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Archive for the ‘Technology’ category

Teams Enhancements

November 5th, 2021

At this year’s Ignite conference. Microsoft announced updates and new features to its business communication platform. Mesh for Microsoft Teams, provides new options for digital meetups with personalized avatars and 3-D environments. Personalized avatars, will give a sense of presence in meetings without turning on cameras.

Users will have more options to join meeting rooms and virtual collaboration spaces using redesigned avatars that will move and react based on your speech . Tuesday’s announcement comes after Facebook unveiled its similar virtual avatar technology that will soon be available in its newly christened Meta social media platform relaunch.

Microsoft said that users will not only be able to come together in new virtual reality rooms, but will be able to collaborate and to share on documents stored in Microsoft 365. Users can join a Mesh room either from their PC, or smartphone or mixed reality device.

This arose from a multiyear collaboration between Microsoft and mega-partner Accenture, an Ireland-based IT services firm that is known for virtual conference and meeting technologies.

Mesh for Microsoft Teams will begin to roll out in 2022 in preview and will launch with a set of prebuilt immersive spaces, with options for organizations to create their own custom spaces to be added.

Microsoft Teams Enhancements
For Microsoft Teams, the company unveiled more features one of which is the inclusion of a virtual green room to allow organizers and guest speakers to interact in a second virtual space to collaborate on presentation content, monitor chat and socialize. Microsoft said this feature will be available in preview in early 2022.

To secure shared documents a new feature planned for 2022 called Teams Connect. will allow for Teams channels to be shared with outside individuals and organizations, with IT retaining control on how and what documents can be shared.

Teams Chat will be upgraded and it will permit individuals in a Teams organization to use their personal Teams account to chat and collaborate., and also o chat with yourself, which Microsoft said will be useful for personal organization and keeping memos stored in one place.

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Posted in Microsoft, Security and Compliance, Teams collaboration remote access, Technology

Google chrome update now to avoid being hacked.

November 2nd, 2021

If you use Google Chrome then update your web browser(s) without delay and use a hidden feature to combat hacking.

This warning is a concern because two of the problems found by the cyber team at Google have been given the dreaded ‘zero day’ rating, which means that it’s highly likely the bug is already known to criminals and hackers.

A ‘zero-day threat’ or vulnerability is a newly discovered software vulnerability for which the developers have zero days to fix the problem because it already has potential to be exploited by hackers. When hackers take advantage of the software security flaw to perform a cyberattack, that is known as a ‘zero-day exploit’.

The latest version of Chrome fixed eight issues with the software, two of those were high risk. Google confirmed on its Chrome update page that it’s aware of exploits for these two issues codenamed CVE-2021-38000 and CVE-2021-38003 both issues have w been fixed, but users need to update their Chrome browser.

The Stable channel has been updated to 95.0.4638.69 for Windows, and for Mac and Linux the update will roll out soon.

A step-by -step guide on the website reads: “We’ll ask you to change your Google Account password if it might be unsafe, even if you don’t use Password Checkup.”

If you think your Google Account, Gmail or Google products have been hacked, then follow these steps to spot suspicious activity, and get back into your account, and make it more secure.

Sign in to your Google Account

If you can’t sign in, then go to the account recovery page and answer the questions there as best as you can.

Review your account activity

Go to your Google account
Select Security on the left navigation panel
On the Recent security events panel select Review Security events and check for any suspicious activity:

If you find activity that didn’t come from you, then select ‘No, it wasn’t me’. Then, follow the steps on the screen to help secure your account.
If you did the activity, then select Yes.
If you still believe someone else is using your account then go to think link to check whether tis been hacked https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6294825#signs-account-hacked

Take more security steps

Make your account even more secure use s 2-step verification and/or install a more secure browser.

Extensions and plugins

There are several browser extensions that help you to see who is tracking your web-surfing but many of these invasively track themselves. These either help protect you or let you know who is tracking you – while not tracking themselves, or, if they do, it’s minimal..

– HTTPS Everywhere: You might still find yourself visiting a HTTP website that doesn’t support encryption by default? This plugin forces it to use encryption, which helps to protect your online purchases, payment details, and general web surfing from malicious actors who are eavesdropping for theft purposes.

– Privacy Badger: This extension, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), works on and Chrome. It monitors third parties and ad networks that try to track you through cookies and digital fingerprinting and can even auto-block them.

– Disconnect: Disconnect, is an extension available for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, and Opera, can visually show you which websites are tracking your activity in real time. Invisible trackers that monitor you can also be easily blocked with Disconnect.

What else can you do?

Remember, it’s very hard to escape data collection and surveillance. When you use Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter, be aware most of these online services track you and only recently started to adopt end-to-end encryption. Every big tech company – Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Apple – has had issues in the past over their contractors listening to user conversations recorded by their apps and assistants.

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Posted in Security and Compliance, Technology

KB5006943 – On-demand hotfix update package for SQL Server 2016 SP3

November 1st, 2021

This update https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5006943-on-demand-hotfix-update-package-for-sql-server-2016-sp3-94de2975-cd7d-47ed-b003-5d7daf4e2caf contains hotfixes for issues that were fixed after the release of SQL Server 2016 SP3 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5003279-sql-server-2016-service-pack-3-release-information-46ab9543-5cf9-464d-bd63-796279591c31 ). To apply this hotfix package, you must have SQL Server 2016 installed on your computer.

Note The build number of the hotfix update package is 13.0.6404.1.

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Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics Ax, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Security and Compliance, SQL, Sunsystems and Vision, Technology

Assets with Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain – ask Synergy Software Systems

October 19th, 2021

Assets include for example buildings and machinery, IT equipment. company mobile phones and credit cards, cars, shipping vehicles and containers and son on.. TA malfunction or failure of your assets for example a production machine or a delivery vehicle can negatively impact your supply chain. Aa global enterprise will have thousands of assets.

Dynamics 365’s, Asset Management module allows companies to manage their maintenance operations with real-time access to their maintenance costs without having to separately collect data, to analyze it. Use Asset Management to both plan and execute maintenance and and servicing of equipment in your company, . It integrates seamlessly with several Dynamics 365 modules and other apps.

Functional Locations and Assets

Use Functional locations to manage assets on locations and to track asset costs at functional locations. Functional locations are structured hierarchically, and locations can have sub-locations.. Assets can be installed on functional locations and, be reinstalled on other functional locations.

Asset costs always follow the location of the asset. When you install an asset on a new functional location, the asset automatically uses the financial dimensions that are related to the new functional location. Therefore, asset costs are always related to the functional location that the asset is currently installed. This automatic handling of financial dimensions helps guarantee accurate cost tracking when your company does project controlling and reporting on functional locations.

Also build a hierarchy of functional locations for your company internal equipment maintenance, or for servicing customer equipment.

Assets and Work Orders

. An asset is a machine assembly or machine part that requires on-going maintenance and service.

Assets can be created in a hierarchical structure, and they can be related to functional locations.

Maintenance jobs can be planned at all levels in the asset structure.

For each asset set up related data, such as asset specification, and required maintenance plans and the affiliation of assets to job types.

Every work order has a work order type, such as preventive or corrective maintenance, or inspection.

The work order contains one or more work order jobs. Every work order job defines a job that must be performed on an asset and a related job type.

Examples of related job types include 10,000 km, 50,000 km, 1-year overhaul, and safety inspection.

One work order can be related to multiple assets.

A work order can be related to another work order, and job types can contain succeeding jobs that create a work order. In general, there are no dependencies between work orders. Therefore, they can change their work order lifecycle state and can be scheduled independently of each other.

Integration with ERP

The integration of Asset Management with Dynamics 365 applications supports drill down into your maintenance data to understand exactly what is driving your costs, and to determine how optimise your assets.

Project management and accounting – allows a holistic view into the costs associated with work on specific objects, by area, by a worker, etc.
Human resources – provides the capability to assign workers to specific work requests and allows for a clearer vision of the true cost of maintaining your assets.
Fixed assets – allows greater visibility into the cost of maintaining an asset.
Inventory management – maintains spare parts inventory.
Master planning – provides planned purchase orders based on criteria set up in the system, ensuring that the maintenance department never runs out of parts.
Procurement and sourcing – allows maintenance departments to have clear visibility into their orders and expenditures.
Accounts payable – allows vendors to be paid on time and allows the accounting department greater visibility into maintenance expenses.
General ledger – grants visibility into the maintenance process from an accounting perspective.

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Posted in Corporate Perfomance Management, Dynamics 365, Microsoft, Technology

Utility billing, Dynamics 365, why Mecoms? ask Synergy Software Systems

October 11th, 2021

We have long experience of utility billing, which has many unique requirements compared to a manufacturing or retail organisation. OS we are pleased to announce these recent successes by our ISV partner Mecoms.

FERRANTI COMPUTER SYSTEMS Achieves the Microsoft Business Applications 2021/2022 Inner Circle award

Ferranti is honored by Microsoft for achieving outstanding sales achievement and innovation with their MECOMS 365 application platform.

Ferranti Computer Systems, the driving force behind the MECOMS 365 software platform for energy & utility providers, has achieved the prestigious Microsoft Business Applications 2021/2022 Inner Circle award. Membership in this elite group is based on sales achievements that rank Ferranti Computer Systems in the top echelon of the Microsoft’s Business Applications global network of partners. Inner Circle members have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help organizations achieve increased success. For the second year in a row.

2021/2022 Inner Circle members are invited to the Inner Circle Summit Summit in March 2022 as well as virtual meetings between July 2021 and June 2022, where they will have a unique opportunity to share strategy and network with Microsoft senior leaders and fellow partners.

This recognition of Inner Circle for Microsoft Business Applications coincided with Microsoft Inspire, the annual premier partner event, which took place July 14-15, 2021. Microsoft Inspire provides the Microsoft partner community with the opportunity to learn about the company’s road map for the upcoming year, establish connections, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations and learn new skills.

“In a year of deep business transformation for every company and every industry on the planet, it is extremely rewarding to be able to recognize Microsoft Business Applications partners from every corner of the world that accelerated our joint customers’ digital transformation and drove unsurpassed customer success,” said Cecilia Flombaum, Microsoft Business Applications Ecosystem Lead. “Our Inner Circle members are chosen based on their business performance as well as capabilities as an organization, whether that’s creating IP, developing solutions, or having an industry leading focus on digital transformation. Microsoft is honored to recognize Ferranti/MECOMS for their achievements this past year, their dedication to our customers, and their innovation around the Microsoft Cloud.”

Tom Van Haute, COO at Ferranti/MECOMS: “By using Microsoft technology as the underlying platform for MECOMS 365, working together with the Microsoft experts and opting for a hybrid cloud solution, we can keep MECOMS future-proof. Receiving the Microsoft Innercircle Award is a confirmation of our expertise and efforts of which we are of course very proud. Our product development team and myself are looking forward to continue the collaboration as an Innercircle member to drive innovation for our MECOMS platform for our customers to enjoy.”

Ferranti is dedicated to supplying valuable solutions that help customers achieve a competitive advantage by working with them to identify the best solutions and services that accommodate their business needs while excelling in customer satisfaction. By collaborating with the teams at Microsoft, Ferranti maintains a strong expertise of the Microsoft platform to provide innovative solutions, strong services and unparalleled value to their customers.

Johan Vandekerckhove, CCO at Ferranti/MECOMS: “We build relationships with our stakeholders, continuously collect their feedback and see how we can adapt to immediate needs in our industry or surfacing innovations that benefit our customers. It is an honor for us to receive the Award for Innercircle Member Microsoft Business Applications. Being part of the Innercircle allows for efficient communication and front row access to trends and innovations in our industry. I would like to thank everyone at MECOMS and Microsoft for our collaboration over the past period and I’m looking forward to continue this the coming years.”

MECOMS is positioned as a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape:

Worldwide Customer Experience Management Solutions for Utilities 2021.

“It shows that the efforts and investments in our product development are bearing fruit and that we have a future proof strategy in place, which obviously benefits our customers in the first place.” Ellen Schrauwen, Operations Manager and MECOMS Product Organization.

We are very proud of the position and recognition that MECOMS receives in the IDC MarketScape. The fact that our customers recognize us for our industry expertise, that’s a credit to our entire MECOMS Family and our network.

This IDC MarketScape provides energy utilities globally with insight into the current capabilities and future strategies of customer experience management (CXM) software vendors, guiding them in their experience enhancement projects or as they plan for an end-to-end CXM solution deployment.

If you need a utility billing system built on a proven enterprise solution delivered by an experienced U.A.E. partner then call Synergy Software Systems 01472885282

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Posted in Dynamics 365, Microsoft, Technology

Dynamics 365 Project Operations

September 13th, 2021

Dynamics 365 Project Operations will soon be one year since GA and more features will come next moth in the Wave 2 update. It is a combination of previous solutions (Project Management and Accounting feature of Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain, Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation, and Microsoft Project) into a single set of user scenarios typical of project-centric businesses.

The long-term approach to the database back-end for Dynamics 365 Project Operations is he Dataverse. (formerly known as the Common Data Service) which consists of foundational, secure data entities to enable standard, mainstream business use cases with reusable business logic.

Project Management and Accounting development work will continue on X++ while Project Service Automation solutions will still be built on the Power Platform.

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Posted in Dynamics 365, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics Ax, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Project Management, Technology

IFRS 17 – compliance accelerator system- ask Synergy Software Systems.

September 1st, 2021

IFRS 17 is the newest IFRS standard for insurance contracts and replaces IFRS 4 on January 1st 2022. It states which insurance contracts items should by on the balance and the profit and loss account of an insurance company, how to measure these items and how to present and disclose this information.

This is a big change for insurance companies and data administration, financial presentation and actuarial calculations will need to change.

Why are IFRS 9 and IFRS 17 implemented together?

The insurance liability (IFRS 17) is always closely connected to the financial instruments (IFRS 9) within insurers.
When a client buys an insurance, the insurance liability is created and with the paid premiums are financial instruments bought.
Insurers want to reduce the volatility in their earnings and there are some choices within IFRS 9 and IFRS 17 which they can make which can impact the volatility.
Under IFRS 17 insurers can decide whether results of changing financial risk assumption go through OCI or through the profit and loss account.
Under IFRS 9 insurers can decide whether changes in equity will go through profit and loss or through OCI.

Both standards will impact earning volatility and hence balance sheet management choices are connected. Consequently, the IFRS board decided it is better that insurers are granted the option to implement both standards together.

IFRS 9 explains the classification and the measurement of financial instruments. Hence IFRS 9 helps to improve the information disclosure around financial instrument. Many perceive the information disclosure around financial instruments during the financial crisis as inaccurate for example impairments on financial instruments were taken too late and the amounts were too little.

IFRS 9 makes the classification of each financial instrument more logical and principle based. There are two questions which need to be answered for the classification:

Why is the company holding the asset; just for collecting the cash flows from the underlying asset, or is the asset also held for trading?
What kind of asset is the financial asset? Is it a derivative, an equity or a debt instrument? With the SPPI (solely payment of principal and interest) model it can be tested whether an instrument is really a debt instrument.

The classification determines:

which accounting principle is used;
should the instrument be measured at fair value or at amortized cost
and whether earnings and losses should go through the profit and loss account or through the OCI (other comprehensive income) account.

IFRS 9 also includes a more dynamic credit loss model instructing when an insurer should take an impairment on financial assets. The model is forward looking thereby also expected future losses should be taken into account with the impairment.

IFRS 9 also makes hedge accounting possibilities more rule based, thereby being in line with how risks are managed within insurers.

Why does this matter?

There is a huge impact on insurers and a big change in the disclosure.

Almost all of the asset and liability side is hit by the combination of IFRS 9 and IFRS 17.
New concepts and terms are introduced.
The standards will impact the presented numbers. Under IFRS 17 the insurance liability needs to be based on updated assumptions which is not currently a requirement. .
More data with more granularity and more history will challenge internal data storage, reporting and IT performance.
Reporting timelines are shortened, which will challenge the systems, and the cooperation between different departments.
New components like the unbiased Cash Flows, Risk Adjustment, Discount Rate and CSM are introduced. This means the insurer needs to understand the IFRS 17 principles and decide how to implement IFRS 17. For example which measurement model to choose for an insurance product, which transition measure to user. Read here more about the IFRS 17 model, and here about the transition period.
In the balance and income statement, insurance liability will n be specified in a different way, the importance of gross written premiums will disappear, while equity will be impacted.
The presentation of the balance and P&L are also significantly affected.
Risk engines are needed to calculate the CSM and cope with all the different groups
Insurers need to disclose information bases on group of contracts.
A group is a managed group (often a product) of contracts which were all profitable, onerous, or may become onerous (decided at inception) with a certain inception year. Insurance companies can have hundreds of groups and IFRS 17 insists on this grouping to have more transparency as insurance companies cannot offset the result of one group to another

Synergy Software Systems has been implementing and supporting financial solutions in the insurance vertical for 25 years. If you need to rapidly implement a solution for IFRS 17 compliance that will sit alongside your existing erp and finance systems then call us on 0097143365589.

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Posted in Business Central, Corporate Perfomance Management, Dynamics 365, Healthcare, Infor Financial solutions, Microsoft Dynamics Ax, Project Management, Security and Compliance, Technology

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations

August 25th, 2021

Today’s project-based services businesses operate in a highly competitive market, where winning new deals, accelerating project delivery, and increasing profit margins are significant challenges. Teams within these organizations are using disconnected systems for sales, project management, collaboration, and financials when success in this highly competitive environment requires unifying teams around actionable data.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations connects sales, resourcing, project management, and finance teams in a single application to win more deals, accelerate project delivery, and maximize profitability.

Leaders get business insights to increase visibility across all teams, data, and processes, plus AI capabilities for better and faster business decisions.
Sales is enabled to win more deals and accelerate the sales cycle with fast and accurate quotes, flexible pricing, and seamless transitions from estimate to execution.
Resourcing is set up to optimize resource use by aligning the right people, with the right skills, to the right projects. This alignment improves quality and helps to retain top performers.
Project managers can accelerate project delivery with state-of-the-art, built-in project management that uses familiar, easy-to-use Microsoft Project capabilities.
Team members can improve productivity, collaboration, and visibility with integration to Microsoft Teams, and submit time and expenses from anywhere.
Finance can simplify project accounting with time and expense tracking governance, project costing, budgeting, invoicing, revenue recognition, compliance, and visibility into key business health metrics.

Project Operations is powerful on its own, but can be expanded by our customers who require more capabilities from Dynamics 365. These capabilities include Marketing, Human Resources, Customer Service, and more.

Whether you want the added functionality of another Dynamics 365 application or to add on a custom application built with Power Apps, everything works together and works like you expect because they share the common foundation of a secure, private, and compliant cloud-delivered solution.

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Posted in Dynamics 365, Microsoft, Project Management, Technology

August 24th, 2021

A bungled data migration of a network drive caused the deletion of 22 terabytes of information from Dallas Police Department police force’s systems – included case files in a murder trial,during a data migration exercise carried out at the end of the 2020-21 financial year

“On August 6, 2021, the Dallas Police Department (DPD) and City of Dallas Information and Technology Services Department (ITS) informed the administration of this Office that in April 2021, the City discovered that multiple terabytes of DPD data had been deleted during a data migration of a DPD network drive,” said a statement [PDF] from the Dallas County prosecutor’s office.

14TB were recovered, presumably from backups, but “approximately 8 Terabytes remain missing and are believed to be unrecoverable.”

The Home Office initially issued a statement saying the data loss was down to a “technical issue”, which had been resolved, There must have been some technical resolution because the Home Office later said it was not a technical issue after all, and in fact a “housekeeping error” with Home Secretary Priti Patel saying: “Home Office engineers continue to work to restore data lost as a result of human error during a routine housekeeping process earlier this week.”

In a letter published by The Guardian, National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) deputy chief constable Naveed Malik, lead for the organisation on the Police National Computer (PNC), said approximately 213,000 offence records, 175,000 arrest records and 15,000 person records had potentially been deleted in error. The DNA database connected to the PNC saw 26,000 records corresponding to 21,710 subjects potentially deleted in error, “including records previously marked for indefinite retention following conviction of serious offences”. The letter also said 30,000 fingerprint records and 600 subject records may have been deleted in error.

The PNC dates back to the 1970s. The current iteration is a Fujitsu BS2000/OSD SE700-30 mainframe based in a Hendon data centre, running Software AG’s natural programming language-using ADABAS database. The UK’s territorial and regional police forces, Serious Fraud Office, Security and Secret Intelligence Services (MI5, MI6), HM Revenue & Customs, and the National Crime Agency all make use of it. They have controlled and 24-hour access from remote terminals and through local police force systems.

These incidents highlight the importance of backups and backup and recovery processes. How often do you test whether you can restore your back ups? Does this still work for restoring older back ups when you upgrade? Has a move to the cloud changed the retention of your back ups, the frequency of upgrades, or the ease or time for restore?

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Posted in Business Central, Corporate Perfomance Management, Dynamics 365, HR and Payroll, Infor Financial solutions, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics Ax, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Project Management, Security and Compliance, SharePoint and EPM, SQL, Sunsystems and Vision, Teams collaboration remote access, Technology

Windows Server 2022

August 23rd, 2021

Microsoft quietly rolled out Windows Server 2022 earlier this week . According to this Windows Server 2022 lifecycle support page, Windows Server 2022 reached general availability on Aug. 18.

The Visual Studio Subscriptions download page for developers lists the availability of “Windows Server 2022 Languages and Optional Features.” However, the full product bits didn’t appear to be there on release day.

Announcement Date Speculation
Microsoft, remarkably, has not given public notice about the commercial product release of its latest Windows Server product. Some speculate that Microsoft is waiting till Sept. 1 to announce Windows Server 2022’s commercial release, when Microsoft’s product terms may be available:

Microsoft’s product terms publications, which list updated pricing for its products, typically arrive on the first of the month. Microsoft’s typically announces a product GA before the product terms are published, which essentially means that the product is announced, but you can’t buy it until the first of the month.

Microsoft announced earlier this week that it is planning to hold an online Windows Server Summit event on Sept. 16, which is a public event but requires registration to attend. That Sept. 16 date also could be the target announce date Microsoft intends.

Windows Server 2022 was at the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) stage back in June. However, it was also called a “preview” at that time. It was an odd description, since “RTM” is old Microsoft nomenclature for finished software bits that undergo testing by original equipment manufacturers prior to a final product release. In other words, RTMs aren’t previews.

Windows Server 2022 Editions and Features
Microsoft is planning to release a Standard edition, a Datacenter edition and a Datacenter Azure edition of Windows Server 2022, with Core and Desktop installation options. The products will get updated via the long-term servicing channel release model (Microsoft has dropped the semiannual channel update option (for all supported Window Server products.)

Windows Server 2022 has some notable new features. On the security side, it has Secured Core boot protection, TLS 1.3 protocol use by default and Domain Name System over HTTPS encryption. Communications will be better protected from viewing with Server Message Block (SMB) over QUIC capability. The server also will have SMB compression for speedier file access.