Recent News – Page 69

Posted on October 29, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Gain insights into how your organization works with new Microsoft Productivity Score

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*Gain insights into how your organization works with Microsoft Productivity Score video.*

For some time now, business leaders have made digital transformation a priority. But when the pandemic hit this spring, adopting and embracing digital technology went from being a matter of importance to one of sheer survival. COVID-19 has catapulted us into the era of digital everything. And to keep up with the pace of change, and build more resilient businesses to meet future challenges, we need to move digital transformation from art to science.

As leaders, it’s our job to make sure people have the tools they need to do their best work. But tools alone are not enough—you also need to help everyone in your organization build the habits that harness the true power of those tools. Until now, it’s been difficult for leaders to get insight into these habits and understand how to help people make the most of the technology they invest in. Today, with the announcement of the general availability of Microsoft Productivity Score, we take an important step forward. Let’s take a look at how Productivity Score can help your people succeed today and in the future.

Using Productivity Score to help power your digital transformation

As we’ve talked with many of you about your digital transformation efforts, we’ve heard that you need a better way to measure the value you’re getting from Microsoft 365 beyond usage. Productivity Score builds upon the Microsoft Graph data to give you insights that help you quantify what is happening across your organization and use aggregated measures to drive better outcomes for people by leveraging technology.

Because while every digital transformation is different, they all come down to those two things: people and technology. People are your most important asset, and helping them adapt to new ways of working is key to any successful transformation. Technology, meanwhile, is the enabler, helping to unleash the ingenuity that only people possess. Productivity Score leverages the depth and breadth of Microsoft 365 to give you visibility into how your organization works, insights to identify where you can make improvements, and actions you can take to update skills and systems so that everyone can do their best work. It shows you people experiences across five categories: content collaboration, meetings, communication, teamwork, and mobility. Meanwhile, technology experiences focus on endpoints, network connectivity, and Microsoft 365 Apps.

Using the insights Productivity Score provides, we can also help you improve experiences over time by recognizing and proactively addressing issues so you can derive more value from your investment. Productivity Score identifies areas where you can offer people training to learn how to use the tools to their fullest capacity. For example, the new teamwork category (available today) provides a score based on the percentage of people who engage in teamwork within shared workspaces like SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and group mailboxes in Exchange. You can see how this engagement has changed over the past six months, which helps you measure your transformation journey. Insights like this can also help you to identify possible training opportunities so your users can collaborate in new or more efficient ways. You can learn more about this and other scenarios in the Mechanics video.

Screenshot of Teamwork Productivity Score — Figure 1: Teamwork category page

Commitment to privacy

Microsoft runs on trust, and we have a strong commitment to privacy across all our services. Using data responsibly is at the heart of how we built Productivity Score. Productivity Score gives you important insights about your organization, but we know you have a critical need to maintain users’ trust while using those data insights responsibly. You need a choice in who and to what level people in your organization can see user-level data.

We get it, and we are committed to privacy as a fundamental element of Productivity Score. Let me be clear: Productivity Score is not a work monitoring tool. Productivity Score is about discovering new ways of working, providing your people with great collaboration and technology experiences. It focuses on actionable insights about the ways in which people and teams are using the tools so you can make improvements or provide training to further your digital transformation. For example, to help maintain privacy and trust, the user data provided in Productivity Score is aggregated over a 28-day period. We also give you controls so you can anonymize the user info or even remove it. You can learn more on the documentation page.

From art to science

Digital transformation is a challenge for all of us, but it doesn’t have to be a mystery. Productivity Score illuminates the essential insights to move your transformation from art to science, just as it’s doing at Nestlé, one of the largest food companies in the world. As you can see in this video, Nestle is using Productivity Score to transform assumptions into data-based facts that the company uses to build better user experiences. And as we hear incredible digital transformation stories like these from customers around the world, we hope that Productivity Score, along with the insights that are coming to Microsoft Teams, will help you discover even more ways to succeed in a new world of work.

Ready to get started? We are starting to roll out Productivity Score in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (Note: only users granted the Reports Reader role and higher can access the page). And to learn more and get additional resources, check out The Definitive Guide to Productivity Score. Finally, you can join the Productivity Score “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) on November 17, 2020—my team will be ready and eager to answer all your questions.

Posted on October 28, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare now generally available: unlocking health data for better care

As healthcare providers have faced unprecedented workloads (individually and institutionally) around the world, the pandemic response continues to cause seismic shifts in how, where, and when care is provided. Longer-term, it has revealed the need for fundamental shifts across the care continuum. As a physician, I have seen first-hand the challenges of not having the right data, at the right time, in the right format to make informed shared decisions with my patients. These challenges amplify the urgency for trusted partners and solutions to help solve emergent health challenges.

Today we’re taking a big step forward to address these challenges with the general availability of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare brings together trusted capabilities to customers and partners that enhance patient engagement, empower health team collaboration, and improve clinical and operational insights. It makes it faster and easier to provide more efficient care and helps to ensure the end-to-end security, compliance, and interoperability of health data.

Innovation and Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare

That starts with Azure API for FHIR, which enables the rapid exchange of data through Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) APIs, backed by a managed platform as a service (PaaS) offering. It makes it easier for anyone working with health data to ingest, manage, and persist protected health information in the cloud. The healthcare industry is rapidly transforming health data to the emerging standard of FHIR®, which enables a robust, extensible data model with standardized semantics and data exchange that enables all systems using FHIR to work together. Transforming your data to FHIR allows you to quickly connect existing data sources such as the electronic health record systems or research databases. FHIR also enables the rapid exchange of data in modern implementations of mobile and web development. Most importantly, FHIR can simplify data ingestion and accelerate development with analytics and Machine Learning tools. The shift from on-premises computing to the cloud in healthcare is one of the five megatrends I spoke about recently and is a one-time event happening in a more compressed period than other industries.

Another key innovation for Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare was born out of a Microsoft Hackathon and launched in 2019, but gained worldwide utilization this year during the pandemic. The Microsoft Health Bot service is an Azure cloud service that empowers healthcare organizations to rapidly build and deploy AI-powered virtual health assistants and chatbots that can be used to enhance their processes, self-service, and cost reduction efforts. The Health Bot comes with built-in healthcare AI services, such as clinical protocols and medical content from trusted industry sources, healthcare templates for rapid design, language understanding models that are tuned to understand medical and clinical terminology, and seamless hand-off to live chat and telehealth when required. The uptake of the Health Bot service has been incredible. Since March 2020, Microsoft’s Health Bot has triaged over 600 million messages and deployed 2,300 COVID-19 bots in 25 countries, to serve more than 50 million users. At a time when call centers and emergency departments were overwhelmed, this bot service has helped many hospital systems, non-government organizations (NGOs), and public health systems, including the US Center for Disease Control, to communicate up-to-date guidance, prioritize care for their most urgent patients, and receive real-time data on people’s interactions with the bot.

As we continue to expand the capabilities in Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, our teams continue to bring forward innovations. Remote patient monitoring provides the ability to gather patient health data outside of traditional healthcare settings. Healthcare institutions can use Azure IoT Connector for FHIR to bring health data generated by remote devices into Azure API for FHIR. This data could be used to closely track patient health status, monitor patient adherence to treatment plans, and provide personalized care.

Recently released in Open Source, the Medical Imaging Server for DICOM streamlines the process of ingesting medical imaging data in the cloud. By using the Medical Imaging Server for DICOM alongside the Azure API for FHIR or other FHIR services, data references are created between imaging data and clinical data in FHIR, setting the stage for multiple scenarios which are difficult and expensive to execute in today’s on-premises systems. As a radiologist, I am excited to see the development of Microsoft’s imaging server. Imaging data makes up 74 percent of all medical data and on our quest for patient-centered care, this imaging data often provides the clues to connect the dots in disease detection as well as to guide the most effective prevention and treatment strategies.

Text Analytics for Health, a feature of Microsoft Azure Text Analytics, is an AI service currently in preview that enables and simplifies the process of extracting insights from unstructured medical data. Trained on a diverse range of medical data—covering various formats of clinical notes, clinical trial protocols, and more—this health feature is capable of processing a broad range of data types and tasks, without the need for time-intensive, manual development of custom models. Much of today’s healthcare data is in the form of unstructured text, such as doctor’s notes, medical publications, electronic health records, clinical trial protocols, medical encounter transcripts, and more. Healthcare organizations, providers, researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and others face an incredible challenge in trying to identify and draw insights from all that information. Unlocking insights from this data has massive potential for improving healthcare services and patient outcomes.

Future enhancements of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare will include solutions for precision medicine. Decoding the information in an individual’s genome has led to a greater understanding of the variability in disease progression and treatment response across individuals. Gaining a better understanding of these genetic variations at an individual and population level is key to development of precision medicine strategies to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease. Microsoft Genomics open source solutions (Cromwell on Azure, Genomics Notebooks) enable biomedical researchers to orchestrate scalable workflows and efficiently manage genomics pipelines and analytics using the power of the Azure cloud. Our goal is to make genomics data actionable by analyzing and interpreting data generated by modern genomics technologies.

Unlocking the power of health data with Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare and its expanding pipeline of enhancements allow care givers to gain a holistic view of the patient with insights and actionable next steps for more informed, personalized care management.

With today’s launch, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare lays the foundation for our customers and partners to build innovative solutions, leading to better experiences and outcomes for both patients and their providers. Collaborating with our partners to bring these innovations to life is the work that keeps me energized as we reimagine the future of health globally.

Posted on October 28, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Cyberattacks target international conference attendees

Today, we’re sharing that we have detected and worked to stop a series of cyberattacks from the threat actor Phosphorous masquerading as conference organizers to target more than 100 high-profile individuals. Phosphorus, an Iranian actor, has targeted with this scheme potential attendees of the upcoming Munich Security Conference and the Think 20 (T20) Summit in Saudi Arabia. The Munich Security Conference is the most important gathering on the topic of security for heads of state and other world leaders, and it has been held annually for nearly 60 years. Likewise, T20 is a highly visible event that shapes policy ideas for the G20 nations and informs their critical discussions.

Based on current analysis, we do not believe this activity is tied to the U.S. elections in any way.

The attackers have been sending possible attendees spoofed invitations by email. The emails use near-perfect English and were sent to former government officials, policy experts, academics and leaders from non-governmental organizations. Phosphorus helped assuage fears of travel during the Covid-19 pandemic by offering remote sessions.

We believe Phosphorus is engaging in these attacks for intelligence collection purposes. The attacks were successful in compromising several victims, including former ambassadors and other senior policy experts who help shape global agendas and foreign policies in their respective countries.

Figure 1: Flow of a typical Phosphorus attack in this campaign

This activity was uncovered by Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Information Center, or MSTIC, which tracks the world’s nation-state and cybercrime actors so we can better protect our customers. MSTIC is also critical to the work of our Defending Democracy Program, powering our AccountGuard threat notification service available in 30 countries worldwide and fueling the intelligence we share to help keep elections secure. We build new protections into our products regularly based on the threats MSTIC uncovers.

We’ve already worked with conference organizers who have warned and will continue to warn their attendees, and we’re disclosing what we’ve seen so that everyone can remain vigilant to this approach being used in connection with other conferences or events.

We recommend people evaluate the authenticity of emails they receive about major conferences by ensuring that the sender address looks legitimate and that any embedded links redirect to the official conference domain. As always, enabling multi-factor authentication across both business and personal email accounts will successfully thwart most credential harvesting attacks like these. For anyone who suspects they may have been a victim of this campaign, we also encourage a close review of email-forwarding rules in accounts to identify and remove any suspicious rules that may have been set during a successful compromise.

We are also sharing the indicators of compromise (IOCs) observed during these activities. We encourage IT teams to implement detections and protections to identify possible prior campaigns and prevent future campaigns against their users. These indicators include phony email accounts and domains or websites used to steal victims’ credentials.

INDICATOR	TYPE	DESCRIPTION
t20saudiarabia[@]outlook.sa	Email	Masquerading as the organizer of the Think 20 (T20) conference
t20saudiarabia[@]hotmail.com	Email	Masquerading as the organizer of the Think 20 (T20) conference
t20saudiarabia[@]gmail.com	Email	Masquerading as the organizer of the Think 20 (T20) conference
munichconference[@]outlook.com	Email	Masquerading as the organizer of the Munich Security Conference
munichconference[@]outlook.de	Email	Masquerading as the organizer of the Munich Security Conference
munichconference1962[@]gmail.com	Email	Masquerading as the organizer of the Munich Security Conference
de-ma[.]online	Domain	Domain used for credential harvesting
g20saudi.000webhostapp[.]com	Subdomain	Subdomain used for credential harvesting
ksat20.000webhostapp[.]com	Subdomain	Subdomain used for credential harvesting

As we noted in our recent Digital Defense Report, nation-state cyberattackers routinely pursue think tanks, policy organizations and governmental and non-governmental organizations, seeking information that an attacker can use for their benefit. We will continue to use a combination of technology, operations, legal action and policy to disrupt and deter malicious activity, but nothing replaces vigilance from people who are likely targets of these operations.

Posted on October 28, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft Teams displays now available; see how they can change how you work

Reimagine your workday with Microsoft Teams displays, a new category of Teams device solutions that combine productivity, collaboration and artificial intelligence into one seamless experience. Teams display is the first all-in-one touchscreen device dedicated to bringing the Teams experience to life; by channeling your alerts, schedule, calls and meetings into one device you can free up your PC and mind space to the task at hand and minimize distractions. Most exciting, Teams displays are powered by Cortana, transforming what would be an ordinary video phone into a powerful personal assistant.

Whether you are at home or in the office, Teams displays change how you work.

1. Teams at your fingertips
As a device dedicated only to Teams, displays bring together everything you need to stay in the rhythm of work: chat, meetings, calls, calendar, and files can be accessed instantly, freeing up your PC for other tasks. Engage in high quality calling and meetings with your colleagues with industry leading microphones, cameras and speakers built in.

Dedicated Teams devices like Bluetooth headsets (left) and displays (center) create a more reliable calling and meeting experience.

2. Everything you need to know, at-a-glance
The customizable home screen of the display shows you key alerts from Team, your schedule highlights, and shortcuts to key communication apps like calling, contacts voicemail. Ever been heads down in a deliverable and can’t remember what is next in your day? Take a look at your display to stay caught up without skipping a beat. Customize your notifications to surface what is important to you and reduce pings and distractions from your primary work device or mobile. Finally change your wallpaper from a variety of delightful preset options, with the capability to add your own coming soon.

Microsoft Teams displays can be personalized to include wallpapers and highlight important activities and notifications.

3. Use the power of Cortana to go hands free

Use voice commands to leverage Cortana in your daily tasks. You can make requests like:

“What is on my calendar today?”

“Share this document with Megan”

“Join my next meeting”

“Add Joe to this meeting”

“Present the quarterly review deck”

Take back the time from little tasks with built in voice assistant capabilities.

4. Better together with your PC
Microsoft Teams displays seamlessly integrate with your PC to bring a companion experience that allows for seamless cross-device interaction. You can easily lock and unlock both devices from your connected PC, open files or messages on one with the option to respond on the other. You can even split the contents and participants in meetings across two screens, so you can consume information while maintaining contact with your collaborators.

Using Microsoft Teams displays allows for a distributed meeting experience across devices.

5. Enterprise privacy, security, and compliance
Microsoft Teams displays ensure user’s privacy and meets enterprise-grade security and compliance in several ways:

With a camera shutter and microphone mute switch, users can feel assured that your conversations and video will remain private.
IT admins can securely manage, update, and monitor Microsoft Teams displays through the Teams admin portal.
Users will securely sign in with their enterprise Azure Active Directory credentials.
Voice assistance experiences are delivered using Cortana enterprise-grade services that meet Microsoft 365 privacy, security and compliance commitments.

The Lenovo ThinkSmart View will be the first Microsoft Teams display to market, with Yealink coming soon.

The first Microsoft Teams displays are from Lenovo (left) and Yealink (right).

To learn more about portfolio of devices certified for Teams, visit office.com/teamsdevices or shop the ThinkSmart View at Microsoft Stores.

Posted on October 27, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Holograms, tablets and Teams – one of the largest fire services in the UK is going digital

One the largest fire and rescue services in the UK is going digital, by using Microsoft Surface, M365 and Teams to help them respond to emergencies and train new recruits.

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, which looks after approximately 12,000 square kilometres of Wales, is giving officers Surface Go devices so they can view information about specific vehicles as they are travelling to road traffic collisions.

This means that when they get to the scene of the incident, they can tell firefighters the best places to cut vehicles to free trapped passengers and how to disable undeployed airbags to avoid injury. They can also see live information about the incident, which can be shared instantly with colleagues.

Microsoft’s technology will be used alongside the Mobile Data Terminals found in all fire appliances, which allow firefighters to stay in contact with their control centre but can’t be removed from the vehicle.

Chris Davies, Chief Fire Officer at Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said: “By using Surface Go, our officers can now see all the safety features of a vehicle involved in an accident, wherever they are. This gives firefighters more information about the situation as they safely extricate casualties.

“The use of real-time data and Power BI has transformed what we do. Whether that’s information from an emergency or a live feed from a drone searching for someone injured on a mountain, information allows our staff to understand situations in more detail.

“Technology is also helping us with more straightforward activities, such as using Teams to hold training sessions for firefighters across Wales.”

With 1,400 staff employed in 58 fire stations across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire, Powys and Swansea, arranging for everyone to be in the same place for training is difficult.

With few motorways in Wales, firefighters can spend up to six hours travelling to a training session that lasts an hour or two. Davies has found Teams to be a far more efficient – and safer – solution.

“I’ve been encouraging more staff to conduct remote meetings, because we don’t need to ask all the officers to travel to headquarters, for example,” Davies said. “We can run meetings on Teams and it’s far more effective. People are much more engaged. There’s also less risk to our staff when they’re on the road because they haven’t had to get up very early to travel somewhere.

“It’s simple uses of technology like that which are really changing how our service operates to meet the needs of today’s world.”

Davies, who took over as Chief Fire Officer six years ago, is now looking to build on the success the service has had with Teams and Surface. He wants to use Microsoft HoloLens to create life-sized holograms of some of the buildings in mid and west Wales, which firefighters can look at and interact with during training at their station or on the way to an emergency. This will allow them to understand potential risks, identify safe routes through those buildings, and learn the location of hydrants and sprinklers.

Currently, firefighters look at single line drawings of buildings on a computer screen.

HoloLens could also be used to train officers in how to respond to emergencies at Wales’ oil refineries.

“We have a number of oil refineries in the area, and historically we’ve always trained on those sites,” Davies said. “What HoloLens will enable us to do is actually put Incident Commanders into those scenarios, in an almost live experience but in a safe environment.

“I firmly believe this is going to change the way that we train and maintain the competencies of our firefighters. My vision of what is possible has been completely blown away by Microsoft.”

It’s the latest example of how Microsoft is helping the public sector to use technology to improve how employees work.

Last year, Wales became one of the first countries in the world to give schools free access to Microsoft 365. The Welsh Government paid for all 1,521 “maintained” schools to have access to programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, in a bid to boost the use of technology among pupils and reduce costs for families and headteachers.

Meanwhile, an agreement struck between NHSX, NHS Digital and Microsoft in June will save the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds and enable all eligible organisations in England to access Microsoft 365 digital tools.

Chris Perkins, General Manager of Public Sector at Microsoft UK, said: “There has never been a more important time for companies and organisations to use technology that helps staff collaborate, communicate and gain insight into the world around them. This is even more critical when those people are employed by our vital public services, which work tirelessly to keep us all safe and well.

“Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service is adopting technology at scale, allowing firefighters and officers to create a network of information that can be shared and acted upon. It is a fantastic example of how placing cutting-edge technology in the hands of skilled people can lead to ground breaking solutions.”

Read the full customer story here.

Posted on October 26, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Q&A on C3.ai, Adobe and Microsoft partnering to reinvent CRM with AI

As organizations worldwide continue to respond and react to a new business climate, we have seen more clearly than ever that the traditional approach to business applications is no longer sufficient. Organizations need a new class of business applications that provides the agility to see and respond to emerging trends, new opportunities, and potential risks so that ultimately, they can delight their customers and deliver the business outcomes that truly matter.

That’s why today we are excited to announce, together with C3.ai and Adobe, the launch of C3 AI CRM powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365. C3 AI CRM leverages Dynamics 365 as the foundation for end-to-end, intelligent customer engagement, with Adobe Experience Cloud providing real-time customer profile and customer journey management, together with C3.ai’s industry-specific enterprise AI capabilities.

With C3 AI CRM, organizations can unlock the power of AI-driven customer relationship management in a solution purpose-built for specific industries, leveraging data from any source to produce predictive business insights. We are proud to welcome C3.ai to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem, and to continue our collaboration with Adobe.

We had a chance to catch up with Amit Ahuja from Adobe and Ed Abbo from C3.ai to talk a little more about this partnership.

Why is traditional CRM insufficient for today’s enterprise requirements?

Ed: When we first created CRM back in the 1990s, it revolutionized sales, marketing, and customer service. Back then, the vast majority of customer data—contact and account information, transaction history, service history, pricing, etc.—resided in internal enterprise systems. CRM unified those internal silos and applied rules-based workflows to customer-facing processes—and three decades later, today’s CRM systems still operate in much the same way, even though the world has dramatically changed. Today’s CRM applications are backward-looking systems of record. But what businesses require are forward-looking, predictive systems of intelligence that provide real-time, data-driven insights to deliver the optimal customer experience

In today’s digital world, the vast majority of data relevant for CRM resides in external, rather than internal, sources—social network relationships, online activity, market and economic data, credit scores, financial filings, etc. All of that data must be unified and analyzed with AI using advanced machine learning methods that have been developed within the last 5 – 10 years. The data in today’s CRM systems is not sufficient for AI, and they were not built with architectures designed to aggregate, unify, and apply machine learning to petabyte-scale volumes of disparate, structured, and unstructured data. You can’t simply bolt these capabilities onto traditional CRM systems as an afterthought—it requires a modern AI-first architecture.

Alysa: We see the same trend, with the volume of data just growing exponentially. For organizations to succeed in this climate, they need to do two things. First, they need to aggregate data from across their organization and leveraging the external data Ed talks about. With that, they can access a 360-degree view of their customers and indeed, their entire operation. Second, they need a solution that applies intelligence to the entirety of that data estate, so they can quickly make decisions that generate new value for their organizations and deliver exceptional experiences for their customers.

On top of that, we have seen that the definition of CRM has broadened—it’s not just about salesforce automation anymore. Organizations need solutions that allow them to understand and optimize the broader customer engagement journey, from marketing and sales all the way to back-end service and support, taking advantage of that unified approach to data and pervasive AI.

Amit: The antiquated model of static, siloed customer profiles do not work anymore. Legacy CRM products were not designed to aggregate, unify, and apply advanced machine learning models to today’s massive, disparate data sets. For today’s digital businesses, it’s not enough to have the most data, you need the right data—behavioral, transactional, and operational—to understand your customer, and the intelligence to act on it in the moment.

Why did C3.ai partner with Microsoft and Adobe to build the world’s first AI CRM application for industries?

Ed: C3.ai, Microsoft, and Adobe bring together the perfect combination of technology, industry, and domain expertise to address the requirements for a new generation of CRM. No technology company has a greater footprint and credibility in the enterprise globally than Microsoft with its ecosystem of Microsoft Dynamics 365 business applications, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and Microsoft Power Platform, powered by Microsoft Azure. And Adobe has set the standard for the customer digital experience with Adobe Experience Cloud. C3.ai brings expertise in industry-specific Enterprise AI and, of course, a management team with deep experience in CRM.

Importantly, in addition to this combination of leading technologies and expertise, we share a common vision with our partners of an AI-first, industry-specific approach to delivering a new generation of AI CRM solutions. There is an enormous opportunity to reinvent CRM for the 21^st century, leveraging technologies that did not exist when today’s CRM products were designed, to bring exciting new capabilities to customers that will enable them, in turn, to deliver better experiences for their customers and grow their business.

Alysa: We have had a longstanding partnership collaborating with C3.ai in the enterprise AI space, most recently this spring announcing how C3.ai adopted and deployed Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Microsoft Teams in less than two weeks to help streamline sales operations, collaborate in real time, expand mobile capabilities to power remote selling and generate new business opportunities. We’re excited to deepen that partnership with this announcement, allowing our mutual customers to leverage the combined power of Azure, C3.ai, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and the Adobe Experience Cloud. Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a full portfolio of intelligent business applications. By integrating C3.ai’s industry-specific data and AI models and Adobe’s best-in-class customer experience engine, our customers will realize even greater value from Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Amit: Digital transformation has taken on a heightened urgency. Customer journeys are complex, and they expect consistent, personalized experiences across every touch point. To deliver those personalized experiences, brands are challenged to bring together disparate data sets. Bringing together Adobe’s customer experience leadership with C3.ai’s deep AI expertise and Microsoft’s CRM platform enables a new caliber of customer engagement by fusing behavioral data into customer profiles, orchestrating customer journeys and delivering real-time customer experiences.

How does this solution leverage the Open Data Initiative (ODI)?

Alysa: The work on ODI continues, and today’s announcement with C3.ai is another example of how, together with Adobe, we are delivering progress on the vision that drives ODI. The momentum we have gained is exciting, and our work continues to be validated by partners like C3.ai who share our desire to help organizations put their data to work quickly, removing friction, and derive value from their data—particularly when that data is siloed across multiple systems and sources. We’re excited to see how ODI will continue to help companies transform their customer experiences through real-time insights delivered from the cloud.

Amit: We’re excited about the momentum we’ve gained with ODI, and our work continues to be validated by partners such as C3.ai who share our desire to help organizations put their data to work quickly, removing friction and deriving value.

What customer outcomes will C3 AI CRM powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Adobe Experience Cloud deliver?

Ed: Bringing an AI-first, industry-specific approach, C3 AI CRM delivers a precision system of intelligence that unlocks powerful new capabilities for customers. Consider revenue forecasting, for example. We can now unify and analyze extraprise data—SEC filings, equities prices, market data, and so on—to create far more accurate forecasts. Similarly, whatever the use case – intelligent lead prospecting, next-best-product offer, price optimization, customer churn management, etc.—we can analyze massive volumes of data, make predictions, and generate recommendations to augment human agents or trigger automated processes.

By using C3 AI CRM powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Adobe Experience Cloud, our customers will be able to better anticipate their customers’ needs and deliver more satisfying customer experiences—more personalized, more efficient, more intelligent—while increasing revenue, profitability, and customer loyalty. This is the future of CRM.

Amit: Every organization has processes that can be improved quickly with the right kind of AI. Organizations that are finding the most value from AI have moved beyond pilots to scale AI across their entire organization and are using AI to find new ways to work smarter and drive efficiencies to increasing cost pressures. Joint customers can transform sales, marketing, and customer experiences with a new AI-native technology stack that brings together real-time customer profile, journey management, and experience delivery from Adobe, sales intelligence, and insight from Dynamics 365 CRM, as well as deep industry AI expertise from C3.ai. For example, in financial services, C3 AI can help with credit prospecting, churn management, and call center predictions. In manufacturing, use cases include dealer management and predictive maintenance and service. In the public sector, AI can be applied across case and process management, as well as citizen engagement, and can guide safety and sustainability practices within cities.

How does this partnership bring CXM value to brands?

Amit: Across every industry, whether it’s business-to-business or business-to-consumer, people aren’t just buying products. They’re buying experiences. Consumers today have more avenues than ever before to engage and interact with brands and they expect personalized experiences across every touchpoint. However, brands are struggling to deliver these experiences. Data, such as purchase history, used to craft a bespoke customer experience has many owners within an organization, creating an incomplete view of each customer, and, ultimately, an underwhelming experience. Winning brands must be able to capture, analyze, and act on everything they know about their customers in real time in order to deliver the best experience possible. Adobe brings leadership in CXM with Adobe Experience Cloud, the end-to-end solution for experience creation, marketing, advertising, analytics, and commerce. And by bringing together Adobe’s leadership with C3.ai’s deep AI expertise and Microsoft’s CRM platform, we’re delivering a new caliber of customer engagement.

How are ISVs like C3.ai partnering with Microsoft and Adobe?

Alysa: Microsoft attracts ISVs of all shapes and sizes to build on and extend the Microsoft cloud with industry-specific line-of-business applications. Unlike other business application platforms, Microsoft eliminates the traditional silos of ERP and CRM and empowers ISVs to build without limitation. With our Business Applications ISV Connect Program, ISVs like C3.ai can access go-to-market support and sales resources along with the technical foundation that allows them to build on the intelligent capabilities of the entire Microsoft cloud.

Posted on October 26, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

What to expect when you first boot up your next generation Xbox

With the launch of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S just around the corner, we figured that now would be the perfect time to give our fans an in-depth look at what they can expect when they boot up their next-gen Xbox consoles on November 10. Xbox Series X is our fastest, most powerful console ever and Xbox Series S is our smallest console ever, packed full of next-gen performance, with both consoles supporting next-gen features like Smart Delivery, Quick Resume, Dynamic Latency Input (DLI), and much more.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqi0NtRLQxY?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]

During the video, you’ll get a closer look at how we’ve made it faster than ever to get into your games, how games on the next generation of Xbox look better and play better than ever before, and how the Xbox app keeps you connected to your console and friends, even when you’re not home. From the new dashboard experience and our new Xbox Wireless Controller to next-gen game optimizations and storage solutions, this video will give you a look at everything you can expect from Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

Posted on October 26, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Music students use Microsoft Teams to find harmony and well-being

When lockdown began last March, Joseph was sent scrambling for an alternative to in-person instruction. He had recently appeared on a Rahman-centered podcast called “I Love ARR,” hosted by an Australian friend named Chander Ramanathan, who uses Microsoft Teams for the production.

“The COVID-19 situation – boom, it hit everyone,” remembers Ramanathan. “I had a call from Alphons saying ‘Think of some options and let’s get together.’ I said there’s nothing to think about, it’s Microsoft Teams.”

The next day, the two met for a tutorial – and in no time, Joseph was confident enough to determine it was the way forward. They trained the faculty of nearly 40 people, created various channels for vocals, piano and more classes, added students as guest users, employed Microsoft Forms for evaluations and implemented it all – over a single weekend.

“Another great feature is Live Event,” says Joseph, unabashedly thrilled by the possibilities such technology has put at his fingertips.

“Recently I tried a Live Event, and more than 1,000 people attended. I was giving a starter session in music theory. Even for my existing students, I’ve been doing it as a combined session where I do Indian music and Western music. I give that free, so the Crossroads students will have an edge in that musical knowledge. For me, this platform gives me a big office in my hands.”

Music teacher Alphons Joseph and others — Chander Ramanathan, at left, helped musician and teacher Alphons Joseph, in blue jacket, start using Microsoft Teams.

A newfound confidence
All over the world, music teachers are making an impact like never before. Music students are learning to collaborate and hone their skills in ways they never imagined. And music is bringing people together, at a time when that is so very needed.

In October, Joseph launched the school’s online music learning platform, called “Crossroads eSuite,” available to students from all over the world. Using Microsoft Teams, “I’ve become much more confident with online teaching,” he says.

“We are longing to get back together, because that’s what’s really important,” says Gareth Gay. “But the technology is fascinating; it has given us a massive jolt into the future and shown us the possibilities of how it could be useful going forward.”

“At a time of crisis, music brings people together,” adds Cekmeci. “It has so many benefits.”

Rajat Agrawal also contributed to this report.

Top image: Ceyda Cekmeci, choir director for Istanbul’s Music for Peace Foundation, rehearses with students at Tekfur Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. Photo by Ozan Şahin.

Posted on October 26, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Lobe app aims to make it easy for anyone to train machine learning models

Sean Cusack has been a backyard beekeeper for 10 years and a tinkerer for longer. That’s how he and an entomologist friend got talking about building an early warning system to alert hive owners to potentially catastrophic threats.

They envisioned installing a motion-sensor-activated camera at a beehive entrance and using machine learning to remotely identify when invaders like mites or wasps or potentially even the Asian giant hornet were getting in.

“A threat like that could kill your hive in a couple of hours, and it’d be game over,” Cusack said. “But had you known within 10 minutes of it happening and could get out there and get involved, you could potentially rescue whole colonies.”

It wasn’t until Cusack heard about Lobe, an app that aims to make machine learning easier for people to use and helps them train models without writing code, that he saw a manageable way to bring the project to reality.

“I’m pretty tech savvy, but when I’d tried to do some machine learning things in the past I found it to be pretty intimidating or overwhelming to put all the pieces of the puzzle together,” said Cusack, a Microsoft software engineer who normally works in enterprise web development. “Lobe immediately clicked for me.”

The free app, which Microsoft is making available today in public preview, helps people with no data science experience import images into Lobe and easily label them to create a machine learning dataset. Lobe automatically selects the right machine learning architecture and starts training without any setup or configuration. Users can evaluate the model’s strengths and weaknesses with real-time visual results, play with the model and offer feedback to boost performance.

Today, Lobe supports image classification but plans to expand to other model and data types in the future, Microsoft says.

Once training is done, the models can be easily exported to run on industry standard platforms and work in apps, websites or devices. That allows people to create end-to-end machine learning solutions at home or in the workplace, such as creating an alert when a resident raccoon gets their garbage or flagging when an employee in a dangerous situation isn’t wearing a helmet.

Toyon berries surrounded by a white box — To begin using Lobe, people import images of the things they want Lobe to recognize, like this Toyon berry shrub. The app automatically selects and begins training a machine learning model. Photo by Mike Matas, Microsoft.

Early customers include The Nature Conservancy, which is using the Lobe app as part of a larger project to map and protect Caribbean marine resources and pick out which vacation photos uploaded by tourists visiting those regions relate to whale and dolphin watching.

Other customers have used Lobe to build apps that can help identify harmful plants like poison oak on a hike, or that use a camera to send an alert when they accidentally leave the garage door open or when the street parking spot in front of their house opens up.

“Lobe is taking what is a sophisticated and complex piece of technology and making it actively fun,” said Bill Barnes, manager for Lobe, which Microsoft acquired and began incubating in 2018. “What we find is that it inspires people. It fills them with confidence that they can actually use machine learning. And when you have confidence you become more creative and start looking around and asking ‘What other stuff can I do with this?’”

Lobe, which is available for download on Windows or Mac computers, uses open-source machine learning architectures and transfer learning to train custom machine learning models on the user’s own machine. All the data is kept private, with no internet connection or logins required. Because training is automatic, people can start by simply importing images of the things they want Lobe to recognize.

In Cusack’s beehive project, which he proved out during the latest Microsoft Hackathon, he used a motion sensor camera that took pictures of honeybees as they flew into the hive, as well as invaders like wasps, earwigs and the giant Asian hornet. Because sightings of the hornet in the wild are still rare, Cusack printed out pictures, attached them to sticks and stuck them in the beehive to mimic an invasive threat.

Lobe used these images to create a machine learning model that can distinguish among the different insects and run on a small Raspberry Pi device at the entrance of the hive to alert owners to trouble.

Lobe fills a sweet spot for customers looking for a simple and quick way to get started with machine learning using their PCs or Macs without requiring any dependency on the cloud, Microsoft says. It complements Azure AI’s services for customers looking to leverage cloud computing capabilities.

“We really want to empower more people to leverage machine learning and try it for the first time,” said Jake Cohen, Lobe senior program manager. “We want them to be able to use it in ways that they either could not before or didn’t realize they could before.”

A screenshot of the Lobe app showing a grid of plant photos — Lobe simplifies the process of machine learning into three easy steps: collect and label images, train a model and understand its results, and play to improve it. Photos by Mike Matas, Microsoft.

The Nature Conservancy is using Lobe to support its Mapping Ocean Wealth project, which seeks to map how and where tourism, fishing and other activities are potentially affecting important ocean resources — with the goal of helping officials in five Caribbean nations make more informed conservation and economic decisions.

The nonprofit is using Lobe to flag vacation photos depicting whale or dolphin watching activities that visitors to those countries have uploaded to a popular travel website. The photos have been stripped of all personal information but retain geographic data, which can help give decision makers a rough idea of how popular those nature-based tourism activities are in different locations.

“There are a lot of good fishing maps, there are a lot of good shipping maps and maps that show where different habitats are. But it’s actually quite hard to capture spatial patterns of what tourists are doing and where and at what intensity,” said Kate Longley-Wood, ocean mapping coordinator for The Nature Conservancy. “So we’ve found that these crowdsourced datasets can be really helpful in filling those gaps.”

Before using Lobe, The Nature Conservancy had to contract with data science researchers and students to create a custom machine learning model that could identify tourists engaging with coral reefs. But Lobe has allowed the nonprofit to do that same work in house, using staff who have no programming or data science experience.

To train the model, Longley-Wood collected two sets of images and imported them into Lobe. The first were of “whale and dolphin watching” vacation photos of people who are clearly engaged in those activities. The second contain images that are “not whale or dolphin” — pictures of open water, other types of boats, people snorkeling.

One advantage of Lobe is that it’s very easy to see where the model is getting things wrong and quickly improve its accuracy, Longley-Wood said. If the model gets confused and incorrectly labels a picture of a person swimming next to a boat as a whale watching photo, you can correct it with the click of a button.

Another early customer, Chris Cachor, is a software engineer for Sincro, an Ansira company focused on automotive marketing. He helps local car dealerships get the best performance out of social media ads.

People are less likely to engage with ads featuring stock images of a car model for sale, as opposed to an authentic photo of the car as it appears on the lot, Cachor said. Yet scripts designed to flag generic car photos haven’t always been able to keep up with increasingly sophisticated computer-generated imagery, he said.

Cachor said he’d thought about using machine learning to automate that task, but the tools he had run across seemed too cumbersome and time consuming to learn. With Lobe, he was able to import and label examples of stock, computer-generated and authentic car images. Within minutes, he had his first version of a computer vision model to weed out photos that are less likely to perform well in ads.

“It was so cool to see results right away without it becoming a weekend-long academic project,” Cachor said. “It kind of took you from zero to 60 really quick.”

Top image: A backyard beekeeper used Lobe, a free app that helps people train custom machine learning models, to create a device that can distinguish between bees entering a hive and invader insects that threaten the colony. Video by Getty Images.

Related:

Jennifer Langston writes about Microsoft research and innovation. Follow her on Twitter.

Posted on October 23, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Learn about data science and coding with Fei Fei, the hero from the Netflix Original, ‘Over the Moon’

This summer, Microsoft launched the Global Skills Initiative aimed at helping 25 million people worldwide acquire new digital skills. And since that announcement, we’ve helped 10 million people gain skills to better navigate digital transformation.

We believe it’s imperative to help everyone who wants it to have access to learning technology that powers the digital economy. Those who create technology will shape our future, and there shouldn’t be barriers to learning the skills required to do so. We’re helping prepare today’s learners for jobs of tomorrow in multiple technical fields, from development to data science and machine learning, and more. Our goal is to ignite the passion to solve important problems relevant to their lives, families and communities.

One way we bring that goal to life is through story-driven partnerships with leading creators like Netflix. We began that journey with NASA, “Wonder Woman 1984” and the Smithsonian Learning Labs. And now, we’re excited to release a new learning experience featuring a young female hero who has a passion for science and is empowered by her intelligence to explore space! This has already been an exciting week for space developments at Microsoft – now we want to help you explore space with some new learning experiences.

Launching today

Inspired by the new Netflix Original, “Over the Moon,” today we’re launching three new Microsoft Learn modules that guide learners through beginning concepts in data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. The new Explore Space with “Over the Moon” learning path includes three parts:

Plan a Moon Mission using the Python Pandas Library – Like Fei Fei, use data to plan your own mission to the moon. Ensure your rocket can not only get you there, but also bring you and all your moon rocks safely back to Earth. Analyze and visualize datasets with common data cleansing practices.
Predict Meteor Showers using Python and VC Code – Build a machine learning prediction model after cleansing a space-themed dataset on meteor showers. Incorporate Chang’e’s potential affects on meteor showers for an added complexity.
Use AI to Recognize Objects in Images using Azure Custom Vision – Repurposing the camera on the lunar rover, search through the moon’s surface for Fei Fei’s buddy Bungee before it’s time to head back to Earth. Use Azure Custom Vision to classify pictures of animals without ever writing code.

These modules utilize Visual Studio Code and Azure Cognitive Services so learners walk away with practical skills for the careers of tomorrow. Though “Over the Moon” features a young hero, the storyline and technical learning aspect has broad appeal for upskilling professionals and post-secondary students alike. Some coding skills are recommended but not required to progress. For more details on the tech in these lessons, check out our Azure Developer Community blog post.

“Netflix is excited to partner with Microsoft to bring some of the challenges of space travel that Fei Fei overcame in ‘Over The Moon’ to life with real world technical application in this new Microsoft Learn path.” – Magno Herran, head of UCAN Marketing Partnerships, Netflix

The movie’s story takes place in a beautifully animated universe and tackles problems real-life space engineers face. “Over the Moon” is a film about Fei Fei, a girl who builds her own space rocket and uses her creativity, resourcefulness and imagination to reach the moon. With its diverse cast and young female protagonist, the film creates an inclusivity to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) that’s so important in inspiring upskilling pros and new learners alike. We hope to inspire students, career changers, and even expert coders to learn something new, because anyone can pursue their dreams, no matter how out of this world they may seem. Explore more about “Over the Moon” on Microsoft’s InCulture experience.

Want to hear what the actors of “Over the Moon” said about new skilling experiences? Start here:

“This is such important movie because Fei Fei’s determination and passion for science is shared by millions of girls and women around the world.” – Cathy Ang

“This is an inspiring story of determination and making dreams come true through the love and support of your community … we invite you to start your journey of using artificial intelligence and machine learning to support space exploration!” – Phillipa Soo

You can also learn how to create a character like Fei Fei – and solve complex problems like her, too –with a drawing tutorial from director Glen Keane.

Additional programs to inspire and engage learners

Imagine Cup 2020 – Student developers making a difference through coding, collaboration and competition. Over the past 19 years, more than 2 million competitors have taken part in the Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s global student technology competition. This season of Imagine Cup is a global virtual experience with four new categories: Earth, Education, Health and Lifestyle. By leveraging Microsoft tools, resources and learning materials students can bring their bold ideas to life. Prizes include mentorship from Microsoft experts, cash, the chance to showcase their work on a global stage, and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

New Beginners’ learning on Microsoft Learn and Learn TV. We continue to expand our paths for beginning learners that teach coding, explore new frameworks and libraries, and experiment with emerging technologies. Here’s a compilation of our more recent additions:

Wherever you are on the skilling journey, we have something for you! Please join us in helping today’s learners build the job skills of tomorrow (and have some fun doing it).