Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance Premium Announcement
Summary On January 1, 2024, Microsoft will release a new SKU for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance that empowers people with advanced business performance management capabilities. Dynamics 365 Finance Premium will provide creator access to advanced intelligence, insights, planning, and database capabilities that help customers accelerate business performance. The initial release will focus on creator access to Microsoft’s new extended planning and analysis (xP&A) capabilities that encompass the crucial tasks of budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, and corporate performance management. Business performance planning will become generally available on December 31, 2023 and customers will need to purchase Dynamics 365 Finance Premium licenses to use these capabilities. The new SKU will be available on price list preview starting December 1, 2023. This release is a significant step in establishing Microsoft as a leader in ERP with rapid innovations in finance to enhance business performance agility and empower teams with AI-guided planning, analytics, and insights to take next best actions. Make sure to review the blog to learn more: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2023/12/06/enhance-business-performance-agility-with-microsoft-dynamics-365-finance-premium/. Details Business performance planning Microsoft introduced the https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2023/05/31/introducing-extended-planning-and-analytics-for-dynamics-365-finance/ on May 31, 2023. The GA of business performance planning capabilities will equip Dynamics 365 Finance customers with a comprehensive view of financial and operational performance to empower more informed decision-making. These capabilities simplify and automate planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and analytics through integration with familiar Microsoft Power BI and Excel environments. Initial release use cases will apply to finance “record to report” business processes including revenue planning, bottom-up planning, budgeting, forecasting, long range planning, merger and acquisition valuation, cashflow, risk mitigation, and capex planning. Additional data models will be added to extend use cases to include operational and workforce planning scenarios to deliver on the vision to: Unify disparate data from across the business into a single source of truth. Create, share, and collaborate across secure cloud reporting delivered through familiar tools with Microsoft Excel and Power BI visuals. Receive contextual AI-driven insights to improve business performance, embedded into the flow of work. Connect planning and operational data with AI capabilities to enhance forecasting. Business performance analytics https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2023/02/22/deliver-insights-with-dynamics-365-finance-business-performance-analytics/ on February 22, 2023, business performance analytics provides Dynamics 365 Finance customers with self-service analytics and reporting that eliminates the need for finance professionals to have expertise in data science or IT. The business performance analytics capabilities are currently available in public preview and you can https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/finance/business-performance-analytics/install-bpa and try it out today. These capabilities are available within the Dynamics 365 Finance SKU; however, looking forward, access to more advanced insights and AI-guided analytics will be available as part of the new Premium SKU. Dynamics 365 Finance SKU placemat – NEW Premium SKU Ensure your customers can activate the new business performance planning capabilities within Dynamics 365 Finance from the Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC) when they become generally available on December 31, 2023, by optimizing their SKU mix for finance and business performance management users. Any user that needs to create plans, budgets, forecasts, or financial analysis reports will need to have a Dynamics 365 Finance Premium license. Users that only need to read or make light edits to business performance planning tasks can use a Dynamics 365 Finance license. Those that only need to read reports or dashboards can use a Team Member license. You can find pricing details here: https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/finance/pricing/ Modernizing business performance management Microsoft’s new business performance planning and business performance analytics capabilities provide an advanced approach that goes beyond traditional financial planning and analytics to deliver across these planning and analytics use cases: Integrated Business Planning (IBP): Enables the integration of financial planning with operational and strategic planning, breaking down silos between different business functions. This holistic approach ensures alignment across your organization's various planning processes. Driver-Based Planning: Allow you organization to develop driver-based models, where key operational drivers (such as sales volume, headcount, or production units) directly impact financial outcomes. This dynamic modelling improves accuracy and responsiveness in forecasting. Scenario Planning and Analysis: Facilitate the creation and analysis of multiple scenarios, considering various internal and external factors. This helps you understand potential impacts on financial performance and make informed decisions in a rapidly changing business environment. Real-Time Reporting and Analysis: Get visibility into key performance indicators (KPIs) and financial metrics. This ensures that decision-makers have access to the most up-to-date information, enabling timely and data-driven decision-making. Profitability Analysis: Conduct detailed profitability analyses by customer, product, or business segment. This granular level of analysis helps in identifying areas for improvement and optimizing resource allocation. Collaborative Planning: Encourage collaboration among different departments and stakeholders involved in your planning process. This collaborative approach fosters better communication, alignment, and a shared understanding of organizational goals. Cash Flow Planning: Effective cash flow planning is crucial for the financial health of an organization. Ensure you have robust tools for cash flow forecasting, helping you manage liquidity and make strategic decisions to optimize your cash position. Rolling Forecasts: Unlike static annual budgets, you need support for rolling forecasts, allowing your organization to continuously update forecasts based on actual performance and changes in the business environment. This adaptability enhances agility in financial planning. Ensure your customers are ready to adopt the new business performance planning capabilities and start 2024 with a better view of their strategic plans. Call to Action Familiarize yourself with the https://dynamicspartners.transform.microsoft.com/download/protected?assetname=assets/Dynamics%20365%20Finance%20Premium%20FAQ_113023.pdf&download=1&protected=1 and https://dynamicspartners.transform.microsoft.com/download/protected?assetname=assets/Business%20Performance%20Management%20-%20Dynamics%20365%20Finance_for%20Partner%20Hub.pptx&download=1&protected=1 Read the blog: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2023/12/06/enhance-business-performance-agility-with-microsoft-dynamics-365-finance-premium/ Bookmark the https://dynamicspartners.transform.microsoft.com/products/finance Review the new Finance Premium SKU in pricelist preview Follow news to access demo resources and technical training coming in January 2024 Drive adoption with your customers and optimize the SKU mix to ensure people have access to business performance management capabilities More resources and technical training will roll out January - March 2024 Ask questions in the https://aka.ms/bizappsmpcAnnouncing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot and Next-generation AI tools for Power Platform
Release Summary On March 6 at 6:00 a.m., Microsoft announced the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot , the world’s first AI copilot in both CRM and ERP. Copilot brings the power of next-generation AI capabilities and natural language processing to Dynamics 365, acting as a real-time collaborator that works alongside business professionals to help them create ideas and content faster, complete time-consuming tasks, and get insights and next best actions – just by describing what’s needed. Copilot features are available in preview across Dynamics 365 applications, Microsoft Viva Sales and Microsoft Supply Chain Center, providing AI-assisted guidance tailored for a range of job functions across the organization – from marketing, sales and service to supply chain and operational roles. Microsoft also announced the preview of new AI developer tools in Power Platform and Nuance Mix. By combining these platforms with one of the world’s most advanced language AI models, Microsoft is transforming the application development landscape and empowering a new type of developer - the citizen developer – to solve business challenges. Dynamics 365, Viva Sales and Microsoft Supply Chain Center Announcements Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales and Viva Sales The new AI update to Microsoft Viva Sales helps sellers cut down time they spend at the end of every week writing emails to recap meetings and next steps, with the ability to generate an email summary of a Teams meeting right 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 percent of their day checking and responding to emails , this presents a significant business upside to give the seller more time with their customers. With this new capability, sellers can generate a simple and clear summary right in Outlook based on the Teams meeting, and it automatically includes related CRM data. This can then be sent on to the customer to ensure there is alignment on next steps and ownership of actions. Auto-generated responses are available in public preview now. Email meeting summaries will be available in public preview on March 16. Read the blog for more details. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service Now available in limited preview, Copilot in Customer Service empowers agents to deliver exceptional customer care, optimizing for both accuracy and speed by drafting contextual answers to queries in both chat and email. Microsoft is also making it easier for Customer Service departments to build virtual agents in minutes with conversation boosters in Power Virtual Agents , which harnesses the power of Azure OpenAI Service and the AI-powered Bing to provide answers from company websites and internal knowledgebases that you choose. Copilot becomes the agent's 24/7 AI-powered assistant to help them decipher through large volumes of data, helping resolve issues more quickly, handle cases more efficiently, and increase automation of time-consuming tasks, so agents can focus on delivering high quality service to their customers. Copilot features in Dynamics 365 Customer Service are now in limited preview. Read the blog for more details. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Marketing Using Copilot in Dynamics 365 Marketing, marketers can simplify their workflows by using generative AI to create customer segments and kickstart content creation using conversational prompts. A marketer can now use the Copilot capability query assist to describe their ideal customer in their own words to create a target segment. What used to take hours to create can now be done in just minutes. With content ideas, a new Copilot capability in Dynamics 365 Marketing, marketers can get inspiration generating fresh email campaign content based on a simple request in just moments. Copilot makes suggestions based on key topics entered by the marketer, the organization’s existing marketing emails, as well as from a range of internet sources, to increase the relevance of generated ideas. Through these new Copilot capabilities, marketers can spend less time on copywriting and segmentation, and be empowered by knowing that not only are they creating their best messages but sending them to the right people. Content ideas and query assist are both available in public preview today. Read the blog for more details. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights In the past, in order to create customer segments, marketers would have to rely on their engineering teams to write queries in SQL, often taking weeks to receive results. With Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Microsoft is making it easier for marketing teams to engage directly with customer data, thereby democratizing access to insights. Marketers can have a dialogue with their data to validate and discover new customer insights and deliver targeted and personalized marketing campaigns. They can now simply ask Copilot about their customers and receive answers immediately, and even get suggestions about other questions that could be asked to highlight insights such as additional segments that may not have been previously considered. This new capability can handle calculations across multiple variables and return a list of customers that fit a select profile or display tabular data. Copilot features in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights are now in limited preview. Read the blog for more details. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Microsoft Supply Chain Center New Copilot capabilities for Microsoft Supply Chain Center, which is available to Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management customers, help predict and act on disruptions. Using the intelligence from the news module, Copilot proactively flags external issues such as weather, financials, and geography that may impact key supply chain processes. Predictive insights then surface impacted orders across materials, inventory, carrier, distribution network and more. Supply chain planners can take action with a contextual email draft generated in Outlook by Copilot to alert impacted partners and mitigate potential disruptions before they happen. Copilot features for Microsoft Supply Chain Center are now in limited preview. Read the blog for more details. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central Organizations can save time and drive sales with AI-generated product descriptions using Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central to create compelling product descriptions in seconds product attributes such as color, material, and size. The descriptions can be further tailored by choosing tone of voice, format, and length. Dynamics 365 Business Central customers using Shopify can seamlessly publish the products with descriptions to their Shopify store in just a few clicks. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central is now in limited preview. Product description generation will be available in public preview on March 16. Read the blog for more details. Power Platform & Nuance Mix Announcements Microsoft’s bot building platforms introduce conversation boosters with GPT Using the Azure Open AI Service, conversation boosters within Power Virtual Agents and Nuance Mix enable you to connect your bot to your most current and useful data sources, like company websites or internal data and the bot can immediately construct a relevant and meaningful response using GPT. With the bot now able to search, summarize and moderate answers at speed, with just a URL and no additional topic development, this makes the bots instantly useful out of the box with a greater breadth of knowledge. Power Virtual Agents is available now in public preview, Nuance Mix available in limited preview. Read the blog for more details. AI Builder text generation with GPT AI Builder’s create text with GPT action enables developers to access no-code large language models from Azure OpenAI service. This next generation AI capability can be leveraged to enable a wide variety of use cases in Power Automate and Power Apps to build intelligent solutions. Using text generation with GPT, you can instruct the model with natural language to perform a given task. For example, you can use the capability to create a summarization tool that can quickly and accurately summarize long documents and extract key pieces of information that are relevant to a business. Text generation with Azure OpenAI service for AI Builder will be available for private preview on March 6. Read the blog for more details. Call to Action Learn: Official Microsoft Blog Dynamics 365 Blog Power Platform Blog Nuance Announcement Join Microsoft for the next step in their journey to reinvent productivity with AI on March 16. Register for the event on the Microsoft LinkedIn page Review Partner resources on the Dynamics 365 Partner Portal (microsoft.com) Register for the Business Applications Launch Event on April 4 Join the Business Applications - Microsoft Partner Community
New Attach Licenses for Business Central Premium - now available!
Hot this week - Microsoft just launched two new Attach Licences for Business Central Premium - Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Service, at $20 per application. For customers with Business Central premium this is an amazing value add - for only $20 more, customers can take advanced of these capabilities, leverage the integration available across our Dynamics solutions, and truly transform and round out their backend and front end operations with these solutions. For partners, the new pricing SKUs can help expand your business applications footprint and address the critical digital transformation needs of customers today. Learn more about the new offer details and eligibility criteria and reach out to your customers now with the ready to go email template in this partner kit. Happy selling! Angela Angela Reese Kawano | Senior Partner Marketing Manager (She/Her) Business Applications & Global Industry Marketing | Partner Ecosystem Team Email: mareesek@microsoft.com| Phone: 202.2776441 | www.linkedin.com/in/angela-reese-kawano
Introducing xP&A Capabilities to Dynamics 365 Finance
Summary On May 31, Microsoft announced the introduction of extended planning and analytics (xP&A) capabilities to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. Microsoft’s xP&A solution enables greater accuracy, integrated planning, near real-time monitoring, and AI-powered insights, which helps finance teams make more informed decisions and achieve greater financial success. Licensed through an acclaimed third-party xP&A provider, this solution combines traditional FP&A features with innovations in AI and automation, resulting in an advanced and rapidly deployable xP&A solution. Importance of this announcement The xP&A solution significantly enhances Dynamics 365 Finance by addressing crucial customer needs in financial planning capabilities. The xP&A capabilities leverage the latest innovations across Dynamics 365 and the Microsoft Cloud, enabling Microsoft to deliver comprehensive and near real-time insights. By integrating advanced and generative AI technology, Microsoft can provide powerful insights delivered through familiar user experiences like Power BI and Excel. Customers and partners can find additional information about the announcement via this blog. Call to Action Learn more about the announcement via the Microsoft blog Review the Partner FAQ Join the new Microsoft Partner Community platform to stay connectedAnnouncing new Copilot features in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
Summary On January 11, 2024, https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2024/01/11/shaping-the-future-of-retail-with-ai-and-dynamics-365/ new Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights features that will transform daily marketing workflows. The features will go into early access public preview on February 29, and become generally available in the third quarter of calendar year 2024. These new Copilot features give marketers an AI-first experience to manage and maintain their campaign workflows in one place, get AI-curated content that can be easily edited and scaled across multiple deliverables, and track success from start to finish to optimize customer experiences. Additionally, with Microsoft’s partnership with Typeface, an enterprise-grade generative AI application for supercharging personalized content and ensuring brand authenticity, users will be able to access enhanced image editing directly within the project board. The new Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights features will be showcased in the Big Ideas Session at NRF hosted by https://nrfbigshow.nrf.com/session/bring-joy-shopping-experience-and-unlock-customer-centricity-ai, Corporate VP of Global Industry Marketing on Monday, January 15. There will also be a demo of these features at the Microsoft booth #4503. Event Information If you’re attending NRF, learn more about Copilot in Customer Insights at the Big Ideas session “https://nrfbigshow.nrf.com/session/bring-joy-shopping-experience-and-unlock-customer-centricity-ai” hosted by https://nrfbigshow.nrf.com/session/bring-joy-shopping-experience-and-unlock-customer-centricity-ai, Corporate VP of Global Industry Marketing, on Monday, January 15, 2024 from 11:45 AM to 12:15 PM EST. If you have customers attending or have set up customer meetings at NRF, we suggest that you invite them to this session and stop by the Microsoft booth #4503 to learn more. Details Retail marketing teams are eager to adopt and enhance their customer experience with AI. According to the AI Adoption in Retail Survey by the Futurum Group, 63% of retail organizations hope to improve their marketing with AI in the next 18-24 months, and 78% of retail organizations have already taken the leap to implement AI to enhance their customer experience. With Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, users will continue to have access to new Copilot capabilities that allow marketers to: Kickstart Campaigns with Natural Language: Marketers can kickstart their marketing project by writing their objective in natural language, or by uploading an existing creative brief. The project board is then generated, using the prompt or brief, connected organizational data, and previous campaigns in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. The project board simplifies all workflows into a central hub for developing and managing marketing assets. Generate Audience Segments: From the project board, marketers can view the campaign’s targeted audience and segments, as well as recommendations from Copilot for additional segments that may not have been previously considered. Adding a new audience segment automatically generates a complementary customer journey, saving marketers time while also ensuring they deliver a personalized customer experience. Create Cohesive Branding: Text and images for the marketing campaign are generated with Copilot, using the brand profile which can be configured with simply a website URL, allowing you to automatically scale your branding across every marketing deliverable. Automate Personalized Touchpoints: Promotional e-mails or event invitations are automatically created with Copilot and can be edited directly within the project board. Image editing is enhanced by Microsoft’s partnership with Typeface, an enterprise-grade generative AI application for supercharging personalized content and ensuring brand authenticity. The embedded Typeface features generate and curate on-brand images directly within Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. As these features head to general availability in calendar Q3 of 2024, Microsoft will continue to invest in these new Copilot capabilities - allowing further content curation, journey testing, and metrics monitoring to optimize campaigns. Until then, encourage your existing Dynamics 365 Customer Insights customers to sign up for our early access public preview at https://aka.ms/CI-EarlyAccess. Call to Action Familiarize yourself with the https://aka.ms/NRF-CX-D365Blog Register your customer for the Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Early Access Public Preview at https://aka.ms/CI-EarlyAccess Bookmark the https://dynamicspartners.transform.microsoft.com/products/dynamics-365-customer-insights Review the Dynamics 365 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365/products/customer-insights Join the new https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamics-365-partner/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft-power-platform-partner/ channels on LinkedIn! Ask questions in the https://aka.ms/bizappsmpc
Announcing demand planning + Microsoft Copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
Overview On October 31, 2023 Microsoft announced the public preview of the new demand planning capabilities in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. The functionality introduces more advanced forecasting and analysis tools to allow planners to generate more accurate forecasts and drive better business decision making. The interface is based on Power Platform and allows for no-code, easy configuration to begin generating and reviewing forecasts seamlessly using data from Dynamics 365 and other external sources. Microsoft also announced Microsoft Copilot enhancement in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management that will be available in public preview starting November 15, 2023. The new Copilot capabilities will provide users/teams with help in the flow of work through natural language conversations and enable them to take action to mitigate a disruption. These enhancements will help improve the user experience and increase user adoption across the system, which is ideal in scenarios where customers are migrating from on-prem ERP systems to the cloud. This will also reduce the time to onboard new employees on Dynamics 365. New Copilot capabilities for enhancing inventory visibility using natural language queries will help businesses promise orders with improved accuracy. Details Demand planning In the current global supply chain, it is more important than ever for businesses to be able to accurately predict future demand and use that data to inform business decision making. Demand planning provides enhanced capabilities for companies to improve their planning processes, including the following features: Ease of implementation: with a no-code interface, users can quickly import and transform data from multiple sources, define the methods of forecast generation, and compare outputs – all in just a few minutes of configuration. Public Preview includes an out-of-the-box integration with Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management data entities that can be adjusted to the business requirements. AI-infused forecasting: connectors to Azure Machine Learning allow businesses to develop custom algorithms to increase forecast accuracy according to their unique scenarios. Planners can also choose from a standard list of forecasting models or automatically select the best fitting model. Improved reporting and analysis: planners can view multiple forecasts, historical data, and other time series all in the same form. They can do what-if analysis in real time, collaborate with other contributors via the Teams add-in, and use the native visual cues to drive discussions and decisions With these capabilities, stakeholders from sales, finance, marketing, and operations will be able to adapt quickly to demand shifts and make the right decisions to reduce waste, increase efficiencies, and drive sustainability. Demand planning is in Public Preview starting October 31, 2023. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management customers can get started immediately by enabling demand planning directly in feature management. The Demand planning capabilities can also be installed from the Power Platform admin center, listed in the ‘Dynamics 365 apps’ under ‘Resources’. Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management enhancements Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management enables supply chain teams to take actions based on insights with conversational help while in the flow of work. This ensures an increase in productivity and improved collaboration among employees across the supply chain and other cross-functional teams. Training and user adoption are often major expenses in software implementations. With Copilot powered in-product help, businesses can save time and increase user adoption in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Users can get answers, insights, and solutions without leaving their browser tab, which will enhance their user experience and boost their productivity. This feature will be in Public Preview on November 15, 2023, and users can activate it in feature management. The inventory visibility add-in for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management allows businesses to have a real time view of on hand inventory across all their business applications. Now, with Copilot, users can use natural language to query on hand inventory and look up products in inventory visibility and use the information to drive action within the business, such as creating a sales order from with Copilot. These capabilities can also be embedded in third-party apps or websites so consumers can benefit from the same features. This functionality will be available in Public Preview starting November 15. 2023. FAQ Review the below FAQ to prepare for customer questions and meetings: What is the pricing for the new capabilities? The pricing and business model is still being finalized and will be shared in time for GA (General Availability). How will existing customers get access to the new demand planning and Copilot capabilities? The new capabilities can be enabled directly from Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management with feature management. The Demand planning app can also be installed from the Power Platform admin center, listed in the ‘Dynamics 365 apps’ under ‘Resources’. How can new customers (customers new to Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management) preview and try the new demand planning and Copilot capabilities? New customers can contact Microsoft to learn more. Microsoft sales teams are also able to demonstrate the solution and initiate a POC with the customer as part of the sales process as next steps. How do these features differ from other supply chain solutions in the market? The new demand planning and Copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management are part of Microsoft’s ERP portfolio. These new capabilities are available when customers purchase Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. The marketplace for supply chain solutions is crowded with best of breed offerings for demand planning, and Microsoft is not trying to compete with the best of breed vendors. The belief at Microsoft is that ERP systems need to evolve from mere systems of transaction to systems of reasoning, offering their users prescriptive actions that they can take in their functional areas to accelerate growth. This is where the new Copilot and demand planning capabilities play an important role in making Dynamics 365 your system of reasoning compared to other ERP solutions in the market. Are these features new to the market? Or is this a response to competitor offerings? The announced Copilot capabilities are new to the market, and Microsoft is leading the competition on this front. Demand planning is a mature space and Microsoft’s latest innovation in this space is revolutionizing how planners would perform planning by anchoring on flexibility, simplicity, collaboration speed and intelligence. Why is Microsoft ending the preview period for Supply Chain Center? Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot have opened the door for Microsoft to reimagine how workers and employees engage with their everyday tools and workflows. Empowering workers is no longer just about building new workspaces to work from, like control towers or command centers, but rather about how to surface relevant information and enable quicker decision making in the flow of work. Copilot is redefining the art of the possible and with that, Microsoft is setting out to revolutionize how ERP workers engage with technology every day. Given this, Microsoft is ending their preview for Microsoft Supply Chain on October 31, 2023. Going forward, Microsoft will be mainstreaming these data management and integration capabilities into the Microsoft Power Platform, enabling customers and their partners to use the full capabilities of the platform for a wider range of use cases. Call to Action Familiarize yourself with the announcement and new assets to accelerate Supply Chain opportunities/deals: Read the official https://aka.ms/ReleaseWave2SCM Read the above FAQ to understand the impact of these changes to customers and prepare for customer questions https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/supply-chain/demand-planning/demand-planning-home-pageand https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/supply-chain/demand-planning/demand-planning-home-page for information on the auto installation process as well as who to contact for any questions Bookmark the https://dynamicspartners.transform.microsoft.com/solution-plays/finance-supplychain to access resources and assets Ask questions in the https://aka.ms/bizappsmpcPartner Alert: FY25 Partner Activities Update
Summary Partner engagement with Business Applications Partner Activities was at an all-time high in FY24, with a record number of workshops delivered to customers to ensure successful partner-led implementation and adoption of Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Looking ahead to FY25, we’ll be building on this momentum with improvements to the partner and customer experience. Based on partner feedback, we are making the following changes: Extending access to partner engagements to the full fiscal year Aligning the engagement portfolio with solution plays Providing more consistent access to activities across markets FY25 updates Extension of partner engagements to full fiscal year FY24 engagements will close on June 30, and FY25 engagement nominations will open on July 1. This change eliminates any pre-commit period, providing uninterrupted access to claiming and executing workshops from the first day of the fiscal year to the last day of the fiscal year. Solution play-aligned engagements Starting July 1st, we will be transitioning our portfolio of funded engagements to align to our solution plays. New engagements to watch for July 1, include: Low Code Vision & Value: Build customer intent to innovate with AI in low-code environments. Provide guidance on how to develop a transformation vision, prioritize scenarios, define value, and accelerate adoption. ERP Vision & Value: Drive customer intent to modernize their on-premises ERP systems with Dynamics 365. Develop a well-crafted vision of the customer’s future state with clear business outcomes and success metrics. Customer Engagement Vision & Value: Build customer confidence by showcasing the vision and strategy for an AI-powered transformation through CRM migration to Dynamics 365. Low Code Solution Accelerator: Accelerate post-sales adoption of low-code solutions and ensure customer value realization. Develop stakeholder buy-in through prioritized scenarios and demonstrated solution value. *To view all available engagements in FY25, refer to the updated MCI Program Guide launching July 1. More consistent access across markets In FY25 we want to ensure customers in all geographies have access to the benefits offered by partner-led workshops. To achieve this, we’ll be implementing caps on the number of workshops eligible for credit per partner in any single country. These caps will be announced on July 1. Immediate FY24 updates To help facilitate the transition to the new FY25 activity portfolio, we are making some changes to FY24 engagements. Effective immediately, the following engagements are being retired: Solution Assessment Dynamics 365 Sales – Needs Assessment Dynamics 365 Success Planning Dynamics 365 Success by Design Performance Check Dynamics 365 Value Realization Power Platform Center of Excellence Power Platform Pro Dev Success Enablement Partners will no longer be able to submit new claims for the above workshops. However, these changes do not impact active claims. Partners can complete delivery of any workshops that have already been approved in accordance with the program rules. The Dynamics 365 Solution Optimization engagement has reached its budget limit for FY24 and is closed immediately for new claims until July 1. We have capped the number of Envisioning and Business Value Assessment workshops that a partner is allowed to complete in any single country. These caps, outlined below, are effective immediately. Workshop Name Cap for Market A Countries Cap for Market B Countries Cap for Market C Countries Business Value Assessment – Variable Payout 20 15 10 Envisioning – Variable – Variable Payout 30 15 10 Please review the MCI Incentives Guide for a list of Market Area Countries (page 149) Next Steps Thank you for your continued engagement with Business Applications Partner Activities. We’re excited about all the improvements coming in FY25 and look forward to sharing more information in the coming weeks. Please attend the June 14 Partner Office Hours and Partner Activities webinar series happening at the end of June to learn more about the upcoming changes. In the meantime, you can keep claiming and executing FY24 engagements for the remainder of June. You’ll be able to submit nominations for FY25 engagements starting July 1! Call to Action Register for the June office hours and deep-dive webinar series to learn about FY25 updates: June 14 (8am PST): Partner Activities Office Hours June 24 (8am PST): Low Code Vision & Value Deep Dive June 25 (8am PST): Customer Engagement Vision & Value Deep Dive June 26 (8am PST): ERP Vision & Value Deep Dive June 27 (8am PST): Low Code Solution Accelerator Deep Dive Bookmark the Business Applications Partner Activities page to stay updated with the latest resources and program announcements for FY25 Submit a query for Partner Activities Tier 1 support and any other feedback or questions Bookmark the Partner Center – Microsoft Commerce Incentives (MCI) Engagements Workspace Review the MCI Program Guide and Resources Stay Connected with Business Applications Partner Resources NEW! Sign up for the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Partner Newsletters Follow the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform partner LinkedIn channels Bookmark the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Partner Hub pages Join and engage in the Business Applications Microsoft Partner Community
