Archive for October, 2023

Microsoft Business Applications Wave 2 2023

October 31st, 2023

At the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event, last week  the 2023 release wave 2 for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform was announced. This is a a six-month rollout of new and enhanced capabilities scheduled for release between October 2023 and March 2024.

This release wave introduces hundreds of new features across Microsoft Power Platform applications. It  included enhanced capabilities for: governance, administration, and professional development.

 Updates for Dynamics 365 include innovation to:

  • help employees be more productive,
  • create exceptional customer experiences
  • deepen relationships,
  • drive meaningful growth across the business.

This release features new AI capabilities in Copilot to improve insights, save time, and enhance creativity across Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform.  

Organizations like Nestlé, Kodak Alaris, Northern Trust, Centrica, Spark NZ, Domino’s Pizza UK and Ireland, and Suffolk are already adopting these capabilities to drive transformative changes in their businesses.

Updates to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance include the general availability of extended planning and analysis, which brings together operational and financial planning to continuously plan, act, and analyze.

General availability of business performance analytics streamlines financial reporting by centralizing data from multiple business processes and in an easy-to-use interface.

Updates to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management include improvements in demand planning, as well as procure-to-pay processes. Copilot will suggest actions tto help purchasing agents make better decisions in response to new and updated information that affects open purchase orders.

With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, and Copilot you can use data and insights that used to be hidden, unlock capabilities previously out of reach, and reach new levels of productivity and collaboration.

The new release wave introduces a variety of solutions to help marketers and sales professionals use Copilot to deepen their understanding of their target customer base, streamline engagement processes, and push the boundaries in crafting exceptional customer experiences. 

Copilot in Power Platform bring a new era of AI-assisted low-code development. Copilot features in release wave 2 to make it easier to quickly create solutions.

Copilot plays a vital role in democratizing development, to enable a broader audience—both citizen and professional developers—to create innovative solutions using natural language. Copilot within Microsoft Power Platform  significantly improves the governance and administrative experience, to expedite the development of applications.

Microsoft 365 Copilot general availability and Microsoft 365 Chat

October 31st, 2023

Microsoft Copilot is a digital companion for a single Copilot user experience across Bing, Edge, Microsoft 365, and Windows.

 Over the past few years, the pace and volume of work have  increased. On a given workday, users typically  search for what they need 18 times, receive over 250 Outlook emails, and send or read around 150 Teams chats. Teams users globally are in three times more meetings each week than they were in 2020. In  Windows, some people use 11 apps in a single day to get their work done. Microsoft 365 Chat will help everyone lift the weight of work.

Last week’s announcement in New York  impacts all the  product line-up for commercial customers: 

  • Microsoft Copilot in Windows  to create faster and to complete tasks with ease and make once-complicated tasks simple. Find it on the taskbar or with the Win+C keyboard shortcut, to get assistance alongside all your apps. Copilot in Windows will feature the new Copilot icon, the new Copilot user experience, Bing Chat, and will be available to commercial customers for free.
  • Bing Chat Enterprise builds on Microsoft Copilot and adds commercial data protection. Bing Chat Enterprise, chat data is not saved, Microsoft has no eyes-on access, and your data is not used to train the large language models (LLM). Bing Chat Enterprise is available as a standalone for $5 per user per month and is included in Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5. Bing Chat Enterprise is now available in the Microsoft Edge mobile app and Microsoft is bringing support for multimodal visual search and Image Creator to Bing Chat Enterprise. Bing Chat Enterprise is already part of Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium, which means more than 160 million people already have access.
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant at work. It builds on Bing Chat Enterprise and includes enterprise-grade security, privacy, compliance. This responsible AI ensures that all data processing happens inside your proven Microsoft 365 tenant
  • Microsoft 365 Chat is the new experience for Microsoft 365 Copilot and goes far beyond simple questions and answers. It combs across your entire universe of data—all your emails, meetings, chats, documents, and more, plus the web—to solve your most complex problems at work. It’s integrated into the Microsoft 365 Apps:Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. Microsoft 365 Copilot will be generally available for enterprise customers for $30 per user per month on 1 November 2023. 

Copilot in Outlook helps you stayon top of your inbox and create impactful communication in a fraction of the time.: 

  • Ask Copilot to summarize an email thread to get key information with annotations that help you quickly jump to the source of the summarized content, and suggested action items, replies, and follow-up meetings.  
  • Choose “Sound like me” tomatch your unique writing style and voice when you’re using Copilot to draft an email.
  • Follow a Teams meeting that you could not attend live, directly from Outlook on your own time. When the meeting starts, Teams notifies participants to record it. When the recording is ready, Copilot notifies you in Outlook.  

Copilot in Word transforms every part of the writing process to make you more creative and efficient::  

  • Ask Copilot for a summary of any document to share as a recap or quickly get up to speed, and Copilot will now deliver a more in-depth bulleted summation with all the information you need. 
  • Ask Copilot to “rewrite” a paragraph, then scroll through a series of options to see what fits best. You can then adjust the rewrite tone to make it more neutral, casual, or professional. 
  • Refine a prompt by asking Copilot to do things like “make answer more concise” or “add a column in the table for the project owner.”  
  • Save time on formatting by asking Copilot to generate a table from your copy. 

Copilot in Excel enables anyone to analyze and visualize data like a data analyst.  : 

  • with Copilot in Excel to help analyze, format, and edit your data to gain deeper understanding and insights. 
  • Quickly add a formula column, highlight key data with a prompt like “make all cells red where the value is under 1000,” filter and sort your data, and ask questions to instantly uncover key insights. 
  • Use Copilot to access advanced analytics; create powerful, professional visualizations, generate forecasts, and save time sorting through data with Python in Excel

Copilot in Loop unlocks the power of shared thinking,helping teams cocreate, stay up to date, and pick up where others left off.  : 

  • Iterate with Copilot collaboratively as a team, cocreating prompts and reviewing earlier interactions to edit and improve on work together.  
  • Ask Copilot to generate a quick table on the page to help organize team projects. You can easily turn the table into a Loop component to share with teammates wherever they’re working—in Teams, Outlook, Microsoft Whiteboard, and Word on the web. 
  • Quickly catch up where your teammates left off by asking Copilot for a summary of a page or asking open-ended questions like “What key assignments were made since I was last on this page?”  
  • Generate a recap for a teammate that you’re handing work off to, so they can get up to speed on any updates or changes.  
  • Save time writing code with Copilot-suggested Code blocks that pop up automatically using the context of your work. 

Copilot in OneNote helps you stay organized, prepared, and ready to take action.  :  

  • Gain deeper insights on your notes by asking comprehensive questions like: “What are the pros and cons of this process?”   
  • Quickly generate summaries of your OneNote content. 
  • Type just a few sentences and get a Copilot-generated paragraph, bulleted list, or organized section. 
  • Make your writing clearer and more effective with a quick Copilot edit. 

Copilot in Stream helps you find the insights and information you need from a video—in the Microsoft Stream web app or anywhere Stream videos work across Microsoft 365 apps—in seconds.  :  

  • Get a quick summary of the video with a transcript of the relevant spots you need to review.  
  • Ask Copilot open-ended questions—“What was the discussion outcome?” “How did the site walkthrough go?”—to quickly understand outcomes and key points. 
  • Ask Copilot to identify when people, teams, or topics are discussed, then jump right to that point in the video. 
  • Ask Copilot for suggested follow-ups or actions from a video you missed.   

Copilot in OneDrive helps you find all the insights and information you need—without ever opening a file. 
Now you can: 

  • Ask Copilot open-ended questions related to an individual file or get a summary of the content.

Copilot in Windows

In May, we announced that Copilot was coming to Windows 11. Copilot in Windows—in preview starting September 26—empowers you to create faster, complete tasks with ease, and lessens your cognitive load—making once complicated tasks, simple. We’ve made accessing the power of Copilot seamless as it’s always right there for you on the taskbar or with the Win+C keyboard shortcut providing assistance alongside all your apps, on all screen sizes at work, school, or at home.   

MANAGING COPILOT IN WINDOWS

To help bring Copilot to more people across more organizations, Windows 365 Boot and Windows 365 Switch will also be available in this update, making it easier than ever to get a full, secure, personalized Windows 365 Cloud PC with Copilot—on any device. 

Microsoft was recently recognized as a Leader in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Desktop as a Service (DaaS).Copilot Copyright Commitment means customers can be confident using the Copilot services and the output they generate without worrying about copyright claims.  

New Continuous update policy for Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain

October 27th, 2023

In2018, Microsoft released the Continuous Update policy for Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management (D365 FSCM), which included seven service updates per year. 

Last month Microsoft announced it reducing the number of service updates released per year to four. Here’s what to expect with these upcoming D365 FSCM release schedule changes.

NEW RELEASE SCHEDULE

Major releases, previously known as the Spring and Fall updates, will shift to January and July, with minor updates in April and October. The new naming convention will also be introduced at the same time.

Major releases will be denoted on version numbers with a “*”, e.g., “CY25Q2: 10.0.43*”.

The update name will consist of two segments.

  • The first will denote the year and quarter the update is scheduled to automatically be applied to production environments.
  • The second segment will be the update version. For example, “CY24Q1: 10.0.38” is version 10.0.38 that will be automatically applied to production from the first quarter of 2024 onwards.

You can only pause one consecutive update instead of three.

The total minimum number of updates you are required to take per year remains at two.

The management of updates—pausing, scheduling, and deploying to sandboxes—is still through LCS, as described here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/fin-ops-core/dev-itpro/lifecycle-services/pause-service-updates?context=%2Fdynamics365%2Fcontext%2Fcommerce

Upcoming Release Schedule

D365 FSCM release schedule

PROACTIVE QUALITY UPDATES SCHEDULE

Proactive Quality Updates (PQUs) remain unchanged and will be pushed in between service updates, delivering periodic cumulative hotfixes.

The PQUs will follow the same “safe-deployment” model, which first delivers the PQUs to a single region that contains a small group of customers who have the highest tolerance for risk.

When no regressions are identified, the process continues through a broader group of customers, based on geographies (stations), until all customers are using the new version.

 

UAE VAT Reverse Charge for Electronic Devices

October 27th, 2023

The Ministry of Finance has announced the issuance of Cabinet Resolution 91 of 2023 regarding the Application of the Reverse charge mechanism on Electronic Devices among Registered businesses in UAE under UAE VAT.

  • The supply of Electronic Devices to a registered business for the purpose of resale or production/ manufacture of other Electronic Devices shall be subject to a reverse charge mechanism.
  • The recipient will have to account for VAT on the value of such supplies.
  • Electronic Devices are defined as mobile phones, smartphones, computers, tablets and their parts and components. Under this mechanism, the responsibility for VAT on electronic device supplies (for example, mobile phones, smartphones, computer devices, tablets, and related parts) will shift from the supplier to the recipient if these items are intended for resale or use in electronic device manufacturing.
  • In the clarification issued on Wednesday, the FTA outlined the goods covered by the Decision – ‘mobile phones and smartphones’ – which include phones and devices that only have call and/or text functions and those that include additional functions. It applies only to phones and devices that operate through wireless transmission.
  • The Cabinet Decision includes all types of computers, such as: personal computers, desktop computers, minicomputers, analogue, digital, hybrid computers, servers, computerised engine control units (ECU) for cars, and other similar devices.
  • It excludes: phones and devices running through physical means, such as wire or fibre optic cables.
  • The registered recipient will calculate and report VAT on these supplies in their Tax Returns, along with fulfilling relevant tax obligations, FTA said on Wednesday.

The Cabinet Resolution specifies certain conditions and documentation required to be maintained for both the supplier and the recipient:

The FTA  clarified that a Decision will be released to specify the standards to be followed while defining the parts and components of Electronic Devices.

The Cabinet Resolution is applicable after 60 days from the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

Summary

**1. ** Background Check: 

Understand Cabinet Decision No. 91 of 2023. 
Shift in VAT responsibility: supplier to buyer. 
Vital for electronic device businesses. 

**2. ** Scope Clarified: 

Intention to resell or use devices in manufacturing. 
Definition of ‘Resell’: Active trading, wholesale, or retail. 
Excludes consumption for business purposes. 
**3. ** Device Diversity: 

What qualifies as ‘Electronic Devices’? 
Mobile phones, tablets, computers, and components. 
Excludes physically wired devices. 
**4. ** Compliance Checklist: 

Supplier and buyer requirements
Buyer declarations: intent and VAT registration. 
Implications of non-compliance. 

**5. ** Zoning Matters: 

Impact of designated zones. 
Goods movement within UAE and designated zones. 
Crucial for businesses in these zones. 

**6. ** Effective Date Alert: 

Cabinet Decision in effect from October 30, 2023. 
Key date for compliance and transactions. 
Stay compliant to avoid penalties. 

**7. ** Action Steps: 

Review electronic device operations. 
Ensure compliance with Cabinet Decision No. 91. 
Communication with suppliers and buyers. 
Stay updated with FTA guidelines. 
Seek professional advice for specific concerns. 

**8. ** Document Checklist: 

Cabinet Decision 91 of 2023. 
Ministerial Decision 26 of 2023. 
VAT Public Clarification VAT P034. 

The UAE has previously implemented a similar mechanism for other key sectors like gold/ diamond trade and oil/gas trade between registered businesses. The high value and volume of such transactions undertaken means that the reverse charge mechanism will help Electronic Device traders to better manage their cashflows and account for VAT.

Upgrade Power BI Desktop .NET Framework to 4.7.2 or newer

October 25th, 2023

Power BI Desktop with .NET Framework 4.5 will no longer be supported after 9/30/2023

. Please upgrade to .NET Framework 4.7.2 or newer to avoid any support issues.