M365.FM - Modern work, security, and productivity with Microsoft 365

Mirko Peters - Founder of m365.fm, m365.show and m365con.net
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Welcome to the M365.FM — your essential podcast for everything Microsoft 365, Azure, and beyond. Join us as we explore the latest developments across Power BI, Power Platform, Microsoft Teams, Viva, Fabric, Purview, Security, and the entire Microsoft ecosystem. Each episode delivers expert insights, real-world use cases, best practices, and interviews with industry leaders to help you stay ahead in the fast-moving world of cloud, collaboration, and data innovation. Whether you're an IT professional, business leader, developer, or data enthusiast, the M365.FM brings the knowledge, trends, and strategies you need to thrive in the modern digital workplace. Tune in, level up, and make the most of everything Microsoft has to offer. M365.FM is part of the M365-Show Network. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-modern-work-security-and-productivity-with-microsoft-365--6704921/support.

  1. 1 giờ trước

    Dynamics 365 Master Planning - Simply Explained

    A customer wants 100 bicycles next month. You already have some finished bicycles in stock, wheels are arriving from a supplier, frames are stored somewhere else, and your production line is booked for the next two weeks. What should you buy, what should you build, what should you move—and when does each action need to happen? In this episode of M365 FM, Mirko Peters explains how Dynamics 365 Master Planning connects customer demand, inventory, purchasing, production, bills of materials, lead times, capacity, forecasts, and planned orders to create one connected supply plan. WHAT IS DYNAMICS 365 MASTER PLANNING? Dynamics 365 Master Planning is the part of Supply Chain Management that determines how future demand should be covered. Think of your business as an office building with a stockroom attached. Customer orders enter through one door. Inventory sits on shelves. Suppliers deliver materials. Production converts components into finished products. Master Planning looks across all of these activities instead of allowing each team to maintain its own disconnected plan. It combines current demand and available or expected supply, identifies shortages, and suggests actions for planners to review. WHY A STOCK COUNT ISN'T ENOUGH Imagine a customer orders 100 bicycles and your warehouse currently contains 30. You still need 70. But those 70 bicycles require frames, wheels, chains, seats, bolts, packaging, employees, machines, and enough production time. A simple inventory report tells you what exists now. It doesn't tell you whether the missing components can arrive before production needs them or whether the factory has enough time to complete the order. Master Planning connects quantity with time. FROM SPREADSHEETS TO CONNECTED PLANNING Without connected planning, sales might maintain customer orders in one system while warehouse employees check inventory somewhere else. Purchasing tracks supplier dates in spreadsheets and emails. Production maintains another schedule describing what the factory can build. Each individual list might be correct, but somebody still needs to connect everything to answer one question: Can we deliver what the customer ordered by the promised date? Dynamics 365 Master Planning brings these demand and supply signals together. MASTER PLANNING VS A SPREADSHEET Think of a spreadsheet as a photograph. It can provide a useful snapshot of inventory at a particular moment. Master Planning is closer to a forward-looking schedule. It considers quantities alongside dates, future demand, incoming supply, production requirements, and existing inventory. When one of those elements changes, the planning picture can change as well. THE THREE PLANNING MODES Dynamics 365 doesn't provide only one way to plan. The episode explains three different planning scenarios: Master Planning focuses on day-to-day and shorter-term requirements. Forecast Planning looks at expected future demand. Intercompany Master Planning connects demand and supply requirements between legal entities. Each starts with demand but answers a different planning question. MASTER PLANNING AND NET REQUIREMENTS Master Planning calculates net requirements. The basic concept is straightforward: Demand – Available or Expected Supply = Remaining Requirement Suppose a customer orders 100 units and the warehouse has 30 available. The remaining requirement is 70. If another 20 units are already scheduled to arrive from a supplier before the customer's required date, the uncovered requirement becomes smaller again. Dynamics 365 therefore doesn't simply suggest purchasing or producing the complete customer quantity. It considers supply that already exists or is expected to arrive. WHY DATES CHANGE THE ANSWER Having enough inventory eventually isn't the same as having enough inventory when it's required. Suppose 20 additional bicycles arrive from a supplier. If they arrive before the customer needs them, they can help satisfy the demand. If they arrive afterward, they don't solve this particular shortage. Master Planning therefore considers quantity and timing together. A total inventory number without dates can provide a misleading picture of whether customer demand can actually be fulfilled. THE PLANNING HORIZON The appropriate planning horizon depends on the business. A company purchasing simple products locally might only need to look several weeks ahead. A manufacturer using components with long supplier lead times may need to plan months ahead. The important principle is that planning needs to look far enough forward to identify shortages while there is still time to respond. Discovering a shortage after the required purchasing or production date has already passed provides very little value. FORECAST PLANNING Forecast Planning begins with expected demand rather than confirmed customer orders. A bicycle manufacturer might expect demand to increase during summer. A retailer might anticipate significantly higher sales during a promotion. Waiting until every customer order arrives could leave insufficient time to purchase materials or reserve production capacity. Forecast Planning gives organizations an earlier view of the workload they expect to face. GROSS REQUIREMENTS Forecast Planning calculates gross requirements based on expected demand. If the forecast predicts demand for 500 bicycles in July, planning begins with that expected requirement. The organization can then consider the materials, supplier capacity, warehouse space, and production resources potentially required to support that volume. Forecasts aren't guaranteed customer orders. They provide a planning signal allowing the business to prepare before confirmed demand arrives. INTERCOMPANY MASTER PLANNING Large organizations may operate several legal entities. One company might manufacture a product while another sells that product in another country. The selling company sees customer demand. The manufacturing company needs visibility into the supply requirements created by that demand. Intercompany Master Planning carries planning signals across company boundaries so each legal entity doesn't plan as though it operates completely independently. FROM ONE ORDER TO A CHAIN OF SUPPLY A finished product can create demand for many lower-level components. Suppose a customer orders 70 bicycles. Dynamics 365 can examine the structure of the finished bicycle and determine which components are required to produce those 70 units. That might create requirements for 70 frames, 140 wheels, 70 chains, 70 seats, and hundreds of smaller components. This is where the Bill of Materials becomes critical. BILL OF MATERIALS EXPLAINED A Bill of Materials, commonly called a BOM, is essentially the recipe for a manufactured product. For a bicycle, it identifies the frames, wheels, chains, seats, handlebars, brakes, bolts, and other components required for production. Master Planning can expand demand for the finished product into requirements for the components underneath it. Planners therefore don't need to manually calculate every component requirement whenever customer demand changes. PRODUCTION ROUTES Having every component available still doesn't automatically create a finished product. Production requires work. A route describes the steps required to manufacture the item. For a bicycle, those steps might include assembling the frame, installing wheels, checking brakes, and packing the finished product. Each operation can require resources such as employees, assembly lines, workbenches, machines, or specialized equipment. PLANNING BACKWARD FROM THE CUSTOMER DATE Suppose the customer needs the bicycles on Friday. Production might need to finish Thursday so the warehouse has time to prepare the shipment. Assembly might therefore need to begin Tuesday. Components might need to be available Monday. If a supplier requires ten days to deliver wheels, the purchase order must be placed considerably earlier. The customer delivery date therefore creates a chain of dependent dates stretching backward through production and purchasing. LEAD TIMES A lead time represents how long an activity takes. A supplier might require ten days to deliver components. A warehouse transfer could require two days. A production process might require three days. Master Planning uses these lead times when calculating when supply needs to become available. Incorrect lead times can therefore produce incorrect planning suggestions even when the planning calculation itself works perfectly. PLANNED ORDERS When existing supply can't cover demand, Dynamics 365 can create a planned order. A planned purchase order suggests buying something from a supplier. A planned production order suggests manufacturing something internally. A planned transfer order suggests moving inventory from another site or warehouse. These planned orders contain suggested quantities and dates based on the information available to the planning engine. PLANNED ORDERS ARE SUGGESTIONS A planned order isn't automatically a commitment. Dynamics 365 doesn't need to silently send a purchase order to the supplier or begin production simply because the planning calculation identified a shortage. The planner reviews the suggestion. Is the proposed supplier appropriate? Is the delivery date realistic? Does the quantity make sense? Can production actually handle the work? Master Planning provides the recommendation while the planner remains responsible for the decision. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-modern-work-security-and-productivity-with-microsoft-365--6704921/support.

    Dynamics 365 Master Planning - Simply Explained

  2. 2 giờ trước

    Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management - Simply Explained

    A customer clicks Buy, but the product could be sitting in a central warehouse, a nearby store, another legal entity, or with a fulfillment partner. The customer doesn't care about that complexity. They expect a clear delivery promise and their package to arrive. Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management coordinates that journey across sales channels, inventory locations, fulfillment systems, warehouses, carriers, and billing platforms. In this episode of M365 FM, Mirko Peters explains how Intelligent Order Management uses orchestration flows, inventory visibility, fulfillment optimization, providers, Dataverse, Power Automate, and Power BI to coordinate orders from initial capture through fulfillment and billing. WHAT IS DYNAMICS 365 INTELLIGENT ORDER MANAGEMENT? Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management is a cloud application designed to coordinate an order across the different systems involved in fulfilling it. Think of it as a central dispatch desk. It isn't another online store. It doesn't physically pick products from warehouse shelves, drive delivery vehicles, or replace the finance system. Instead, it receives orders, determines what needs to happen next, passes work to the appropriate connected systems, and tracks the updates coming back. The specialist systems continue doing their jobs while Intelligent Order Management coordinates the journey between them. WHY MODERN ORDER MANAGEMENT BECOMES COMPLICATED A company might sell the same product through its website, physical stores, online marketplaces, and a call center. From the customer's perspective, these are simply different ways to buy the same product. Behind the scenes, however, each channel might use a different system and format. The website has one order record. The point-of-sale system has another. The marketplace sends information differently. A call-center employee might create the order somewhere else. One customer transaction can therefore create several disconnected processes. INVENTORY MAKES THE PROBLEM HARDER Stock might exist across several locations. The main warehouse could have twenty units. A nearby store might have five. Another warehouse could have additional inventory but be significantly farther from the customer. Simply knowing that inventory exists isn't enough. Some inventory could already be reserved. Some locations might not support shipping. Another location might have the product but be unable to meet the customer's promised delivery date. Order management therefore needs to answer more than "Do we have it?" It needs to answer "Which available inventory should fulfill this particular order?"  THE PROBLEM WITH DISCONNECTED SYSTEMS When order information moves slowly between systems, employees frequently become the integration layer. Customer service checks one system, emails the warehouse, contacts the carrier, and then checks another application for billing information. Meanwhile, another sales channel could sell the same inventory before the stock update reaches it. That's how overselling, slow fulfillment decisions, duplicated work, and unclear customer updates can occur. Intelligent Order Management creates a coordination layer across those systems rather than forcing employees to manually connect them. ONE ORDER JOURNEY ACROSS MULTIPLE SYSTEMS The underlying idea is straightforward. Sales systems capture the order. Inventory systems maintain stock information. Warehouse and fulfillment systems handle picking and packing. Delivery partners transport the products. Billing systems handle the financial transaction. Intelligent Order Management coordinates the handoffs between these systems and maintains visibility into where the order currently sits in its journey. DATAVERSE AS THE DATA FOUNDATION Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management is built on Microsoft Dataverse. Dataverse provides a common data foundation used across Dynamics 365 and Power Platform applications. In practical terms, this gives Intelligent Order Management a structured place for order and fulfillment information even when the original transactions came from different systems. Organizations also don't need to replace every existing business application with another Dynamics 365 product before they can coordinate orders. MICROSOFT AND NON-MICROSOFT SYSTEMS An organization might already use Dynamics 365 Finance or Supply Chain Management. Another organization might use a third-party warehouse platform, e-commerce solution, marketplace, or logistics provider. Intelligent Order Management is designed to coordinate information across Microsoft and non-Microsoft business applications. The connection points between these systems are called providers. PROVIDERS EXPLAINED Think of a provider as a translator standing at the door between Intelligent Order Management and another system. One application sends order information in its own format. The provider translates and passes that information into Intelligent Order Management. Information can also travel back toward the connected system when another action needs to happen. This allows different applications to continue doing their specialist jobs while participating in the same coordinated order journey. FOLLOWING THE ORDER JOURNEY Imagine a customer orders two products from an online store and requests delivery tomorrow. The online store captures the customer information, delivery address, products, quantities, and delivery choice. A provider brings that order into Intelligent Order Management. Before fulfillment begins, the order can be validated. The system can check whether the necessary customer information, delivery details, product lines, quantities, and other required information are present before sending the order farther downstream. WHY ORDER VALIDATION MATTERS Suppose the customer's apartment number is missing. If the order travels directly through warehouse and carrier systems, the problem might not become visible until somebody attempts delivery. Validation provides an opportunity to identify incomplete or invalid information earlier. The order can then be held or routed appropriately instead of allowing incorrect information to move automatically through every downstream system. ORCHESTRATION FLOWS EXPLAINED An orchestration flow defines how an order should move through the organization's process. Think of it as a visual map of the order journey. A basic flow might receive an order, validate its header and lines, send it toward fulfillment, wait for the relevant events, and eventually send information to a billing provider. Instead of every employee remembering what should happen next, the process itself defines the route. CONDITIONS IN ORDER FLOWS Real-world orders don't always follow one straight path. An online consumer order might follow one process while a B2B order follows another. A particular product might require another approval. A failed validation could require the order to stop. Conditions allow orchestration flows to create different paths depending on what happens. A successful action can continue along one route while an unsuccessful result can send the order somewhere else for additional handling. SPLITTERS AND MULTIPLE ORDER PATHS Splitters allow an orchestration flow to branch into multiple paths according to rules established by the organization. Different order sources could require different checks. Different parts of an order might need different fulfillment routes. Some paths can eventually reconnect while others continue separately. This gives organizations a way to model more complicated order processes without hiding those decisions inside emails and manual handoffs. CUSTOM ACTIONS Not every business requirement fits a standard action. A company might have a specialized manufacturing platform, partner application, or internal system requiring another step in the order journey. Custom actions allow those organization-specific requirements to become part of the orchestration flow. The complete process therefore remains visible even when part of the work depends on a specialized business system. PUBLISHING ORCHESTRATION FLOWS Orchestration flows remain unpublished while teams build and test them. Incoming data doesn't execute through an unpublished flow. Once the organization is satisfied with the process, the flow can be published and incoming information begins moving through it. If the process needs modification, the published flow can be stopped, returned to an unpublished state, changed, tested, and published again. This provides a controlled approach to changing the routes used by live customer orders. INVENTORY VISIBILITY An order orchestration process only works effectively when it has useful inventory information. Inventory Visibility provides a consolidated view of stock across the organization's supply network. Inventory might exist in warehouses, stores, partner locations, or across different legal entities. Instead of manually checking several separate inventory systems, the wider order process can use connected inventory information when making fulfillment decisions. INVENTORY DOESN'T ALWAYS MEAN AVAILABLE Seeing ten units in a location doesn't necessarily mean those ten units can fulfill the current order. Inventory might already be reserved. A store could have stock but not support shipping. A warehouse might have the item but be too far away to satisfy tomorrow's delivery promise. Intelligent order management therefore needs to distinguish between inventory that physically exists and inventory that can realistically fulfill a particular customer order. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-modern-work-security-and-productivity-with-microsoft-365--6704921/support.

    Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management - Simply Explained

  3. 3 giờ trước

    Dynamics 365 Business Central Extensions - Simply Explained

    Dynamics 365 Business Central already provides capabilities for finance, sales, purchasing, inventory, projects, and other core business processes. But no two organizations operate exactly the same way. A company might need specialized shipping, local financial reports, additional approval rules, bank integrations, electronic invoicing, or a connection to another business system. In this episode of M365 FM, Mirko Peters explains how Business Central extensions add these capabilities without directly modifying the standard application—and what organizations should check before installing them. WHAT ARE BUSINESS CENTRAL EXTENSIONS? A Business Central extension is an add-on package that adds capabilities to Dynamics 365 Business Central or changes how part of the standard application works for a particular organization. An extension can be extremely small. It might add one required field to a customer card or introduce a new validation rule. It can also support an entire business process. A shipping extension might generate carrier labels, send parcel information to a shipping provider, and return tracking numbers to Business Central. The objective is to add the missing capability while keeping the standard Business Central foundation intact. THINK OF EXTENSIONS LIKE APPS ON YOUR PHONE A smartphone already contains core functionality such as calling, messaging, and a camera. You then install additional apps based on what you need. Business Central extensions follow a similar principle. Business Central provides the standard ERP foundation. Extensions add capabilities required by a particular organization, industry, country, or process. Instead of rebuilding the underlying application, organizations extend it with modular functionality. WHAT CAN AN EXTENSION CHANGE? Extensions can add fields, pages, reports, actions, rules, integrations, and business logic. For example, an extension could add a new button to a sales order, introduce another column to a list, change an invoice layout, or connect Business Central with an external service. Business logic allows extensions to enforce company-specific rules. An organization could prevent an order from being released until somebody enters a purchase order number or automatically start an approval process when an order exceeds a particular amount. WHY EXTENSIONS ARE BETTER THAN CHANGING THE CORE CODE Historically, organizations frequently customized ERP systems by directly changing the standard application code. That can create problems when the software vendor releases updates. The updated standard application expects the underlying system to behave in a particular way, while custom modifications may conflict with those changes. Extensions take a different approach. Their code remains separate from the standard Business Central application. Microsoft can update the core application while the organization's extensions remain separate packages. Extensions can still require compatibility testing, but this architecture provides a cleaner foundation for maintaining custom functionality. STANDARD FIRST, EXTEND SECOND Extensions shouldn't become an excuse to recreate an organization's old ERP system inside Business Central. Business Central already handles significant amounts of standard business functionality. Before creating or installing an extension, organizations should therefore ask whether a genuine business gap exists. Sometimes the right extension contains an entire integration. Sometimes the best solution is simply one additional field and one validation rule. The goal is to preserve the standard foundation while adding only what the business genuinely requires. THE MAIN TYPES OF BUSINESS CENTRAL EXTENSIONS Business Central extensions can originate from different sources. Some are packaged applications designed for common requirements. Others come from Microsoft or independent software vendors. Organizations can also create extensions specifically for their own Business Central environment. Understanding where an extension comes from helps determine how it should be evaluated, supported, maintained, and updated. APP EXTENSIONS An app extension is a packaged add-on designed to perform a particular job inside Business Central. A shipping app might connect orders with a carrier. A payment application could integrate with a payment provider. A reporting extension might add specialized financial reports. Once configured, users generally interact with these capabilities directly inside Business Central. The extension can add its own pages or introduce additional functionality into familiar areas such as sales orders, purchase orders, customer cards, and invoices. MICROSOFT EXTENSIONS Microsoft itself provides extensions for requirements that don't necessarily belong in the standard application for every customer. Localization is one example. Tax requirements, invoices, payments, and statutory documents differ between countries. Functionality required by organizations in one country might be completely irrelevant somewhere else. Extensions allow Microsoft to provide these capabilities without adding every possible country-specific requirement to the standard application. ISV EXTENSIONS ISV stands for Independent Software Vendor. These are software companies creating Business Central applications that can be used by multiple customers. An ISV might specialize in warehouse management, manufacturing, retail, payroll integrations, document management, electronic invoicing, banking, shipping, or industry-specific reporting. Instead of every Business Central customer developing the same functionality independently, an ISV creates a reusable application that multiple organizations can purchase or subscribe to. MICROSOFT APPSOURCE Many third-party Business Central applications can be found through Microsoft AppSource. AppSource acts as a marketplace where organizations can discover applications designed to extend Microsoft business applications. This can be particularly useful when the business requirement is common. If hundreds of companies need to connect Business Central with the same shipping company, bank, payment provider, or electronic invoicing platform, purchasing an established application may make more sense than developing another integration from scratch. PER-TENANT EXTENSIONS A per-tenant extension is developed specifically for one organization's Business Central environment rather than being published for every customer. This approach can make sense when the business requirement is genuinely unique. A distributor might have an unusual process for calculating delivery charges based on temperature-controlled transportation, delivery zones, returnable containers, and customer-specific agreements. If no existing application fits that requirement, a Business Central partner or developer can create a dedicated extension around the company's process. CUSTOM DOESN'T AUTOMATICALLY MEAN BETTER A custom extension can closely match the organization's process, but somebody must own it. Documentation needs to be maintained. Updates need testing. Problems need support. Changes to the business process may require development work. If an existing ISV application already solves the requirement, it may provide a more maintainable option. The decision should therefore begin with the business requirement—not with an assumption that custom development is always more powerful. HOW EXTENSIONS CHANGE DAILY WORK Users frequently experience extensions directly on Business Central pages they already know. An extension might add another field to a customer card, another action to a sales order, or additional information to an item card. Imagine a company requiring a delivery window for every customer. An extension could add that information to the customer record and then display it directly on the sales order. Employees don't need another spreadsheet or email containing the delivery requirement because the information appears where they perform the work. PAGE EXTENSIONS Page extensions modify the Business Central user experience without replacing the complete standard page. They can introduce fields, buttons, actions, and other elements. A new button might create a shipping label, send a payment reminder, open a related document, or initiate an approval request. The user continues working inside the familiar Business Central interface while the extension provides additional functionality directly within the relevant business record. REPORT EXTENSIONS Organizations frequently require documents and reports that differ from Business Central's standard output. An invoice might need additional legal text, another reference number, specific company information, or different layouts for domestic and international customers. Report extensions can add information or provide alternative layouts while preserving the standard report. Extensions can also enhance internal management, finance, and inventory reports with additional company-specific information. PERMISSION SET EXTENSIONS Adding functionality doesn't mean every employee should automatically receive access to it. Permissions determine what users can view, modify, post, or delete. An extension might introduce a new payment process required by finance employees or a shipping action required by warehouse workers. Permission set extensions can provide the necessary access structure for those new capabilities. The organization still determines which employees or groups should receive those permissions based on their responsibilities. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-modern-work-security-and-productivity-with-microsoft-365--6704921/support.

    Dynamics 365 Business Central Extensions - Simply Explained

  4. 4 giờ trước

    Dynamics 365 Procurement and Sourcing - Simply Explained

    What happens when someone at work needs a new laptop, raw materials for production, safety equipment, consulting services, or even a cleaning contract? In many organizations, purchasing still involves emails, spreadsheets, approval messages, vendor quotes, delivery notes, and invoices spread across different systems. Dynamics 365 Procurement and Sourcing connects these activities into one controlled source-to-pay process. In this episode of M365 FM, Mirko Peters explains how Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management connects purchase requisitions, sourcing, vendors, RFQs, purchase orders, receiving, invoice matching, approvals, Accounts Payable, and vendor payments. WHAT IS DYNAMICS 365 PROCUREMENT AND SOURCING? Procurement and sourcing are closely related, but they describe different parts of the purchasing process. Sourcing focuses on finding and selecting the right vendor. The organization considers products, prices, delivery dates, terms, discounts, and the vendor's ability to meet its requirements. Procurement manages what happens when the organization actually buys something: the request, approval, purchase order, receipt, invoice, and eventually payment. Together, these activities create the source-to-pay process. SOURCE-TO-PAY EXPLAINED Source-to-pay describes the complete journey from identifying a business requirement to paying the supplier. The organization identifies what it needs, finds or selects an appropriate vendor, creates an order, receives the goods or services, processes the vendor invoice, and eventually pays the supplier. The individual steps aren't particularly unusual. The value comes from keeping them connected. Instead of approvals disappearing into email and invoices arriving without context, Dynamics 365 maintains the purchasing trail from the original request through payment. DIRECT VS INDIRECT PROCUREMENT Businesses typically purchase two broad categories of goods and services. Direct procurement covers goods or services directly connected to what the company produces or sells. A furniture manufacturer purchasing wood, screws, and fabric is buying direct materials. Indirect procurement covers products and services required to operate the business but which don't become part of the finished product. Examples include laptops, office furniture, training, repairs, cleaning, software, and legal services. Dynamics 365 can support both types while maintaining controlled purchasing processes. PURCHASE REQUISITIONS A purchase requisition is an internal request to buy something. An employee can specify what is required, the quantity, and potentially where the purchase should be delivered. Importantly, the requisition doesn't yet create a commitment with a vendor. That gives the organization an opportunity to review the requirement, check budgets, apply purchasing policies, and obtain the appropriate approvals before money is committed. PROCUREMENT CATALOGS Common purchases can begin through procurement catalogs. Think of the catalog as the organization's approved internal shopping shelf. Instead of somebody entering a vague request for "safety gloves," employees can select an approved product with an established description, supplier option, and price. Catalogs simplify purchasing for employees while helping the organization guide demand toward products and suppliers it already understands. PROCUREMENT CATEGORIES Not every purchase belongs in a product catalog. Organizations also purchase consulting, repairs, training, legal services, and other requirements that might not have a traditional item number. Procurement categories allow these purchases to be classified according to what the organization is buying. Examples could include safety supplies, computer equipment, professional services, building repairs, or training. This allows purchasing controls and spend analysis to work even when the purchase isn't a physical inventory item. APPROVAL WORKFLOWS A purchase shouldn't automatically proceed simply because somebody requested it. Dynamics 365 can use approval workflows, spending limits, purchasing policies, and budget controls to determine who needs to review a request. A small purchase might require one manager's approval. A larger expenditure could additionally require a budget owner or purchasing manager. The approval path can depend on factors such as amount, department, category, and company policy. Dynamics 365 records those approvals as part of the purchasing history. REQUEST FOR QUOTATION When the organization hasn't already selected a supplier, purchasing can create a Request for Quotation, commonly called an RFQ. Several vendors can receive the same requirements and provide their prices and commercial terms. One vendor might offer the lowest price but require three weeks for delivery. Another might cost slightly more but deliver next week. Dynamics 365 keeps those responses connected with the sourcing process so buyers can compare options before making a decision. VENDOR MANAGEMENT Vendor records contain information required for the organization's purchasing relationship with suppliers. Vendor catalogs can describe products available from particular suppliers, while approved vendor lists can identify which suppliers are permitted for specific products. This helps organizations control where employees and buyers purchase goods. Instead of choosing a supplier simply because somebody found one online, the purchasing process can guide users toward vendors the organization has already approved. PURCHASE AGREEMENTS A purchase agreement records longer-term commercial arrangements between the organization and a vendor. For example, the business might agree to purchase a particular quantity or spend a certain amount over an established period in return for agreed commercial terms. When purchases occur under that agreement, buyers don't need to renegotiate the complete arrangement every time. This is particularly useful for frequently purchased goods and strategic vendor relationships. TRADE AND REBATE AGREEMENTS Trade agreements can record vendor prices or discounts that apply during particular periods. If a supplier agrees to provide safety gloves at a discounted price for six months, Dynamics 365 can maintain that pricing arrangement. Rebate agreements address another scenario: the supplier returns money when agreed purchasing quantities or spending thresholds are reached. Together, these capabilities help organizations maintain negotiated commercial conditions within the purchasing process instead of relying on individual buyers to remember them. THE PURCHASE ORDER Once the organization knows what it needs and who will supply it, the purchasing decision becomes a Purchase Order, or PO. The purchase order formally describes what the organization intends to buy. It identifies the vendor, products or services, quantities, prices, delivery requirements, and payment terms. The PO becomes the central commercial record that purchasing, warehouse employees, finance teams, and the supplier can work against. HOW PURCHASE ORDERS ARE CREATED  Purchase orders can originate from several sources. An approved purchase requisition can become a PO. A buyer can release purchases against an existing purchase agreement. Planned demand can create planned purchase orders that later become real orders. Buyers can also manually create purchase orders when they already know exactly what needs to be purchased and which supplier should provide it. Different purchasing scenarios can therefore enter the process differently while ultimately creating the same controlled purchase record. PURCHASE ORDER APPROVAL AND CONFIRMATION The organization can require internal approval before a purchase order becomes an external commitment. This separates two important decisions. First, the organization approves spending its own money. Then the purchase order can be confirmed with the vendor, establishing the agreed products, quantities, prices, delivery dates, and terms. This creates a clearer purchasing process than sending an order externally before the appropriate internal approval has occurred. DELIVERY SCHEDULES Not every purchase order arrives in one delivery. A supplier might deliver part of an order immediately and the remainder the following week. Delivery schedules allow one purchase order to contain planned deliveries across multiple dates. The organization maintains one connected purchasing record while representing what is actually expected to happen operationally. DIRECT DELIVERY Some purchased goods never need to enter the organization's own warehouse. With direct delivery, a supplier ships products directly to the organization's customer. Dynamics 365 can connect the customer sales order with the corresponding vendor purchase order. This eliminates an unnecessary warehouse stop while maintaining the relationship between the customer demand and the supplier fulfilling that demand. SUPPLEMENTARY ITEMS AND CHARGES Purchase orders can contain more than the primary item being purchased. Dynamics 365 can suggest supplementary products that may be required, optional, or included with another item. Charges such as freight and handling can also be associated with the purchase order or individual lines. This matters because the advertised product price doesn't necessarily represent the complete purchasing cost. Keeping additional charges connected to the order provides a clearer view of what the purchase actually costs. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-modern-work-security-and-productivity-with-microsoft-365--6704921/support.

    Dynamics 365 Procurement and Sourcing - Simply Explained

  5. 5 giờ trước

    Dynamics 365 Accounts Receivable - Simply Explained

    You made the sale and sent the invoice—but when does the money actually reach your account, and what happens when it doesn't? Dynamics 365 Accounts Receivable connects customer accounts, invoices, payment terms, incoming payments, settlement, credit management, collections, disputes, and overdue balances inside Dynamics 365 Finance. In this episode of M365 FM, Mirko Peters follows one customer balance from the original sale through invoicing and payment—and shows what happens when payment arrives late. WHAT IS DYNAMICS 365 ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE?  Accounts Receivable tracks money customers owe the business and the payments received against those debts. Think of it as a financial filing cabinet. Every customer has a folder containing invoices, payments, due dates, payment terms, credit information, and follow-up activities. A spreadsheet can list outstanding invoices. Dynamics 365 Finance goes further by connecting those invoices with sales transactions, customer agreements, bank payments, credit decisions, and collection activities. The result is a connected view of the financial relationship with each customer. THE CUSTOMER ACCOUNT Every Accounts Receivable process begins with the customer account. The customer account contains more than contact information. It defines many of the financial rules governing how the organization does business with that customer. That can include the invoice address, payment terms, payment method, credit limit, customer group, and other financial settings. For example, products might be delivered to a customer's factory while invoices are sent to its finance office. Dynamics 365 can maintain those differences as part of the customer relationship. PAYMENT TERMS AND DUE DATES Payment terms answer a straightforward question: How long does the customer have to pay? One customer might pay immediately, another within 30 days, and a larger customer might negotiate 60-day payment terms. Once those rules exist on the customer account, Dynamics 365 can use them when calculating invoice due dates. Employees don't need to search through email conversations every time an invoice is created to determine what was agreed with the customer. CUSTOMER CREDIT LIMITS A credit limit defines how much the organization is willing to let a customer owe at one time. A strong customer relationship doesn't automatically mean unlimited financial exposure. If a customer already has a substantial outstanding balance and places another large order, Dynamics 365 can help finance and sales determine whether the new transaction requires additional attention. Credit limits therefore establish agreed financial boundaries before unpaid balances become larger problems. CUSTOMER GROUPS AND POSTING PROFILES Customer groups allow organizations to organize customers with similar characteristics. Retail customers might belong to one group while wholesale customers belong to another. Posting profiles handle an accounting requirement behind the scenes. They determine which financial accounts should record customer debt when transactions are posted. Employees outside finance might rarely interact with these configurations, but they help ensure customer transactions reach the correct places within the organization's financial records. FROM SALES ORDER TO CUSTOMER INVOICE An order and an invoice aren't the same thing. A sales order records what the customer wants to purchase. An invoice establishes what the customer needs to pay. When the invoice is posted, Dynamics 365 creates an open balance against the customer account. Accounts Receivable can then track that amount until payment closes it or somebody needs to take action. INVOICING FROM SALES ORDERS Many customer invoices originate directly from sales orders. Because the sales order already contains information about the customer, products, quantities, prices, and other agreements, finance doesn't need to recreate those details inside a separate billing system. Depending on the organization's process, invoicing might happen when products ship or when another agreed billing milestone occurs. The important point is that the invoice remains connected to the underlying business transaction. PACKING SLIP INVOICING Sometimes an organization wants to invoice based on what actually shipped rather than everything originally ordered. Imagine a customer orders ten units but only eight are currently available. If eight units ship, invoicing based on the confirmed delivery information allows the organization to bill for those eight rather than charging the customer for products that haven't yet been delivered. This creates a closer connection between warehouse execution and financial billing.  FREE TEXT INVOICES Not every invoice begins with a sales order. An organization might need to invoice a customer for training, a service charge, a project-related fee, or another one-off amount. Dynamics 365 Finance supports free text invoices for these situations. Despite the name, these are still formal invoices. The difference is that they aren't linked to a sales order. Once posted, the amount becomes part of the customer's outstanding balance just like other customer invoices. RECURRING AND SUBSCRIPTION BILLING Recurring services introduce another Accounts Receivable requirement. If a customer pays a monthly maintenance fee, manually recreating the same invoice every month wastes time and increases the possibility of errors. Billing schedules can support recurring charges according to the agreed arrangement. Instead of rebuilding every invoice manually, the organization establishes the billing schedule and uses that structure as billing periods arrive. WHAT POSTING AN INVOICE MEANS Posting is an important financial moment. Before posting, the invoice hasn't yet become the same kind of finalized financial transaction. Once posted, Dynamics 365 records the amount against the customer's account as money owed and sends the transaction into the organization's financial records. Accounts Receivable can now see the outstanding balance, due date, and customer responsible for paying it. RECEIVING CUSTOMER PAYMENTS Money arriving in the company's bank account doesn't automatically complete the Accounts Receivable process. Finance still needs to answer two questions: Who sent the money, and which invoice—or invoices—does that payment belong to? Without connecting the payment to the correct customer debt, the bank could show that cash arrived while Dynamics 365 still reports the customer's invoice as unpaid. The financial records therefore need to meet. CUSTOMER PAYMENT JOURNALS A customer payment journal provides a controlled place for finance teams to enter and review customer payments. Information can include the customer, payment amount, payment method, receiving bank account, and references associated with the transaction. Customers might pay through bank transfers, cards, checks, cash, or other supported payment mechanisms. The payment journal helps finance record those transactions before they become part of the posted financial records. SETTLEMENT EXPLAINED Settlement sounds technical, but the basic concept is simple: Settlement matches a payment with the invoice it pays. If a customer pays exactly the amount owed on an invoice, finance can match the payment against that open invoice. Once processed, the invoice no longer remains outstanding and the customer's open balance decreases accordingly. Without correct settlement, an organization can receive the money while still incorrectly showing that the customer owes it. PARTIAL PAYMENTS Customers don't always pay an invoice in full. If a customer pays only part of the outstanding amount, Dynamics 365 can settle the amount received while keeping the remaining balance open. Finance can therefore see precisely how much has been paid and how much remains outstanding. This is significantly clearer than marking an invoice as completed and attempting to track the remaining amount through notes or external spreadsheets. PAYMENT RECONCILIATION Organizations receiving large numbers of bank payments need a more efficient way to match incoming transactions with customer invoices. Dynamics 365 can use payment reconciliation processes to help match bank information against open customer transactions. References, amounts, customer information, and matching rules can help identify likely matches. Finance still reviews the results. Automation reduces manual searching, but the team remains responsible for ensuring that payments settle the correct invoices. CENTRALIZED PAYMENTS Organizations operating several legal entities can face additional payment complexity. A central finance organization might receive payments on behalf of several companies within the wider group. Dynamics 365 supports centralized payment scenarios where a payment can be recorded in one legal entity while settling customer debt associated with another. This allows the accounting records to reflect how the organization actually manages its centralized finance operations. CREDIT MANAGEMENT Receiving payment closes an existing debt. Credit management asks whether the organization should allow the customer to create more debt. Dynamics 365 can consider the customer's credit limit, outstanding invoices, overdue amounts, and the value of a new sales order. A customer might technically remain below its credit limit but have significantly overdue invoices. Another customer might pay reliably but place an unusually large new order. Credit management provides structured rules for identifying transactions requiring review. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-modern-work-security-and-productivity-with-microsoft-365--6704921/support.

    Dynamics 365 Accounts Receivable - Simply Explained

  6. 6 giờ trước

    Dynamics 365 Warehouse Management - Simply Explained

    Dynamics 365 Warehouse Management turns inventory records into guided physical work on the warehouse floor. Knowing that 200 units exist is only the beginning. Warehouse teams need to know exactly where those units are stored, whether they are available, which customer orders they belong to, and what workers should do with them next. In this episode of M365 FM, Mirko Peters explains how Dynamics 365 Warehouse Management connects receiving, put-away, storage, replenishment, picking, packing, shipping, cycle counting, returns, quality management, barcode scanning, and warehouse automation with the wider Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management platform. WHAT IS DYNAMICS 365 WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT? Dynamics 365 Warehouse Management focuses on the physical work taking place inside a warehouse. It guides employees through receiving deliveries, moving products into storage, replenishing picking locations, picking customer orders, packing shipments, and preparing goods for dispatch. Each completed warehouse action can update the same connected business system used by purchasing, sales, production, inventory, quality, transportation, and finance. Instead of relying on paper lists or recording movements later, warehouse employees can confirm activities while they happen using mobile devices and barcode scans. INVENTORY MANAGEMENT VS WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT Inventory Management and Warehouse Management solve related but different problems. Inventory Management answers questions such as: How much inventory does the company have? What is it worth? Is it available? Warehouse Management focuses on questions such as: Where exactly is that inventory, and what should a warehouse worker do with it next? Knowing that 200 boxes exist in Warehouse A isn't enough for efficient warehouse operations. Employees need to know that 80 are in one rack, 60 are in bulk storage, 20 are near packing, and another quantity is already reserved. Inventory Management provides the stock record. Warehouse Management converts that information into physical work. SITES, WAREHOUSES AND LOCATIONS Dynamics 365 needs a digital representation of the physical warehouse environment. A site can represent a broader business location such as a factory campus or distribution center. A site can contain one or more warehouses. Inside those warehouses are individual locations representing receiving docks, racks, shelves, bins, packing stations, staging areas, and quarantine areas. This hierarchy gives inventory a precise digital location rather than simply recording that the product exists somewhere inside a building. BATCH AND SERIAL NUMBER TRACKING Warehouse Management can maintain additional information about individual products. Batch numbers identify groups of products from the same production run or delivery. This becomes particularly important for food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and other products requiring traceability. Serial numbers identify individual units. Machines, laptops, and high-value components can therefore maintain their individual identities as they move through the warehouse and eventually reach customers. This creates a traceable history that can become valuable for returns, quality problems, servicing, and recalls. LICENSE PLATES EXPLAINED A warehouse license plate isn't a vehicle registration. In Dynamics 365, a license plate provides a unique identifier for a pallet, carton, tote, or another container. Think of it like a luggage tag. Scanning the identifier tells Dynamics which container the worker is handling and what that container contains. Instead of scanning every individual box on a pallet repeatedly, employees can work with the license plate representing the complete pallet when the underlying inventory record is accurate. RECEIVING INBOUND GOODS Warehouse activity frequently begins with a purchase order. The purchase order tells the organization which products it expects from a supplier, the expected quantities, and usually the expected arrival time. When the truck reaches the warehouse, employees can scan the products or pallets and compare the physical delivery with the expected purchase order. If 100 cases were expected but only 98 arrived, the discrepancy can become visible immediately instead of waiting for somebody to manually enter paperwork later. QUARANTINE AND QUALITY CONTROL Not everything entering a warehouse should immediately become available. Products might require inspection, testing, or approval before they can be used or shipped. Dynamics 365 can direct those goods toward quarantine locations. The inventory physically exists inside the warehouse, but employees cannot treat it like ordinary available stock. Once the appropriate quality process has been completed, the products can either be approved for normal use or rejected and handled appropriately. PUT-AWAY After receiving, products need somewhere to go. This process is called put-away. Instead of asking workers to decide where a pallet should fit, Dynamics 365 can direct them toward an appropriate storage location. The decision can consider the product, warehouse zone, physical size, storage requirements, available space, and intended use of the location. The worker receives a straightforward instruction while the underlying warehouse configuration handles the decision logic. LOCATION DIRECTIVES Location directives are the rules Dynamics 365 uses to determine where inventory should go or where inventory should be picked from. Heavy inventory might need a ground-level rack. Fast-moving products might belong close to packing areas. Temperature-sensitive products may only be stored in approved locations. Location directives translate these warehouse policies into executable instructions. Instead of expecting every employee to memorize every storage rule, Dynamics can determine an appropriate location and present that destination through the worker's device.  WORK TEMPLATES Work templates determine the steps employees need to perform. For inbound inventory, a work template might contain two straightforward steps: pick the inventory from the receiving location and put it into its designated storage location. For outbound operations, templates can define picking, movement to packing, and staging. These repeatable workflows help create consistent warehouse processes across employees and shifts. MOBILE DEVICES AND BARCODE SCANNING Warehouse employees can receive instructions directly on mobile devices. The device can ask the worker to scan a location, scan a product, confirm a quantity, and proceed to the next step. These scans create immediate validation. If somebody scans the wrong product while picking a customer order, the system can identify the problem before the incorrect item reaches the customer's package. The scan also updates the warehouse record while the physical activity occurs rather than requiring information to be entered later.             REPLENISHMENT Many warehouses separate bulk inventory from smaller locations used for daily order picking. When a picking location begins running low, employees need to move additional inventory from bulk storage before somebody encounters an empty shelf while fulfilling an order. Dynamics 365 can create replenishment work directing employees to move inventory into the appropriate picking location. This turns replenishment into planned warehouse activity rather than an emergency search for missing products. OUTBOUND WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT Outbound warehouse activity begins when customer demand needs to become a physical shipment. A sales order identifies what the customer ordered and how much they require. Inventory can be reserved for that order so the same limited stock isn't accidentally promised to somebody else. Warehouse Management then converts the requirement into physical activities such as picking the products, moving them to packing, preparing containers, staging the shipment, and eventually moving the goods toward the loading dock. WAVES EXPLAINED Large warehouses don't necessarily process every customer order independently. Dynamics 365 can use waves to group outbound work. Orders might be grouped because they leave on the same truck, share a delivery date, belong to a similar warehouse zone, or follow another operational rule. Grouping work can reduce unnecessary movement and help warehouses process large quantities of orders more efficiently. PICKING CUSTOMER ORDERS Once warehouse work is released, employees receive picking instructions. The mobile device can direct someone toward the appropriate location, ask them to scan the location, verify the product, and confirm the quantity. This creates several validation points before the product leaves its storage location. Instead of relying on a paper list and discovering errors at the end of the process, Dynamics can identify some mistakes while the worker is still standing at the shelf. CLUSTER PICKING Cluster picking allows one employee to pick products for several customer orders during a single journey through the warehouse. The worker might use a cart containing multiple totes, with each tote associated with a different order. When an item is picked, the mobile device tells the employee which tote should receive it. This can reduce unnecessary walking while keeping products belonging to different customer orders separated.  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-modern-work-security-and-productivity-with-microsoft-365--6704921/support.

    Dynamics 365 Warehouse Management - Simply Explained

  7. 7 giờ trước

    Dynamics 365 Transportation Management - Simply Explained

    Dynamics 365 Transportation Management connects the movement of physical goods with sales orders, purchase orders, warehouse operations, carriers, routes, rates, loads, and freight costs. Instead of managing transportation through separate spreadsheets, emails, carrier rate sheets, and phone calls, organizations can create a connected transportation plan directly inside Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. In this episode of M365 FM, Mirko Peters explains how Transportation Management works from the moment goods need to move through load planning, carrier selection, warehouse execution, delivery, and freight reconciliation. WHAT IS DYNAMICS 365 TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT? Dynamics 365 Transportation Management is the transportation planning capability inside Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. It connects warehouses, vendors, customers, carriers, orders, shipments, and freight costs. Think of it as the transportation desk inside the organization. Sales creates customer demand, purchasing manages incoming goods, warehouse teams prepare inventory, and Transportation Management determines how those goods should move between locations. The objective is to create one connected transportation process instead of maintaining separate lists and manual handoffs between departments. WHY TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT MATTERS A sales order doesn't physically move inventory. Goods still need a truck, trailer, container, or another form of transportation. Someone needs to determine where those goods originate, where they need to arrive, how much space they require, when they need to leave, and what transportation should cost. The challenge becomes significantly larger when a business manages hundreds of orders, several warehouses, multiple carriers, incoming supplier deliveries, customer shipments, and transfers between its own locations. Transportation Management provides a shared system for coordinating these movements. INBOUND TRANSPORTATION Inbound transportation covers goods moving into the organization. A purchase order might contain products expected from a supplier. Depending on the agreement, either the supplier or the purchasing organization may arrange transportation. When the organization manages that transportation, Dynamics 365 can connect the expected goods with a planned inbound load. Warehouse teams therefore gain visibility into what should arrive before the truck reaches the loading dock. OUTBOUND TRANSPORTATION Outbound transportation covers goods leaving the organization. A customer places a sales order, the warehouse prepares the products, and a carrier transports them to their destination. Transportation Management connects that sales demand with the shipment, load, carrier, route, service, and expected transportation cost. This allows warehouse and transportation teams to work around the same movement rather than independently planning different parts of the shipment. TRANSPORTATION FOR TRANSFER ORDERS Goods don't always move between a company and a customer or supplier. Organizations frequently transfer inventory between their own warehouses or sites. Dynamics 365 Transportation Management can include transfer orders within outbound transportation planning. From the loading dock's perspective, inventory still needs vehicle capacity, loading, transportation, and receiving regardless of whether the destination is a customer or another company warehouse. WHAT IS A LOAD? A load is the digital record representing a planned movement of goods. You can think of it as one truck, trailer, container, or collection of shipments traveling together. Several customer shipments might share one truck, while one particularly large customer order could require an entire trailer. The important idea is that Dynamics 365 doesn't require businesses to treat every individual order as a completely separate transportation job. Compatible shipments can be grouped into a shared transportation plan. CONSOLIDATING SHIPMENTS Imagine six customer orders are leaving the same warehouse for approximately the same destination on Friday. Booking six separate partially filled trucks would waste capacity and potentially increase transportation costs. Instead, compatible shipments can be grouped into one load. Compatibility can depend on factors such as departure location, shipping time, vehicle capacity, weight, volume, destination, and organizational transportation rules. This gives transportation planners an opportunity to use available vehicle capacity more efficiently. LOAD TEMPLATES Physical vehicles have limits. A truck can only carry a certain amount of weight and volume. Containers and trailers also have physical restrictions. Dynamics 365 uses load templates to represent reusable limits for different types of vehicles or containers. Organizations could create templates for small delivery trucks, large trailers, or shipping containers. These templates can include limits such as maximum weight, volume, and height. This helps planners determine whether a proposed load realistically fits the transportation capacity available. VOLUME-BASED LOAD BUILDING Dynamics 365 also supports volume-based load building. Despite the technical name, the concept is straightforward: Dynamics uses information from the load template to help determine whether goods fit within the configured transportation limits. The planner can still override values when real-world circumstances require an exception. The system therefore provides a standard planning framework without pretending transportation always follows perfectly predictable conditions. CARRIERS EXPLAINED The carrier is responsible for physically moving the goods. That could be an external transportation company collecting freight from the warehouse, or it could represent the organization's own fleet. Even businesses operating their own trucks still require transportation planning. They need to determine which goods travel together, where the vehicle travels, and potentially how transportation costs should be allocated. Dynamics 365 Transportation Management can support both scenarios. ROUTES AND SERVICES A route describes how goods travel between their starting point and destination. Different services might provide different combinations of speed, availability, and cost. A standard road freight service might be less expensive but take longer, while an expedited option might cost considerably more while helping the organization meet an urgent customer commitment. Transportation planning therefore isn't simply about finding a vehicle. It is about selecting a transportation option that balances delivery requirements with cost. TRANSPORTATION RATES Rates represent the expected transportation charges associated with carrier services and routes. Organizations can maintain rate tables containing agreed carrier prices and transportation rules. Instead of searching through old emails or spreadsheets every time transportation needs to be booked, planners can use structured rate information already maintained inside Dynamics 365. When carrier contracts and prices change, those rate records can be updated accordingly. THE RATE ROUTE WORKBENCH The Rate Route Workbench gives transportation planners a place to compare route and rate options for a shipment. One option might be faster while another costs less. Dynamics 365 provides the available transportation information, but the business still determines which trade-off makes sense. An urgent customer order might justify an expensive expedited service. Another customer might accept a longer delivery time in exchange for lower transportation costs. DYNAMICS 365 IS NOT A LIVE CARRIER MARKETPLACE An important distinction is that the built-in Transportation Management module doesn't automatically behave like a live marketplace comparing real-time prices across every available carrier. Its built-in planning processes use the carrier, route, and rate information maintained by the organization. Companies requiring live multi-carrier rate shopping, extensive booking integrations, or deeper shipment tracking can connect specialized third-party transportation management solutions. Dynamics 365 remains the internal transportation planning layer while external platforms can extend the carrier-facing capabilities. FROM SALES ORDER TO CUSTOMER DELIVERY For outbound transportation, the process begins with customer demand. The sales order defines what the customer purchased, where the products need to go, and when delivery is expected. Those products become part of a shipment, and shipments can be assigned to a planned load. Warehouse employees then pick, pack, stage, and load the products. Because the warehouse work connects with the transportation plan, employees can see which goods belong together and which carrier is expected to collect them. CONNECTING TRANSPORTATION AND WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT Transportation planning and warehouse execution are closely connected. Transportation Management determines how goods should travel. Warehouse operations physically prepare those goods for movement. Instead of warehouse employees preparing pallets without knowing which transportation plan they belong to, shipments can remain connected to their loads. This reduces the need to reconcile separate transportation spreadsheets, warehouse lists, emails, and paper documents at the loading dock. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-modern-work-security-and-productivity-with-microsoft-365--6704921/support.

    Dynamics 365 Transportation Management - Simply Explained

  8. 12 giờ trước

    Extending Microsoft 365 Copilot: Agents, MCP & Production-Grade AI with Yves Habersaat [MVP]

    Microsoft 365 Copilot is moving far beyond prompt engineering. As organizations adopt AI more seriously, the challenge becomes connecting Copilot and AI agents to business applications, Microsoft Graph, organizational knowledge, APIs, workflows, and enterprise data while maintaining security and governance. In this episode of the M365 FM Podcast, Mirko Peters talks with Microsoft MVP and AI Tech Lead Yves Habersaat about Microsoft 365 Copilot extensibility, Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, Model Context Protocol (MCP), RAG, multi-agent architectures, enterprise search, permissions, governance, AI readiness, and what it takes to build production-grade AI solutions. FROM PROMPT ENGINEERING TO AI ARCHITECTURE Prompt engineering can help employees get more value from generative AI, but enterprise AI requires much more than better prompts. Organizations need people who understand the underlying technologies, customer requirements, architecture, security, business applications, data, and implementation decisions. Yves argues that human architects and engineers remain important because AI can generate technical material and provide guidance, but organizations still need people capable of validating whether a solution actually addresses the business requirement. WHERE COPILOT EXTENSIBILITY BEGINS Microsoft 365 Copilot has evolved considerably since its earliest versions. Many capabilities that previously required extensions are now available directly within the platform. Extensibility becomes particularly relevant when organizations need greater control. This could mean customizing orchestration, creating specialized agent experiences, integrating an agent into a website rather than only Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, or building capabilities that aren't available through the standard experience. The more specialized the requirement becomes, the more important extensibility and custom development become. WHY ONE GIANT COPILOT ISN'T THE ANSWER Instead of building one enormous Copilot containing every instruction, tool, knowledge source, and responsibility, Yves recommends thinking in terms of multi-agent architectures. Individual agents can have clearly defined scopes and responsibilities. An IT support architecture, for example, could contain a front-facing agent responsible for understanding the user's request and routing it to specialized agents for Microsoft 365, Salesforce, or other platforms. Each specialized agent can then maintain its own instructions, knowledge, and tools. THE ANATOMY OF AN ENTERPRISE AI AGENT A typical enterprise agent starts with a clearly defined objective. The agent then requires instructions defining its responsibilities and boundaries, knowledge sources containing relevant organizational information, tools allowing it to perform actions, and an orchestration layer deciding how requests should be processed. In a multi-agent architecture, a front agent can delegate tasks to specialized agents. Those agents can then access internal knowledge sources, external systems, APIs, and MCP servers depending on the task they need to perform. COPILOT STUDIO VS CUSTOM DEVELOPMENT Copilot Studio provides a low-code approach to building agents. Organizations can define instructions, connect tools, integrate knowledge sources, and use MCP servers without building every component themselves. Custom development provides significantly greater control but also introduces more architectural responsibility. Developers may need to manage authentication, security, hosting, orchestration, external services, and integration patterns themselves. The decision therefore isn't simply low-code versus code. It depends on how much control the solution actually requires. WHEN COPILOT STUDIO REACHES ITS LIMITS One of the major questions is whether the organization needs to customize orchestration. If standard orchestration satisfies the requirement, Copilot Studio can provide a fast route to building an agent. If developers need deeper control over how plans are created, tasks are prioritized, workflows are executed, or models are selected, custom development becomes more relevant. Custom solutions can also integrate models hosted outside Microsoft's ecosystem, giving organizations additional flexibility over their AI infrastructure. MICROSOFT FOUNDRY AND THE CHANGING AI STACK Microsoft Foundry has evolved from its earlier role around model deployment into a broader AI development platform. Yves describes a platform increasingly supporting agent creation, governance, model management, MCP integration, and other capabilities. This creates some overlap with Copilot Studio, while custom development continues to provide greater flexibility around models, orchestration, hosting, and architecture. The Microsoft AI development landscape is therefore evolving rapidly, making architectural decisions increasingly dependent on the specific use case. WHAT IS MODEL CONTEXT PROTOCOL? Model Context Protocol, or MCP, addresses one of the major challenges in agent development: providing a standardized way for AI systems to discover and interact with external tools and services. Historically, developers integrated individual APIs using different authentication mechanisms, protocols, documentation, and implementation approaches. MCP provides a more standardized interface through which agents can understand which tools are available and how those tools can help accomplish a task. Yves describes it as an increasingly important part of modern AI architecture. MCP VS TRADITIONAL API INTEGRATION MCP doesn't eliminate APIs. Instead, an MCP server can sit in front of existing APIs, databases, and internal services and expose those capabilities in a way AI systems can understand. A company might already have APIs for finance, HR, CRM, or operational systems. An MCP server can expose appropriate tools around those services while the existing APIs continue performing the underlying operations. This makes MCP an AI-oriented integration layer rather than a replacement for the systems underneath it. HOW AGENTS CHOOSE TOOLS An enterprise agent might eventually have access to dozens or hundreds of tools. The agent's orchestration layer, working with the language model, can inspect the available capabilities and determine which tools are relevant to the user's request. It can then create a plan containing the actions required to complete the task and potentially invoke several tools in sequence. This ability to discover and select tools dynamically is one reason MCP has become important in agentic architectures. MICROSOFT GRAPH REMAINS CENTRAL MCP doesn't make Microsoft Graph irrelevant. Yves explains that Microsoft 365 MCP capabilities can rely on Microsoft Graph behind the scenes. An agent interacts with the MCP capability while Graph provides access to Microsoft 365 information and services underneath it. Graph also remains important to Microsoft 365 Copilot because organizational context across Microsoft 365 can be accessed through Microsoft's underlying graph and search capabilities. The integration layer is evolving, but Graph remains a major foundation of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. SECURING ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE Microsoft 365 contains enormous amounts of organizational context: documents, meetings, emails, people, Teams conversations, OneDrive files, and SharePoint content. Connecting AI to that information without proper governance creates obvious risks. Yves recommends beginning by understanding the organization's data. Companies need to know where confidential information exists, who should have access, and what information requires additional protection. Microsoft Purview capabilities such as sensitivity labels and Data Loss Prevention can then become part of the governance architecture. DATA QUALITY IS AN AI PROBLEM AI governance isn't only about preventing unauthorized access. Poorly organized SharePoint sites, duplicated files, outdated documents, inconsistent Teams environments, and unclear information ownership can reduce the quality of AI responses. Connecting an agent to organizational knowledge doesn't automatically make that knowledge useful. Organizations therefore need to consider data cleanup, information architecture, permissions, classification, and governance as part of AI readiness. DELEGATED VS APPLICATION PERMISSIONS Permissions become especially important when agents can take actions. Yves recommends delegated user permissions as the general starting point. This means an agent operates according to the permissions of the person using it. If the user doesn't have access to particular information or functionality, the agent shouldn't automatically gain that access on their behalf. Where application permissions are genuinely necessary, Yves suggests isolating them behind a controlled service or MCP layer rather than exposing broad application permissions directly to the user-facing agent. RAG IN ENTERPRISE AI ARCHITECTURE Retrieval-Augmented Generation, or RAG, allows AI systems to retrieve relevant organizational information before generating an answer. Instead of expecting the language model itself to contain current company-specific information, the system retrieves appropriate content from organizational knowledge sources. That information can come from documents, knowledge bases, Microsoft 365 content, or other enterprise systems. For many users, this happens invisibly because platforms such as Copilot Studio abstract the underlying retrieval architecture. ㅤ RELATED M365.FM RESOURCES Agentic RAG and Microsoft Copilot: https://www.m365.fm/agentic-rag/ MCP architecture for Microsoft AI agents: https://www.m365.fm/the-architects-guide-to-mcp-building-the-connectivity Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-modern-work-security-and-productivity-with-microsoft-365--6704921/support.

    Extending Microsoft 365 Copilot: Agents, MCP & Production-Grade AI with Yves Habersaat [MVP]
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Welcome to the M365.FM — your essential podcast for everything Microsoft 365, Azure, and beyond. Join us as we explore the latest developments across Power BI, Power Platform, Microsoft Teams, Viva, Fabric, Purview, Security, and the entire Microsoft ecosystem. Each episode delivers expert insights, real-world use cases, best practices, and interviews with industry leaders to help you stay ahead in the fast-moving world of cloud, collaboration, and data innovation. Whether you're an IT professional, business leader, developer, or data enthusiast, the M365.FM brings the knowledge, trends, and strategies you need to thrive in the modern digital workplace. Tune in, level up, and make the most of everything Microsoft has to offer. M365.FM is part of the M365-Show Network. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m365-fm-modern-work-security-and-productivity-with-microsoft-365--6704921/support.

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    Mirko Peters - Founder of m365.fm, m365.show and m365con.net
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    M365.FM - Modern work, security, and productivity with Microsoft 365

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