Designing an effective Power Platform Tenant strategy

 

In today's landscape where AI and digital transformation is at the forefront, leveraging tools like Microsoft's Power Platform can revolutionize the way organizations operate. With its suite of low code  apps—Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Microsoft Copilot —powerful business insights, custom apps, automation, and AI-driven chatbots, AI agents are just a few clicks away. However, to truly maximize these low code tools, a robust tenant strategy is essential and the very foundation for success.

Why Tenant Strategy Matters

A well-structured tenant strategy ensures that your Power Platform environment is scalable, secure, and aligned with business objectives. The tenant strategy outlines the setup and management of an organization's environments, including considerations for security, data residency, compliance, and governance. Some of the things to consider are discussed below -

Key Considerations for Your Tenant Strategy

1. Environment Planning:

   • Development, Testing, and Production Environments: Separate these environments to ensure stability and security. This allows for rigorous testing before deploying solutions to production.

   • Sandboxes: Use sandbox environments for experimental development and to test new features without affecting production data.

2. Data Residency and Compliance:

• Ensure that your data remains within specified geographical boundaries to comply with local regulations. This is particularly important for organizations operating in multiple countries.

• Select the appropriate region for your tenant to optimize performance and meet data residency requirements. 

• Below is a Global multi-tenant for meeting Data residency requirements.

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3. Security and Governance: - The security and governance policies can be different to meet the local regulatory requirements.

   • Implement Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies to prevent unauthorized access and sharing of sensitive information. 

   • Define User Roles and Permissions meticulously to safeguard data and applications against misuse.

   • Monitor and manage user activities and usage patterns to detect and address potential security threats.

4. Scalability: Consider the implication of AI models for future growth planning. 

   • Plan for future growth by considering the scalability of your environment. Ensure that your tenant can accommodate increased workloads and data volumes as your organization expands.

   • Regularly review and adjust your environment settings to align with evolving business needs.

5. Cost Management: The focus on reducing operations costs will require a constant cost optimization and management approach. 

   • Keep track of the ongoing costs associated with your tenant, including licensing, storage, and premium features. Implement financial controls to avoid unexpected expenses.

Best Practices for a Successful Power Platform Implementation

• Regular Audits: Conduct frequent audits of your environments and costs to ensure compliance and identify areas for improvement.

• User Training: Empower your team with adequate training and resources to utilize the Power Platform effectively. Encourage team members to get certified and showcase their talents.

• Feedback Loops: Encourage users to provide feedback on their experiences and challenges to continuously refine your applications and business strategy.

In conclusion, an effective tenant strategy for the Power Platform isn't just about the initial requirements and setup—it's about creating a scalable, secure, and adaptable environment that can grow alongside your business. By focusing on these key areas, you can unlock the full potential of Power Platform and drive meaningful AI led digital transformation within your organization.

Let me know if this works for you. Thanks for reading.

Mihir Shah                            @mihircrm             365WithoutCode

10 Things to consider when Managing Enterprise Apps - Microsoft Dynamics 365 on Microsoft Cloud

 Once an enterprise application like Microsoft Dynamics 365 goes live within an organization there is lot of excitement. The project team is happy with the results of the efforts over the year/s. It is the day after going live that the operations team is faced with the post go-live challenges. There are lots of questions on how to support, operate, manage, adopt and scale the new Dynamics 365 application. Microsoft Dynamics 365 in an enterprise cloud environment can be very challenging. There could be multiple integrations with other systems within and outside the organization, compliance and security requirements, business enhancements needs and performance management. This requires planning and coordination with multiple teams. This blog series is about how to prepare and plan for managing of an enterprise Dynamics 365 app. Here are the top 10 things to consider - 

1. Governance (decision making) - There needs to be a governance team in place. There could be multiple operations support teams working on the system for example the application support and maintenance team, the infrastructure and security management team and the application enhancement team. There has to be a defined governance team that may consists of representatives from business, IT, Project and executive management. This helps the operations team to report any blockers, get the guidance and support for the system management. The governance teams meets on a monthly cadence and reviews the teams progress and challenges. They will discuss how to resolve the blockers, improve the operational performance and opportunities for enhancing the Dynamics 365 application.

2. Security and Access control - As the Dynamics 365 application usage increase so does the need to add new users and give them proper access. There could also be challenges with the existing users who may need to modify their security roles, teams and business unit. It is an ongoing challenge to manage the users access and application security which needs to be considered and managed. Assigning a role based user security template will make the access streamlined. 

The tasks for the security team is to regularly review and update user security roles, active directory teams and business units as user responsibilities change. Also remember to remove users and reassign licenses when the users are no longer required to access the app. Finally regularly audit user access logs on a monthly or quarterly basis to identify any unauthorized or suspicious activities. 

3. Data security and integrity - Having a reliable quality data is important for the adoption and success of the Dynamics 365 app. Users should be confident that the data that they rely on to make business decisions is safe and trustworthy. Implement a data governance practice to maintain data integrity and quality. Regularly set reviews, cleanse and maintain data for accuracy, completeness and consistency. Users should be provided training in proper data entry and maintenance standards. 

The data loss prevention rules should be in place to prevent the leakage of data. Sensitive data in the Dynamics 365 app should be protected and secured using field level security. Duplicate detection should be in place and active where needed. It is essential to set-up data validation and duplicate detection rules to prevent erroneous and unreliable duplicate data. Data lifecycle, archival and storage needs to be planned as the data size grows with complexity.

4. Application Performance Monitoring - The Dynamics 365 application and related infrastructure should be continuously monitored for any issues, bottlenecks or maintenance requirements. A mechanism should be in place to trigger alerts and auto create incident support tickets for any identified issues. The error logs, system logs and performance metrics should be reviewed for measuring the performance of the application. Users should be trained in identifying and reporting issues with proper documentation. 

Microsoft provides many options to monitor and manage Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. The Power Platform Admin Center has OOTB performance metrics that can be reviewed. Additionally Azure Monitor and Application Insights can be set-up to track and monitor the performance. Additionally you can even use Power Automate to trigger alerts and create incident support tickets.

5. Support Team  - Plan to have a dedicated multi-level support team. The teams can be set-up on a Tiered support level based on the incident complexity, severity and priority. Tier 1 and 2 support can be provided by the organization support helpdesk. Tier 3 support can be provided by the Application Manage Services Partner and Tier 4 support can be from Microsoft product support team. It is important to have the team trained on the business application and on supporting Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.

6. Product updates and upgrades - Microsoft provides 2 major updates annually for Microsoft Dynamics 365. Plan in advance to have the Dynamics 365 updates tested and implemented. 

Safe deployment of updates for Dynamics 365 by region

The business and IT needs will require regular enhancements of the Dynamics 365 application and supporting infrastructure. Ensure proper training of the support team as part of the enhancement of the Dynamics 365 application and infrastructure.

I hope this helps your organization in planning for the post go-live operations and management of the Dynamics 365 enterprise application on Microsoft cloud. Please stay tuned for my next blog where I will discuss the remaining 4 items to consider when managing Microsoft Dynamics 365 enterprise applications. Let me know your thoughts and thanks for reading.

@MihirCRM

365WithoutCode

 

 

Azure DevOps Pipelines with Power Platform - Part-1 The Benefits

In today's fast-paced world, organizations need secure, efficient and reliable tools to streamline their software development processes. Microsoft's Power Platform has emerged as a leading low-code development platform, empowering businesses to rapidly build custom applications, automate workflows, and analyze data. To further enhance productivity and collaboration, integrating Azure DevOps Pipelines with Power Platform offers a powerful combined solution. In this blog, I will explain the benefits of using Azure DevOps Pipelines in conjunction with the Power Platform to optimize your #PowerPlatform development projects.

1.            What is Azure DevOps Pipelines? Azure DevOps Pipelines is a cloud-based service that enables you to create, test, and deploy applications with speed and efficiency. It provides a robust set of tools for continuous integration, continuous delivery (CI/CD), and release management. By incorporating Azure DevOps Pipelines into your Power Platform projects, you can automate build, test, and deployment processes, ensuring consistent and reliable software delivery.

ADO Pipeline monitoring in Power Apps

2.            Key Benefits of Azure DevOps Pipelines for Power Platform:

a. Seamless Integration: Azure DevOps Pipelines seamlessly integrates with Power Platform, offering a unified environment for managing the entire application lifecycle. From version control and code collaboration to automated deployment and monitoring, all development stages can be orchestrated within a single platform.

b. CI/CD Automation: By configuring continuous integration and continuous deployment pipelines, you can automate the process of building, testing, and deploying Power Platform solutions. This not only saves time but also reduces human errors, ensuring consistent quality throughout the development lifecycle.

c. Version Control and Collaboration: Azure DevOps Pipelines provides version control capabilities, allowing multiple developers to work on the same Power Platform solution concurrently. With features like branching, merging, and pull requests, you can manage code changes effectively and promote collaboration among team members.

d. Agile Project Management: Azure DevOps Pipelines integrates seamlessly with Azure Boards, enabling you to manage and track work items, backlog, sprints, and project progress effectively. This integration ensures that the development process aligns with Agile methodologies, facilitating transparent communication and enhanced project visibility.

e. Extensive Library of Tasks: Azure DevOps Pipelines offers an extensive library of pre-built tasks that can be easily customized and configured to meet the specific requirements of your Power Platform projects. From environment provisioning and solution packaging to testing and deployment, these tasks provide a comprehensive set of tools for efficient project management.

I hope this blog helps you understand the benefits of leveraging ADO Pipelines with #PowerPlatform. In my next blog I will write more about how to use ADO Pipelines and #PowerPlatform better together.

Thanks for reading

@mihircrm

365WithoutCode

Send Survey from Dynamics 365 apps using Customer Voice

Feedback is a gift and managing feedback from customers / vendors / employees is crucial for every organization. I have written earlier about measuring customer experience. This blog is about the new enhancement to Dynamics 365 Customer Voice. Now you can send a Survey directly from Dynamics 365 apps like Sales or Customer Service.

About Customer Voice - Dynamics 365 Customer Voice is an Enterprise Feedback Management app. The app enables you to create, distribute and gather real time survey feedback from your customers and generate insights with metrics. The insights from your customers can help you to transform your products, service and business processes.

Dynamics 365 Customer Voice

D365 Customer Voice app is used to design and distribute the survey. You can send the survey in multiple ways as shown below. The limitation was you could not send the survey from within D365 apps earlier.

Multiple ways to distribute survey

Now you can send a survey directly from within Dynamics 365 Apps like Customer Service, Sales or Marketing. As shown below you can send a survey to a lead from Sales Hub.

Send survey from D365 Sales app

Below are the steps you can take to send a survey from D365 model driven apps.

1. Enable and set-up D365 Customer Voice in your D365 Tenant. 

2. Create the Project and link it to your D365 Dataverse environment. 

3. Create your Survey using Customer Voice

If you want more details for the above 3 steps please refer my earlier blogs here - Set-up Customer Voice. I will write in details about the further steps below.

4. Install the Send Survey solution 

Microsoft has provided a free app on Microsoft appsource that you can install in your D365 dataverse environment. 

Send Survey app

You will have to accept the terms of the app.

Check that the solution is installed at make.powerapps.com > solutions

Publish all customization.

5. Now you should see the Send Survey button on a lead or a case form. You can also see it on a Contact record.

6. Once you click on the Send Survey button you will get to choose the Survey you want to send. This is based on the Survey you created or someone shared it with you in Customer Voice.

7. Once you choose the Survey and click next, you will get to select the email template and locale

8. The survey invite link email will be received by the recipient. The survey invite will also be shown on the Contact timeline.

Note - The Sender is the 'user name' who sent the email and Microsoft default email address. You can change the sender email if needed. That will require some work on the org settings in Microsoft 365. (more details here)

Change the sender's email address

9. Once the recipient completes the Survey the survey response will be shown in the Contact timeline.

I hope this helps you to get started using the Send Survey option from Dynamics 365. Please let me know how you like the new functionality and your experience with Customer Voice.

Thanks for reading.

Mihir Shah | @mihircrm | 365WithoutCode

 

Making your digital transformation a successful journey with an Enterprise App Adoption Strategy

 Many organizations have embarked on their digital transformation journey with new cloud native enterprise apps like Microsoft Dynamics 365 or Power Platform. They want to ensure that they are able to achieve the goals initially set for the new business app and also get a return on their investments. Planning and preparing a enterprise app adoption strategy is essential for the operational success and future of the business. 

The enterprise transformation journey may have started as a pilot project. In an agile driven world the pilot may be implemented in a particular country / region or for a department to test the results of implementing the new app. The successful adoption of the new app will determine the next steps in the journey for the eventual implementation in the enterprise. It is at this critical juncture that the adoption playbook needs to be run to ensure the success of the project. 

As organizations venture into new cloud native apps there are many challenges. 

1. Technological change - Cloud apps are new technologies and are constantly evolving. This was not the case earlier when the on premise legacy enterprise apps rarely had changes and had worked pretty much the same for the past 10-15 years. The new cloud apps will change periodically months and will need a constant learning culture for the business.

2. Business environment change - As the past 2 years have shown "business as usual" cannot be taken for granted. The business environment can change any time, many of us could be working from where ever and still supporting our customers. We need to be ready for future business environment changes. Successful adoptions of the new apps are necessary fir business to thrive in new digital world.  

3. Employees needs change and the enterprise needs to be agile to provide the support needed for the employees. Employees want proper guidance and nurturing in the new apps they have to use. They want to be trained and empowered for success. When organizations do not support their employees with the new tools and training needed, the digital transformation may not be a success.

The above are some of the factors that an Enterprise App Adoption Strategy is required. 

Microsoft has provided a Dynamics 365 Adoption guide that can help customers implementing Dynamics 365 to have a successful application adoption. The below pic shows some of the highlights in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 App adoption guide. (link) 

The Enterprise App Adoption Strategy should also change, be relevant and useful as future enhancements are made to the app.  The focus is on making sure the employees adopt and customers are engaged and the app is getting better business outcomes.  Hope you have an Enterprise App Adoption Strategy and do let me know your thoughts on it,

Thanks for reading. 

@mihircrm

365WithoutCode

Azure Synapse link for Dataverse - Introduction

Microsoft has recently announced that the Data Export Service (DES) will no longer be supported after 1 year (Nov-22). This may come as a surprise to many of the Clients who are using and depending on DES for their data extraction, integration and analytics. DES was one of the main tool used to extract and store data from Dataverse for analytical processing and integration purposes with other systems. 

There is a new option to get data from your Dataverse environments, store the data in a data warehouse and perform analytical and machine learning processing using that data. This is the Azure Synapse link for Dataverse.

So what is Azure Synapse? - In Microsoft speak - "Azure Synapse is an enterprise analytics service that accelerates time to insight across data warehouses and big data systems. Azure Synapse brings together the best of SQL technologies used in enterprise data warehousing, Spark technologies used for big data, Data Explorer for log and time series analytics, Pipelines for data integration and ETL/ELT, and deep integration with other Azure services such as Power BI, CosmosDB, and AzureML."

The main benefit of using Azure Synapse link for Dataverse is to get near real time insights on your Dataverse data. 

The below diagram shows the architecture of Azure Synapse. 

Azure Synapse Architecture

There are other benefits of using Azure Synapse link for Dataverse - 

1. You can utilize Synapse SQL, a distributed query system for T-SQL that enables data warehousing and data virtualization scenarios and extends T-SQL to address streaming and machine learning scenarios.

2. Enable Big Data and ML using Apache Spark for Azure Synapse - deeply and seamlessly integrates Apache Spark--the most popular open source big data engine used for data preparation, data engineering, ETL, and machine learning.

3. Use SQL and Spark together with data in your Azure Data Lake 

4. Built-in Data integration engine to ingest and create ETL pipelines at scale

5. Perform near real-time log and IOT stream analytics using Azure Data Explorer services

6. Use Azure Synapse Studio to build solutions, maintain and secure your data with a unified experience

Some of the challenges that you may need to consider -

1. Existing integration with external systems will need to be re-designed

2. Investments in non-Microsoft analytics and ML solutions may need to be evaluated against the above benefits.

3. Change management - The data engineering and analysis team will need to update their skills to be able to move to Azure Synapse.

4. There could be some cost benefits analysis that you will need to make to consider moving to Azure Synapse. Planning and budgeting for the move to Azure Synapse link for Dataverse is going to be critical for enterprise clients. 

To overcome some of the pain points and ease the transition from DES to Azure Synapse link for Dataverse, Microsoft has also provided a playbook. (link is here)  

Hope the above gets you started in planning to move from Data Export Services to Azure Synapse and do let me know about your experiences.

Thanks for reading.

@mihircrm

365WithoutCode 

Where is your Data? - A need for Data governance platform

Digital transformation and app modernization programs results in new applications developed in the cloud or legacy apps moved to cloud. Along with the apps the data is also generated, moved, collected and stored in the cloud. The cloud data also needs to integrate and work with the data in onsite data repositories. As new data sources gets created it create new challenges for enterprises to track and manage data. 

Data storage and flows in hybrid cloud (image from Microsoft learn)

The consumers of data need to know where the data source is and how to connect to it. They also need to be able to trust the source of data. Data reliability is a concern when the data is used for AI and machine learning models and business insights generation.

The data producers needs to annotate, classify and create documentation for the data. Data management and maintenance is quite a challenging task for an enterprise with multiplying sources of data.

The data security admins needs to discover, identify, protect and restrict access to new and existing data sources. They need to make sure that proper process is followed when accessing sensitive classified data. Ensuring data classification, security and reliability is a concern for the admin with the increasing data generation and usage.

Finally there is the compliance aspects that needs to be met with Corporate data policies. This includes GDPR, HIPPA, PCI and other regulatory and industry standards. Data reporting is needed to ensure  compliance is met.  

This exponential growth and complexity in enterprise data in the cloud requires a cloud data governance platform.

The benefits of having a data governance platform can be -

1. An enterprise data catalog provide easy access to different source of data and information on those sources. This helps in better data discovery.

2.  Ability to make use of the data source and collaborate on the same with other users - for example asking for access 

3. Help in compliance - to make sure there is proper policy and procedure for enterprise data - manage the producing, consuming, storage and archiving of enterprise data, 

Microsoft has a cloud PaaS data governance platform called Azure Purview. Enterprise clients looking for Cloud data governance and compliance can benefit from using Azure Purview.  

I will write more about it once I have got some hands on experience testing Azure Purview with Power BI and Dynamics 365. How are you planning to manage and govern your data in cloud and onsite? Do you know where is your data? 

Thanks for reading.

@mihirCRM

365WithoutCode

Teams and Power BI - Enable visual collaboration

 The integration of Power BI with Microsoft Teams has enabled enterprise wide collaboration on data and visual presentations. This brings new ways of generating team insights where remote teams can review the data and provide feedback to improve the visuals. 

Power BI and Teams - Visual collaboration 

There are multiple ways you can share the Reports and Visuals from Power BI service into a Teams Chat or Channel. This blog describes some of the options for using Power BI within Teams.

1. Power BI App in Teams - You can add the Power BI app to teams which will enable directly working in the Power BI Service from within Teams itself. 

Power BI app in Teams

2. You can also add a Power BI tab to a Teams Channel. This enables to collaborate on the Power BI report within the channel. 

Power BI - Add as a tab to Teams Channel

Note - When selecting to add a tab - you can only add a Power BI Report but not a dashboard to the channel.

3. Chat in Teams - You can chat in teams from a Power BI Report / Dashboard or even a visual. This inserts a link in teams chat for the shared content. 

 

Visual tile - Chat in Teams

4. Link preview - You can add a link to a Power BI - Report / Dashboard or App in Teams chat and a link preview is shown. The user can open the Power BI visualization from within Teams.

Link preview in Teams

Things to note -

1. In order for the Teams integration with Power BI - the users will need a Power BI Pro or Premium per user license or the Power BI Report is in a Power BI - Premium capacity. 

2. Users within the Team will need to be shared the reports and given access to the underlying dataset to enable them access to the content. One way to enable this is to share access to the Report workspace to the Microsoft 365 Teams group 

Microsoft 365 group access to Power BI workspace

3. Power BI dashboard cannot be added as a tab to Team channels. Also the Link preview does not work in Meeting Chat or Private Channels

4. Make sure that the Power BI Teams integration is enabled in the Admin Portal > Tenant settings. (by default it is enabled)

Teams integration is enabled

I hope that this helps you in integrating Power BI and collaborating within Microsoft Teams. Let me know how you have gained from the Team insights which are enabled with this new feature.

Thanks for reading

@mihircrm

365withoutCode

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

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

Digital Transformation in Manufacturing using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations

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.

1. 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.
2. 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/

Smart City - powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 - Part-1

This is part-1 of my blog about Smart City - powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 and describes the need for making our cities smarter. (for the purpose of this blog a citizen is anyone who lives, visits or needs services in the city)

Why Smart City?

Population growth  - I grew up in Mumbai (Bombay, India) and saw first hand the rapid growth in population, transportation, pollution and social-economic development challenges faced by a city for providing sustainable living for its citizens.   As the global urbanization movement continues it is projected that 68% of the world population (1) will be in living in urban areas by 2050 - an estimated increase by 2.5 billion or @80+ million people will be moving to cities and urban areas every year worldwide. The city senior population is also increasing and this requires more attention to provide elder care and support services.  Increasing population puts a strain on the City resources and the implicit demand for citizen services cannot be met with the existing governance and maintenance services model.  

Need to make cities smarter

Competition - As cities look for tax revenue gains they are competing with other cities to attract large corporations (think Amazon HQ2) to set-up HQ offices and thus improve the quality of life for the current and future citizens. A city which does not have plans to modernize its systems and services may not be attractive to the corporate firms to invest their money. 

Aging infrastructure and systems - Most of the cities have old infrastructure. The transportation trains, roads, bridges and tunnels needs to be upgraded. They were not planned to manage the current growth and will fail to sustain the future growing demands.  Many of the city systems are also old and in need of upgrade or replacement. 

City challenges

Citizen expectations - Lets now think from the citizens point of view. The citizen today is more educated, knowledgeable  and aware of their rights.  They expect the same or better services from the City government which they are used to get from the commercial or private sector. They also want more engagement and involvement in the city government activities. They are demanding for transparency and accountability in the entire process of how their tax dollars are being utilized. The citizens wants to live in a well protected and safe environment. A self aware citizenry is expecting the city government to provide a better future for its citizens.

Higher expectations

City governments currently operate a silo'ed business model. They are made up of multiple agency's and departments. Each may have its own systems of records and they do not share their information by default design. The city governments have to comply to various federal and state laws such as - HIPAA, CJIS, PCI, GDPR, IRS and many others. Additionally city governments have to provide services to its citizens who speak multiple languages and may be visiting the city. This demand provides opportunities as well as challenges and needs to be managed. 

With increasing population, growing demands and aging infrastructure & systems it is imperative for City governments to look for long term sustainable solution. Smart City can provide the optimal solution for city governments to provide a better quality of life for its citizens. 

In my next blog I will write about how Microsoft Dynamics 365 with Azure IOT can power a Smart City solution. Please let me know what challenges are faced by your city and the solutions that are planned or implemented.  

Mihir Shah

@mihircrm

365WithoutCode

ref - (1) UN Dept. of economic and social affairs - https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html

   

Whats New in April 19' update - Omni Channel Engagement Hub

This blog is part-1 of a series of blog on what I find is new and interesting in the April-19 update of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement.
Microsoft has provided a list of updated and new features in the April 2019 update release notes. I had written earlier about the Sales AI capabilities in Dynamics 365. This blog focus is on Customer Service and specifically the very new upcoming feature called Omni Channel Engagement Hub.

As the medium of social network is increasing, customers are demanding to communicate, connect and get response from organizations on any channel and from any device / location / time. This has challenged organizations big and small leading to a new breed of apps that help connecting with customers on non-traditional channels.

The challenge here is to integrate the new communication channels with existing Enterprise systems of engagement.

Microsoft has taken cognizance of this phenomenon and has introduced the Omni Channel Engagement Hub, which is a cloud based service to enable organizations to instantly connect and engage with their customers via channels like Live Chat and SMS. And there is an Dynamics 365 app, which helps Customer Service Agents to respond and engage with customers using those channels.

Agents can utilize the omni-channel Engagement Hub via Dynamics 365 online using the Unified Interface or by using Unified Service Desk (USD)

USD has the integration to the existing telephony system for Call Center operations. As the channels are new and not limited to just phone calls, it will now become a Contact Center operation.

There is built in dashboard for Supervisors to track and monitor the contact center productivity KPI's, Additionally Supervisors can consult and assist customer service agents in issue resolution.

With the April-19 release organization will be able to create their own chat bots which will be part of the Customer Service Virtual Agents using Microsoft Bot Framework.

The Omni Channel Hub integrates with D365 Customer Service Virtual Agent (Chat Bots). CS Virtual Agent will allow routing incoming chat requests to Virtual Agents (Chat Bots) in case of peak loads. If there is a necessity for escalation the discussion can be routed to a human agent with all prior details about the chat with customer.

Virtual Agent (Chat Bot)

So to give you a better idea for above - Consider a scenario
A bank is using Dynamics 365 Customer Service with the Omni Channel Engagement Hub and Virtual Agents (Chat Bots) it has created.
If a customer wants any information they can search the knowledge base as self service.
If they need further help they will be able to have a chat with the customer service virtual agent - the Chat Bot. Chat bot will use the data from Knowledge Articles created from similar cases to provide the information needed. If additional help is needed the discussion can be routed to a human agents queue giving the customer a seamless experience.

Routing of Chat 

I hope you are as excited as I am to get my hands on creating chat bots in Dynamics 365 without any code and transforming the customer experience. This is currently scheduled to be available in preview @ April 19'. We may just need to wait till it is out of preview and general available. Till than keep reading.

Mihir Shah
365WithoutCode