Why is Microsoft not a part of MAANG?
I was looking for some light weekend reading when my interest got piqued by an article that spoke about MAANG stocks. I’m usually not much into acronyms like these, but being someone who re-entered the technology field after 14 years, this MAANG thing got me hooked. So, I got to the bottom of this phenomenon. MAANG stands for Meta, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google—five of the world’s most influential technology companies. Previously known as FAANG (when Facebook was the ‘F’), the acronym updated to MAANG after Facebook rebranded to Meta in 2021. These companies are renowned for innovation, high salaries, and competitive hiring. But you might notice one major tech giant missing: Microsoft. Here’s why Microsoft isn’t part of MAANG, despite its massive market cap and industry influence. You might wonder why companies like Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, or Adobe are not on this list. Microsoft is larger than Google, Amazon, and Meta in market capitalization, and its stock prices are higher than Apple’s. Still, it doesn’t make it into the club. Why? The answer is simply that they are not considered “cool.” Yeah, you heard right. The cool kids want to work at MAANG companies because they are “cool” places to work. In contrast, the whole craze of working for big tech does not fit in with the image of Microsoft and its likes, who are seen as serious organizations. Is it though? At Microsoft, it is serious work to make businesses perform better. It spoke of a partner-centric business approach Satya Nadela resonated when he said, “You join here, not to be cool, but to make others cool.” So, no theatrics like Elon Musk, no announcing cool features of new gadgets in front of frantic crowds, and no cult of futurist customers who behave like religious extremists. Only stay calm and develop solutions for business challenges. One might think that this whole enterprise software industry is somewhat dull. Is it? Not really. The enterprise solutions industry is a thriving, growing, vibrant sector of its own. We are seeing more and more brands jumping into this segment. There’s stiff competition brewing. Top players in enterprise software are giving extremely lucrative career options to young techies. There are revolutionary innovations for enterprise tech, which are often not celebrated as they do it over at MAANG. If you say those innovations pertain to a particular community of business users and are not for the direct consumer, you might be wrong. Today enterprise products directly impact the individual consumer because you must consider that any consumer is, after all, an employee or a customer of some business. Even if enterprise products are primarily seen as B2B because the purchase decision is taken by the organization and not the individual, ultimately, it is the end-user who benefits. With a growing focus on improving customer experience and employee experience, these enterprise-level purchase decisions are increasingly influenced by individuals. Consequently, the awareness of enterprise products among the end users has also increased. I recently did a quick poll on enterprise tech brands, asking people which of the 4 (Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and Salesforce) they thought was most desirable. It turned out that quite a lot of people had opinions about it. 50% of respondents voted for Microsoft, 21% for Salesforce, and 14% each for Oracle and Salesforce. While most of the respondents are in some way working with technologies from these companies, they prefer these tech brands in the context of enterprise solutions. In the future, I will do a more detailed study to figure out the motivations behind their preference. There is a major push for enterprise tech adoption in the context of digital transformation. It’s the buzzword! How to improve customer engagement? How to improve productivity? How to get insights from the business functions? These are age-old questions asked by enterprises. Yes, theoretically, things like process improvement and customer analysis have been academic subjects for a long time. Management studies always dealt with concepts of customer psychology and operational excellence but getting any practical outcome used to be a bastion for mostly large corporates who could indulge big consultancy firms in conducting training and surveys. Besides, software implementation used to be way expensive and time-consuming for small and medium enterprises. Now, even SMBs are taking a keen interest in modern enterprise software as implementing them has become more affordable. It seems like there might be a misunderstanding. The acronym “MAANG” typically refers to the group of technology companies known as FAANG, which stands for Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. Microsoft is not included in the original FAANG grouping, but it is often considered in a broader category of major technology companies. Some variations of the acronym include “FAAMG,” where Microsoft is included alongside the original FAANG companies. However, the specific grouping may vary depending on the context or source. Enterprise technologies have always been a reliable business for Microsoft. With the capabilities exhibited by enterprise-class low-code application platforms (LCAPs) like Dynamics 365 and Power Platforms, this market is becoming the most extensive area of competition. Even core sector industrial companies and OEMs have joined this race and are pushing more Enterprise LCAPs in the market. Google, Amazon, and Apple have their own enterprise software suits. So many regional and sector-specific players in this arena are doing quite well as SAAS-based platforms. It is estimated that by 2027 about 70% of all enterprise solutions used by companies will be based on low-code technologies. For a perspective, the global enterprise software market is about USD 236 Bn, while it is expected to grow to USD 348 Bn by 2028. In comparison, the global OTT market is at USD 45 Bn and is estimated to reach a little over USD 123 Bn by 2028. The marvels of innovation in enterprise software are understated and can go unnoticed. Take, for instance, the recent launch of Microsoft Syntex. Did you hear about it? Perhaps not. It’s a next-generation content AI which could revolutionize document management. Now, when
Managing field workforces from home
Field workforce management is integral to the success and business continuity of the utility industry and is a growing part of the service industry. The overarching goal of field workforce management is to ensure that people are in the right place at the right time with the right information. Current practices in the industry are manual, disconnected, and missing customer expectations. Organizations need to change the way their field workforce is managed and operated. Field services teams are an integral and critical component for an organization to drive business growth and develop superb customer service best practices. In order to help field services team, reach their full potential, they need to be armed with cutting-edge technological resources. This will allow them to better meet customer demand and manage these distinct customer channels on one unified platform and this can all be managed in a remote setting. With the growth of tools such as mobile phones and tablets, technicians can work from anywhere. This provides an opportunity for companies to reduce costs while increasing productivity. However, managing this workforce requires remote requires careful planning and control through trusted enterprise tools and services. Although managing field service firms presents its own set of issues and is increasingly complex and costly. One of the biggest issues service companies faces is effectively managing their field employees as they may struggle with field management such as remote asset maintenance and repair issues, the loss of critical knowledge from seasoned to newer technicians, and building trust across the organization to create a transparent and unified field force. Some of the common issues organizations face with field service management are – Keeping track of the field technicians’ output Field superintendent views are limited, making it harder to track the production and efficiency of field workers. The majority of the time, there is either a gap in the assigned jobs completed or jobs submitted to service managers on time. As a result of this discrepancy, managers have difficulty understanding the productivity and performance of field technicians and scheduling intervention in the event of a work reschedule required. Want information about our field service management solutions? Click here. Other issues, such as “how productive technicians are,” “how long did he take to complete the work,” “how courteous was he with the client,” “when did he check in or check out from the job,” and so on, are not addressed. Scheduling jobs for field servicemen Scheduling jobs for field technicians is another difficult task that a Field Superintendent encounters. It goes without saying that evenly allocating field jobs can be a nightmare for field superintendents. Furthermore, task scheduling necessitates precision to ensure that a job is assigned to the most qualified specialist who is familiar with the job and proficient in its execution. That implies the manager must distribute jobs based on expertise while also considering considerations such as technician availability, proximity to the project site, and so on. In brief, the scheduler must manually handle a variety of aspects while limiting risk in the event that the team is large. This means that scheduling every single technician’s workday before they arrive on site can take up hours of valuable time when dealing with large amounts of data collection equipment being hauled around town each day! Hassle-free communication with field technicians Real-time information unavailability is one of the leading causes of poor field efficiency and productivity. Field technicians cannot constantly connect with the back office and ask for information or cannot move from one location to another searching for information. Field technicians need ready access to the customer database via the field service management app on their phones or personal devices for real-time access to data such as warranty and guarantee, service history, inventory details, and so on is feasible, increasing efficiency. Overcoming field service management challenges To overcome the challenges elaborated above, organizations need to move to an automated field management solution that will help connect the field technician and office together more efficiently. With the procurement of automated field management software such as Dynamics 365 Field Service, organizations can benefit in many ways stated below: – Field superintendents and technicians can connect them in real-time using the field management platform technology to identify and track jobs, routes, time, and feedback, among other things. Also, can benefit from this in several ways, as the software helps to track and monitor the field serviceman’s performance and assist the field serviceman in reporting his tasks on time. Scheduling for field technicians is a complex process because there are so many factors that play into such as“how long it takes and what type of equipment needs to be used during each appointment” the availability hours, and the expertise required to execute the job, etc. Field service management solution AI-based model determines the equipment required along with the field technician’s availability by taking into account several factors such as his current schedules, scanning skillsets from a workforce data source, and pairing the proper technician to a certain job thus making the scheduling and rescheduling of job easy and automated. It also uses GPS to track the technicians’ locations so that the appropriate field technician may be found nearby depending on the work requirements. Field workforce management solutions establish an automated platform for standardized communication flow, giving field superintendents a conduit to connect with technicians in the field in the event of a crisis. In general, Field solutions can send field technicians automated messages concerning schedule changes, plan changes, inventory data, client specifications, and so on, keeping technicians aware of the latest information and planning the work & routes accordingly. One single view of market, territory, and field technicians working on the job is an unmatched benefit offered by Dynamics Field Service solution that makes it very easy for the field superintendents & schedulers to manage, plan, and shuffle the jobs. Want information about our field service management solutions? Click here. Conclusion The benefits of using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service to manage
Six steps to a successful ERP implementation
An enterprise resource planning or ERP implementation solution offers significant benefits, especially in today’s mobile-savvy marketplace & complex business processes. If your corporation needs a software suite to manage its financial, human resources, supply chain, and other business operations, a centralized and integrated comprehensive business management system like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central may be the useful and advantageous choice to go to. Dynamics 365 ERP enables your organization to access a shared database on any device reliably and offers easy customization, reduced technical costs, and improved productivity. However, there are a few key phrases in the ERP adoption process, each with its own objectives. These phases could be distinct or overlap, depending on the specific requirements of the company. Successful ERP implementation & upgradation of new business processes Phases of an ERP implementation plan – A typical ERP implementation life cycle includes six stages starting from discovery and planning, design, development, testing, and deployment to support and updates. Phase 1: Discovery and planning ERP offers comprehensive solutions to a wide range of business problems. It’s important to determine the true reason for putting ERP into place for your company, though. Your ERP implementation partner assesses your existing systems and procedures to identify the requirements, project scope, milestones, and modifications required. Once your vision and requirements are identified, the implementation partner will prepare the project plan. Want information about our ERP solutions? Consult with our experts As per the study by Panorama, 61.1% of ERP implementations take longer than expected and 74.1% of ERP projects exceed the budget. Although the primary cause of delay and overbudgeting is unclear definitions of ERP implementation. The ERP features must be evaluated in accordance with the barometer of synchronization within the needs of the company. The ERP demand list should be created in accordance with the budget and fundamental requirements to ensure a seamless and obstacle-free ERP deployment. Phase 2: Design phase ERP deployment includes several goals, including improving financial control, supporting organic growth, mergers, and acquisitions, as well as other typical procedures. The team will work on the specific criteria here in order to create the precise design of the new ERP system that your business needs. This entails creating a new, more effective business procedure and workflow. Since they have the most detailed knowledge of the current business process, users must be involved in the design of the new workflow. Additionally, it will also ensure that they will accept and use the new ERP solution. Phase 3: Development The development teams put up the standard solution using agreed-upon configurations and customizations of the ERP solution to support the newly specified process after they had clear design requirements. ERP software is designed after a significant amount of research and according to the needs of the specific industry. In some cases, there may be no need for customization. Additionally, the development phase also entails creating integrations with other work management and business productivity tools that ERP systems won’t be able to replace. Phase 4: Testing Testing is an important phase of the implementation process, which takes care of system and user acceptance testing. In many cases, testing and development can occur concurrently. For instance, the team may test-specific modules and features while implementing fixes and adjustments based on test results or may test one module while the other is in development. Sometimes this phase also includes beta testing, where some employees test the system for their day-to-day activities. This process ensures the ERP solution meets the requirements and is ready for deployment. During the pilot testing, management must evaluate the realization of the value of the system against the desired value of the company. After the successful testing and ensuring the ERP readiness for deployment, data migration activity should be performed before go-live. Under this process, the data from the old system is mapped to the new ERP. To ensure a smooth transition and future use of the software, only the most essential data should be transferred, and great care should be taken to ensure the data will be retrieved from the software whenever required. Training is also the most important aspect of the ERP software implementation process. It ensures there are fewer issues and more success, especially when ERP is implemented for the first time in the company or when the platform is changed from one ERP solution to another. Phase 5: Deployment This is the phase you’ve been striving toward: the go-live date! This is the day when you can officially get started with your new ERP software. Be ready for problems because, despite your best attempts to prepare for them, there may be many moving pieces and confused staff. Your ERP implementation partner will give your staff the necessary instructions and directions to comprehend the system, and they’ll be on hand to respond to inquiries and try to resolve any problems. The majority of data will be moved in the development and test phase. However, other information such as current open transactions should be transferred immediately before it goes live. Phase 6: Support and updates As you become more accustomed to the software, you might need help to create a plan to scale up your ERP solution along with your business. After deployment, your ERP partner will help to keep you satisfied and ensure your business achieves the desired benefits. During this phase, your implementation team may still be in charge of the ERP solutions, but they will now be more concerned with gathering feedback and making necessary adjustments to the system. Some organizations aim to focus on specific high-priority modules or processes and add others later, thus, some additional development and configuration will be integrated into the system later whenever needed. Implementing an ERP solution is a big investment decision by the company involving a large number of resources, therefore, management must continuously maintain tabs on the ERP software and maintenance schedule. Bottom line – Successful implementation of ERP software requires a significant amount of time and effort. The
Microsoft Power Apps solutions to energize your business
In today’s digital era, running a business has become quite simple. With ever-expanding digital connectivity, businesses of all industries have gained advantages in streamlining their business operations with business processes automation tools like Microsoft Power Apps. Microsoft Power Apps offers a plethora of benefits. In today’s blog, we’ll learn about Microsoft Power Platform, one of the business process automation solutions, and know how these solutions help organizations transform their day-to-day business processes and operations. What is Microsoft Power Platform? Microsoft power platform is a suite of business applications that combines the power of Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents to help organizations transform their business operations. This suite allows business managers to analyze data, deliver personalization, develop better applications and automate various processes regardless of technical expertise. The Core Components of Microsoft Power Platform – Microsoft Power Platform is composed of four primary business applications, that are – Microsoft Power BI: Power BI is a business analytics service that offers interactive visualizations and business intelligence capabilities with a simple interface, enabling users to highly-personalized and informative reports on the dashboard. It allows organizations to make smarter, informed business decisions by putting real-time data-driven insights into everyone’s hands. Microsoft Power Automate: Microsoft Power Automate is a workflow automation service that you can use to automate repetitive tasks to bring efficiencies to your organization. It offers low-code, drag-and-drop tools and hundreds of pre-built connectors and templates to automate repetitive, mundane tasks with ease. Expand your automation capabilities across desktop, web, and mobile with Power Automate apps. With Power Automate, you can create automated workflows between your favorite apps and services to synchronize files, get notifications, collect data, approve requests, and more with a no-code approach. With the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) capability of Power Automate, you can easily turn manual tasks into automated workflows with legacy systems that don’t support API-based automation as well. Microsoft Power Virtual Agents: Power Virtual Agents is an intuitive and graphical chatbot development platform that allows you to create powerful AI-driven intelligent chatbots that can answer questions posed by your customers, other employees, or visitors to your website or service. This is a no to low code business application platform that comes with hundreds of pre-built connectors which enable quick integration. with products and services without the need for data science expertise and development. Microsoft Power Apps: Microsoft Power Apps is a no-code business app development platform that allows you to build easy-to-use, mobile-friendly enterprise applications. It is a suite of apps, services, connectors, and data platforms that provides a low-code/no-code development environment in the form of Platform as a Service (PaaS) to build custom apps for your business needs. These are the four primary components of the Microsoft Power Platform. In this blog, we’ll be introducing you to Microsoft Power Apps and its benefits. Microsoft Power Apps – Low code/no-code automation tool for business It’s no secret that every modern profitable business relies upon information technology to achieve success. With Microsoft Power Apps, empower your teams to easily and rapidly build low-code custom apps that automate processes, and make your company more agile. Let’s explore, how the Power Apps solution is advantageous for you – Fundamental Benefits of Microsoft Power Apps – Get started building a professional app quickly Power Apps is a powerful tool that empowers organizations to create their own apps and solutions. Power apps allow organizations to create apps and APIs, which provide a user-friendly method for performing their daily tasks. Integrate with your existing Microsoft services: One of the most significant advantages of investing in a Microsoft Power Apps solution is, that you can connect Power Apps across the entire Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft 365, Teams, Dynamics 365, Azure, and hundreds of other apps that allow you to use make strategic use of the data provided by other Microsoft services. No need to learn to code: One of the unique benefits of this platform is no-code business app development. This custom web app development platform doesn’t require the knowledge and skills of deep programming, which means business managers can build an app even without technical experience. Power Apps solutions are composed of pre-built “components” that are templates of automated workplace processes. By using these components, they can build custom applications that meet the individual needs of their businesses. Business process automation: As part of the Microsoft Power Platform, Power Apps can access Microsoft Power Automate, which enables organizations to add automation to several activities like – notifications, approvals, documents or record routing, etc. in their business apps. Optimize customer engagement and interactions: Customers are the lifeline of every business’s profits. If you can’t attract and maintain customer engagement, they won’t offer you long-term profits. A custom Power Apps solution can be of significant value. The technology optimizes your company’s IT solutions and offers more usable mobile apps for consumers, serving the need of your consumers just as much as the needs of your employees. Resulting in customers enjoying their experience of interacting with your business. Boost your brand reputation: When your customers do engage with your new custom power app, they will likely recommend your business to their friends and family members. Thus, investing in successful Power Apps solutions may improve your brand’s overall reputation. Wrapping Up – Now you know how Microsoft Power Apps solutions could benefit your business. You can recognize the need for custom mobile apps to streamline your business operations. Although it’s important to note that there’s actually quite a learning curve for the non-tech organizations who want to build their own apps, thus, it’s a good choice to work with Microsoft Partner to design and build your Power Apps solutions. Connect with our industry experts and ensure your organization develops the custom app it actually needs. Differentiate your Power Apps practice with an advanced specialization in Low Code Application Development. Kamal Kant Paliwal Kamal is a Principal at Advaiya, where he has worked with clients in an array of industries in areas such as complex systems delivery, infrastructure services, security, architecture, and IT strategy. Earlier in his career at Advaiya, he has played key roles as Technical Consultant, Architect,
Need for digital transformation in the services business
Digital transformation isn’t just a buzzword; it has become a core concept for most business models. Going much beyond the data centers, now organizations are investing more in digitizing their operations to achieve business resilience. And service-focused businesses are not behind. As the world’s economy has modernized, it’s now dominated by service-centric enterprises; thus, the need for digital solutions for services businesses to achieve technological integration in their current business model has also become a necessity. The key characteristic of service-based businesses is that their offerings and their products are direct results of people working on specific tasks, often directly attributable to a customer ask. This poses specific challenges for services businesses—from managing work that its employees do to ensuring that the myriad interactions with customers. Thus there are specific digital interventions that are quite relevant for such services businesses. What kind of digital solutions for services businesses can make them more efficient, productive, and profitable? Following are a few digital solutions that different kinds of services businesses need – For example, a construction or project services-based industry will benefit greatly from implementing project and portfolio management applications; and all industries would need analytics for better decision making and customer engagement solutions such as CRM and ERP for delivering a better experience and enhancing productivity. As a service organization, to embark on the digital transformation journey, you need at least one of these solutions – 1. Project and portfolio management for work productivity: With the rapid transformation seen in the service industries, clients’ expectations have also been raised to seek high-quality service at a lower price. Project portfolio management helps organizations prioritize and streamline their projects, which improves productivity, and allows employees to utilize their skills and company resources more efficiently, leading to high-quality service at low prices. Read more: Project and portfolio management solution to improve work productivity 2. Analytics for better insights into the critical operations: Data and analytics are revolutionizing the way of making business-related decisions. Numerous studies have shown that data-driven organizations not just make better business decisions but also allow them to achieve high operational efficiency, improved customer satisfaction, and robust revenue. According to a study from McKinsey Global Institute, data-driven companies are 23x more likely to acquire customers, 6x more likely to retain customers, and 19 times more profitable. Still, many managers often rely on rules of thumb or fundamental data analysis to make decisions that typically involve complex tradeoffs. However, today’s leaders believe in applying advanced analytics techniques to make better-informed decisions for more optimized results. Read more: Business analytics for better insights into critical operations 3. Customer relationship management for multiplying the sales: Nowadays, the majority of customers are linked and empowered by digital tools. They are connected with the digital world everywhere, from the workplace to home. As a result, they expect businesses to be more flexible to cater to their needs and wants with just one click. Customer relationship management solutions deliver high-value and better customer engagement by leveraging technology to understand customer insights effectively and engage more with them, resulting in improved customer service, more customer satisfaction, and increased customer retention, which leads to enhanced overall sales. Final thoughts: Technology will continue to evolve, causing many changes in business operations, so organizations need to step forward with the technology; they need to accept these changes and utilize them. And using the above digital transformation solutions offers a plethora of benefits, not just for service-centric industries but for every small to enterprise-level business. We’ll elaborate on the above topics in our upcoming series of blogs. So to get detailed information about how PPM, business analytics, and CRM are changing the way of doing business, stay tuned with us! Ruchika Godha Ruchika is Advaiya’s Chief Operating Officer, responsible for managing the company’s business operations, executing business strategy, and ensuring operational excellence company-wide. Ruchika is also responsible for overall brand development and marketing initiatives. In addition to that, she leads the employee effectiveness team at Advaiya working across the company to establish and execute strategies for talent acquisition, performance management, and compensation schemes. Prior to becoming COO in April 2015, Ruchika was Executive Director of Advaiya’s human resource department, a position she held since 2006. In this role, she was instrumental in driving operational excellence through employee efficiency and effectiveness. Earlier in her career, she acquired over 16 years of experience working across aviation, textiles, engineering, and technology companies. Ruchika attended the International Institute of Professional Studies, where she received her Master’s in Management Science with HRD as the subject of specialization, and received her diploma in HRD from the Academy of Human Resource Department.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 – Getting started with ribbon workbench
While using Dynamics 365 CRM, have you ever come across a situation where you are re-entering the same data on different locations or forms? If yes, then you are in the right place; let’s get your problem solved. In our blog, we will get you through the detailed process by which you can pass parameters & data from one form to another form using a single button click, with the addition of JavaScript on the ribbon workbench button’s command. Let’s look at a quick example of how you can do so. Follow the steps below: Open ribbon workbench. Select the solution that contains the source entity. 3. Add a new command of type Actions. Under that, add JavaScript Action. 4. Add a JavaScript action and call OpenDestinationEntityForm function, which is available in existing JS web resources 5.Now, add the ribbon button and fill in the necessary details. Also, link the command to the button. 6. Publish the changes. 7.Once done, navigate to the account and click the button to view the alert. Congratulations, you have successfully passed parameters from one form to another form using the ribbon button with customized ribbon workbench. If you are planning to customize Dynamics CRM or create custom workflows, business rules, plug-ins, ribbon workbench customization, etc., get in touch with our team of experts or add your comments below in case of query.
4 best ways to process BI reports
BI reporting is referred to the process of providing information or reports to end -users through a BI solution. Business intelligence reporting can give any organization complete control over all its data, helping to drive more valuable insights and empower employees to meet and even exceed their goals. Here is what BI reporting can do for you: It makes data analysis fast, accessible, and hassle-free. BI reporting platforms are extremely easy to use. You can build dynamic charts, graphs, custom dashboards and generate reports in a matter of minutes. Within the copious amounts of data, you can find the answers you need immediately. For example, Microsoft’s Power BI provides natural language query. Just type in a natural question and watch Power BI produce the exact data you asked for. Some of the best BI reporting tools enable you to take your data on the road. The Power BI mobile app gives you access to all your analytics wherever you go. It increases collaboration across the board. BI reporting platform helps you bring all your data under one roof. This ensures everyone can finally work together on the same data and changes are reflected in real-time. Allows you to share your data insights intelligently. Unlike manual reporting, BI reporting enables flexible controls that let you send the exact data you want to the exact people you want in the exact way you want. The most up-to-date analytics anywhere. Only BI reporting can give you real-time data analysis, ensuring your employees are never left behind. It lets you manage all your data with ease. BI reporting allows you to curate your content with accuracy. You can easily control access permissions per user, data source, or even individual lines on a report. It also enables you to build a holistic data governance strategy. You can create a data management plan in line with your organization with auditing controls. Stop worrying about your data’s security. With more data controls, as well as secure infrastructure provided by BI platforms these days, you can rest easy. Want information about our BI reports and dashboards solutions? Click here It saves you both money and time. Look for platforms that offer value for every buck you spend. One of which we can confidently talk about is Microsoft’s Power BI. The competition can’t touch its value. No other product offers as much power for as little price as Power BI. Don’t get distracted by data spikes. BI reporting platforms will also automatically manage unexpectedly high data loads for you. Microsoft Power BI can give your organization insights that will drive its future growth and has all the above-mentioned features. If you want to learn more about it, try taking a guided learning experience through all its features or sign up for a free demo. Now get out there and go convince your boss! Romi Mahajan I’m an accidental marketer. My skills are in building deep relationships, seeing markets before they burgeon, and in applying socio-political concepts to business. I have 3 pillars on which I pursue opportunities: People, Impact, and Autonomy.
Reading Circle: Managing Uncertainty
One of the core values of Advaiya is having a growth mindset—always be learning, always be improving. And with that sentiment, every Friday, we have knowledge sharing sessions, such as “Building Presence Voicing Thoughts”, project showcase or reading circle session. This week, we had a really interesting and relatable topic in our reading circle on ‘Managing Uncertainty,’ moderated by our practice director Virendra Sharma. referencing the article Strategy under uncertainty by McKinney. The session started with identifying the need to have a strategic direction towards managing uncertainty. Virendra explained how precise prediction is required in the traditional approach to strategy. Neglection of ambiguity can be by assisting with a four-level system. This four-level system consists of a clear enough future, alternative futures, a range of futures and true ambiguity. The four levels brought a lot of real-life incidents, case studies and situations shared by the individuals. The methodology that we outlined in our reading session provides the discipline to think scrupulously and critically about the system’s complexity. This discipline allows organizations to choose which analytical methods can help make decisions at variable degrees of uncertainty. It helps to create an organization adaptable and agile towards upcoming dangers. We also discussed about some practical tactics which would allow us to manage uncertainties in our personal and professional lives, especially in the light of COVID-19 pandemic and the rapidly changing technology tapestry. Some key takeaways were to always be learning, be agile and develop the ability to critically evaluate the situation and deal with it.
Moving to Microsoft Dynamics 365 in 2021
As organizations will undoubtedly be looking for ways to increase efficiencies, lower costs, and improve productivity for 2021, one of those initiatives to consider should be Microsoft Dynamics 365. Over the years, many businesses have purchased CRM and/or ERP systems to manage their business operations, while others are still relying on spreadsheets and word documents. With Dynamics 365, businesses can manage, drive, simplify, optimize and streamline their business processes much more efficiently, while enabling a true vision for digital transformation to come alive. Dynamics 365 also allows a company to break down silos, connect disparate systems, integrate stand-alone apps and consolidate them as one unified, intelligent suite. Ask yourself the following questions: Did your business face productivity challenges either before or during the lockdown? Are you spending too much time and too many resources collecting data from all of your various systems to try to get a clear picture of your business? Are you using multiple applications to manage your different business processes? Are some in the cloud while others remain on site? Do you spend a lot of time collecting and organizing customer and sales data? Does your company have spreadsheets and other documents that are used to track and manage tasks and activities? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions you could be an ideal candidate for Dynamics 365. People who use documents, spreadsheets and multiple versions of business productivity software to manage their business have a big challenge on their hands. For example, let’s consider a company that uses a CRM and a ERP system to oversee its business. With CRM, you could create a customized a view of all your related information such as marketing, sales, customers and service offerings. And with your ERP you could monitor HR, commerce, projects, inventory, accounting, finance, and supply chain. Okay, these traditional methods sound good so far. Ask yourself the following questions: First, these are isolated systems that operate with disconnected business code and logic. Second, these platforms are complex, slow, cumbersome, and very expensive to deploy and integrate — especially if they are not cloud based. Third, they are also difficult and costly to operate, maintain and update. The good news is that Dynamics 365 accounts for all these challenges as it eliminates complexities and unifies disparate systems. It eliminates the need to operate and maintain all of these local systems individually and it removes the challenge of trying to get a holistic view of all your business data. Instead of living in a world that is spread out throughout your business in various documents, calendars, different contact lists, schedules, emails, forecasts, inventory, and so much more, why not take advantage of enterprise-grade-level, cloud technology? If price is your concern, these world-class technologies are quite affordable nowadays. Dynamics 365 can bring together and unify your CRM and ERP systems and their respective capabilities. This will enable you to streamline your business, break down silos, connect intelligent services, join business apps, establish a digital transformation roadmap and reduce costs for deployment, upgrades and maintenance. You’ll achieve a 360-degree view of your operations as all of your business data flows seamlessly within one platform and across your enterprise – it uses a common database so that all entities and data are tightly connected. Next, let’s consider the cloud. With Dynamics 365, you can take advantage of one central cloud-based, intelligent business app that is all-in-one. The SaaS model (Software as a Service), is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses to take advantage of an enterprise-grade technology that has traditionally been cost prohibitive to them and enjoyed exclusively by larger-sized organizations. With SAAS, strategies, people, processes, systems, apps and data are tied together. And you pay for only what you use with the “pay-as-you-go” model. In summary, this becomes your business management solution to run your entire ecosystem and with the cloud, you could provide approved users access at any time from any location. Another advantage of Dynamics 365 is that it provides extensibility with Microsoft Power Platform to extend its capabilities and functionality even further; specifically: Microsoft Power Apps is a low code app that helps you modernize your processes. You can integrate third-party apps right inside Dynamics 365. Microsoft Power Automate provides digitization and robotic process automation of workflow to eliminate repetitive and manual tasks. Microsoft Power BI enables you to receive real-time analytics, easy-to-understand visualizations, infographics, dashboards and reports that can be shared with all business levels to make informed decisions. Microsoft Power Virtual Agents allows you to utilize plug and play virtual chat bots so that you can address internal and external customer needs. One of the issues that companies often ask about is security. What’s great about Dynamics 365 is that it’s all unified so that an administrator only needs a single sign on to access. It has a full security model that restricts non access once inside. For example, someone from shipping viewing delivery information would not have access to HR records. Dynamics 365 also has multi-level approvals that can be defined within the system to enable approval at every appropriate stage – this is also supported by email notification. Another advantage of Dynamics 365 is that you can start small and grow as desired. For instance, you could start by utilizing the technology to only manage your field service operations, your projects, or your marketing effort. With the new year upon us, this could be the right time to consider this powerful business management solution. With the flexibility to start small and scale, and with the advantages as outlined such as lower costs, unification, and ease of use, why not? Also Introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations for project or service-oriented businesses How to create Quick Email Campaigns with Microsoft Dynamics CRM? Kirti Sethiya Kirti Sethiya is a Microsoft-certified business applications consultant at Advaiya. Kirti has been involved in a wide array of tailored digital transformation projects over the years. Contact us by filling the form below for Microsoft Dynamics 365