Archive for the ‘Technology’ category

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain – ask Synergy Software Systems

November 5th, 2023

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain (FSCM) is Microsoft’s flagship and most capable ERP solution. With advanced functionality, superior architecture and single source application, D365 FO is the natural choice for larger enterprises who often demand multi-site, multi-country, multi-lingual capabilities.

We have had a rich history of success with large international organisations implementing its predecessor Microsoft Dynamics AX, and D365 FSCM takes the power of AX to a different level!

It provides accessibility – anywhere, anytime via a browser-based user experience that enables users to access the system from any location and on any device.

Functionality includes: Finance (GL, AR, AP, Cash and Bank, FA, Budgets, Costing,) Sales, Purchasing, Planning, Advanced Warehouse Management, Discrete, Process and Lean Manufacturing, Master planning ATP and CATP, Retail, Project Management and Accounting, Asset Management, and Public Sector. modules. This is supported by numerous reports and dashboards and an in built Financial Reporter tool, and in built tools for case management, and workflow management.

As a Microsoft solution there is already integration with Azure technologies such as Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft 365 office productivity tools, Power apps and Power Bi, SharePoint and much more, all wrapped around with Microsoft security and platform management .

In addition, there are also numerous Apps available which extend the standard functionality and provide additional ISV and vertical solutions for example Synergy offers its own:

  • GCC localised HR and Payroll further enhanced with BI Dashboards, and automated PRO and employee self service processes.
  • A comprehensive Real Estate solution.

If you are looking for an enterprise multi county ERP system, or seeking to move upwards and onwards from Dynamics Ax, Dynamics GP or NAV, or other ERP systems the you will appreciate all that FSCM has to offer. However, you might just be a little nervous of how go forward with a multi company system, how long will take, how much will it cost and million other questions.

Synergy Software Systems is the oldest partner in the region and was the first Gold Partner for Dynamics Ax. We have a large mature team of consultants, professionally certified by Microsoft, who have helped guide other enterprises faced with the same challenges. Consultants are based here in Dubai, and we have a manned helpdesk through our working hours – one reason we received the Highest Customer Satisfaction Award from Microsoft.

Put your worries behind you and seize the future and call us on 0097143365589 for impartial, informed advice.

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.  

Filehold – what do customers think?

June 9th, 2023

  • FileHold Document Management Software has all of the essential features organizations need to make their documents secure, organized and compliant right “out of the box”.
  • FileHold delivers essential, document, records and workflow management.
  • FileHold scales to support thousands of users and millions of documents.

Ease of use

The FileHold filing structure mirrors the physical office filing environment. Document cabinets contain drawers that contain folder groups and or folders that contain documents. This familiar document filing approach ensures that users can easily browse for documents in a logical and efficient fashion.

Web browser access

FileHold software can be accessed from anywhere in the world via a web browser. Multiple browsers are supported and all functionality is available including system administration and library administration.

Mobile FileHold

Manage your documents while out of the office with the easiest mobile document management software you will ever use.

Search

Search documents from a simple Google-like search or an advanced search using metadata. Save the searches to create reports whenever you need.

Document viewers

A FileHold Level 1 viewer comes with every registered user license and allows users to see an image of a document without the need to have the native software installed on their computer the viewers work with both the web client and the desktop application.

Microsoft Office integration

Tight integration with Microsoft Office is provided that gives direct access from the document software to: Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Visio.

Records management software

Manage both short and long term working and archived documents. 

Advanced Record retention and disposition policies for both electronic and paper based records are standard in the software.  Document, data and usage history is fully captured to stay in compliance.

Electronic forms (e-Forms)

Metadata information can be extracted from electronic forms created using the standard Microsoft Word tools found in Office or PDF forms.  Once created the form data can be automatically extracted into FileHold metadata when the form is added to the system.

Courier

FileHold Courier allows you to transmit documents for viewing or approving to people inside or outside the document management system. Courier is a “proof of delivery” system where unlike email it is a secure method of sending documents. With email there is no way to know if the documents ever arrived or whether the attachment could be opened by the recipient. With Courier, recipients are notified by email containing a secure link which is then fully tracked and logged in FileHold.

Calendar

Differentiate your daily tasks and become more proficient at accomplishing your document management goals using the FileHold calendar.

Document version control

Document version control software provides: check in / checkout ability to prevent documents from being overwritten or deleted when documents are updated by more than one party. All versions of a document are maintained by the software.

Document scanning and imaging

FileHold ships with scanning and imaging software that support all scanners types to allow organizations to “go paperless”.  Basic and advanced third party scanning software is supported for both simple and complex document scanning operations.  Partner software to process scanned documents, to  look for text using zonal OCR, and pre-populating metadata fields before import into FileHold. This is particularly powerful with standardized forms like invoices as part of the AP process. We offer a complimentary license of this software with installs, which can be installed on multiple workstations, although only one copy can be running at a time.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and indexing

Using the scanning software that ships with the paperless office software users can convert the text on typed paper documents into editable and searchable information using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). The information that is zonally OCR’ed can be imported into the metadata fields of FileHold.

Synergy Software Systems can further assist you to further automate your document based processes with our RPA tools

Check documents out / Check documents in

Users are able to check in and check out documents from the software from within Microsoft Office applications, or from the Desktop Application or from anywhere in the world using the web interface.  

Document “tagging” or metadata capture

Capturing metadata or “tagging” (key data about the document) is the key to successful search and document  organization. The software has easy to use controlled document tagging to ensure documents are classified.

Virtual folders

The Virtual Folders feature in the software allows limitless aggregation of documents throughout the library into personal “views“. A Project Manager might have a virtual folder containing project documentation, project legal contract documents, invoices, design documentation and emails even though each document is stored in different locations of the library.

Language packs

FileHold offers two language packs as standard features: French and  Spanish. The user interface can be translated into any language by customers or partners. Some languages that have been translated by customers include Polish, Arabic and Chinese.

Work offline

If you are travelling or out of the office and are not connected to the FileHold document management server, then you can still work on your important documents offline. The software will recognize the document changes and can be synchronized with the Library once you are back online.

Document linking

Document to document linking builds parent or child relationships between documents and allows users to link and organize documents in logical groups.  Linking provides the ability to create document shortcuts to documents frequently needed.

Matter-centric filing (Auto-tagging)

Metadata is automatically applied to a document when added to a specific destination folder.  Matter Centric filing is a feature / term commonly used in the legal industry.

User roles and security

FileHold ships with a choice out of 11 different user security roles ranging from “read only” to “System Administration” to provide an appropriate level of user access permissions for workers at all levels.  Users see only documents that  administrators want them to see.

FIPS compliance

The US Federal Government requires compliance in order to meet security and interoperability standards. Filehold Licenses and passwords are encrypted using a FIPS-140 compliant algorithm to meet full compliance.

Watched folders

FileHold software can be configured so that certain folders on the local computer or network are “watched” by FileHold and then automatically moved into the library. The documents imported into FileHold by the watched folder functionality can be automatically tagged and destination folder pre-configured.

User audit logging and tracking

FileHold tracks and records every user activity to ensure a complete audit trail of document activity in the software.  This document auditing capability ensures compliance and protects intellectual property.

Email

Email documents via attachments or links.

Document subscriptions

FileHold software allows users to subscribe to and to be notified of edits to documents or changes to folders they have subscribed to.  When an existing document is updated or a document is added to a folder, the user receives email notification that the change has occurred, who has changed it, and receives a secure link to directly access the document.

Document naming standards

The software can be configured to automatically create document names to enforce adherence to document or record naming conventions.

Third-party integration

A well documented Web Services API allows direct integration with third party applications and flexible integration with existing back office systems. These web services are available to third parties to provide easy integration with other enterprise solutions and productivity applications.

URL support

Provides the ability to send a secured link to a document, rather than emailing the document and cluttering up the mail inbox. This link can then be clicked on to launch the Web Client or Desktop Client to work on the document in a few seconds.

Document control numbering

This feature provides for the automatic application of document control numbers to documents.

Reporting and document compliance

FileHold comes with many built in reports to give administrators information about the usage of documents and users.

Co-Pilot and Business Central ask Synergy Software Systems

May 23rd, 2023

This video guides you through the minimal steps necessary to get started quickly in creating a chatbot with expanded natural language capabilities inside of Business Central. Copilot provides AI-powered writing assistance for Business Central users responsible authoring marketing text (product descriptions) on items sold in online shops, like Shopify. With the click of a button, Copilot generates text that’s engaging, creative, and highlights key attributes of the specific item. With a bit of reviewing and editing, it’s ready to publish. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central help small and medium-sized businesses to bring new products to market faster by producing AI-generated product descriptions.

Copilot in Viva Topics ask Synergy Software Systems

April 26th, 2023

Microsoft Viva Topics applies next-generation AI to empower people with knowledge and expertise in the apps they use every day.

Viva Topics automatically organizes content and expertise into related topics like projects, products, processes, and customers.

Topic cards deliver knowledge just-in-time across Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Office. And topic pages—created and updated by AI—enable experts to cultivate and share knowledge with simplicity.


New features that will free up time and make it easy for people to find information and to apply knowledge – including Copilot in Viva Topics, Teams app, and more.

Copilot in Viva Topics

Use Copilot in Viva Topics, in your organization’s to :

  • share intelligence to distribute best practices and knowledge to everyone
  • – uncover new opportunities b
  • summarise complex topics across multiple connected documents,
  • translate topic pages based on sources even in other languages,
  • analyze connections between what may seem disparate concepts
  • Then validate & augment the source of organizational knowledge to ensure accuracy and credibility.

Expected release for preview insSeptember 2023.

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Explore and query your organization’s knowledge graph with relevant people & resources  

Answers in Viva

Copilot is also coming to Answers in Viva. When an employee asks a question, Copilot can:

  • suggest additional details to clarify of the question.
  • recommend existing resources and potential answers.
  • curate knowledge by providing a summary of all the replies and contributors
  • and to brings it all together into an aggregate view with FAQs, experts, and other resources.

These Copilot capabilities will use natural language AI interfaces to improve employee experience

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Copilot can help people provide answers to questions by recommending existing resources and potential answers.

Viva Topics Teams app:

The new Viva Topics app in Teams will be available for all licensed Viva Topics users.
You can now use the Viva Topics app in Teams as a destination to see ‘their’ associate Topics, and knowledge managers can even access Manage Topics and the upcoming analytics tab. You will no longer have to navigate out of Teams to access their Topic Center. The app will also include new Viva components that will allow Viva Suite users to easily transition between Viva apps, submit feedback, and get support.

Updates to this feature can be tracked should reach GA in May 2023.

Multi-Hop queries for Related Topics

This generally available version of Related Topics adds a second layer of connections so that topics that are two degrees of connection away from the focal node are shown. Click on a node to expand the visualization to show more topics connected to that node.

Viva Topics in Feed

Microsoft Feed is a dedicated Feed experience in Office.com and Edge New Tab Page that helps Microsoft 365 users feel connected and up to date on the people, topics, and tasks most important to them-files, meetings, tasks, news, links, people highlights and community posts.

Your Feed, will show you relevant Viva Topics. When a SharePoint object that is already associated with a Topic is shown in Feed items, you will see a corresponding Topic to help you further understand the context and do more. Only SharePoint objects that are associated with an existing Viva Topic are highlighted with a Topic.

Updates to this feature should be GA by end April 2023.

Viva Engage conversations and Q&A on Topic Card as Activity

Viva Topics will be a continuous source of information with Viva Engage conversations and Q&A associated with a topic appear on the Topic Card as new activity.

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Updates to this feature will reach GA in May 2023.

Verified Topic badges

Mark published topics as verified and add a specific group of SMEs as editors to the topic.

Verification helps readersto identify topics with added reliability.

Topics that are verified are identified by a special badge and indicate the content is reviewed for accuracy and are regularly updated by assigned editors.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in April 2023.

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics
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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Topic engagement analytics for knowledge managers

Usage and engagement analytics showing Viva Topics adoption and value will be available to knowledge managers in a new analytics tab in topic center. Analytics will include:

• Unique user counts and Usage counts for:

o Topics activities overall
o By activities like consuming, contributing and sharing Topics


• Detailed breakdown for Topics consumption usage from Topic card, page, search, Topic center cards; Usage count details for;
• Detailed breakdown for Topics contribution activities like Editing and publishing topics, will provide feedback.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in May 2023.

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Topic Engagement Analytics for Admins

Usage and engagement analytics on topics (views, edits, etc.) to the Microsoft Admin Center for Admins.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in May 2023

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Control topic highlights on SharePoint

SharePoint includes a Viva Topics experience that identifies topics on SharePoint pages, news posts and automatically highlights those on the page.

Both page authors and editors can control which topics get highlighted on the page to ensure the messaging and styling of the content is accurate.

A new dedicated space for Viva Topics within SharePoint pages o discover and consume all the topics on the page in a single place without scrolling to look for a highlight.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in April 2023.

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics
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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

April 24th, 2023

Microsoft 365 Copilot combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with your data in the Microsoft Graph and the Microsoft 365 apps to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet.

Microsoft Graph is the gateway to data and intelligence in Microsoft 365. It provides a unified programmability model to access the tremendous amount of data in Microsoft 365, Windows, and Enterprise Mobility + Security. Use the wealth of data in Microsoft Graph to build apps for organizations and consumers that interact with millions of users. Custom applications can use the Microsoft Graph API to connect to data and use it in custom applications to enhance organizational productivity.

Microsoft Graph provides a single endpoint that the app can use to access the required data and to simplify the overall development process.

Organizations store vast amounts of data and intelligence across Microsoft cloud services, but how accessible is the data to users?

For example, a salesperson is setting up a meeting with a customer, wants to easily access files and previous meetings and notes but are those emails and chats between a salesperson and customer easy to find? What people within the organization can the customer contact for support?

Data and intelligence like the following types can be accessed through the Microsoft Graph REST APIs and client libraries:

  • Users and groups
  • Teams data
  • Tasks
  • Files
  • Mail
  • Meetings and calendars
  • Organizational charts

Copilot is an AI-powered tool that uses natural language processing and machine learning to understand users’ requests and provide personalized recommendations, tips, and assistance. Users can ask Copilot questions and get instant answers, guidance, and suggestions to help them work more efficiently.

Copilot is designed to be available across multiple Microsoft 365 applications, including :Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and Outlook, and is intended to be context-aware. It ‘understands’ the user’s specific needs and the task at hand. Some examples of this functionality are the ability to point copilot to a word document, and request to create a power point presentation based on the data in the document.

Copilot will also work with tools from the Power Platform and Dynamics 365 products. Copilot for Power Virtual Agents is already in preview.

Copilot enables marketers to create targeted customer experiences and interactions that are informed by data-driven decision making. With access to the natural language data discovery feature in Customer Insights, they can build confidence by validating and discovering customer insights for their marketing strategies. For example, a marketer can ask Copilot how many of their customers fit the profile of currently residing in Washington, DC, who are over the age of 25, who have also attended a promotional event in the last six months.

With just a few clicks, Copilot will present the results of their query, including the number of customers that match the attributes or behaviors, as well as other useful information such as the customer lifetime value, product preferences, or average purchase price.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights removes the barrier of needing to craft queries in SQL to get a deeper understanding of customers, enabling marketers to speed and scale the delivery of hyper-personalized experiences that customers expect.

Copilot in Viva Sales

Automatically generate contextual email replies and meeting summaries with Copilot in Viva Sales, available to Dynamics 365 Sales customers. Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Viva Sales helps sellers dramatically reduce the time they spend on clerical tasks. AI helps write email responses to customers and can even create an email summary of a Teams meeting in Outlook. The meeting summary pulls in details from the seller’s CRM such as product and pricing information, as well as insights from the recorded Teams call. With sellers spending as much as 66% of their day checking and responding to emails, this presents a significant business upside to give the seller more time with their customers.

. For example, with Viva Sales, Copilot can learn how to connect to CRM systems of record to pull customer data — like interaction and order histories — into communications. As Copilot learns about new domains and processes, it will be able to perform even more sophisticated tasks and queries.

Copilot in Microsoft Viva Goals simplifies goal setting by guiding leaders through the process of creating objectives and key results (OKRs) as well as simplifying goal management across the organization. Copilot can suggest draft OKR recommendations based on existing Word documents, such as an annual business plan or a product strategy paper. Once created, Copilot saves employees time by summarizing the status of OKRs, identifying blockers, and suggesting next steps. Lastly, Copilot can consolidate existing data to generate more comprehensive check-ins so teams can leverage a breadth of knowledge across different sources of truth.

An entirely new experience is Business Chat that works across he Microsoft 365 apps, and your data — your calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings and contacts — to do things you’ve never been able to do before. You can give it natural language prompts like “Tell my team how we updated the product strategy,” and it will generate a status update based on the morning’s meetings, emails and chat threads.

You will be able to access Business Chat from Microsoft 365.com, from Bing when you’re signed in with your work account, or from Teams.

Copilot will fundamentally change how people work with AI and how AI works with people. As with any new pattern of work, there’s a learning curve — but those who embrace this new way of working will quickly gain an edge. Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 and automatically inherits all your company’s valuable security, compliance, and privacy policies and processes. Two-factor authentication, compliance boundaries, privacy protections, and more make Copilot the AI solution you can trust.

I have only scratched the surface – Teams swept the business world during COVID now Co-Pilot and VIVA integrated across your favourite apps erps and crm systems – we often read about game changing software and paradigm shifts- but this times it’s for real and faster than we realise.

Windows 10 21H2 end-of-service (EOS)

April 10th, 2023

Microsoft recently reminded its customers of the Windows 10 21H2 end-of-service (EOS) on June 13, 2023. It will affect editions released in November 2021 such as: Windows 10 Home, version 21H2; Windows 10 Pro, version 21H2; Windows 10 Pro Education, version 21H2; and Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, version 21H2.

These editions will no longer receive security updates after June 13, 2023.” reminds. Customers who contact Microsoft Support after this date will be directed to update their device to the latest version of Windows 10 or upgrade to Windows 11 to remain supported..

Microsoft noted that the June 2023 security update of Windows 10 21H2 will be the last one it will receive. This EOS signals the stop of updates for version 21H2, especially the security and monthly quality updates. This will expose users to possible issues without necessary future security patches and bug fixes.

Encourages users to get Windows 10 22H2 (Windows 10 2022 Update) or upgrade to Windows 11 available since November 2022 for users running Windows 10 20H2 or later via Windows Update. Microsoft said it would also push the update to consumer and non-managed business devices running Windows 10 20H2.

To help keep you protected and productive, Windows Update will automatically initiate a feature update for Windows 10 consumer devices and non-managed business devices that are at, or within several months of reaching end of servicing. This keeps your device supported and receiving monthly updates that are critical to security and ecosystem health.”

Microsoft Releases SharePoint Server Subscription Edition Update 23H1

March 17th, 2023

Microsoft Releases SharePoint Server Subscription Edition Update 23H1

  • The update adds support for the SharePoint Framework version 1.5.1 development platform, with support for “modern web technologies and tools.”
  • Microsoft “recompiled SharePoint Server Subscription Edition with the newest Visual C++ compiler: Visual C++ 2022.”
  • Microsoft also added four new PowerShell commandlets that “will replace the functionality of the ‘stsadm.exe -o variationsfixuptool’ command.”

The update supports private key management of SSL/TLS certificates in SharePoint Server farms, which allows the certificates to be ” dynamically updated when the certificate assignments change.

Microsoft added “wildcard host header binding” for web applications that share the same TCP port, which means that organizations can now shorten DNS names using an asterisk.

With this update the sharing function in “lists, document libraries, pages, or site contents” follows the modern sharing dialog box convention . However, Microsoft also added the option to its Lists column totals view to make it look more like the “classic” SharePoint approach.

The Quick Chart modern Web Part can now get data from a SharePoint site’s List or Library, which previously wasn’t possible.

The File Picker now supports more file types, namely “PDF, TXT, MP4, M4V, MP3, OGG and WAV.”

SharePoint Server 2019 and AMSI Support
Microsoft announced that it has integrated the Windows with this update (AMSI) security capability into SharePoint Server 2019 with its March 2023 cumulative update. This capability is “designed to prevent malicious web requests from reaching SharePoint endpoints.” It will examine incoming Web requests and block the malicious ones.

AMSI lets applications and services integrate with any AMSI-capable anti-malware product present on a computer.

AMSI was added to SharePoint Server SE back in November, and is now available in SharePoint Server 2019. “This feature will also become available to SharePoint Server 2016 customers later this year,” Baer indicated.

Windows 10 sales to end this month

January 26th, 2023

Windows 10 use currently leads worldwide in terms of Windows desktop use.

Windows 7 with Extended Security Updates support fell out of support on Jan. 10. The same date as the end of supportfor Windows 8.1.

Both the Home and Pro Windows 10 OSes can’t be purchased from Microsoft after this month. Here’s Microsoft’s language to that effect from its Microsoft Store listings for the Home and Pro editions:

January 31, 2023 will be the last day this Windows 10 download is offered for sale. Windows 10 will remain supported with security updates that help protect your PC from viruses, spyware, and other malware until October 14, 2025.

A “get Windows 10” search currently defaults to Microsoft’s get Windows 11 page.

The statement seems to just apply to the downloadable OS product.

For the various ways to buy Windows, see this PCWorld.com article.