Incremental’s top 6 highlights from Microsoft Ignite 2021
Microsoft Ignite is one of the most anticipated events on the Microsoft calendar. Microsoft hosts an annual gathering of technology leaders and practitioners to share the most significant and innovative updates from its product portfolio. This year Microsoft announced some exciting developments across Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Modern Workplace and Azure, strengthening the capabilities of the unified Microsoft ecosystem.
The Incremental team have highlighted their top 6 innovative new tools and features that they are most excited about and believe will transform the way our customers drive value from technology.
Dynamics 365 Customer Service Voice Channel [now available]
The new voice channel, built on Microsoft Azure Communication Services, is an expansion of the existing Dynamics 365 Omnichannel Customer Service application. A new voice channel has been added to the existing email, chat and social media channels, creating an end-to-end solution unifying all points of customer interaction for Customer Service.
Power App pay-as-you-go licensing [available now]
Pay-as-you-go licensing model is now available for Power Apps license holders. Customers will now have the option to pay per user activities, such as the number of unique apps or portals a user runs each month, with an Azure subscription. Many organisations benefit from the flexibility pay-as-you-go provides, establishing usage patterns for a new app or solution before transitioning to subscription licenses.
The Microsoft Customer Experience Platform
Microsoft are launching a complete customer experience solution that allows organisations to build intuitive customer journeys and deliver exceptional, personalised experiences. The new platform connects experiences across marketing, commerce, sales, and service, to deliver precise use of customer data, integration into line-of-business applications and seamless activation across a growing number of customer touchpoints.
Add AI to Power Apps with Power Fx
Microsoft unveiled new features for AI builder that will make it easier to add intelligence to business applications. Power Fx allows makers to add advanced logic and AI to create sophisticated apps in Microsoft Power Apps. With the new update, Power Fx will be extended to open-source communities in GitHub, enabling developers to quickly leverage and distribute code to the makers in their organisation. With open-source collaboration of Power Fx via GitHub and developer communities, adding AI intelligence to applications gives everyone the power to create complex, rich applications faster than ever.
Azure SQL Managed Instance Link
The new Link feature in SQL Managed Instances enables on-premises SQL to be linked to SQL Managed Instances enabling data to be replicated to Azure. SQL Managed Instances Link feature creates a read only replica of on-premises databases enabling reporting and other cloud only features to be deployed without impacting production. SQL Managed Instances Link are scoped at the database level and can also be used for migrations including complex scenarios where multiple on-premises SQL server are replicated to a one or many managed instances. SQL Managed Instances Link provides customers with the flexibility to enable cloud services on their on-premises data as well as well as facilitating an on premises to Azure Manged Instance migration.
Microsoft Viva – employee experience hub
Earlier this year Microsoft announced the beginning of Viva, the first employee experience platform. Now all four modules, Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Topics, and Viva Learning are generally available and with the purchase of just one plan, the new Viva suite. These features embedded within Microsoft Teams, will help people and teams to foster a culture of human connection, growth and wellbeing.
Hundreds of new updates and features were announced at Microsoft Ignite 2021. To discuss what these updates mean for your organisation and to ensure you capitalise on the latest Microsoft innovations, please speak to a member of our team.