The following blog post was written by Robert Raponi.

Each Industrial Revolution has been built on step-function advances in automation and the current, the 4th Industrial Revolution is no exception. Technologies like Dynamics 365 are enabling the integration of previously siloed software tools and powering automated linkages between the digital and physical work realms. We’ve entered the reign of the Intelligent Enterprise.  

What do intelligent automation and intelligent enterprises actually do? To bring these concepts to life, here’s an example of a “live” intelligent field service platform recently built by Avanade: from planning to customer contact, service implementation to sales and satisfaction surveys.

1) Planning:  At a fast-growth heating equipment company – for confidentiality sake, let’s call it Oltiva Heaters - the owners need to plan their service workforce for the next fiscal year. A recurring challenge for Oltiva is defining resource capacity and especially to figure how to engage subcontractors to cover demand.  To decide, Oltiva’s Dynamics 365 platform on Microsoft Azure first pulls statistics from several applications about the company’s current install base and feeds the integrated data into a predictive model attached to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Enabled by Azure Machine Learning, the platform instantly analyzes historical data like service tickets per heater model/year, defines percent of coverage and delegates subcontractor engagement in each territory throughout the year.  

While this is complex set of “under the hood” operations, Oltiva’s end-users experience simplicity. This intelligent system doesn’t require deep user expertise to predict call volumes and future ticketing, get insights on data, visualize trends and take actions. As a result, over the next twelve months, Oltiva deploys subcontractors in a select set of key areas – protecting both profit margins and customer satisfaction.  

2) Interaction: Otiva’s Dynamics 365 implementation enables the company’s automated call center, which dramatically reduces the cost of service even as the volume of contacts has increased.  When a customer identifies an issue, they may either phone the company or use WhatsApp to contact an AI chatbot for support, to request an urgent service ticket, ask for a quick call-back by a contact center agent or schedule an appointment with a technician automatically.

3) Selling: When the customer’s call request is returned by Oltiva staff, because of Dynamics 365 intelligence, the operator is able to immediately review the customer’s history and all prior AI chatbot conversations. Perhaps, the operator notices that the customer’s heating product has malfunctioned twice in the past six months due to system overload. Based on these issues, the system might propose a discounted upgrade of the customer’s model since the current version is not powerful enough for his needs.

4) Service: Because Oltiva recently activated Connected Field Service (CFS) for Dynamics 365 to monitor and review their customers’ connected heater devices, they have moved from a costly break-fix model to a more proactive service model. Now, Oltiva can address issues faster by remotely monitoring devices and keeping customers in the loop. 

CFS has also equipped Oltiva to start offering a periodic device review service to customers. The system automatically assigns appointments according to customers’ needs and availability and technicians’ expertise and bandwidth.  Before each appointment, the platform sends all the necessary information about the product model and customer history to the technician’s wireless device.  When service is complete, the customer verifies and signs for the closure of the activity directly on the technician’s device. 
 
5) Feedback: After the service call is complete, the customer is sent a digital survey through Dynamics 365 CRM with questions that are specific to the customer’s unique circumstances and service experience. At the same time, Oltiva leadership is notified by the system regarding a high number of incidents on the customer’s model and a summary of technicians’ comments on previous resolution so management can put plans in place to anticipate and address these product and service challenges.

Oltiva’s intelligent solution is so robust that it can’t be fully captured in a blog post. It does, though, begin to illustrate Avanade’s vision of intelligent automation and the intelligent enterprise. Microsoft Dynamics 365 is as close as we’ve yet come to “the platform is the application.” It is through tools like this in the hands of experienced implementers - like those I work alongside – that we are able not just to digitally enable a company, but also to materially improve customer and employee experience and boost firm profitability.

Learn more about the Intelligent Enterprise.