We’re excited to share two new investments in Microsoft Dynamics 365 provide chain portfolio that we’re launching in preview. We had introduced a partnership between FedEx and Microsoft, in January of 2022, to launch a cross-platform, logistics-as-a-service resolution for manufacturers. This partnership is now in preview. As e-commerce is exploding, companies are challenged with rising their model affinity whereas working profitably to satisfy their shopper expectation like delivering orders in two days and providing a seamless returns expertise. To attain this, we’re combining information insights from FedEx with order insights from Dynamics 365 Clever Order Administration in order that manufacturers can optimize their transportation, and proactively overcome delays and disruptions enroute to ship buyer orders on time, in a cheap method.
This partnership may even convey a strong returns administration expertise to Dynamics 365, together with hassle-free returns choices at over 60,000 FedEx drop-off areas, handy at-home pickups, printer-less QR return labels, and no-box returns. Finally, Microsoft and FedEx’s intelligence-driven logistics return providers will empower manufacturers with end-to-end visibility of buyer returns whereas additionally permitting them to replace customers in real-time on the standing of their return and refund technology.
Subsequent, we’re additionally excited to announce that we are going to launch embedded Microsoft Groups collaboration inside Dynamics 365 Clever Order Administration in preview on Might 15, 2022.
This allows hybrid provide chain groups to seamlessly join over chat, share screens for dialogue, submit updates on points in Groups. On prime of bettering communications, customers may even be capable of collaborate by sharing gross sales orders, return orders, and success order monitoring information extra successfully, all with out exiting their stream of labor inside Dynamics 365 Clever Order Administration. These capabilities assist construct a hyperconnected enterprise that empowers individuals to collaborate as one enterprise, in every single place—so individuals can thrive wherever, and nevertheless, they work.
Digital transformation of provide chains
We advocate three initiatives to kick begin the digital transformation of your provide chains for a resilient and sustainable future—enhancing provide chain visibility, bettering collaborative capabilities for higher resolution making, and designing sustainable operations with a round financial system in thoughts. You possibly can obtain this by surrounding your present provide chain and ERP programs with out changing them. Allow us to dive deeper into these areas and get a sneak peek into how a few of our prospects are remodeling their provide chains.
Enhancing provide chain visibility
It’s simpler mentioned than finished to get real-time provide chain information throughout the worth chain. At Microsoft, now we have been investing in bringing new capabilities inside our Dynamics 365 Provide Chain portfolio to market over the past 12 months to essentially assist organizations improve visibility into each side of their worth chain.
With the newest enhancements to Stock Visibility Add-in, a extremely scalable microservice for Dynamics 365 Provide Chain Administration, corporations can pull stock from a number of third-party programs, permitting them to create a single, international view of all inventories. By creating one pool of worldwide stock from which all orders can pull, corporations can typically improve stock accuracy and thereby maximize gross sales alternatives. Plus, when coupled with the delicate reservation functionality, gross sales order success can keep away from over-selling, successfully mitigating the chance of missed gross sales alternatives which will problem some organizations.
Coca-Cola Drinks Africa (CCBA) is the primary Coca-Cola bottler in Africa and the eighth largest globally by income.
“CCBA is at the moment implementing a set of Dynamics merchandise together with Dynamics 365 Provide Chain Administration with Stock Visibility, Subject Service, and Buyer Engagement merchandise. CCBA envisage utilizing Stock Visibility to supply crucial elements availability to subject service technicians and to validate in close to real-time the gross sales calls for generated from Dynamics Buyer Engagement. It would even be a key element of CCBA’s built-in Advance Warehouse Administration resolution. Ultimately, all of the orders and stock journals might be synced or instantly created in Dynamics 365 Provide Chain Administration for monetary and logistics processing.”—Elmar Els, Enterprise and Integration Architect, Coca-Cola Beverage Africa (CCBA).
Enhance resolution making with enhanced collaboration and a data-first strategy
From a commissioned research carried out by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft in March 2022, we realized that over one-third of provide chain and operations leaders surveyed are taking steps to enhance productiveness by means of system and course of enhancements to mitigate future challenges.1 Whereas it’s crucial to generate insights from real-time provide chain information, the power to behave rapidly on these insights is a complete totally different ball recreation. Organizations must collaborate successfully throughout the totally different capabilities globally and with exterior suppliers and logistics companions to proactively overcome disruptions in order that the orders may be delivered on time.
From the Forrester research, it’s clear that transformation is going down throughout the complete buyer journey, with almost a 3rd of companies wanting to enhance their working mannequin by making processes extra streamlined throughout the board. To attain their objectives, corporations require a tactical deal with being data-driven, bettering the shopper journey, and driving operational effectivity at scale.1
Peet’s Espresso is a California-based model that delivers craft espresso and tea. They provide quite a lot of merchandise—from a single cup to k-cups, capsules to entire beans—on the market in its shops, on-line, and within the grocery store.
Pre-2020, Peet’s Espresso ran the enterprise on a dated and extremely personalized, on-premises system and Excel spreadsheets. The corporate had reached the purpose the place the legacy system was close to the tip of its life and, after a rigorous software program choice course of, discovered Dynamics 365 to be probably the most complete resolution for a multi-channel group with the most effective flexibility to adapt to the distinctive wants of espresso manufacturing.
“…Dynamics 365 provides us the cloud-based structure we require to assist the expansion necessities of the enterprise. The mix of Dynamics 365, Energy Platform, and Azure cloud providers supplies Peet’s with a scalable and supportable know-how basis for the long run.”—Allan Smith, Chief Data Officer, Peet’s Espresso.
By the early days of 2020, Peet’s Espresso had begun a digital transformation course of by implementing Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Provide Chain Administration. However what Peet’s Espresso couldn’t have deliberate for was the dramatic shift in demand that stay-at-home orders would create with the onset of the pandemic. Out of the blue, Peet’s Espresso noticed gross sales quantity from its conventional channels, wholesale and occasional retailers, plummet, whereas direct-to-consumer (DTC) and grocery channel gross sales surged 2x. Peet’s Espresso radically modified its implementation plan for Dynamics 365 to assist speedy enterprise wants. Finally, Peet’s Espresso adopted a brand new enterprise mannequin (DTC) and pivoted to provide grocery demand whereas efficiently finishing the implementation.
“…with the pandemic…it has been a heck of a 12 months. I’m happy with the investments we made. I’m happy with the Blue Horseshoe relationship. I’m glad Dynamics 365 is stay at Peet’s. However I want we had finished it earlier.”—Eric Lauterbach, President, Peet’s Espresso.
Reverse provide chains and round economies
A technique that manufacturing organizations are bettering sustainability is by standing up round economies. Round financial system, or circularity, is rooted in reverse provide chain administration, which offers with what occurs after a product’s helpful life.
Establishing these round financial system flows may be difficult with out an agile and composable provide chain administration software. The Microsoft Round Middle program makes use of Dynamics 365 Provide Chain Administration and Microsoft Energy Platform to facilitate the reuse and recycling of servers and {hardware} inside our datacenters, which is a part of our dedication to reaching zero-waste and carbon-negative operations by 2030. So far, the Round Facilities mannequin has achieved 83 p.c reuse and 17 p.c recycling of crucial elements whereas contributing to the discount of carbon emissions by 145,000 metric tons CO2 equal.
“We have been searching for a warehouse administration system that may enable us to mannequin all of the product flows that we would have liked whereas additionally connecting to datacenters and different programs used to handle our cloud property. Dynamics 365 had all these functionalities to construct precisely what we would have liked.”—Anand Narasimhan, Basic Supervisor of Cloud Provide Chain Sustainability, Microsoft.
Keep agile and resilient
Along with the brand new integrations for Dynamics 365 Clever Order Administration and the shopper tales and new options lined right here, we’re additionally honored that Gartner® has acknowledged Microsoft as a Chief within the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises for Microsoft Dynamics 365. To study extra, please take a look at the Gartner Magic Quadrant and go to our Construct a Resilient and Sustainable Provide Chain webinar.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Provide Chain options allow organizations to create a digital provide chain that connects international groups, suppliers, and logistic companions for end-to-end visibility and frictionless collaboration. Our agile and composable Provide Chain options unify siloed information sources in real-time to detect alternatives, predict and overcome disruptions, and ship sustainable aggressive benefit. Attain out to study extra or get began with a free trial of Dynamics 365 Clever Order Administration.
Sources:
1- A commissioned research carried out by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft. March 2022.
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