Projects used to be a discrete subset of work people did every day, but the way we work is transforming. Organizations and individuals have taken incredible leaps to implement digital innovations to help employees work better together now that so many are working from home. Today, all work is project work, and everyone works on projects. Projects can range from ad hoc, involving a couple of people, to years' long efforts and entire portfolios.

“Today, all work is project work, and everyone works on projects."

Howard Crow, Head of Product for Microsoft Planner and Microsoft Project

The transformation of projects from discrete activities to the work each of us does every day requires new approaches and a new generation of tools that can span an organization and meet people where they are working. To answer these challenges, Microsoft's vision is connected project experiences that are simple enough for everyone to use and powerful enough to be a catalyst for business success across the world's largest organizations.

In a time when projects are the unifying thread woven throughout the fabric of modern work, Microsoft delivers the platform, tools, and capabilities teams need to eliminate complexity, clarify priorities, stay on top of tasks, and work together to achieve key strategic objectives. Our solutionsincluding Microsoft Planner, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operationsprovide the end-to-end management capabilities that teams and organizations of all sizes need to tackle projects of every level of complexity.

Cut through complexity with connected project experiences

Cutting through complexity starts with visibility, and Microsoft's connected project experiences are designed to help you organize and view projects, schedules, and tasksor dive more deeply into all the details. They provide intelligent, data-driven operational insights so you can address emerging issues before they become problems and seize new opportunities quickly. They're built so it is easy to take advantage of flexible solutions that map to your business processes and adapt to the way your teams work best.

Microsoft's connected project experiences help provide clear expectations about budgets and timelines, enable you to set your teams up to drive strategic outcomes that improve customer satisfaction, increase profitability, and reduce costs. Reducing complexity and increasing clarity will help you take an important step forward toward achieving the kinds of successful results that lead to happier, more engaged teams.

We also know that solving today's complexity challenges alone isn't enough. Long-term business success is also built on a modern technology platform that supports a culture of innovation and offers the flexibility to grow and adapt. Microsoft's connected project experiences also deliver a unified approach that brings together all your company's data, to help you uncover insights. With simplified IT management and the security of Microsoft’s trusted cloud to protect your processes and intellectual propertyPlanner, Project, and Dynamics 365 Project Operationsmark the beginning of a new era of project experiences that will transform how teams and organizations manage their work.

Join us for Reimagine Project Management with Microsoft

Learn more about the connected project experience at Reimagine Project Management with Microsoft, now available as a free, on-demand event. You'll learn the latest on Microsoft Planner, Microsoft Project, and Dynamics 365 Project Operationsthree solutions built to address and solve for your unique business needs.

Although the event is completely digital, you'll have opportunities to connect with Microsoft experts, technology partners, and peers to expand your network.

Register for Reimagine Project Management with Microsoft to:

• Discovernew features and best practices from live demos and product walkthroughs with more than six hours of on-demand content.
• Connect with other attendees through round tables and board rooms.

Don't miss out on an opportunity to find the Microsoft connected project experience to equip your organization with everything needed to cut through complexity and successfully complete your project. Register now and watch on demand.

The post Reimagine project management at our free digital event appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

COVID-19 has had a significant impact across organizations regardless of size, industry, and location. Our valuable, and free, Finance Reimagined virtual CFO summit explored the many implications for finance leaders and their organizations as they attempt to adapt operations in this uncertain time.

You can now watch on-demand content from this summit, including more than a dozen sessions from the event, so be sure to log back in or sign up for free to watch the on-demand sessions.

From this amazing day, which included more than 2,000 finance leaders, we captured incredible insights to help you steer your organization through this crisis and reimagine the future. Finance leaders shared how they sustained core processes through immediate action, shifting from in-person to remote work, including how to complete a virtual close. Other lessons included how to strategically cut costs during uncertain times, while reducing risk and improving compliance.

Leaders shared best practices for understanding and maintaining employee engagement and developing essential skills while remote, as well as for safely transitioning the workforce back to the office. Insights included learning how to adjust for headcount and pay scales for employees spanning across regions.

The other focus was reimagining the future. While we may not be able to predict the future, we can work to prepare ourselves for a new normal. Business complexity will continue growing, data will continue surging, and risks, threats, and regulations will continue increasing. Expectations on finance departments to manage these challenges will continue rising, too.

Fortunately, changes in technology, processes, and our organizations' underlying cultures will enable us to address these needs. We explored how finance leaders are leading their company's through this transformation, leveraging tools like AI-driven insights to improve forecasting and scenario analysis. Leaders shared hard-won lessons and specific, step-by-step tactics that other organizations can successfully adopt.

The event is not done yet

Take advantage of the many ongoing opportunities. A host of additional on-demand content covering all of these topicsresponse, recovery, and reimaginationis available exclusively to event registrants. Log in today to watch the sessions or sign up for free and watch the sessions.

You can also replay any of the CoreNote keynote sessions to tune into the portions that resonated most with you.

You can even listen to CFO Microsoft Business Applications Jeffrey York’s on-demand session on lasting finance transformation, where he shares a proven path to finance transformation. It's meant to provide you with a replicable way to transform your finance team into an optimum operating model so that you can rely on predictable outcomes and gain long-term value through real-time insights.

Review many small-group roundtables

It was fantastic to see so much direct engagement and participation across our roundtables. In these breakout sessions, CFOs and other peers shared how cost reduction and risk mitigation represent some of the most important and often first actions taken to recover from a crisis. They discussed how they've cut costs, ensured liquidity, and managed cashflow. They also looked at how they plan to build on these actions to set their businesses up for ongoing recovery and success.

Whether you’re looking to use analytics to support quick decisions or encouraging innovation and automation to simplify and scale financial processes, you can listen in on any of these roundtable discussions to hear how your peers are addressing modern business challenges.

We also encourage you to engage with other finance leaders to discuss challenges and topics important to you through ongoing roundtables with other attendees.

Keep connecting with others

The summit brought together over 2,000 finance leaders. We hope you made new connections, and we encourage you to foster these new professional relationships post-event. Don’t miss out on the on-demand content and other valuable insights. If you already signed up for Finance Reimagined, log back in, or if this is your first time, sign up now for free and watch the valuable on-demand sessions.

The post Finance Reimagined free on-demand sessions available now appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The pandemic has forced manufacturers to make rapid adjustments, like changing factory layouts and bringing plants online with inexperienced staff while trying to maintain quality and safety standards. To address these challenges, manufacturers will need to focus on reskilling and cross-skilling to augment a worker’s knowledge. Today we're announcing new updates to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management aimed at solving these challenges, enabling frontline workers to adapt to increased complexity and fast-changing business needs.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides is now integrated with Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to provide interactive work instructions and guided workflows for frontline workers right at their workstation on the factory floor. The integrated scenarios enable the frontline workforce to adapt to increased business complexity and fast changing business needs by giving them interactive instruction on daily procedures so they can make the right decision at the right time even when working with complex and dangerous machinery.

Within Dynamics 365 Guides, frontline workers can take multiple guided workflows or paths to complete a jobuseful in make-to-order scenarios or when encountering issues, such as an abnormal reading on a gauge. Content can be updated easily, without coding, helping ensure the workforce is safe and compliant by adhering to the very latest standard work procedures.

In addition, organizations can reduce asset downtime by integrating Dynamics 365 Guides with Microsoft Power Apps and IoT data, enabling frontline workers to proactively detect and prevent equipment failure and reduce costly downtime.

"This new technology will bring a more engaging opportunity to unleash creativity of our employees as it provides something that the manufacturing industry has not seen or imagined yet."Genevive Bertrand, VP of Information Technology, Kruger

Simpler UI for greater agility and productivity

The integration of Dynamics 365 Guides with Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is enabled by the new production floor execution feature in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. It provides a modern, touch-friendly UI that is extremely easy to use. This new interface works great in poorly lit spaces like a factory floor and helps frontline workers manage multiple jobs at the same time.

"The production floor execution user interface has found the perfect balance between shopfloor-style navigation and visibility of upcoming production jobs."Evert J Bos, Technical Fellow, Sikich LLP

Overcome disruptions to keep production running without interruptions

Manufacturers require strong product data management, version control, and engineering change management to succeed in a world of constantly shrinking product lifecycles, stricter quality and reliability requirements, as well as an increased focus on product safety.

The new Engineering Change Management add-in for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management enables manufacturers to bring structure and discipline to the product data management process and enables products to be defined, released, and revised in a controlled manner.

Through product revisions and engineering change management, it is possible to document and assess the impact of applying engineering changes throughout the entire lifecycle of the product.

Companies can ensure compliance and achieve on-time delivery by quickly responding to changing customer or supplier specifications, regulations, and safety standards. They can overcome disruptions due to quality issues and obsolete parts by quickly resolving them to ensure that production lines are running without interruptions.

Avanade, a Microsoft partner, helps manufacturers around the world in their digital transformation using Microsoft Dynamics 365 technologies. Conrad Volkmann, Director ERP Global Competence Center at Avanade, explains the impact and outcomes customers can expect from the new Engineering Change Management add-in. "Engineering change will be supported natively in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management with a comprehensive and well-integrated functionality," says Volkmann. "The new capabilities complete the offering for discrete manufacturers. The time and resource consuming process of managing engineering change with all the related master data is becoming more transparent to manage with full documentation and traceability of all changes. Especially when the same or similar products need to be managed for multiple or many production sites, the new engineering change capabilities will help manufacturers becoming more efficient in their engineering change processes."

With engineering change management capabilities, companies can reduce manual errors and job and material cost variances when setting up bill of materials and inventory in the system whenever new parts are activated and old parts are made obsolete. This will help create a smooth end-to-end business process flow between the engineering and operations teams.

Enhance visibility and scale operations for your supply chain

During Microsoft Ignite, we disclosed new capabilities that will help enhance visibility and scale operations for your supply chain. Read the announcement blog to learn about the new Cloud and Edge Scale Unit add-ins for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management which brings the power of the intelligent cloud to the edge, as well as the new Inventory Visibility add-in for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management that enables retailers and manufacturers to easily handle a large volume of transactions every minute and determine cross-channel inventory accurately in real time.

Learn more today

Learn more about what's new and planned for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management this fall or contact us to today to see a demo or start a free trial.

The post Overcome disruptions in your supply chain appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The COVID-19 crisis has impacted all aspects of our lives, shifting the way we live, interact, do business, and more. Retail merchants worldwide are dealing with emerging sales scenarios to address contactless selling, rising operational challenges, and plunging demand exasperated by increased fraud.

In this three-part blog series and a virtual fireside chat debuting on Tuesday, June 30, we'll explore the latest best practices for the retail sector, including how to drive more personalized customer experiences in an era of contactless shopping, mitigate fraud risk in e-commerce environments, and gain visibility into your end-to-end supply chain management.

Understanding your customers in this moment

For retailers who are already grappling with data overload, it's difficult to track customer needs, buying trends, and sentimenteven more so in today's volatile market. With the shift to virtual engagements and operations, organizations are looking for reliable data and insights to continue to serve their customers on digital channels. Maintaining business continuity requires democratizing access to the data needed by decentralized workforce (data analysts, marketers, sellers, and customer service agents) to drive meaningful engagement while maintaining compliance with data privacy regulations.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insightsenables organizations to deepen their understanding of the customers and enhance the customer journey. Customer Insights unifies an ever-increasing volume of customer data from all sources, including not only traditional sources like campaigns, transactions, and calls, but also emerging sources like social shopping, augmented reality, and chatbots to create a 360-degree view of the customers and unlock real-time insights that are essential for powering personalized experiences at scale.

See Customer Insights in action.

Adapting to social distancing

With the implementation of social distancing policies, consumer shopping habits have shifted to online commerce first, limiting visits to all stores, including grocers and pharmacies. Mandatory store closures have driven a dramatic growth in e-commerce as companies pivot to compensate for revenue loss, with nearly 40 percent increase in online sales since February, according to Signifyd's E-commerce Pulse data.

Although we're privileged to have the e-commerce infrastructure we have today, many businesses are currently struggling to meet this significant shift to e-commerce and are actively looking at ways to streamline their digital commerce capabilities.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce works to deliver intuitive and personalized customer experiences to organizations that are challenged with disparate commerce systems or unable to scale to the rise of customer demand. With intelligent online tools and both a connected and headless commerce engine, businesses can quickly stand up digital storefronts and enable future growth with Dynamics 365 Commerce end-to-end omnichannel solution.

See Commerce in action.

Providing customers with contactless shopping

Similarly, we have seen the rapid emergence of contactless shopping: delivering products in a safe way, without contact with any external parties, through at-home delivery and curbside collection services. Consumers will carry forward a heightened sensitivity to "healthy" shopping habits, including cashless shopping, until there is a long-term solution for addressing the coronavirus. Curbside pickup used to be a popular perk. Now it's a public health necessity with a year-over-year increase of buy-online-pickup-in-store orders.

Dynamics 365 Commerce helps businesses adjust to these evolving needs by enabling a truly seamless experience for customers across all channels of engagement.

Protecting from higher exposure to fraud and abuse

Although e-commerce provides many benefits for customers, it also increases the exposure to fraud and abuse: a majority of fraud is committed during card-not-present transactions. Fraud is not only a burden for customers with stolen identities, account takeover, and more, but it represents a serious operational hazard for merchants.

On one hand, the liability of fraud loss in online transactions lies with merchants, which is not the case for in-store (POS) transactions. On the other hand, there is a significant loss arising from wrongful rejects of legitimate customers as merchants and banks try to control fraud. The COVID-19 crisis, together with the surge in e-commerce transactions, has exacerbated fraud risks for both customers and merchants.

According to AP News, fraudsters are using the surge in online activity to target unsuspecting consumers and merchants. Merchants are starting to experience dramatic increases in COVID-19-related phishing activities, with stolen credentials released into the e-commerce payments chain, as well as increased friendly fraud activities.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection is a cloud-based SaaS solution designed to help e-commerce, brick-and-mortar, and omnichannel merchants decrease fraud costs and improve profitability. We are helping merchants globally to protect their revenue and reputation with tools and capabilities to decrease fraud and abuse, reduce operational expenses, and increase acceptance rates, while safeguarding user accounts from fraud exposure.

As merchants navigate and thrive in this new normal, we want to help them protect the revenue they've earned. Fraud Protection helps merchants combat purchase, account, and omnichannel return and discount fraud with adaptive AI technology continuously learning evolving fraud patterns. Merchants can improve operational efficiency by reducing manual efforts to determine business entities and functions at risk for fraud and losses, while enabling readily consumable reports with actionable insights provided by Fraud Protection.

Ensuring fast and effective fulfillment of customer demand

Another major repercussion of the COVID-19 outbreak has been the exposure of global supply chain vulnerabilities.

According to the Institute For Supply Chain Management, nearly 75 percent of companies reported supply chain disruptions in one form or the other due to coronavirus-related transportation restrictions, and the figure is expected to rise further over the next few weeks.

Without the tools and agility to rapidly adapt to these disruptions, businesses can expect to breed more customer dissatisfaction that will have a long-term impact on brand and customer loyalty. Merchants need real-time visibility into their inventory to drive demand for overstock products and expedite replenishment of out of stock items while still staying relevant.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management helps businesses build a resilient supply chain and agility to rapidly re-plan supply and distribution of products in near real-time to adapt to shifting customer demand. Supply Chain Management enables businesses to accomplish this in a matter of minutes, instead of days. This capability, combined with intelligent distributed order management system, provides businesses with a single global view of their inventory, to intelligently manage, automate and optimize order fulfillment to ensure on-time delivery in a cost-effective manner.

Delivering an excellent customer experience online is crucial now more than ever, so it’s important to shift attention from offline to online, including capabilities to scale up in demand generation and fulfillment.

Supply Chain Management and Commerce help businesses streamline omnichannel operations, providing near real-time solutions for managing inventory, resulting in a better experience for today's increasingly demanding customers.

Ensuring business continuity

As we continue to measure the impact of COVID-19 and adapt to this new normal, it is fundamental to build resiliency and reimagine the way we do business end-to-end. Digital innovations will enable organizations to prepare now to ensure future success and operational stability in what will be a very challenged marketplace.

The post-COVID world will see digital technologies playing a critical enabling-role in delivering improvements throughout every aspect of business, including more resilient supply chains, significantly enhanced user-experiences, and intelligent optimized processes to deliver business outcomes.

Microsoft is working rapidly to offer digital tools to help your organization adjust to urgent needs and safeguard business continuity, enabling cost-saving, and prompt adoption of new technologies to get your businesses back up and running. We are offering a range of services to help you prepare:

• Dynamics 365 Commerce In a Day and Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection in a Day
• Dynamics 365 Commerce Jump-Start Program
• Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection Trial
• Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Trial

Join our virtual fireside chat: Best Practices for Thriving in the Retail Industry Today

Debuts Tuesday, June 30, 2020 10:00 AM 11:00 AM Pacific Time.

Register for this conversation with Microsoft experts to learn about best practices from the retail sector, including how to mitigate fraud risk, control operational costs, gain visibility into your end-to-end supply chain management, and leverage increases in e-commerce activity. Learn from Microsoft's partnerships with global retailers how to protect revenue first, setting up your organization for growth in the new economic environment.

Hosted by Alysa Taylor, Corporate Vice President, Business Applications and Global Industry Microsoft and Shelley Bransten, Corporate Vice President, Global Retail and Consumer Goods, Microsoft.

Don't miss the conversation: register today.

We are here to assist you

We're here to help you thrive in this new economic environment. Please contact your Microsoft sales representative to find out more about our range of offers to help your businesses rapidly adapt and onboard with needed technologies.

The post Retail perspectives, pt. 1: chart a course to restart and grow appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

2019 is shaping up to be a big year for the omnichannel retailer. According to the National Retail Federation, retailers saw a 40 percent increase in multichannel shopping in the 2018 holiday season, with social and mobile technologies reigning supreme in the customer shopping experience.

It's no surprise then, that omnichannel was top-of-mind for attendees at the National Federation Big Show (NRF 2019), as noted in a show recap by our own Shelley Bransten, CVP of Retail and CPG. As retailers find ways to cater to shoppers both online and in physical stores, the following cross-channel strategies may be key to getting ahead of the pack.

Cater to mobile shoppers

According to NRF, approximately 87.5 percent of shoppers between the ages of 18-34 used a mobile device to make holiday purchase decisions over the 2018 Thanksgiving weekend. Nearly a third used social media to look for sales and promotions, mostly using a mobile device. And mobile sales skyrocketed, according to Adobe Analyticsan impressive 56 percent year-over-year growth over the 2017 holiday season, with a nearly 10 percent increase in downloads of retailers' mobile apps.

The takeaway:

As younger, mobile-native shoppers influence buying behavior, retailers need frictionless brand experiences across online, physical, and mobile storefronts. Your retail management platform needs to seamlessly manage cross-channel inventory and sales in one place, as well as track cross-channel customer activity to deliver a deeper understanding of customer behaviors and preferences, which in turn drives wiser merchandising decisions.

Tighten up personalization and loyalty programs

Omnichannel, personalization, and price consideration go hand in hand. 41 percent of consumers expect in-store employees to know their online purchase histories and 77 percent of consumers expect personalized experiences, according to NRF. That trend is precipitated by the value-conscious generation of shoppers who choose price and personalized experiences over brand affinity.

The takeaway:

Intelligence is the foundation for the exceptional, personalized brand experiences consumers expect today. Invest in deep, AI-driven analytics that provide real-time insights into macro customer behaviors to fine-tune merchandising, price points, and targeted marketing programs while delivering personalized storefront recommendations and rewards.

Buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS)

Shoppers don't like waiting in line, which is clear by the sharp increase in BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store) and BOSS (buy online, ship to store) programs from leading brand retailers, as well as a growing number of smaller retailers looking for ways to drive foot traffic and sales in physical locations.

Now BOPIS is going mainstream, boosted by holiday media coverage (including a story on Good Morning America featuring my friend Erin who lives here in Seattle). Expect smaller retailers to get into the game in 2019, as brands look for ways to drive foot traffic and sales in physical locations. Research indicates that 37 percent of shoppers who come to the store to pick up items ordered online will purchase additional productsan indicator that BOPIS is emerging as an essential element of your omnichannel strategy.

The takeaway:

A key component to BOPIS capabilities is the ability to provide accurate, reliable, real-time inventory across physical and online channels, integrated with customer profile information. In 2019, retailers will need to focus on automation technologies and intelligent supply chains to enable seamless synchronization between supply, demand, and fulfillment.

Boost your omnichannel experience with Dynamics 365

We just announced new enhancements to Dynamics 365 for Retail that will greatly enhance personalized customer engagement, omnichannel experiences, and frictionless interactions with consumers, including distributed order management (DOM) updates to provide a single, holistic view of all inventory to optimize order fulfillment, allocation, and distribution.

Learn more about intelligent retailing capabilities in Microsoft 365 for Retail, and be sure to view our latest researchthe 2019 Retail Trends Reportfor more insights into six emerging trends that will help empower retailers to create exceptional, insightful shopping experiences for customers.

The post Omnichannel in 2019: There’s plenty in store for retail customers appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

As many retail professionals gear up for retail’s BIG showthe 2019 NRF Annual Convention & EXPOmany are still processing the year that was. 2018 was turbulent, by any measure, but that volatility also drove momentum for transformative retail experiences.

In 2018, many brands felt the influence of the digital-native shopperyoung, price-conscious, and willing to jump ship to brands that deliver convenient, tailored experiences on their terms, online and in-store.

GDPR landed in May, forcing retailers across the European Union (and beyond) to rethink marketing and personalization strategies. And everyone, from boutiques to big box stores, felt the pressure to invest in seamless shopping experiences from optimized store operations to seamlessly unified physical and online storefronts.

Despite the volatility in 2018, it was also a year that has ushered in innovative ways for retailers to adapt, transform, and grow.

Retail technology has come a long way in the last couple of years, and this is reflected in the extensive updates to Dynamics 365 in 2018. As Shelly Bransten, Microsoft CVP, Retail and Consumer Goods Industries, detailed in an insightful blog post this week, retailers now have access to intelligent tools that unify digital, in-store, and back office operations as well as understand and respond to new consumer behaviors.

And 2019 promises even more innovation, even when faced with more uncertainty.

The year ahead

Throughout January, this blog will explore what's in store for retail in the year ahead. We just published a new survey that reveals the big trends that will impact retailers in 2019. And over the next few weeks, we'll look at the technologies driving retail transformation, like artificial intelligence and distributed order management. We'll also share real-world stories from retailers and best practices to help you transform your business in 2019.

Watch this blog for updatesand be sure to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for alerts when new articles go live.

Heading to NRF 2019? Visit Microsoft!

Visit booth #3301 to meet our team of retail technology and intelligence experts and see our solutions in actionincluding Dynamics 365 for Retail. Also, be sure to attend these workshops and keynotes:

Delivering on the promise of Intelligent Retail
Sunday, January 13, 10:15am 10: 45am | Stage 5, EXPO Hall, Level 3

Join Microsoft industry leader Shelley Bransten, Corporate Vice President, Retail & Consumer Goods Industries, and executives from leading retailers from across the globe as they share insights and best practices from their own journeys to Intelligent Retail. Learn how to delight today's digital-savvy consumers through personalized, seamless experiences, empower employees with data-driven insights, and optimize retail operations to build more agile organizations and ultimately deliver on the promise of Intelligent Retail.

Microsoft customer breakfast – Retail Reimagined
Monday, January 14th 8:00-9:45am

The Lambs Club New York, Inside The Chatwal Hotel
132 West 44th Street New York, NY 10036

Register for the event

Attend this Microsoft led breakfast and conversation about the future of retail with special guest Doug Stephens of the Retail Prophet. Doug is an expert on the future of retail. His intellectual work and thinking influence many of the world's best-known retailers, agencies, and brands, including Walmart, Google, Home Depot, Disney, BMW, Coca Cola, and Intel. Vend.com lists Doug as one of the industry's top 5 global influencers.

This breakfast will be hosted by Microsoft executives, Alysa Taylor, Corporate Vice President of Global Industry and Business Applications and Shelley Bransten, Corporate Vice President Global Retail and Consumer Goods. Together they will lead the conversation around where retail has been, and how trends will influence customers' expectations and enable retailers' innovation.

How Microsoft has become a mission-driven brand
Tuesday, January 15, 11:30am12:30pm | Stage 3, EXPO Hall, Level 1

Microsoft’s mission to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more” coupled with a growth mindset has led to an evolution of the Microsoft brand to reflect the new mission and culture. Chris Capossela, CMO for Microsoft, will share valuable insights to help you differentiate your brand by reflecting your unique mission and culture.

The post Find out what the future of retail looks like at NRF 2019 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

2018 was a roller coaster ride for retail as businesses scrambled to adjust to changes that are reshaping the retail landscape. What's in store for 2019? Our new survey of the state of retail reveals more change is in store, plus opportunities to reinvent operations to be faster, smarter, and nimbler.

The 2019 Retail Trends Report explores six emerging trends in retail that will help empower retailers to create exceptional, insightful shopping experiences for customers. Our highlights below don’t cover all the findings and recommendations, so be sure to set aside time to dig through the insights packed into this 57-page report.

1. Customer experience reigns supreme

Younger, technology-empowered customers continue to influence the retail experience, demanding more innovation in the way retailers deliver shopping interactions. In 2019, millennials make up a quarter of the U.S. population, overtaking baby boomers as the largest population. Gen Z, the first generation of digital nativists, will be the third largest population by 2020. Together, these two generations of savvier, smarter shoppers have incredible leverage over how retail evolves in the next few years.

Both demand a truly seamless, personalized omni-channel experience, with Gen Z especially focused on price. In fact, 89 percent of Gen Z consumers consider themselves price-conscious shoppers, with 72 percent saying they'll switch from favorite brands if they find a similar product at a lower price.

Insight

Empowered customers expect amazing experiences. In 2019, retailers need to sharply focus on personalized, experiential, and mobile-first customer interactions.

2. The rise of the monobrand, fall of the monolith

Multi-brand retailers felt the heat from smaller, nimbler retailers in 2018. We said goodbye to more than 5,000 retail stores in 2018including nine major brands and department store anchor tenants. Meanwhile, a new X-economy has emergednew business models to attract millennials and Gen Z.

While physical retailers have shifted focus to their online stores, e-commerce leaders are opening small physical stores strategically located near target buyers, including pop-up kiosksallowing customers to test products, repair damaged products, and talk to associates. On-demand services will grow to nearly $57 billion in 2019from printing to food delivery and dog sittingwhich has also driven growth in on-demand and micro-manufacturing. The sharing economy, popularized by services like Airbnb, will grow to 86.5 million U.S. users by 2021nearly doubling in just two years. And online-only services like subscription box services and online consignment will pose a unique threat to retailersor a unique opportunity for those willing to reimagine business models.

Insight

The rise of direct-to-consumer models and anything-as-a-service models reflect the changing expectations of consumers. In 2019, retailers must evolve beyond existing business and operating models.

3. The rise of the everywhere store

In 2019, A-commerce (anywhere) will become the new reality as an overcrowded marketplace pushes retailers to diversify their points of sale. Research highlighted in the report shows that customers want to purchase on their terms, whenever and wherever they want. Businesses can no longer force customers to a website to make a purchaseinstead, every platform is a purchase platform, from social media channels (Pinterest, Instagram) to mobile payments to chatbots and virtual personal assistants (like Cortana and Amazon Alexa).

Insight

Retailers need to deliver a consistent shopping experience across every channelfrom social media to smart speakersplus flexible fulfillment options to truly deliver the ability for customers to shop on their terms, wherever they are.

4. Operations drive excellence

Customers want faster checkout times and more flexible delivery, according to the new report. This will make a big impact across operations, from the back office to warehouses. In 2019, more retailers will leverage robotics, automation technologies, and intelligent supply chains to enable seamless synchronization between supply, demand, and fulfillment.

Blockchain will also gain prominence, as retailers begin to embrace benefits beyond efficient financial transactions such as the ability to improve the accuracy and efficiency of tracking a product's journey from supplier to shipper to retailer. We'll also see retailers employ blockchain to reduce the risk of fraud, reduce time to complete transactions, improve loyalty programs, and increase customer trust.

Big changes are in store for frontline sales associates too. 83 percent of shoppers believe they're more knowledgeable than retail store associates. By equipping store associates with mobile devices that provide product information, credit card checkout, and inventory look-up, employees are more empowered and engaged to deliver experiences people want.

Insight

Customers are demanding quicker delivery and more transparent processes. Companies that deploy digital technology will see benefits in inventory management, fulfillment, data analysis, and employee management.

5. Next-gen technology will make an appearance

In 2019, we'll see retailers experimenting with emerging technologies like augmented reality, drones, and deep learningtechnologies that can make a big impact at every step in the customer journey, from product selection to fulfillment. Augmented and virtual reality are expected to generate $150 billion in revenue by 2020, and more than 54 percent of retailers already use or plan to implement artificial intelligence technology. On-demand and micro-manufacturing will grow in tandem with new service business models that promise faster, more personalized offerings.

Insight

New technology is changing the way customers shop and the way retailers do business. From AR/VR to autonomous vehicles to artificial intelligence, modern retailers must leverage the latest technology to provide innovative experiences and evolve their businesses.

6. Uncertainty will put a strain on retailers

We're living in an age of uncertainty. 2019 will usher in a new list of risks and obstacles that retailers will need to confront. Trade tariffs, GDPR, environmental policies, regulatory flux, and shifting economic and political landscapes will make a big impact on retailers everywhere. In fact, 49 percent of surveyed business leaders feel they are exposed to more uncertainty today than three years ago. 42 percent of CEOs globally report over-regulation as a top concern.

Meanwhile, as millennials and Gen Z become more influential, both as employees and consumers, they are pushing businesses to behave more responsibly. 66 percent of consumers felt it was important for brands to take a public stand on social and political issues.

Insight

Today's retail leaders face many difficult decisions as they navigate through a time of considerable ambiguity and uncertainty. In 2019, retailers need greater visibility into their business operations and performance to help them identify emerging hazards, adapt quickly and scale with ease, and connect with the socially-conscious consumer.

Get the full story

As the world changes in 2019, retail will need to be smarter, nimbler, and more flexible to weather the storm. Download the 2019 Retail Trends Report to explore each of the trends summarized above and learn what it will take to create exceptional, insightful shopping experiences in the new year.

The post The year ahead: Introducing the 2019 Retail Trends Report appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Research suggests that keeping customers is cheaper than acquiring new customers. Easier said than done: keeping a customer happy and renewing isn't always a cakewalk for the sales teams.

World-class sales teamsthose that hit quota 75% or more of the timeknow how to maintain the relationships that keep customers coming back. These tips will make sure your sales teams do, too.

Test your sales team's performance

Treat your customers well

Sounds simple, right? Consider that a whopping 68% of customers stop buying things because of treatment they receive from a companyand only 14% are dissatisfied with a product or service. In the social media age, this has become even more important. It just takes one broken guitar, for example, to lose thousands of dollars in repeat sales.

Build a complete customer experience

How do you treat customers well? Apart from generally being a nice human being? According to marketing analyst Ray Wang in his webinar Disrupting Digital Business, you use data to personalize their experiences and give them what they want. For example, when a customer calls your office, the person answering the phone should have easy access to the customer's dataand if that customer is transferred, whoever picks up the phone should have the same data, and a record of the call.

Build customer trust

Wang also discusses the "trust-based economy," where customers know which companies they want to do business withand which ones actively hurt customers at every opportunity. How do you avoid a reputation as the latter? Wang's 5 tips are:

• Personalize experiences for customers using data.
• Operate with transparency. Don't do anything you wouldn't want on the front page of The New York Times.
• Build credibility by keeping marketing campaigns truthful, delivering on sales promises, and using positive customer testimonials.
• Make it easy to complain. Seriously. People want to be heard. Let themand for crying out loud, respond to them!
• Guarantee satisfaction. Ensure your customers are satisfiedand make sure they know you stand by what you sell.

Track data

Last but not least, you absolutely must track data around renewals. Know who's up for renewal in the next 30 days, how much your renewals are worthand how much you've lost by failing to secure renewals. This will give you insight into where exactly you need to improve.

Meanwhile, see how your entire sales organization performs against the world's bestand get specific guidance on how you can improve with our World-class Sales Organization tool.

Turn your sales team into rockstars

The post 4 (and a half) Ways to Turn your Renewals into a Revenue Firehose appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Salespeople don't have it easy. There's the pressure to increase revenue, close more, and surpass quotas, all while competing in an economy where the largest challenges to closing deals are low-cost providers. But there's good news: you can still blow past quotas without increasing the number of deals if you can increase the size of the deals you have in the pipeline.

Building a world-class organization can be hard. That's why we built an online tool that helps sales leaders start asking the right questions to audit their organizations. Like:

• How much of your time is really spent selling vs other activities?
• What technologies are you using to track sale rep compensation?

You can also pick up custom recommendations for quick wins in transforming your sales org from so-so to world-class.

According to sales experts, professors, and analysts, there are a handful of surefire tips that will help you increase your deal size.

#1: Build trust with your prospects way before they enter your pipeline.

It's the oldest sales tool in the bookpeople want to buy things from folks they trust. But according to author and professor Shane Gibson, the larger the deal, the more trust is required.

Social media is the easiest way to build trust. Use LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networks to connect to prospectsand convert them into larger customers. For example, you may use LinkedIn to write about your expertise in your product's field, or Quora to answer questions about your product (or general questions about your product's category). Both position you as trusted advisor.

#2: Develop your emotional intelligence to connect more deeply with your prospects.

Most salespeople feel like they can "read their clients" and respond appropriately. Sales expert and author Jill Konrath believes salespeople need to go farther, specifically developing emotional intelligence to improve performance, including closing bigger deals.

For example, take time to learn both (1) your own hot-button issues and (2) what makes prospects tick. This is a baseline "people" skill but dramatically enhances your ability to connect at a human level.

#3: Take advantage of money-saving upsell opportunities.

It's a bit counter-intuitive, but customers will pay more to save money.

"Prospects are always on the lookout for ways to save their companies money," says Oniel Willams, a sales writer for the Houston Chronicle. Pointing out that a larger sale equates to a lower cost per user [is a great way to get the attention of the CFO].

To upsell effectively, you need:

• something else to sell them,
• and to know what their needs are beyond the initial lead.

The first is in your wheelhouse, and the second relies on having access to data (or a solid relationship) with your prospects.

A little juju
Most salespeople will tell you that selling is more art than science, and even though salespeople live in a world of numbers, the key to landing bigger deals isn't easy to quantify. But taking these tips from the experts, and understanding how the best sales teams blow their quotas away, are great ways to start growing your deals.

If you want to see how you and your team rank against the world-class sales teams, and get strategic recommendations about how and where your org can improve, use our tool:

The post 3 Tips to Land Bigger Deals and Blow Away Sales Quotas appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The year is 1970, and The Jackson 5 have just exploded onto the music scene. Their hit songs "I'll Be There" and "ABC" will not only endure the test of time, they'll mark the beginning of the meteoric career of the king of pop himself, Michael Jackson. Sales success stories don't get much better than that. Who better then to give us all a refresher course in the ABCs of successful sales productivity?

Here are five simple tips (one for each member of The Jackson 5) that could boost your sales productivity to the top of the charts in no time:

1. Let your sales team sell. In their debut year, The Jackson 5 released four albums and replaced The Supremes as Motown Records' best-selling group. Compare that output to Pace Productivity's estimate that an average sales representative is only able to spend 22 percent of the workday selling and the disconnect quickly becomes apparent.

Get your hands on tools that automate time-consuming tasks like researching key data, visualizing competitive insights, and unearthing past purchases. Your sales team will be free to make more sales and the real-time data they'll be armed with will help them win more often too.

2. Get social. Before The Jackson 5 made it big, the group was championed by both Gladys Knight and Diana Ross. Even if you don't have your very own Empress of Soul to rely on, you have access to the biggest audiences to ever exist: social media. Customers do research on social sites long before they reach out to sales representatives. By establishing a social presence of their own, your sales team joins the buyer's journey earlier on. Connect with your existing customers too. You'll make it easier for them to recommend you to a friend.

3. Inspire the masses. The joy and energy the Jacksons imparted was infectious. It made those hearing the group feel that they were part of something bigger than themselves just by listening. Make your own customers the heroes of your company's story. Personalize your interactions with them by tailoring their customer journey just for them. With collaborative sales technology like videoconferencing and chat on your side, you and your team can provide support and solutions from day one of the sales process, even if you're selling to a client from across the globe.

4. Give the people what they want. In 1973 The Jackson 5 departed from their pop roots and topped the charts with the decidedly disco Dancing Machine. The song embraced current trends and rocketed The Jackson 5 back to the top.

If you read the signs and gather insights into the minds of your own customers, you can keep yourself on top too. Why call the general information line at a prospective company when you share a contact with its CFO? Aided by tools that do the digging for you, your team will know who to reach out to and when.

5. Stay ahead of the trend. In 1971, Motown Records launched 13-year-old Michael Jackson's solo career, delivering unto the pop music scene an artist who's inherent showmanship and perfectionism would change the name of the game forever. Keep your finger on the pulse of your conversion rates, win rates, and pipeline value with intuitive analytics tools that give you a holistic view of sales while also providing the depth of insight to discover even the most surprising of trends.

That's it for our retrospective on The Jackson 5, but if you want to dig deeper into the essentials of sales productivity, check out our e-book: Always Be Closing: The ABCs of Sales in the Modern Era.

The post The ABCs (easy as 123) of Productive Sales Teams appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.