps very soon. The future of digital transformation for manufacturing
and distribution firms using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is
now turning bright and glamorous. It is great to be part of an exciting future.
In my next D365 F&O blog I will write more about the new Supply
Chain management capabilities in Wave 2 release of Microsoft
Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. Till then do let me know how you plan to
transform your manufacturing operations using the upcoming new features.
Mihir
Shah @mihircrm
reference
- Upcoming release wave 2 Finance and Operations features - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365-release-plan/2019wave2/dynamics365-finance-operations/
