Start your nomination today: FY25 FastTrack Recognized Solution Architect submissions are now OPEN!
Hello Partners, The Microsoft Business Industry & Copilot (BIC) engineering team confers the designation FastTrack Recognized Solution Architect (FTRSA) to practicing enterprise solution architects who consistently exhibit deep architecture expertise and create high-quality solutions for customers. Why nominate: Recognized architects' profiles, and the partners they work for, are listed on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform architects' websites. Partners may indicate the number of recognized architects they have in their promotional materials and may direct prospective customers to the architects' profile page. Recognized architects get an e-badge to share on LinkedIn and other social media platforms and a gift package. Recognized architects are provided direct communication channels with our product and leadership team Continue reading on our partner news blogBusiness Applications Partner News: Week of January 8
Check out this week's top resources below or via the attached partner newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest Business Applications Partner News. Important: The Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Partner Hub pages are paused for updates until January 18 pending a site refresh. What to register for: Business Applications Cloud Week for Partners: March 18-22, 2024 Join the conversation: Assessment and Migration (F&O) Yammer What to watch: Tech Talk: December 14, 2023 – Applied Skills & Talent Sourcing What to download: AIM Partner Catalog (ERP) Microsoft Copilot Studio implementation guide AIM Business Central Deployment Offer Delivery Kit Scale Business Operations - Cohort sales guide Updated: ISV Success for Business Applications benefits datasheet Reminders: Register for the upcoming events! Webinars: FY24 Business Applications Partner Incentives Overview Calls: Jan. 10 and Feb. 14 Partner Activities Monthly Office Hours: Jan. 18 AIM with Microsoft Partners January – SMB Partner Webinar: Jan. 31 Trainings: SMB Sales Bootcamp: Jan. 16-18 (PST) FY24 High Volume Advanced Acceleration Program: Jan. 16-Feb. 27 Reimagine Processes Automation with AI and Power Automate Workshop: Jan. 23-Jan. 25 FY24 Customer Success Series: Jan. 25, Mar. 21 Microsoft Copilot Partner Bootcamp: Jan. 30-Feb. 1 (PST)Partner Opportunity to Influence the ISV Copilot Tooling Roadmap.
Microsoft Partners - We're sharing an opportunity for you to contribute to the Microsoft roadmap for tooling and capabilities that help ISVs build, deploy, and monitor Copilots. Voice your company's thoughts on what features and capabilities would help your company whether you're considering a custom Copilot or have already built one. Complete this survey (~5 mins) by EOD 11/22 to influence the roadmap. In this context, Copilot refers custom Copilots, Microsoft Copilots extensions, autonomous agents, and genAI infused Industry applications.
Is Co Pilot Pro available as a benefit for partners? We'd like to experiment and learn more
We have developed a chat based service desk application that integrates with MS Teams, leverages a lot of services via Azure Open AI, and routes to service desk agents (https://www.chimev5.com/). We also have a lot of customers who are starting to explore, and deploy, Copilot and Copilot Pro. We imagine that we may want to integrate with Copilot Pro and we'd like to deploy an internal instance, connect with some data providers, and generally consider integration avenues. Is Copilot Pro an available benefit as part of the MS Partner program? ThanksPartners - let's share ideas on Copilot! Event in Dallas and Virtually, June 27
Dallas IAMCP Chapter Meeting, "Your everyday AI companion" June 27 - Hybrid You're invited to join us in-person or virtually! IAMCP (International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners) TOLA Chapter (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas) rotates monthly and hosts chapter meetings in Austin, Houston and Dallas. All meetings are hybrid and anyone is welcome to attend, no matter where you are! Our June meeting will continue the conversation last month in Austin, about Copilot for Microsoft 365. Have you been using Copilot & AI? How has it impacted your business since then? How have your clients responded? Let's dig in and share ideas! Join us online or in-person (lunch included) in Dallas at the Microsoft office - 7000 State Highway 161 Irving, TX 75039 11:30am-1:00pm CST Register Here > Not a member of IAMCP? You can attend for $30 or, as a new member, join for $1 for your first 90 days! I myself have been a member of IAMCP for about 2+ years and I'm the Secretary of the Houston chapter. There are plenty of other virtual meetings every month covering all topics concerning partners. It's a great way to understand the ecosystem, how to gain designations and credentials, and find partner to partner opportunities.Partner Alert: Announcing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center
Summary On June 4 at the Customer Contact Week event, Microsoft announced the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center, which will become generally available (GA) on July 1, 2024. Dynamics 365 Contact Center is a Copilot-first contact center solution that delivers generative AI to every customer engagement and enables customers to keep their current CRM, whether Dynamics 365, Salesforce, or other custom CRMs. With this launch, Microsoft reaches the latest milestone in the journey toward modernizing customer service with generative AI throughout the contact center workflow—spanning the channels of communication, self-service, intelligent routing, agent-assisted service, and operations to help contact centers solve problems faster, empower agents, and reduce costs. Existing customers using the digital and voice channel add-ins with Dynamics 365 Customer Service will benefit from Dynamics 365 Contact Center and have a transition path to the new solution. Pricing and other information will be disclosed at GA. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center Dynamics 365 Contact Center is a contact center as a service (CCaaS) offering, enabling customers to bring the best of generative AI and omnichannel support to their contact center. Key capabilities include: Effortless self-service Customers have the freedom to engage in their channel of choice across voice, SMS, chat, email, and social media apps. Sophisticated pre-integrated copilots for digital channels drive context-aware, personalized conversations for rich self-service experiences. Provide a frictionless conversational IVR experience in real time through natural, human-like interactions. Accelerated human-assisted service Intelligent unified routing steers incoming requests that require a human touch to the agent best suited to help, enhancing service quality and minimizing wasted effort. Agents gain a 360-degree view of customers and AI tools for real-time sentiment analysis, translation, transcription, and more to help streamline service. Let Copilot automate repetitive agent tasks such as conversation summary, drafting emails, suggested responses, and knowledge search. Operational efficiency Generative AI based real-time reporting allows service leaders to optimize contact center operations across all support channels including their workforce. Maximize Copilot by connecting it to an organization’s existing data and business applications using more than 1,200 pre-built connectors that eliminate the need for expensive IT integration. Empower employee helpdesk and human resources functions using Microsoft Teams as a secure, integrated engagement channel. Call to Action Learn more about Dynamics 365 Contact Center and the value that it will provide to customers. Understand how this exciting news complements and reinforces Microsoft’s core strategy of landing Dynamics 365 Service solutions into every organization. In addition, the announcement is supported by promotion June 4-6 at Customer Contact Week (CCW) in Las Vegas, the largest contact center event in North America. Find more information on the Dynamics 365 Partner Hub Read the announcement on the official Microsoft blog for an overview of Microsoft’s offer and market viewpoint Leverage the following new partner assets now available in on Partner Hub: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center BDM Pitch Deck Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center Demo video Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center Sizzle video More resources will roll out aligned with GA on July 1st. Visit the Partner Hub for the latest updates 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 CommunityBusiness Applications Partner News: Week of June 10
Check out this week's top resources to stay up-to-date on the latest Business Applications Partner News. Remember to sign up for the monthly Dynamics 365 and Power Platform partner pulse newsletters. What to register for: THIS WEEK! June 11 (IST) (BST): Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management – Demand Planning Workshop June 14: Partner Activities Office Hours June 24-27: FY25 Partner Activities deep-dive webinar series MPPC 2024 Thru-Partner Demand Gen Initiative - Register for unique code for partners to potentially earn a free pass: aka.ms/MPPCPartnerRegRequest What to download: New/updated click through demos: Dynamics 365 Contact Center Demo Microsoft Copilot for Finance Traceability in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Demand Planning Business Performance Planning Dynamics 365 product licensing deck What to review/like/share: FY25 Business Applications Partner Activities: Partner Alert Partner Blog LinkedIn update Dynamics 365 Contact Center Announcement Partner Alert LinkedIn update Sizzle video Pitch deck Demo video What to watch: May 30 Copilot Studio Partner Opportunity webinar (deck here) May Tech Talks: May 16: AI Library Creator Kit Module & CoE Starter Kit May 30 Power Pages EDM and BSv5 Migrations Reminders: Register for the upcoming partner events! Events: Save the date: Join us on July 11 for MCAPS Start for Partners July 22: Microsoft Partner FY25 GTM Launch Event for Business Applications Sep 18-20: Microsoft Power Platform Conference Trainings: Level Up Copilot Sales Champion training course (access code: MOKC-MCJB)Business Applications Partner News: Week of June 3
Check out this week's top resources to stay up-to-date on the latest Business Applications Partner News. Remember to sign up for the monthly Dynamics 365 and Power Platform partner pulse newsletters. What to register for: THIS WEEK! June 4-7 (IST), (BST): Accelerate Business Process Automation using Microsoft Power Platform Workshop June 14: Partner Activities Office Hours Sep 18-20: Microsoft Power Platform Conference What to download: Partner Value with Power Platform Guide - IDC whitepaper Updated Partner Activities POE templates: Envisioning Business Value Assessment Solution Assessment Tailored Demo Microsoft Copilot for Finance Partner Opportunity Deck Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service Features deck What to review/like/share: Partner case study: RSM creates winning playbook for midmarket ERP cloud migration Partners delivering customer impact with Copilot Studio: LinkedIn | blog post What to watch: Build and scale your ERP migration strategy using this new video series: Program series overview Build your high-volume migration framework Develop your migration go-to market strategy Accelerate your migration sales Reminders: Register for the upcoming partner events! Events: July 22: Microsoft Partner FY25 GTM Launch Event for Business Applications Save the date: Join us on July 11 for MCAPS Start for Partners Trainings: June 11 (IST) (BST): Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management – Demand Planning Workshop Level Up Copilot Sales Champion training course (access code: MOKC-MCJB)Business Applications Partner News: Week of May 28
Check out this week's top resources to stay up-to-date on the latest Business Applications Partner News. Remember to sign up for the monthly Dynamics 365 and Power Platform partner pulse newsletters. What to register for: THIS WEEK! May 28 (PDT): Optimizing Business Impact through the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace May 28-31 (PDT): Accelerate Business Process Automation using Microsoft Power Platform Workshop May 29: Microsoft AI Training Roadshows (Tokyo, Japan) May 30: Copilot Studio Partner Opportunity Webinar Closes May 31: Q4 Microsoft Catalyst Partner Training Save the date: Join us on July 11 for MCAPS Start for Partners What to download Microsoft Build 2024 assets: What's new for Copilot Studio - Build 2024 Copilot Studio Agents Vision Deck ISV Copilot datasheet Build 2024 ISV quotes What to review/like/share: Partner Alert: Microsoft Build Copilot Studio brings power of generative AI to ISV offerings: LinkedIn post | blog link Majesco creates AI-driven digital assistant with Copilot Studio: LinkedIn post | blog link Announcing Partner Center to certify and publish Power Platform Copilot connectors and plugins: LinkedIn | blog link Directions North America recap: LinkedIn | blog link Blog: Revolutionize the way you work with automation and AI What to watch: Microsoft Build replay Welcome to the future of automation with AI flows in Power Automate Automate your desktop with multi-modal AI Reminders: Register for the upcoming partner events! Events: June 4-7 (IST), (BST): Accelerate Business Process Automation using Microsoft Power Platform Workshop July 22: Microsoft Partner FY25 GTM Launch Event for Business Applications Trainings: June 11 (IST) (BST): Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management – Demand Planning Workshop Level Up Copilot Sales Champion training course (access code: MOKC-MCJB) FY24 High Volume Acceleration Program (Advanced)Partner Alert: Microsoft Build May 21-23, 2024
Event Information Microsoft Power Platform will be featured prominently at Microsoft Build, Microsoft’s flagship event for professional developers kicking off on May 21! Microsoft will be landing key news through a set of executive-delivered keynotes as well as breakout sessions, demonstrations, hands-on labs, and expert meet ups. If you haven’t already, there is still time to register for the event. In addition to the keynotes, a roundup of the top news will be covered in a breakout session led by Charles Lamanna, as well as be included in Microsoft’s hero Power Platform blog. Release Summary The top tier news at Microsoft Build 2024 includes: New copilots with agent capabilities, built in Copilot Studio and entering a limited private preview program, will enable developers to build copilots capable of independently managing long-running processes and associated tasks with contextual memory and learning. New Copilot Studio connectors to enhance your conversational experiences with data from your productivity, analytical, and operations, and within Copilot for Microsoft 365. New AI flows in Power Automate to enable developers to build a new type of AI powered flow. Simply describe the goal, including any parameters, and AI will build an execution plan and run it, reasoning with the LLM at every step – changing automation from rules-based to outcome based. AI recorder in Power Automate is a new intuitive, multimodal desktop automation experience where users create flows by showing and telling the recorder how to automate a task, using voice and screen share rather than mouse clicks and keyboard entries. New pro dev features in Power Apps, including copilot, to explain code and convert natural language to Power Fx, native Git integration, co-authoring in Canvas apps, and viewing source code in PowerApps Studio. Product Announcements Copilot Studio: powering the next wave of copilot experiences Microsoft is introducing new capabilities in Copilot Studio that enables developers to build copilots that can act as agents, able to run and orchestrate many long-running business processes, integrate line of business data directly into copilot experiences and publish new copilot extensions. Copilot Studio is introducing new agent capabilities, empowering developers to build copilots that can proactively respond to data and events, tailored to specific tasks and functions. Copilots built with this new category of capabilities will be able to independently manage complex long running business processes by leveraging memory and knowledge for context, reason over actions and inputs, learn based on user feedback and ask for help when it encounters situations that it doesn’t know how to handle. You can now put copilot to work for you – from IT device procurement to customer concierge for sales and service. These capabilities in Copilot Studio are available for customers in a limited private preview program. Based on feedback from program participants, we will iterate and refine capabilities for wider availability in preview scheduled for later this calendar year. Introducing Copilot connectors (public preview), which brings together Microsoft Graph, Power Platform Connectors, Microsoft Fabric AI skills (in private preview) and Dataverse. This makes the process of grounding Copilot in 1st & 3rd party LOB data a wizard-based experience, enabling developers to quickly incorporate their organizational knowledge into Copilot, enable new actions, and add real-time intelligent Q&A. Copilot extensions can be published through Partner Center (public preview), allowing the copilot extensions to be available for users to install from the relevant Copilot, Microsoft 365 Store (Teams, Outlook), and Microsoft AppSource. Conversational analytics in Copilot Studio (public preview) gives deep insights into user engagement for your own copilots, providing developers with valuable metrics to enhance user satisfaction. New conversational design experience (public preview) enables easier development and configuration of copilots via conversational, human-like interaction. Templates (public preview) allow you to build your own copilot faster with pre-built templates including IT Helpdesk, Order tracking, Travel assistance and more. Next steps: Learn more about this update Attend the breakout sessions: What's new with Microsoft Copilot Studio Build Microsoft Copilot extensions with Copilot Studio Build your own copilot with Microsoft Copilot Studio Demo: Build your own copilot with Microsoft Copilot Studio (onsite only) Lab: Build your own copilot with Microsoft Copilot studio (onsite only) Visit the Copilot Studio page on Power Platform Partner Hub for resources - What’s News in Copilot Studio and Build a Copilot with agent capabilities in Copilot Studio decks coming soon. Power Automate: AI and process automation updates Several new innovations are being launched in Power Automate, capitalizing on process automation and generative AI to help revolutionize the way people work. AI flows (early access preview) which offers a brand-new type of outcome-based automation that allows generative AI to achieve a result by building a flow autonomously and within set guardrails, without requiring users to map out every process step. AI flows will employ LLMs at runtime to dynamically reason, configure actions and execute them. AI recorder (early access preview) in desktop flows creates a more intuitive, multimodal experience where users create flows by both showing and telling the recorder how to automate a task. Natural language to flow capabilities (private preview), now available for desktop, allow users to build rules-based desktop flows faster and more easily by using natural language. Automation Center (public preview) provides in-depth monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities, providing an end-to-end view of company-wide automation status including SLA attainment, average processing time and work queue throughput. Flows inside Microsoft Copilot (public preview) allows users to discover and run flows as plugins in Copilot for Microsoft 365. Conversational cloud flows (public preview) allow users to create, refine and troubleshoot workflows using natural language. Personal automation recommendations mined from M365 Graph (public preview) helps optimize personal processes based on patterns in the work. Next steps: Learn more about this update Review the blog on Partner Center certification and publishing Attend the breakout session: Revolutionize the way you work with automation and AI Watch the demo: New Copilot experiences for developers in Power Automate (onsite only) Power Apps: helping developers build apps at scale Power Apps is making it even easier to build and deploy modern enterprise applications at scale. Developers can now build comprehensive applications faster and more cost effectively than before. New improvements, now in preview, include: Use Copilot to create and understand Power Fx inline (public preview) as it is now going beyond the basics to explain code intricacies (GA), auto-generate comments, and generate Power Fx code from natural language instructions right in the formula bar in a “type ahead” style similar to Github Copilot. Native Git integration (public preview in July) allows developers to synchronize their Power Apps environment and Git repositories. By connecting the two, development teams can see and track all changes, quickly and seamlessly integrate their development processes, quality tools, and best practices directly into their Power Apps environment, thereby reducing the time it takes to build an app. Copilot in apps on mobile (public preview in June) lets developers modernize mobile apps for frontline workers with copilot on mobile devices. Frontline workers will soon be able to use voice dictation and generative AI to complete tasks, including collecting and submitting information. Developers can customize and extend Copilot in Power Apps using Microsoft Copilot Studio to create specialized conversational experiences. Co-authoring in canvas apps (public preview) means multiple makers can now edit a canvas app at the same time with live co-authoring in the same style as Office apps like Power Point, Word or Excel. Co-authoring was previously announced in the modern app designer. It is now available across experiences, so all makers can work better together. Code in Power Apps Studio (public preview) enables developers to view source code directly in Power Apps Studio, making it easy to use in a readable YAML format. Next steps: Learn more about this update Attend the breakout sessions: Enable every developer to collaborate with low code + pro code Using Power Platform to accelerate full-stack software development Building the apps of the future today with Power Platform and Copilot Lab: Developing a custom control using the Power Apps Component Framework (onsite only) Power Pages: New security features to help monitor, protect sites Power Pages empowers users to create dynamic, customizable sites tailored to their specific needs. New security and AI features cater to a wide spectrum of users with tailor-made solutions. Power Pages chatbots and customization with Copilot Studio (generally available): The ability to use chatbots on Power Pages websites is now generally available and will enable makers to configure a copilot chatbot out-of-the-box with no additional authoring. This chatbot will also understand authenticated user context and can be customized using Copilot Studio. Generative AI-Powered search (public preview): Microsoft Copilot in Power Pages provides AI-enabled search capabilities including summarization of results, akin to Bing copilot chat experiences. This improves end user experience by providing information upfront. Security workspace (public preview) seamlessly integrates into the Power Pages design studio and provides value-add security features to safeguard sites from potential data breaches, limit user access and permissions, and promotes secure hosting. Power Pages upgraded Web Application Firewall (WAF) (generally available) is now offering enhanced capabilities, including IP and Geo filtering to strengthen against cyber threats. Easily manage access control with authentication and authorization configurations, and with a built-in copilot experience that assists with security-focused Q&A, security testing, and summarizing scan results, users can stay in control and stay informed. Virtual Tables with no-code connectivity to Salesforce and Oracle databases (public preview) enables organizations to build Power Pages websites on top of their Salesforce or Oracle databases. Integrate data from Microsoft Fabric and Business Central (public preview) into Power Pages websites without coding, enabling self-service actions for suppliers using templates. This is yet another example of data connectivity with SAP. Power Fx formulas in the Power Pages Design Studio (public preview) enables users to utilize Power Fx formulas to bind data with UI Components in Power Pages design studio and build custom user experiences in their websites. Next steps: Learn more about this update Attend the breakout sessions: Reimagine Enterprise Website building with Low Code using Power Pages Demo: Build enterprise websites over Salesforce and Oracle using Power Pages (onsite only) Demo: Build Dynamic website content using Power Fx and Power Pages (onsite only) Lab: Dev tools to extend Power Pages websites (onsite only) Microsoft Dataverse: New security and connectors Security hub (public preview), a new feature in the Microsoft Power Platform Admin Center, allows administrators to quickly assess the security posture for the tenant and identify and act on the most impactful recommendations to improve the posture, proactively set policies in place to safeguard from vulnerabilities and risks and use a rich set of tools and security capabilities available to gain deep visibility and detect threats effectively. Knowledge (public preview) in Microsoft Dataverse enables makers to build custom copilots and agents that include various enterprise and LOB data sources, helping efficiently access relevant business insights. Supported data sources include public websites, SharePoint/OneDrive, Microsoft Fabric, Dynamics 365, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Oracle, and other external data sources indexed in Microsoft Graph. Next steps: Learn more about this update Attend the breakout sessions: Activate enterprise data in AI-enabled business applications Secure and govern Copilot within enterprise-grade low code solutions Demo: Maximize Power Platform and Source Control (onsite only) Demo: Build a conversational AI app using enterprise data (onsite only) Demo: Leverage Copilot plugins to activate your dynamics applications (onsite only) Demo: Protect AI-driven applications with high value capabilities and tools (onsite only) Demo: Unlocking efficiency: low-code app building with Dataverse and Copilot (onsite only) Copilot Platform: Introducing Copilot extensions Microsoft is unifying all Microsoft Copilot extensibility concepts into a single construct called Copilot extensions to streamline the way developers create extensions for workflows they use everyday. Copilot extensions (public preview) enhance Microsoft Copilot by enabling new actions and customized knowledge for grounding within Copilot. With Copilot extensions, users can get a Microsoft Copilot experience that is tailored with the data, systems, and workflows they use every day, and for developers, this opens opportunities to create Copilot extensions through plugins, Copilot connectors, and even by developing their own copilots. Developers can create Copilot extensions with Copilot Studio or using Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio Code. Copilot extensions from leading apps like Jira, Priority Matrix and Mural are available in preview for Copilot for Microsoft 365, along with company-developed line of business Copilot extensions. IT admins can control and manage access to extensions via the Microsoft 365 Admin center. Copilot extensions can be published through Partner Center (public preview), allowing the copilot extensions to be available for users to install from the relevant Copilot, Microsoft 365 Store (Teams, Outlook), and Microsoft AppSource. Next steps: Learn more about this update Understand the new process to publish Copilot extensions Review the ISV Partner Blog: Copilot Studio brings power of generative AI to ISV offerings Download the ISV Partner Datasheet: Develop a Copilot-enabled Solution Attend the breakout sessions: Developer’s Guide to Customizing Microsoft Copilot Extend Microsoft Copilot with Copilot Studio Developer deep dive on building plugins for Copilot with VS Code Build your own copilot with Microsoft Copilot Studio Reach 320M+ users in flow of work building your own copilot for Teams Grow your business with Copilot extensions and marketplace Transforming the most valuable industry workflows with Copilot Build Microsoft Copilot extensions with Copilot Studio Stay Connected with Business Applications Partner Resources 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
