By Dennis Cools, Senior Consultant, Dynamics4Business, Nov. 25, 2024
With a team of three colleagues, we traveled to Vienna earlier this month for Directions for Partners EMEA 2024, the annual event for Microsoft partners. This year the focus was on the latest innovations within Business Central, AI and Microsoft Copilot Studio. For us as Dynamics4Business consultants, a great opportunity to discover how these technologies can help companies work smarter, more efficiently and more productively. In this blog, we share our experiences and key insights from this inspiring event.
Business Central continues to grow
DuringDirectionsEMEA 2024 it became clear once again how fast the community around Business Central is growing. By now, more than 40,000 companies worldwide are using the online version of this ERP solution. The Austria Center Vienna offered an inspiring setting, where partners and experts came together to share knowledge. Keynotes, breakout sessions and round tables provided a multifaceted program. Our focus? AI and the capabilities of Microsoft Copilot and the Power Platform.
Copilot in Business Central
Microsoft Copilot, also known as “the smart assistant,” plays a central role in the future of Business Central. Copilot makes it possible to perform tasks faster and easier using native and spoken language. Take the new Suggest Sales Lines function, for example. It lets you issue an order, or prompt, after which Copilot automatically generates sales order lines.
Suppose a particular item is out of stock. Copilot can learn to suggest alternative products, allowing you to provide an appropriate solution immediately. These AI agents not only work efficiently, but also learn more and more as they are used more often. Think of Copilot as a self-learning assistant within your organization that makes processes simpler and smarter.
More possibilities with Microsoft Copilot Studio
What makes Copilot really powerful is the ability to develop custom agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio. We saw this reflected in concrete examples during Directions. For example, you can build an agent that supports specific processes within Business Central, such as managing service orders or synchronizing customer information with other systems. With Copilot Studio, you can deliver custom agents that fully meet the needs of your organization.
The Power Platform: opportunities for integration
The Power Platform is playing an increasing role alongside Business Central. For Dynamics4Business, this means seeing how customers can simplify complex processes with tools such as Power Automate and Power BI. For example, we have seen an example where an order is sent by email, then an Autonomous AI agent reads the email, creates a sales order and even processes additional comments.
In addition, Power BI offers powerful capabilities for data visualization and analysis. More than 70 ready-to-use reports are now available in Business Central, giving organizations quick and easy insight into their data.
Data analysis with Copilot: easier than ever
Copilot also offers interesting applications for data analysis. Suppose you want to quickly see on the Article List page which items do not yet have a selling price. Normally you would have to set up custom filters for this. With Copilot you can simply ask a question in your own language as well as spoken language, and within seconds you will have the desired overview. This makes data-driven decision making more accessible than ever.
Our experience at Directions EMEA
During the event, we deepened our knowledge of AI and Business Central. The combination of Copilot, the Power Platform and the capabilities within Microsoft Copilot Studio offers a lot of potential. The key insight we take away? Start small. Focus on tasks that are time-consuming or complicated and see how you can simplify them with AI and automation.
Want to learn more about AI and Business Central?
Wondering how your organization can benefit from AI and Microsoft Copilot? Discover the possibilities with Dynamics4Business and contact us. Together we'll take the next step toward an AI-powered Business Central environment.