Notes from the Microsoft Business Application Summit

Transcription

1 Notes from the Microsoft Business Application Summit July 23 24, 2018 Ron Barrett The overall message communicated through out the summit was data synergy between components of the Microsoft Business Application Platform : James Phillips, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Business Applications Group, provided an overview of what was to come during the opening keynote speech. There has been phenomenal growth within the Power Community (Power BI, Power Apps, Microsoft Flow). Testament to this growth is the increase in size of the summit from 750 attendees two years ago to 5,000 at this years summit. Power BI has become the third cloud for Microsoft, Azure and Office365 being the other two. He spoke of the Digital Feedback Loop, which connects customers, employees, and products or services through data and business intelligence:

2 Collectively, effects of the digital feedback loop and the services provided by the Business Application Platform strengthen an organization s ability to transform itself digitally: Dynamics 365 is a cohesive set of applications under a single technology umbrella. From traditional CRM, to talent acquisition, to marketing, finance, and operations, D365 is receiving Microsoft s investment as an enterprise level ERP system. D365 is now tightly integrated with Microsoft owned LinkedIn, the largest source of hire candidate data, and with Twitter. Applications under the umbrella include: Business Central Customer Service Finance and Operations Marketing Project Service Automation Sales Talent Artificial Intelligence A major semi annual release of Dynamics 365 is scheduled for October 2018.

3 Microsoft s Power Platform is the basis of their business intelligence offering: Dynamics 365, Office 365, and the Power Platform represent Microsoft s commitment to the business application market. And it is reaping fruit. During the summit there was a palpable energy of excitement about what Microsoft is doing and the direction they are heading. The Future of Modern BI The future of modern business intelligence is characterized along four dimensions: 1. A Unified Platform, supporting enterprise BI and self service 2. Low code, no code 3. Intuitive experience 4. Pervasive AI Self service business intelligence models must support demands of IT, analysts, and general users: Interactive reports and dashboards Enterprise grade semantic models Enterprise grade reporting Enterprise grade governance for management and control Presentation available on premises or in the cloud for viewing on mobile devices Dynamics 365 Business Central Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a cloud based, all in one business management solution which enables customers to upgrade from their entry level accounting software or legacy ERP system to one single, comprehensive solution to manage finances, operations, sales and customer service. Helping organizations streamline their processes, improve customer relations and enable growth Integrations between Dynamics 365 and other Microsoft applications include: Microsoft Outlook (mail, calendar) Azure Services Microsoft Excel Power BI Power Apps Microsoft Flow Microsoft Office 365, Power Apps, Flow The features of the Microsoft Power Platform extend the abilities of D365, O365, and stand alone apps:

4 Power Apps are applications intended for use on mobile or table devices. The applications may be tied to a variety of data sources, including SQL Server, Excel, and may have read/write back rights. Microsoft Flow is the automation tool for Office 365 enabling trigger based actions to occur. There are three triggers available: 1. Event based 2. Manual 3. Scheduled, recurring An example Flow action might be approval before an automated calendar task is scheduled. Microsoft Common Data Model, Common Data Service (see us/powerapps/common data model/overview) The Common Data Model (CDM) is an open sourced definition of standard entities that represent commonly used concepts and activities across a variety of business and application domains. The Common Data Model offers welldefined, modular, and extensible business entities such as Account, Business Unit, Case, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, and Product, as well as interactions and relationships between vendors, workers, and customers, such as activities and service level agreements. Microsoft s Common Data Service for Apps and the Common Data Service for Analytics implement the Common Data Model. These services hold data that conforms to the Common Data Model definition. By building on top of these services, packaged applications and analytical solutions can work with well defined entity shapes and share data, irrespective of where data is originally coming from or mastered. Custom line of business apps and analytical solutions can leverage the same entities for data sharing, and thereby support your specific needs and business requirements.

5 A common data model template for the healthcare industry is prime example where multiple practice management software vendors have come together to support a common semantic model. Conclusion The Microsoft Business Application Summit presented a clear overview of where the company is strategically heading in the business application market. Data integration across platforms, enhanced business intelligence, artificial intelligence, and potentials of the newly announced Common Data Model/Service were the major messages of the summit. Dynamics 365, Office 365, Power Platform, and CDM/S are the focus and key to the future success of Microsoft. The 5,000 summit attendees seemed to fully embrace the company s direction.