Dynamics 365 Contact Center - the new kid on the block

 In July 2024, Microsoft announced general availability of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center. This Contact Center As A Service (CCAAS) offering allows Microsoft to compete against players such as ...

It most likely is also a way for Microsoft to embed the Nuance offering more directly into the Dynamics 365 platform. It can be quite a daunting task for consultants and customers trying to come up with a cost simulation since licensing is not that easy taking into account the different capabilities in the platform (or as Tricia calls it "licensing a contact center deal can be a special place in hell" - in Licensing the Dynamics 365 Contact Center Part 1

Data flow and components in Dynamics 365 Contact Center architecture:

1. Customers can connect through preferred channels including Teams for internal helpdesks. Licensing and operational cost vary depending on the required channels to support
2. Azure Communication Services (ACS) offers PSTN integration for voice 
3. Works not only with Dynamics 365 CRM (Customer Service) but also with other CRM platform such as Salesforce and ServiceNow
4. Use Copilot Studio to configure AI agents and IVR setup
5. Routing based on Unified routing framework
6. Agents work in the Agent Workspace or Customer Service Workspace if you are using Dynamics 365 
7. Connectors allow easy integration with Microsoft 365
8. Typical AI scenario's supported such as case summary, conversation summary, draft e-mails and knowledge article support (mainly existing functionality which already surfaced earlier in Dynamics 365 Customer Service)
9. Built on top of Power Platform with Dataverse as the core building block
10. Built in monitoring, management and analytics & reporting functionality

If you want to learn more about this platform - I suggest that you follow Chris Goodwill on LinkedIn and join the Dynamics 365 Contact Center LinkedIn Group

Related posts:

• Dynamics CCAAS Cost Calculator
• Configure direct routing

Dynamics 365 and Power Platform monthly reading list September 2024

 2024 Release Wave 2

Release plans for 2024 release wave 2 are now publicly available - Release plans for Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Cloud for Industry - Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn - from July 29th, early access will be available for activation - other key dates for 2024 release wave 2 are also available . Also check out the videos like Dynamics 365 Service 2024 Release Wave 2 or Dynamics 365 and Power Platform 2024 Release Wave 2 - these might also contain features/functionality which are not listed in the release plans.

• 2024 Wave 2: Dynamics 365 Customer Service (YouTube) by @d365goddess
• 2924
• Use the Power Platform Environment Settings App 
• Change history 2024 release wave 1 and change history 2024 release wave 2 -  there are frequent changes on features which are part of a release wave - follow up using the change history
• 2024 release wave 2 for Dynamics 365 Contact Center
• Managed identity support for Dataverse plugins

Copilots, AI and machine learning

• Document classification with Power Automate and Azure AI by @mattbdevaney
• Understanding Copilots at Microsoft (YouTube)
• Microsoft Copilot Studio implementation guide
• So you want to build your own copilot
• Use Dataverse timeline highlights powered by generative AI
• Microsoft Copilot for Finance (YouTube)
• Simplify IT management with Microsoft Copilot for Azure - save time and get answers fast
• Microsoft Copilot for Service on ServiceNow
• Building a multi-channel notification system with Azure Functions and Azure Communication Services - Part 1 #60daysofIA
• Azure AI Translator GitHub repo

Technical topics (Configuration, customization and extensibility)

• Unlocking the full potential of Dynamics Digital Contact Center Platform with Bring Your Own Carrier (BYOC)
• How Microsoft does Quality Assurance (QA)
• Why use managed solutions by @BergmannBene
• Filtering embedded Power BI reports
• Outbound dialer enhancements in Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• Setting up Postman environment to test the Dataverse APIs - quick tip
• Application Insights integration with model-driven Power Apps explored
• Power Platform Well Architected
• User Experience in model-driven apps - the good, the bad and the ugly (YouTube)
• Customer Service: Setup Copilot (YouTube)
• Power Platform Community Tools series - Bulk Data Updater (YouTube)
• Build your own agent using Microsoft Copilot Studio (GitHub Repo)
• The scarce resource of Dataverse storage capacity
• Demo: Build intelligent and scalable solutions with Power Apps and Power Platform (YouTube)
• Manage application users in the Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC)
• Dataverse: Azure Synapse Link vs Fabric Link (YouTube) 
• Adjust other Dynamics 365 copilots in Copilot Studio
• What is a Power Platform Solutions Architect? Action packed explanation! (YouTube)
• Building smarter bots with copilot studio (YouTube)
• Announcing General Availability of Block unmanaged customizations
• 6 stages of solution deployment by  @LinkeD365
• Everything you didn't know you needed to know about Power Platform Solutions
• Dynamics 365 Finance is gradually moving onto the same base platform as Dynamics 365 CE - useful shortcuts
• https://aka.ms/ERPTrialLicense
• https://aka.ms/ERPDevDeploy 
• https://aka.ms/ERPDevConfig 

Topics for Dynamics 365 Business Applications Platform consultants, project managers and power users

• Three ways AI is transforming service from the field to the contact center (Microsoft white paper)
• Capture and communicate value with the business value toolkit (Power Platform CoE toolkit)
• Introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center(YouTube)
• Eneco Mobility supercharges its customer car with generative AI by introducing Dynamics 365 Contact Center (Case study - Capgemini) - follow  Peter Ruiter (@pajruiter)  to learn more about copilots and Dynamics 365 Contact Center

Dynamics 365 and Power Platform monthly reading list April 2024

Copilots, AI and machine learning

• Artificial Intelligence 2023 Playlist by Stanford Online (YouTube) and Stanford CS229: Machine Learning | Spring 2022 Stanford Online (YouTube)
• Use Semantic Kernel with Lakehouse in Microsoft Fabric
• Fabric end-to-end use case: Analytics engineering part 1 - dbt with the Lakehouse by @s_debruyn
• From Microsoft to global brands, Dynamics 365 Copilot is helping transform customer experiences across service, sales and marketing
• Accelerate support ramp-ups, handoffs and wrap-ups with Copilot summarization in Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• Introducing new Copilot experiences to boost productivity and elevate customer experiences across the organization
• Transform your business with Microsoft AI (Microsoft Learning Path)
• Accelerating revenue with AI Powered Solutions: a CRO Guide (e-book)
• Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals: Generative AI (Learning path)
• 10 AI terms everyone should know
• Revolutionizing marketing workflows with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
• Creating Custom Copilots: Azure AI Studio and Copilot Studio. When to use what?
• Build your Copilot testing strategy in Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• Learn Live: Microsoft Learn AI Skills Challenge
• The Art and Science of working with AI
• Microsoft Copilot in Azure extends capabilities to Azure SQL Database (Private preview)
• How to connect Copilot Studio to Dynamics 365 Customer Service (YouTube)
• Introducing Copilot pane in Power BI Desktop (preview)
• Enable Copilot case and conversation summaries 
• Trust Micrsoft Copilot with your Power Platform and Dynamics 365 data - Power CAT live (YouTube)
• Building Modern Enterprise Solutions: Microsoft Dataverse and Microsoft Copilot
• Microsoft Copilot scenario library - real use cases for HR,Finance, IT, Marketing and Sales
• Microsoft Copilot for Sales FAQ
• Day 19: Microsoft Copilot vs Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 vs Copilot aka PVA
• Announcing Microsoft Copilot for Service
• Enable Copilot in Customer Service and custom apps (Dynamics 365)
• Microsoft Copilot for Service: Introducing new Copilot experiences to boost productivity and elevate customer experiences across the organization  and Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 (YouTube)
• Generative AI for beginners (Microsoft)
• Large language models, explained with a minimum of math and jargon
• Using copilot with SharePoint knowledge to serve your customers
• Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Deliver higher-impact experiences with better data quality and configuration with Copilot
• Information Assistant Industry accelerator on GitHub
• Announcing Microsoft Copilot for Service and Microsoft Copilot for Service product page
• Build your own copilots with Azure AI Studio (Microsoft Mechanics recording)
• Build GPT-automated customer support with Azure Communication Services

 

Technical topics (Configuration, customization and extensibility)

• Lakehouse vs Warehouse vs Datamart - the difference between the three Fabric objects
• Power Platform Well-Architected framework
• Creating service principals really easily using PAC CLI by @carldesouza
• The power of Prefer Headers in the  Dynamics CRM web API
• Analyze Dataverse tables from Microsoft Fabric
• Enterprise security with Power Platform (Microsoft white paper)
• Microsoft Fabric, explained for existing Synapse users
• Announcing new cloud governance guidance in the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) for Azure
• PCF Learning Roadmap
• Mask sensitive data and prevent unauthorized access and Dataverse: about masking rules 
• Protect enterprise solutions with new Microsoft Power Platform security features
• Power Platform Wave 1 2024: Top 10 features you need to know! (YouTube)
• Add intelligence into your apps with Dataverse AI functions (YouTube)
• Leverage the Power Platform API to create a capacity report
• Associate activities with multiple related records (2023 Wave 2 Public preview)
• Power Platform tenant settings  (YouTube)
• Working with solution dependencies for objects made easier
• Improve solution import time
• https://aka.ms/azai - develop apps that use Azure AI services
• How to create a new Dynamics 365 SCM trial environment from the Power Platform Admin Center (PPAC) preview
• What's new in Playwright 1.32 (YouTube)
• Using Application Insights for Dataverse monitoring
• Modernize customer support with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• Announcing the Power Platform solutions with AI and Copilot learning path
• Sample library for Digital Contact Center Platform

Topics for Dynamics 365 Business Applications Platform consultants, project managers and power users

• Modernize Service Guided Tour
• Forrester TEI study shows 315% ROI when modernizing customer service with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• End of support for Project Service Automation (PSA 3.x)
• Model driven Apps (Power Platform)  visual glossary
• My annual letter: leading in a new era - annual letter from Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft
• Finding adequate metrics for  outer,inner and process quality in software development
• Customer story: Avanade puts people first, accelerates sales productivity with Microsoft Copilot for Sales
• Keeping up to date with changes to the Release Wave Plans
• A consultant's guide: overcoming the challenges of joining a Microsoft Dynamics 365 project mid-way through
• Accelerate Copilot extensibility and Power Apps creation with Microsoft Dataverse
• How Microsoft and generative AI are transforming financial services contact centers

Dynamics 365 and Power Platform monthly reading list July 2023

2023 Release Wave 2

• Dynamics 365, Viva Sales (aka Microsoft Sales Copilot) and supply chain platform: 2023 release wave 2 plan - early access will be available on July 31th
• Microsoft Power Platform: 2023 release wave 2 plan
• Power Platform 2023 Release Wave 2 Highlights (YouTube)
• Dynamics 365 and Power Platform 2023 Release Wave 2 highlights (YouTube)
• Dynamics 365 Customer Service 2023 Release Wave 2 highlights (YouTube)

Technical topics (Configuration, customization and extensibility)

• ALM for Power Platform (March 2023 Washington user group recording)
• Analyse your solution dependencies in  Dataverse with VSCode "PowerApps Helper" extension built by @MMe2K (Michael Megel)
• Power Apps Copilot (preview) feature ... Friend or Foe? (YouTube) by @dchristian19
• Azure Cost Management Power BI report (Github)
• Codename Project Bose: Calculate Azure Cost of an enterprise by cost centers, divisions and projects
• KQL Visualizations (YouTube)
• How to use invitation id of Customer Voice Survey invitation in Power Automate Flow by @inogic
• Use the Customer 360 component in Dynamics 365 Customer Service by @D365Goddess
• Additional capabilities in timeline view with Dynamics CRM
• Optimize performance for Create and Update operations (Microsoft Docs) - interesting update for data migration scenario using CreateMultiple and UpdateMultiple operations
• Dataverse long term data retention is finally available in preview - no info available yet on whether retained Dataverse records (offloaded to Data Lake) will still be billed at the same price as Dataverse storage.
• The Dataverse Accelerator is live on AppSource: https://aka.ms/dvaccelerator
• Discover the biggest Power Platform Announcements from Microsoft Build 2023 (YouTube) by @LisaCrosbie
• Azure Synapse Link for Dataverse : exporting to Delta Lake
• Kusto Detective Agency - learn KQL by playing a detective game
• Power Apps Data Sources Ranked! Which is best? YouTube video by Shane Young (@ShanesCows)
• New card visual in Power BI and Create a sparkline in the new card visual
• Take Customer Service to new heights with cross-geo support for Copilot
• Announcing monthly (release) channel for model-driven apps - release channels provide more choice for adopting new features. It seems that Dynamics 365 and Power Platform will allow to get features activated on a monthly basis
• Announcing public preview of IP firewall in Dataverse - only available for managed environments
• Microsoft Copilot readiness hub
• The importance of Orderby when retrieving more than 50K records from Dataverse
• Start using Azure Cost Management

Topics for Dynamics 365 Business Applications Platform consultants, project managers and power users

• Introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 copilot
• Copilot in Viva Sales
• Dynamics 365 Implementation Portal now available
• A report on Global State of Customer Service sophistication
• Reshaping the future of business with Microsoft Sales Copilot, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and a new cloud migration program
• Introducing AIM from Microsoft: Future-proof your business in the cloud

Notes on the Power Virtual Agent in a day lab

Microsoft recently also released a Power Virtual Agent in a day and I decided to give it a try. Power Virtual Agents are one of the components in the Power Platform which allow you to built intelligent chat bots without any coding or AI experience.

Since Power Virtual Agents are built on the Power Platform and the Azure Bot Framework you still have the option to extend the capabilities to suit your organisations needs.

Some notes on the Power Virtual Agent lab:

• The creation of a virtual agent or bot is super easy and intuitive with a simple graphical interface for authoring the logic  that will drive your bots. The authoring canvas for the conversation tree has a great user experience and enables non-developers to create a powerful chatbot experience.

• After you import the SolutionPowerVirtualAgentInADay.zip solution file, you will need to reconfigure the connections in the different Power Automate Flows - to do this you will need to use the unique name of the CDS instance - so if you have used a Dynamics CRM instance you can not use the readable name - don't forget to add the region shorthand as well.
• If you are familiar enough with Dynamics 365 and/or Power Platform you will be able to complete the labs in a couple of hours.
• The built-in integration with Power Automate allows you to leverage the over 250+ external services and systems so the only limit is your imagination.

• To try out transferring a chat bot session to a human agent, the easiest option is to use Omnichannel for Customer Service (See Setting up Omnichannel for Customer Service on an existing Dynamics 365 trial for how to try this out). After you have completed t  Only limited documentation is available on how to write logic for escalating to an agent if you are not using Omnichannel for Customer service - see Configure hand-off to any generic engagement hub and code on Github

References:

• Introduction to Power Virtual Agents (Youtube 00:52:17)
• Create, test and deploy your bot with Virtual Agent for Customer Service (Youtube 00:10:48)
• PVA Series - real QnA chatbot with QnA maker
• Building proactive bot with Power Virtual Agent
• Create chatbot using Dynamics 365 Virtual Agent for your customers 
• Dynamics 365 Virtual Agent for Customer Service (Youtube 00:08:13)
• Create, test and deploy your bot with Virtual Agent for Customer Service (Youtube 00:10:08)
• Power Virtual Agents Solution packaging (Youtube)

Setting up Omnichannel for Customer Service on an existing Dynamics 365 trial

Omnichannel for Customer Service is a Microsoft first party Dynamics 365 app which extends Dynamics 365 Customer Service which enables you to connect different channels (SMS, chat, Facebook, etc...) to your existing Dynamics 365 Customer Service App.

Listed below are  the different steps required to setup a demo scenario with chat integration for Omnichannel for Customer Service in a blank (no first party app selected upon trial setup) demo trial environment  which had customer service installed afterwards:

1. Omnichannel for Customer Service is an add-on which requires a separate license so you first need to add this add-on in your tenant. Go to Billing > Purchase Services and select add-ons. Search for Dynamics 365 Customer Service Digital Messaging add-on trial and select it.

2. After enabling the add-on you will need to provision Omnichannel for Customer Service by first providing data access consent and in a next step provisioning the Omnichannel for Customer Service application. The official Microsoft documentation still show how to to this from the legacy Dynamics 365 admin portal but you can do this from the new Power Platform Admin Portal as well - click the three dots and select manage for the Omnichannel for Customer Service

3. In the separate Omnichannel for Customer Service screen you will be able to enable the different channels that you want to support. The initial setup might take a couple of hours to complete so check the same page for the status of the setup later on.
   
4. Next you will need to assign the "Dynamics 365 Customer Service Digital Messaging add-on" license to the users who need have a  Omnichannel for Customer Service security role.

5. To enable chat integration, you need to create a code snippet to embed the chat control on your website or portal. You can follow the steps on the Microsoft Omnichannel for Customer Service Administrator > Quickly configure a chat widget  which use a Customer Service Portal but you can add this chat widget to your own website as well.

6. Support agents can use the Omnichannel for Customer Service app to interact with the users to follow up on their questions and complaints. When a new conversation comes in, it will be routed to available agents who can accept this incoming conversation. (Take a look at Understand unified routing and work distribution to understand how you automate work assignment across channels taking into account agent's capacity and skill sets)

7. A customer agent will be able to interact with the customer using an inline chat window which is built on top of the Customer Service application which means that you will be able to leverage the full available context of the customer (existing contact info, open cases, etc ...)

There were lot of new features added to Omnichannel for Customer Service in the 2020 release wave 1 so definitely take a look at the Microsoft Business Applications Summit recording below or take a look at the Omnichannel for Customer Service sessions on Microsoft Learn.

References:

• Using omnichannel for customer service to deliver personalized support (Business Applications Summit 2020 recording)
• Omnichannel for Customer Service Collection -  set of blog posts on Omnichannel for Customer Service (previously called Omnichannel Engagement Hub) by Neil Parkhurst
• A quick guide to Omnichannel for Customer Service
• Try channels in Omnichannel for Customer Service
• Setup WhatsApp channel (Preview) in Omnichannel for Customer Service
• Omnichannel for Customer Service blog posts by @thecrmninja