Microsoft Dynamics 365 - Customer Voice - An Overview - Part-1

 Microsoft has created Dynamics 365 - Customer Voice and this blog is to provide an overview of the features.

Customer Voice is an Enterprise Customer feedback design, collection and management app. It allows you to design / send surveys and collect / analyze feedback from the surveys sent. Customer Voice is an enhancement to and re-branding of Microsoft Forms Pro. The data is stored in Dataverse (another rebranding - previously CDS) and it can be connected to a Dynamics 365 environment. 

1. Demo - To setup a demo of Customer Voice - go to this link. https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/customer-voice/overview/ and sign up for a 30 day demo. 

2. Project - Once the demo environment is up you will be creating a Project. The project is a repository for all your Survey related data (Surveys, Satisfaction metrics, Email templates, Power Automate flows and Reports). Project is linked to a specific Dynamics 365 / Power Platform Dataverse environment. So if you have Dev / QA / Prod environments you can create and link a project for each specific environment. 

Microsoft provides easy to deploy Project templates or you can select a Blank template. 

You can also share a Project with other users so that other users can design and send their own Surveys. 

3. Design Surveys - Once you have created the Project, now you are ready to design your own Surveys. If you selected a Project template the first survey is already created for you to customize and built upon. You can modify / add questions to the survey.

Design Survey

You can customize your survey to include -

1. Personalization - Adding upto 15 variables in your survey (First Name, Last Name, ...)
2. Branding - Changing theme, font and background 
3. Metrics / KPI - Adding upto 10 customer satisfaction metrics per Project
4. Add Survey Language - You can add upto 23 languages and the Survey question translation
5. Add Branching - using Power Automate flows
6. Formatting - Add Progress bar, question #'s and shuffle questions

You can also preview and test the Survey to make sure it works as designed.

4. Send Survey - Once the design is done you can send the Survey using multiple options

1. Email - Send the survey using email.
2. Power Automate - Trigger a survey email using Power Automate
3. Embed - the survey in a web page
4. Send a link to the Survey in an email or add to web page 
5. Send a QR code of the survey by email or add to web page

    The Distribution settings allow you to customize the survey send settings.

Send Survey

A survey invitation record is created for every survey sent by email or using Power Automate to trigger an email. Statistics is collected on the survey invitation and analyzed.

5. Analyze responses - 

The response received are analyzed and reports generated. There are 2 types of reports.

1. Satisfaction metrics (Customer KPI reports) - They are based on the answer to the questions linked to metrics. The satisfaction metrics can be - CSAT / NPS / Sentiment

2. Survey response - A report is generated for every survey sent and response received.

Metrics report

Survey report

Hope this blog helps you getting started on the Customer Voice and let me know about your specific questions / experience using it. In my next blog I will write about some important considerations for using Customer Voice. Thanks for reading. 

@MihirCRM

365WithoutCode

Industry accelerators - Dynamics 365 - Introduction - 1

   Microsoft has introduced Industry accelerators which provide specific industry vertical solutions. This blog series is to discuss and learn about the latest in the Industry accelerator updates including the Oct. Wave-2 release.

What are Industry Accelerators ? - 

• They are Industry specific vertical solutions as envisioned by Microsoft. 
• They are built upon the foundational components within Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365
• Microsoft has made them freely available on the AppSource an Github. 

There are currently 7 Industry Accelerators - 

1. Automotive
2. Education
3. Financial Services
4. HealthCare
5. Manufacturing
6. Media and Communications
7. Non Profit

The above accelerators is also an opportunity for ISVs and developers who can build upon and extend them to create their own industry specific vertical solutions 

As a Dynamics 365 - solution architect / business consultant, this helps to understand specific industry business scenario. It also can help to guide you on how best to design a solution for the industry specific requirements. 

In my future blogs I will write more about each of the industry accelerators, the latest updates and I hope it helps to provide more insights in the specific industry verticals.

Thanks for reading. 

Mihir 

365WithoutCode

Collaborating with Power BI

Power BI helps you to enhance the value of your data. This value is multiplied when you are able to collaborate with others - by publishing, sharing and embedding or integrating your reports on website, portals and in mobile apps. Here are some of the ways to collaborate with Power BI.

Before we discuss collaboration I want to get the licensing clear. In most cases you will need a Power BI pro or premium license to share with others and for others to view your shared report. (There really is no free lunch with Microsoft). The only time you can get users to see the Power BI report without requiring a license is by publishing your report to a public website

1. Embedding of Power BI report - You can embed in the following applications and collaborating with other users -

a. Embed in SharePoint online
b. Embed in Microsoft teams
c. Embed in Portals
d. Embed in a website
e. Embed in Power App

Embed in Power BI

2. Sharing in PowerBI service - You can share your reports and dashboards in Power BI in a workspace or by creating an App. Workspace is preferred for a small group of team members with whom you want to interact to build the report / dashboard. Once you are ready you can create and publish an App to share with the larger audience or for the whole organization. The users can than interact with the report and dashboard.
You can also share the data set with other users who you trust and they can build copies of the report based on the data. 

Publish app from a workspace

3. Publish to a website - You can use the Publish to a (public) website option to share your report with anyone on the internet. Anyone who get to the public website can interact with the PowerBI report and be able to view / share it on social media etc without needing a license. The data refresh can happen approx every 2 hours or more.  Obviously if your data is sensitive you may not want to share on the public web.


4. Integration - You can also integrate Power BI with Power Automate so you can trigger a flow based on the data triggered in Power BI. Isn't that amazing.

Limitations of the above -
I think it is important to know the limitations of embedding Power BI specifically in Website / Portal and I am mentioning some here.

1. Azure B2B is not supported - So if you have external guest users who login to the Portal / Website they may not see the Power BI report.
2. Users will need Power BI license or you will need a Power BI premium license (mentioned earlier)
3. Power BI supports the following browsers and performance may vary
4. Users may have to login to access Power BI report



I will write more about the Power BI and Power Apps integration. Let me know your thoughts on above and if you are using any of the above features in your apps.
Thanks for reading.

@MihirCRM
365WithoutCode

Covid19 - Corona Virus Info Bot - Power Virtual Agent

The Covid19 / Corona Virus pandemic has created major concerns for people all over the world. I hope everyone is safe and taking precaution by staying at home. This blog is to about how to create a Covid19 Safety Info Bot using Microsoft Power Virtual Agent.

The problem - Currently governments at National / State / County / City / Town and Health Care organizations are all trying to provide the information to their citizens. There is a ton of critical information that needs to be provided. People are given a phone # to call which is managed by Call Centers. The Call Centers personnel are having a crisis where the staff have to take risks, travel and be in the call center offices to respond to the callers. Also the volume of call is causing delays and chaos to the people.

Solution -
There are many ways to provide the information to the people. One powerful and simple solution option is to create a Power Virtual Agent Bot and add the same to the Government or Commercial organization Website portal.

The link for the sample bot I have created is here - https://tinyurl.com/rld8gsd (available upto April 19th, 2020)

Corona Virus Info Bot - Sample

Solution details - Here are the steps I took to create the Power Virtual Agent Sample Corona Virus Bot -

1. Create a Power Apps environment - You will need an environment in Power Apps. You may already have a Power Apps account or need to create a new account. You can also create a trial for Power apps at https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/# or trials.dynamics.com

New Power Apps environment 

Once the environment is created with a database you are ready to go with Power Virtual Agents.

2. Set-up a Power Virtual Agent bot - Go to https://powerva.microsoft.com/ You can log in with the same above Power Apps account. Create a new Bot and attach the Bot to the Power Apps environment.

3. Once the Bot is created you need to create the Topics. Adding Topics allows you Bot to answer specific questions based on trigger phrases and provide correct messages.

Topics 

Refer the below topic details and trigger phrases to protect from Corona Virus

Protect from Corona Virus - Topic and Trigger phrases

You can also see the Topic and message on the authoring canvas

Authoring Canvas

4. You can also customize your greeting - the info that the Bot will provide to the customer

Customized Greeting

5. Once you have the Bot configured you can test the Corona Virus Bot and than publish it.

Test and Publish Bot

You can embed the Bot in your website or portal. Here is the sample website for the above Covid19 - Corona Virus Bot which will be available online upto April 19th 2020 for testing.

https://tinyurl.com/rld8gsd

Hope this info helps you to create your own Bot and add it to the organization website. Please let me know if you need any help in creating and configuring the Bot. Thanks for reading. Stay at home and be safe for now.

@mihircrm
365withoutcode

Managing Non Conformance with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

“Each manufacturer is required to establish and maintain procedures to control product that does not confirm to specific requirements” (21 CFR 820.90). Nonconforming can be a Product or a Process that does not meets its specifications. A nonconforming process can lead to a nonconforming product. This blog discusses how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management can help manufacturers in managing Non conformance.

Non Conformance business process

Why manage Non Conformance – In addition to the regulatory requirements there are many benefits -

1. Improved safety of manufactured products
2. Manage product recalls
3. Better process equals more effective products
4. Gain consumer confidence with product reliability

AI and data analytics can also be used on the data collected for predicting and preventing future errors. The business process in Microsoft Dynamics 365 SCM is shown above and discussed step by step here -

1. Product fails quality – This could be during the incoming product inspection or during the manufacturing production process that a product can fail quality testing. It can also be a return of a product from Customer due to product failure.

2. The QA tester will than create the Non Conformance for the Quality Order. The benefit of creating from a Quality Order is that it has all the necessary details (like Vendor, Purchase Order and Batch #). 

Create Non conformance

3. Approve and print Non Conformance Tag – The Tester can than approve and print the Tag and attach to the product. This becomes a visual indicator on the product itself. Tester will move the product/s to a caged or locked area along with other non conforming products.

Tag

1.     4. Review & identify corrections – The product engineer will review the non conformance and identify corrections. Also assign the correction to the worker. Power automate can be used to notify the worker of the task.

Corrections

The assigned worker completes the corrections. The product engineer can than write the justification for the disposition of the items (using Notes) and closes the Non conformance.

5.      Reporting and analytics – This can be used to for management review of non conformance. Some of the reports that can benefit are - 

• Vendors with recurring # of non conforming products – to improve vendor performance
• Products with highest # of non conformance – to improve process results
• Corrections most applied – to re-design the production process

I hope the above helps you to understand and manage the non conformance process using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Let me know how you are managing your current product or process Non Conformance.

Mihir Shah

@mihircrm 

(originally published by Mihir Shah as a linked in article on 11-23-2019)

reference - 1. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/supply-chain/inventory/enable-nonconformance-management