Top Microsoft Solutions to Watch in 2021
It is no secret that 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic altered the reality of doing business. These changes are showing little signs of letting up and a lot of the adjustments made to respond to a remote workforce may very well become a permanent feature in daily business operations. As business decision makers (BDMs) and IT decision makers (ITDMs) head into a new year it is important to keep an eye out for technology solutions that can further support these operational changes while increasing efficiency.
This post briefly highlights the top 3 digital solutions we have our eyes on for 2021 and our Microsoft-based clients.
Further Development in Project Cortex
Project Cortex is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered service that started to become available in Microsoft 365 late in 2020. The purpose of Project Cortex is to use AI to create a knowledge network that applies reason over your organization’s data by automatically organizing it into shared topics like projects and customers. Long-term, Project Cortex is meant to operate across SharePoint, Outlook, and Teams to automatically provide relevant content to the correct platforms and people as needed.
While originally Project Cortex was to be launched as a fully integrated service by 2020, it was revealed at the 2020 Microsoft Ignite Conference that it will instead be rolled-out as user-based add-ons. The first add-on in Project Cortex, SharePoint Syntax was released earlier last year and two additional components are anticipated in 2021.
SharePoint Syntax is the AI content understanding component to Project Cortex. SharePoint Syntax manages content at scale through the content centers that integrate metadata, workflows, and teach the cloud how to process content much the same way a person would. Leveraging machine learning technology, SharePoint Syntax can be configured to sort, tag, route, and store content from expense reports and invoices to client proposals.
The system is able to apply machine learning across the following types of documents:
- Microsoft Office File Types
- PDFs
- Images
If SharePoint Syntax is any indication for Microsoft’s ability to provide a robust AI solution with Project Cortex then we are extremely excited to see what is next for this product family.
Dynamics 365 Specializations
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based platform with a wide variety of business applications including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) functionalities. Dynamics 365 has continued to add new products – including the addition of Project Operations which we introduced recently here.
Dynamics 365 Project Operations is part of their Project management suite and a critical platform for any project-centric business, such as professional services.
Several organizations and employees are suffering from application overload. With Project Operations, Microsoft aims to bring together disparate systems and silos of professional service firms in a single application for end-to-end service delivery.
Heading into 2021, Microsoft is heavily investing in growing the capabilities of the Dynamics 365 products. From vendor invoice automation (Dynamics 365 Finance) to an Engineering Change Management add-on (Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management) there are significant functionality upgrades expected across Dynamics 365 to better cater to each business line specialization.
No-Code Powered AI Chatbots
Automation and AI used to be terms reserved for companies with deep development budgets and a vast network of in-house IT developers. With the advancement of low-code/no-code solutions, like the Microsoft Power Platform, automation and AI are now accessible for companies of any size and budget. In 2021 we anticipate a major increase in the use and sophistication of virtual chatbots driven primarily by the adoption of automation and artificial intelligence.
Chatbots are virtual robots that serve as the front-line for customer facing support and internal user support. Companies can take advantage of highly customizable chatbots to bolster their customer service and response times. With our increasingly digital marketplace and looming talent shortages, chatbots can alleviate the burden of routine service activities for your team.
Key items that can be facilitated through a well-developed chatbot are:
Customer Product and Order Assistance
Frequently Asked Questions
Routine business processes such as HR onboarding and IT help-desk
The use of bots to handle employee questions reduces the number of IT and HR support tickets by 10-15%
Microsoft recently added Power Virtual Agents to their increasingly popular Power Platform. Power Virtual agents uses AI and automate workflows to provide a seamless customer experience between chatbot and service agents. This is a key benefit to the application as a recent survey stated, “72% of global consumers would consider changing service providers in response to receiving a disconnected experience.”
As with all Microsoft products, Power Virtual Agents easily integrates with the rest of your Microsoft products and third-party connectors to ensure a customer’s journey uninterrupted.
Altogether, 2021 is primed to have the right tools in place to accommodate our increasingly digital world. If you are looking to support your remote workers, off-site operations, and digital customer expectations you should consider investing in AI and automation projects as they become increasingly more affordable to implement and scale. If you haven’t started your automation journey download our FREE Power Platform Process Automation Toolkit today!
