5 Benefit businesses can benefit from M365 CoPilot 2

5 Powerful Ways Businesses Can Benefit from Microsoft 365 Copilot

by with No Comment Artificial IntelligenceCoPilot

 

5 Benefit businesses can benefit from M365 CoPilot 2

It is no longer a dream to have technology that saves time and helps businesses focus on the most important things. Copilot is one of them.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is not just a passing trend. It revolutionizes businesses and should be adopted by any business positioning itself to become an authority.

A survey carried out at Microsoft revealed the following about Copilot.

1. 77% of Copilot for Microsoft 365 users said that once they started using it, they didn’t want to give it up.

2. 70% of Copilot for Microsoft 365 users said they became more productive.

3. 68% of Copilot for Microsoft 365 users said the quality of their work improved.

Here are five proven reasons why this is true.

1. Simplified Content Creation

Think of drafting e-mails, reports, and presentations as usual but more easily and in less time. This bulk of tasks can be done with Copilot using only a few prompts.

Contents generated by Copilot are of quality. Improving the quality of content and shortening the time used means much more is accomplished in workplaces. CoPilot can also check for trends to create content for your business to get increased engagement.

 

2. Enhanced Collaboration and Productivity

Copilot has been built into Microsoft Teams, called Teams Copilot. It enhances collaboration among team members in the following ways.

  • If you happen to join a meeting late and want to catch up with the conversation, Teams Copilot can create a summary on the go to help you catch up.
  • Teams Copilot can track action items discussed during the meeting and send reminders to respective people in the team to follow up with tasks quickly. This fills the collaboration and productivity gap in many businesses.
  • Teams Copilot takes notes in meetings, summarizes key moments, and provides suggestions as follow-up tasks based on meeting discussions.
  • Copilot does not in any way replace the secretary at work but helps the secretary reach accuracy within a period of time.

3. Data Analysis and Insights

We simply can’t help but appreciate the power of Copilot. Imagine how much work experts need to provide business insight and analysis.

Copilot empowers even non-technical staff to do data analysis. This could be attained through the use of Copilot’s natural language processing capability. You only need to type what concerns you, and Boom, your analysis is ready.

Copilot can also organize your data into charts and graphs to enhance quick understanding at a glance.

These capabilities help save your precious time and increase productivity in your businesses.

 

4. Personalized Assistance

Microsoft has just added the Personalization profile feature to Microsoft Word Copilot. This makes it possible for you to decide the writing style Copilot uses in generating content whenever you are using it.

It works like the “sound like me” feature on Outlook to an extent.

 

5. Future Potential and Continuous Improvement

Copilot is sure to become a strategic asset for businesses beyond just a productivity tool soon. With support from partners like Milestone Technologies, Copilot can transform how teams operate and drive success in their roles.

Businesses can stay ahead of the curve by investing in training to keep up with the evolving updates and utilizing Copilot to automate routine tasks.

 

Conclusion

By adopting these factors, your business will develop an innovative capacity to compete in a rapidly changing environment. Try Copilot in your business, and reach out for its potential benefits to move your business forward.

 

Teams CoPilot in Microsoft teams

Teams CoPilot in Microsoft Teams

by with No Comment Artificial IntelligenceExchange OnlineMicrosoft 365

Teams CoPilot in Microsoft teams

Microsoft is passionately improving on their products to further enhance productivity. Teams has been around for some time with so many advantages. However, there are some disadvantages that come alongside which could mar the entire experience and discourage users. 

These disadvantages are not far from numerous redundant tasks and notifications. This can be overwhelming for team members.

 

The quick fix is Teams Copilot. 

Yes, Copilot can help with most of those redundant tasks, making it easier for you to focus on more specific ones.

 

Key Features of Teams Copilot

Eligible users can access Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams app within private and public chats, and in meetings. 

The following features and capabilities of Teams Copilot makes it a game-changer for businesses and enterprises.

 

  1. Intelligent Recap of Meetings
  • It creates a summary of Teams meetings.
  • It includes a recording of the meeting.
  • Adds timeline with highlighted speeches, summaries of conversations, shared notes, and follow-up activities.

 

  1. Video Chat

With Teams CoPilot, you can enjoy some of these benefits.

  • Chat during meetings to generate content.
  • Create task lists.
  • Translate interventions in real time, 
  • Request a summary of shared information.

 

  1. Information Searching 

The following are examples of prompts you can use in Teams Copilot chat.

  1. Recap the meeting so far.
  2. Did the team agree on [topic]?
  3. Are there any action items for me?

 

  1. Content Creation

You can ask Teams Copilot to generate new content for communication and collaboration within Teams groups or enhance existing content.

By automating the process of summarizing conversations, meetings, and decisions, Microsoft Teams Copilot helps users stay organized, focused, and informed, even when they miss or join a discussion late.

 

Statistics and user testimonials

Research at Microsoft reveals that Copilot is making life easier for organizations. The following are a few testimonials from an online survey.

  1. 70% of Copilot users said they were more productive.
  2. 73% said they could complete tasks faster. 
  3. 64% said Copilot helps them spend less time processing email.
  4. 85% said Copilot helps them get to a good first draft faster.
  5. 87% said Copilot makes it easier to get started on a first draft.

See the complete statistics and testimonial here.

 

How Teams Copilot enhances online learning experiences

  1. Copilot helps instructors generate snippets, examples, and even summaries of the course.
  2. It fills the knowledge gap of learners and aids them in their struggles with personal learning needs. It aids collaboration among learners and offers suggestions.
  3. Copilot can evaluate students’ performance and is able to point out areas where corrections are necessary quickly. This speeds up the assessment process.
  4. It can offer learners real-time learning recommendations and make it possible to collaborate in a shared space like Microsoft team.
  5. Copilot can create a record of the meetings, determine what actions should be taken, and provide summaries to assist in learning for those who were not in a session to be able to quickly understand the main issues and decisions.

 

Conclusion 

Teams Copilot is a tool that boosts productivity. It doesn’t just help in communicating and teaming up, but also ope­ns up more avenues for cre­ativity. As Microsoft continues to upgrade the Teams Copilot experience, it will definitely e­stablish itself as a vital resource for companie­s. It’s a great tool for businesses wanting to harness the­ power of generative AI and drive innovation.

How to create digital art with designer in Copilot

How to Create Digital Art with Designer in Copilot

by with One Comment Artificial Intelligence

How to create digital art with designer in Copilot

Did you know? 

You can create digital art with Designer in Copilot?  You can generate images from your ideas besides the usual text-text responses. This means these suggestions aren’t found anywhere on the internet.

What is Microsoft Designer?

Designer is an AI-powered image generator designed to help you create custom images in split seconds. You only need to type in your ideas into the search box, and boom, you are given a set of image suggestions based on your input, to pick from.

 

The AI can discern details like object characteristics, facial expressions, backgrounds, and artistic styles. Whether as an experienced artist or a novice, this AI art generator helps you quickly translate your thoughts into visual art.

Designer allows you to save your choices to your gallery or input other prompts for adjustments until you arrive at the best possible interpretation of your ideas.

 

How to Create Digital Art with Microsoft Designer

Designer can be accessed through the Copilot interface on mobile or PC. Follow the steps below to create art with Designer. 

  1. Click on the hamburger menu in the top right corner of your mobile.
  2. Click on Designer from the menu that appears.
  3. The designer interface appears. Type your idea into the ‘Ask me anything’ search box, or use the speech-text option by the right side of the search box. Alternatively, you can also access Designer by simply typing your prompts into the Ask me anything search box on the Copilot interface. It will use designer capabilities to produce the same results as though you clicked on Designer directly
  4. Type in a prompt Ask me anything box. “Create a lifelike portrait of a serene woman with curly red hair, wearing a blue silk gown, and standing in front of a tranquil rose garden”.

 

 

microsoft designer

The best part of Designer is not just that it creates images, but gives perspective to the art. This changes the way artists work. With images, you can explain the concept of the art. 

Example Designer Prompts

Understanding how to write prompts can give amazing results. Notice that these prompts are very detailed. This is how the intelligence of Designer works. To get the best results, make your prompts as detailed as possible. Here are a few ideas.

 

  1. Create a lifelike portrait of a serene woman with curly red hair, wearing a blue silk gown, and standing in front of a tranquil rose garden.
  2. Produce an abstract piece of art reminiscent of a dream, using swirling neon colours, floating orbs, and a sense of weightlessness.
  3. Generate a dynamic comic book scene featuring a heroic figure in a red and blue superhero costume while they’re flying through the night sky with the Chicago skyline in the background.

 

Key Features of Microsoft Designer

  1. Ability to generate various forms of art: realistic, abstract, comic books.
  2. Generation of images with specified descriptions of characters, emotions, and settings.
  3. Ability to refine generated images with additional context and details.

Benefits of Using Designer

  1. Designer makes creating AI Art easy for all, from novices to experts.
  2. Designer allows new artists and professionals to experiment and build digital art portfolios.
  3. Empower your creative ideas into being with just a few keystrokes at the power of AI.

How is Copilot Designer different from other AI art generators?

Copilot Designer creates art, thinks about concepts and solves problems, using design principles. Instead of just making random images, it produces artwork that serves a purpose, like communicating ideas or solving visual problems. This intentional approach sets it apart from many other AI art generators.

Conclusion

The Copilot Designer is one giant step towards using AI tools in creative design. It combines human creativity with machine intelligence to offer designers more productivity and new ideas.

Introducing Copilot+ PCs

Introducing Copilot+ PCs 

by with No Comment Artificial IntelligenceMicrosoft 365

Introducing Copilot+ PCs

Microsoft Build 2024 brought about dynamic technologies like CoPilot and Neural Processing Units (NPUs). Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft introduced CoPilot+ PCs in Microsoft Build. 

Windows, Systems, Silicons and Chips have been built to provide the fastest, most ready AI Windows PCs ever built.  

Microsoft has worked with AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, and every major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) like Dell, HP, and Lenovo to create silicons and AI PCs. 

 

The Power of CoPilot+ PCs

Copilot has evolved beyond what one would think possible in just a very short period after its release. CoPilot PCs are the most powerful PCs in the world. This provides access to CoPilot across Windows. 

CPU, GPU and recently NPUs power the system architecture of Windows. These NPUs run at 40+ trillion operations per second (TOPS) which is quite incredible.

Take for example, if you were to push up a button forty trillion times at the rate of 10 times per second, it would take 126,840 years to complete that task. This is something the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) can do in a single second. Amazing! 

A common pitfall of fast PCs is always poor battery capacity. However, the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) solves this problem beautifully. The battery of Copilot+ PCs is two times more powerful than previous generations of laptops. This means it can last a whole day.

Windows is the most open platform for AI. Windows 11 has been rearchitected to optimize performance and battery with CoPilot. CoPilot is now added as a key on the keyboard of these PCs to start it. 

The first wave of Copilot+ PCs integrated into Microsoft Surface, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Asus, Acer, Samsung and others were released on June 18, 2024 and are now available.

 

Key features in CoPilot+ PCs

These are the key features of the Copilot PCs. 

1. Hardware requirements

Hardware requirements for CoPilot+ PCs to function with PCs like Dell include at least 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD storage, and a 40 TOPS (trillion operations per second) Neural Processing Unit (NPU). This powerful hardware enables advanced AI capabilities.

2. Operating system

While regular PCs can run Windows 11, Copilot+ PCs have been specifically designed and optimized for AI integration at the OS level.

3. Recall

Copilot+ PCs come with exclusive AI features like Recall, which provides a “photographic memory” of your PC activities that you can search through using natural language. You no longer need to remember what file folder it was stored in, what website it was on, or scroll through hundreds of emails trying to find it.  Copilot+ PCs can take snapshots of your screen and remember everything you’ve seen, allowing you to search for and retrieve past information and files.

4. CoCreate

An AI-powered tool that can enhance your digital artwork and photos without any waste of time. By using the Neural Processing Units (NPUs), new innovative experiences are added to applications like Paint and Photos. 

5. Live Captions and Translation

Copilot can automatically caption audio and translate between over 40 languages, even when offline.

6. Integrated with Creative Apps

Copilot integrates with programs and is coming soon on Adobe Creative Cloud – PhotoShop, LightRoom, Firefly, Illustrator, and Premier Pro, to provide AI-powered assistance and capabilities. CoPilot is also integrating with DaVinci Resolve Studio to increase video editing and filmmaking effects. 

 

CoPilot+ PCs and Microsoft 365 

With CoPilot+ PCs integrated with Microsoft 365, CoPilot can reply to emails adequately within Outlook. 

With CoPilot, you can generate PowerPoint slides required for a pitch or presentation. This can be generated within a few minutes with ease and with a click. 

Join Evolve Connect’s Mastering CopIlot for Everyday Tasks with Microsoft 365. Register here.

 

The Future of AI

Microsoft’s partnership with Open AI will bring about the integration of GPT4o in CoPilot. This means interactions with PCs can be done with ease via text, audio, and videos. CoPilot PCs are changing the way we work and interact with technologies. 

Want to learn more about CoPilot? See Frequently Asked Questions about CoPilot. 

 

Empowering Women in Tech

by with No Comment Artificial IntelligenceCloud ComputingMicrosoft 365

“If we do not share our stories and shine a light on inequities, things will not change.” – Ellen Pao.

Women have made remarkable contributions to artificial intelligence, and technology as a whole. According to Louisa Zhou, women only represent 33% of the tech-related workforce. 

Women still face significant barriers, including gender bias, limited access to opportunities, and delaying careers to care for families.

 

Views of Prominent Women in Tech 

Karen Sparck Jones, Professor at Cambridge Computer Laboratory

“I think it’s very important to get more women into computing. My slogan is: Computing is too important to be left to men.”

Erin Teague, Director of Product Management at YouTube

“Recognize and embrace your uniqueness…being a black woman, being a woman in general, on a team of all men, means that you are going to have a unique voice. It’s important to embrace that.”

 Anna Radulovski, Founder & CEO at WomenTech Network

“To create a more diverse and inclusive tech world, we need to inspire and empower the next generation of female role models to pursue and develop their careers in technology and become innovators, leaders and entrepreneurs. It’s a process and it’s not always straightforward. It takes time, action and support.

 

Introducing the Webinar: Empowering Women in Tech

To address these challenges and inspire a new generation of female technologists, Evolve Connect is excited to announce an upcoming webinar titled “Empowering Women in Tech,” focusing on resilience and success in the tech industry. This event will feature accomplished women in tech who are leaders. 

Date: Sunday, June 16th, 2024

Time: 2 pm

Platform: Teams 

Registration: Register here. 

 

Featured Speakers

Evolve Connect has brought together an exceptional lineup of women speakers who are knowledgeable and experienced in the tech industry. 

Speaker 1: Yassmina Bou Khuzam, Product Manager for Copilot

Speaker 2: Ijeoma Mbaneme, Global Technology Leader, Business Advisor and Women Empowerment Lead. 

Speaker 3: Anna Valverde, GiG World Wide Program Manager

 

Key Topics and Highlights

  1. Stories of Resilience

The Speakers will share their personal journeys, highlighting the obstacles they faced and how they overcame them. 

  1. Overcoming Gender Bias

The speakers will discuss practical strategies for overcoming gender bias in the workplace. This session will provide valuable advice on how to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for women in tech.

 

  1. Building a Support Network

Mentorship and networking opportunities for women. The webinar will provide insights on how to find and build a network of mentors and peers who can provide guidance, support, and opportunities for career growth.

  1. Future Trends and Opportunities

Looking ahead, the speakers will discuss extensively trends in technology such as AI, and CoPilot. This will also include remote work opportunities. 

  1. Career Advancement Strategies

This session will offer advice on advancing your career in the tech industry.

 

Evolve Connect is offering training for women in tech. Book your slot and be a part of the revolution in tech as a woman, nursing mother and student. 

 

Why Attend?

  1. Inspiration and Empowerment

Listen to inspiring stories from successful women who have made significant impacts in the tech industry.

2. Practical Insights

These speakers will provide valuable knowledge and strategies to navigate and succeed in your tech career.

3. Networking Opportunities

This is an opportunity to connect with professionals, potential mentors, and experts in the field.

4. Support and Community

Evolve Connect has a community dedicated to empowering and supporting women in tech.

 

Join Us

The “Empowering Women in Tech” webinar is a must-attend event for anyone interested in advancing their career in technology and advocating for gender equity in the industry. Share, join, and support women in this drive to grow the tech industry. 

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to be part of a movement that is shaping the future of technology. Register today and take the first step towards resilience, empowerment, and remote work in tech. 

 

Together, let’s build a more inclusive and innovative tech industry where women can thrive and lead.

Microsoft Build 2024: New Applied Skills Credentials Microsoft Learn

MICROSOFT BUILD 2024: NEW APPLIED SKILLS CREDENTIALS.

by with No Comment Artificial IntelligenceMicrosoft 365

Microsoft Build 2024: New Applied Skills Credentials Microsoft Learn

Microsoft Applied Skills is a new initiative for individuals to get certifications targeted to practical skills. These skills are aligned with business goals and objectives.

The Applied Skills Credentials were introduced in October 2023 and are currently available for free. With the credentials, you can study using Microsoft Learn, write the exam and get a certification upon passing the exam. Studying with Microsoft Learn is self-paced and provides a medium to upskill.
The credentials are tailored specifically to practical skills relating to Microsoft technologies.

 

The credentials are verifiable and demonstrate proficiency in specific real-world scenarios.

The initial set of Applied Skills credentials covers a range of topics, including:

  1. Secure storage for Azure Files and Azure Blob Storage
  2. Configuring secure access using Azure networking
  3. Deploying and configuring Azure Monitor
  4. Developing an ASP.NET Core web app that consumes an API
  5. Securing Azure services with Microsoft Defender for Cloud regulatory compliance controls
  6. Configuring SIEM security operations using Microsoft Sentinel
  7. Creating and managing automated processes with Power Automate

 

Microsoft partnered with OpenAI to provide AI training and materials for individuals, based on the recent shift to AI. The New Applied Skills Credentials are AI-related credentials. The invention of ChatGPT4, ChatGPT4o, and Microsoft CoPilot has brought about job roles, and opportunities in the AI space. This is a major reason the new applied skills credentials are channelled towards AI.

 

The New Applied Skills Credentials

These are the New Applied Skills credentials designed to assist developers in the development of cloud and AI solutions announced in Microsoft Build.

  1. Accelerated app development using GitHub Copilot.
  2. Developing AI agents using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Semantic Kernel.
  3. Automated Microsoft Azure Load Testing using GitHub.

 

Stephen Jensen and Nandita Sampath, speakers at the Microsoft Build talked about navigating Microsoft Applied Skills credentials. Stephen Jensen leads the Microsoft Credentialing Product Management team while Nandita Sampath is the Principal Product Manager for Credentialing products. She steered the product strategy and launch of Microsoft’s Applied Skills credential and oversaw the Fundamentals Certifications.

These new credentials have been added to the present portfolio of Microsoft credentials, which includes over 20 Microsoft Applied Skills and 50 Microsoft Certifications in solution areas such as Data and AI, Infrastructure, Digital and App innovation, Business apps, Modern Work, and Security.

 

Certifications provide the opportunity to develop the necessary skills for critical positions, while Applied Skills enable the expansion of these skills for critical business scenarios. Collectively, they possess verifiable skill sets essential for the responsibilities and initiatives of AI and the Cloud.

 

In addition, Microsoft Learn has implemented new initiatives to enhance AI proficiency — including:

  1. Using artificial intelligence in daily operations: GitHub Copilot.
  2. Utilize the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to develop and upgrade applications.
  3. for executives, Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.
  4. Learn the fundamentals of Azure: AI Fundamentals.

 

Plans on Microsoft Learn are collections of curated content that may include documentation, code samples, modules, learning paths, and more. Plans include automated notifications, reports, sharing options, and goals to assist individuals and teams in achieving their learning objectives. The AI learning hub on Microsoft Learn is where these AI initiatives can be located.

 

Access the Applied Skills Credentials

To access the Applied Skills, navigate to your Microsoft Learn Profile,
Microsoft Learn Profile – Credentials – Applied Skills – Browse Applied Skills – Choose the Applied Skills of your choice. The exam takes 2 hours and doesn’t require the Proctor, Pearson Vue. The exam can be done from the Microsoft Page directly.

 

Microsoft Applied Skills is a game-changer, allowing individuals to differentiate themselves by showcasing practical abilities in critical technical areas. With Microsoft Applied Skills, you can get certifications to get job roles.

 

Evolve Connect provides certificates after training. The extensive and practical training gives you ready access and knowledge to acquire these Microsoft certifications. Learn with Evolve Connect to grow, and become an expert in the Microsoft field. Register today!

Introduction to power automate

Introduction to Power Automate

by with 8 Comments Artificial IntelligencePower Automate

Introduction to power automate

Power Automate is an efficient Microsoft 365 application used to automate repetitive business processes. In addition to basic procedures, Power Automate can schedule the transfer of business data between systems, and automate tasks on a local computer, such as Excel data computation. This article dives into the benefits of Power AUtomate, creating flows and subscriptions. 

 

What is Power Automate?

Power Automate is a cloud-based service from Microsoft that allows users to create automated workflows between apps and services. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform with Power Apps, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents. 

Power Automate provides a graphical flow designer to link triggers with actions. For example, you can automatically send an email when a new file is added to OneDrive, and post a message in Teams when a form is submitted. These flows connect to hundreds of different apps and services through connectors.

Power Automate can be used on the web and as a desktop application. The desktop application is installed from the web.  

Learn more about Power Automate here.

 

What is Automated Workflow? 

Workflow automation is the execution of activities with software, eliminating human intervention. It serves as a tool that facilitates, accelerates, and ensures the consistency of work. It is about making processes more efficient, accurate, and reliable by leveraging technology. 

 

These are practical applications of automated workflows and processes.

Employee Onboarding: Automated workflows can be designed to handle tasks such as sending welcome emails, creating employee accounts, and scheduling orientation sessions.

 

Customer Service Follow-Up: Workflows streamline processes related to customer inquiries and requests. For instance, customers can receive automated follow-up emails to ensure timely responses.

 

Document Approval: Instead of manual paper approvals, workflow automation can route documents electronically for approval, reducing delays and improving efficiency. 

 

Data Entry and Validation: Automating data entry tasks ensures accuracy and consistency, especially when dealing with large volumes of information. For example, Microsoft Forms can be connected to Excel and SharePoint to handle data collected in a spreadsheet and file attachments in SharePoint.

 

Invoice Processing: Workflow automation can handle invoice approvals, payment reminders, and reconciliation.

IT Incident Management: Automated workflows can escalate and assign IT incidents, ensuring timely resolution.

 

Benefits of Power Automate

Power Automate provides several key benefits for automating workflows and processes:

  1. Saves Time and Effort on Repetitive Tasks

One of the biggest benefits of Power Automate is that it can automate repetitive, manual processes. This saves employees time from having to do the same tasks repeatedly. Any process that has defined inputs, outputs, and steps can potentially be automated. This allows employees to focus on their work. 

 

2. Integrates with Common Apps and Services  

Power Automate provides over 400 connectors to popular apps and services like SharePoint, Excel, Teams, OneDrive, Dynamics 365, Salesforce, and more. 

 

3. Visibility into Processes through Monitoring and Analytics

Power Automate offers monitoring, alerts, and analytics. This provides visibility into how workflows are running and performing. Having this insight helps optimize and improve workflows over time.

 

4. Low Code/No Code Automation

Power Automate is designed for developers and business users. It uses a low code/no code graphical interface to build flows without extensive coding. This enables automation to be put into the hands of end users rather than relying solely on professional developers. Workflows can be built rapidly through simple drag-and-drop and configuration.

 

Building Your First Flow

You can build your first flow from scratch or with existing templates. Here is a step-by-step guide to building your first flow in Power Automate. You 

  1. Sign in to Power Automate and click on “My flows”. Click on “+ New flow” button on the top right.

Power Automate New flow

  1. Choose a template for the flow or create a new flow from scratch.

Choose Power Automate template3. Select the specific template you want based on the task you want to automate. E.g. “Save Office 365 email attachments to specified OneDrive for Business folder”.

Power Automate Templates

4. This connects Office 365 Outlook and OneDrive for Business in the flow. It requires sign n. The purpose is for attachments received in emails in Outlook to go to the Onedrive Folder. 

Show Office 365 attachments connect5. Once sign-in is complete, the flow shows the conditions. Copilot is enabled in Power Automate to change the flow or add actions. Save the flow and do a test by sending email to the inbox with attachments.

Power Automate Flows Office 365 attachments

6. Turn on the flow by flipping the toggle switch. The flow will now run automatically whenever the trigger conditions are met. 

 

Testing and troubleshooting flows

These tips will help you build robust and error-free automation flows with Power Automate. The key is to start simple and add complexity while continuously testing.

 

– Check the flow runs history to see if the flow executed successfully. You can check errors and retry failed runs.

– Turn on debugging mode to step through the flow run and inspect what happened at each step.

– Research errors in the Microsoft community to get insights and answers. 

– Clone flows when testing modifications rather than editing the original flow.

– Leverage Power Automate monitoring capabilities to set up alerts, monitor usage quotas, and analyze telemetry.

 

 Power Automate Limits and Licensing. 

Power Automate offers three licensing plans with different limits

– Free plan – This plan has significant restrictions like only being able to run flows manually and having a maximum of 5 flows. It allows 200 runs per month, 3 actions per flow, and standard connectors.

– Office 365 plan – This plan is included with certain Office 365 licenses and allows unlimited flows and runs per month. Flows can have up to 75 actions. Premium and standard connectors are available based on the specific O365 license.

– Standalone plan – The paid plans allow unlimited flows, runs per month, and actions per flow. All standard and premium connectors are available. 

 

See more information on Power Automate Licensing Subscription here.

 

Conclusion

Power Automate is a powerful tool for businesses to automate business processes. It reduces manual effort with applications and helps to increase productivity. 

 

Catch up on Evolve Connect’s latest podcast. 

 

Introducing Microsoft CoPilot in Viva

Introducing Microsoft CoPilot in Viva

by with 3 Comments Artificial IntelligenceMicrosoft 365

Introducing Microsoft CoPilot in Viva

CoPilot in Viva helps organizations foster connections, unlock new knowledge, and uncover insights to boost employee engagement, staff performance and productivity. It is changing the way employees in an organisation engage with each other, share ideas and communicate during projects.

What is CoPilot in Viva?

Microsoft Viva TechnologiesEvolve Connect

Copilot in Viva is the integration of Microsoft CoPilot into Viva. It is built on the Microsoft 365 Copilot system. It utilizes the proficiency of Microsoft 365 apps, LLMs (Large Language Models), data from the Microsoft Graph, and Viva apps to help you engage and understand your workforce to boost productivity.

Microsoft believes employee engagement is a priority to provide better business outcomes and successes, which is why Microsoft Viva Copilot was introduced. It is the next-generation AI designed to boost productivity and engagement across organizations. 

Copilot in Viva helps to drive clarity and alignment across the workforce and equip employees for success. The features of CoPilot in Viva help boost engagement and productivity in an organization. The features include:

  1. Simplified Goal Setting
  2. Personalized Messages
  3. Tailored Training

CoPilot in Viva Learning

Microsoft Viva Learning on Teams

Copilot in Viva Learning lets users establish structured learning collections, identify the proper resources, and summarize content using conversational AI.

Copilot in Viva Learning suggests curated learning collections and tailored knowledge summaries for specific roles,  it allows for easier training of your employees, thereby enabling them to carry out their day-to-day roles more effectively.

Microsoft is launching CoPilot Academy in Viva Learning to provide educational content on CoPilot.  CoPilot Academy is currently supported in English Language. The prerequisites to use CoPilot Academy involves: a paid license of Viva Suite or Viva Learning and a user account with Microsoft 365 licenses. 

 

 CoPilot in Viva Engage

Copilot in Viva Engage

Source: Microsoft 365

Copilot in Viva Engage helps inspire leaders and employees to post using AI-created conversation starters, prompts, and images. It gives leaders insight into employee sentiment; and cultivates an environment of trust by improving message tone with suggestions.

Copilot in Viva Engage helps leaders generate posts by suggesting ideas or popular themes and personalizing tone and length to boost authenticity and engagement.

 

CoPilot in Viva Insights

Microsoft CoPILOT Dashboard

Source: Microsoft CoPilot Dashboard

CoPilot in Viva Insights assists leaders and their subordinates to use natural language to generate personalized reports that answer questions about their teams and the organization. This act simplifies the query-building process for analysts. This will be in preview early next year. 

The Copilot Dashboard is integrated in Viva Insights to provide reports on how CoPilot can transform your work. With CoPilot, meetings can be summarized, users can catch up with what they missed on Teams. The CoPilot dashboard is accessible for any user using the Microsoft 365 or Office 365 business or enterprise subscription. 

CoPilot in Viva Goals

CoPilot in Viva Goals enables users to generate and refine goals with conversational AI easily and from existing strategy documents. With Viva, you can summarize goal progress to share with and across teams. 

Copilot in Viva Goals simplifies goal setting. Using draft objectives and key results (OKR), it provides recommendations based on existing documents, identifying blockers, summarizing status, consolidating data, and suggesting actions to be taken. 

Viva Goals helps leaders create clarity and alignment on company and team priorities using the objective and key results framework known as OKRs, and with Copilot in Viva Goals, leaders are guided through the process of creating OKRs from existing documents such as a business plan or strategy paper.

In Viva Goals, Copilot can create OKRs from a document. Copilot suggests a few documents you’ve worked on recently for. You can select a business plan and Copilot analyzes it.  CoPilot recommends a set of objectives and key results. Copilot can help refine your OKRs to get them just right for your organization.

Conclusion

Microsoft Viva’s Copilot is the cutting-edge AI that provides swift, precise, and tailored responses and insights aligned with businesses. Microsoft Viva Copilot harnesses the capabilities of next-generation AI, providing a powerful solution to enhance workforce insights and enhance employee engagement.

Contact Us

To reach out to Martins Ilesanmi or our team of Microsoft 365 expert to learn more about the Copilot Dashboard, Viva Insights, or Microsoft 365.

 

 

Microsoft Viva and Evolving Workplace 2

The Future of Work is Here: Microsoft Viva and the Evolving Workplace

by with One Comment Artificial IntelligenceMicrosoft 365

Microsoft Viva and Evolving Workplace 2

In today’s digital world, remote work changes how organizations interact with employees. Employees can work from different countries with ease, and organizations need to ensure productivity. This is where Microsoft Viva comes in. This article dives into the dynamic tool for organizations called Microsoft Viva.

What is Microsoft Viva?

Microsoft Viva is a digital employee engagement platform that integrates communications, information, learning, and workplace data. Microsoft Viva is powered by Microsoft 365.  It helps workers and employees learn new skills. With it, managers can make better decisions using data-driven insights. Viva helps organizations create inclusive, healthy communities where people can thrive. It is integrated into the workflow to help people and teams perform better.

Microsoft Viva helps management make better business decisions. It also improves remote work experiences by integrating essential functionalities from Microsoft Teams to engage employees.

How does Viva work?

Microsoft Viva Insights

Microsoft Viva is integrated into Microsoft 365 tools into a flexible, expandable, and global platform. It is integrated into apps like Teams and Outlook. Microsoft Viva provides insights on employee status on Teams.

Microsoft Viva gives insights on the percentage of meetings, emails, chats and calls. With Viva, you can get emails about your productivity or for your employees.

The Role of Microsoft Viva and Benefits of Microsoft Viva

  1. Workforce empowerment
    Microsoft Viva lets workers manage their jobs. It empowers workers with insights on their work schedule, knowing how to manage time and increase productivity. With Viva, you can get information on how to improve flexible employment arrangements, It also enhances work-life balance.
  2. Recognize personal development’s value
    This tool meets the needs of employees by encouraging personal growth, and suggesting skills to learn.
  3. Facilitate communication and collaboration
    Viva’s collaboration tools improve communication and teamwork to help people find purpose in their work. Viva provides information on how meetings overlap. With this information, organizations can properly schedule meetings to improve work balance.
  4. Adaptive Learning
    Microsoft Viva’s adaptive learning ensures that employees may learn new skills and adapt to changing situations for personal growth.
  5. Wellness Support
    The platform promotes self-care, stress management, and mental and emotional health at work.
  6. Knowledge Sharing and cooperation
    Viva Topics connects employees with relevant expertise and information to promote cooperation.
  7. Organizational Insights and Analytics
    Viva Insights helps organizations make data-driven decisions and perform better.
  8. HR and Employee Support
    Viva Topics simplifies HR by delivering intelligent, context-based employee support.

Who uses Microsoft Viva?

Microsoft Viva serves businesses in healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and technology of all sizes. From frontline workers to top leadership, Viva tailors experiences to each role’s demands and problems. Viva is useful to streamline HR processes and can be used by organizations, and schools.

Microsoft Viva Technologies

Microsoft Viva technologies55

Source: Microsoft Viva Technologies

Microsoft Viva comprises of these technologies.

1. Viva Connections.
Viva Connections is an app in Microsoft Teams that allows employees to access tools, news, and resources. It is a personalized gateway to the digital workplace that allows you to access Microsoft Teams news, announcements, and resources.

2. Viva Engage.
Viva Engage is a dynamic tool to gather people from around the organization to connect with leaders, coworkers, and communities.

3. Viva Insights
Viva Insights enhances staff productivity and well-being with data-driven insights and recommendations. It provides practical information and recommendations for increasing company productivity, well-being, and collaboration.

4. Viva Pulse.
Viva Pulse empowers leaders and managers to seek and act on feedback when it is important.

5. Viva Glint.
A “voice of the employee” tool that helps firms understand and increase employee engagement to create business results.

6. Viva Learning.
Viva Learning connects content from businesses with other sources and can help integrate enterprise learning into the workflow. It compiles a library of learning resources and courses to assist employees in developing new skills and meeting company objectives.

7. Viva Goals
Align teams and employees with your organization’s strategic objectives and priorities.

8. Viva Topics
Microsoft Viva uses Microsoft AI technology to discover, organize, and distribute organizational knowledge and expertise.

Microsoft Viva Subscription

Microsoft Viva is offered in several Microsoft 365 subscription plans with customizable pricing to meet the needs of enterprises of all sizes. Microsoft Viva subscriptions provide significant tools and capabilities to improve employee experience and company results.

Microsoft Viva Subscription has four major plans and pricing.

  1. Microsoft Viva in Microsoft 365
  2. Microsoft Viva Workplace Analytics and Employee Feedback $6.00 per user, monthly
  3. Microsoft Viva Suite $12.00
  4. Microsoft Viva Employee Communications and Communities $2.00 user/month

Finally, Microsoft Viva changes how companies approach employee engagement, productivity, and well-being. Using AI, analytics, and collaboration, Viva helps organisations maximise employee potential, driving innovation, growth, and success in the digital era.

How to use Microsoft Viva

To Use Microsoft Viva, follow these steps.
1. Sign in to Office.com. Ensure you have the Viva license in your Microsoft 365 or the other subscriptions.
2. Click on Apps.
3. Find Engage, Insights, Learning. This shows Viva technologies you can access and use to interact with employees

How to use Microsoft Viva

 

Conclusion

Microsoft Viva transforms the modern workplace by boosting employee experience, collaboration, and productivity. Viva helps organizations build a more connected and engaged workforce by integrating communication, insights, learning, and information discovery. Viva Connections, Insights, Learning, and Topics offer many benefits and enable many use cases, making it an essential tool for digital-age enterprises.

Evolve Connect plays a pivotal role in enabling successful implementations for organizations with Microsoft Viva.  We leverage expertise in Microsoft technologies and dedication to innovation, to ensure smooth integration, customization, and ongoing support for Microsoft Viva deployments.

Partner with Evolve Connect to unleash the complete potential of Microsoft Viva and lead the way in your digital transformation endeavours. Get in touch with us today.

Announcing Microsoft CoPilot For Finance

Announcing Microsoft CoPilot for Finance

by with No Comment Artificial IntelligenceMicrosoft 365

Announcing Microsoft CoPilot For Finance

Microsoft recently announced the launch of CoPilot for Finance. It is an AI-powered assistant designed to boost productivity for finance professionals.

In reality, 80% of finance leaders and teams struggle to do strategic work beyond operational tasks. This article dives into Microsoft CoPilot for Finance, its features and advantages for businesses.

What is CoPilot for Finance?

CoPilot for Finance is an AI-powered productivity tool from Microsoft designed specifically for finance professionals. It leverages the power of advanced AI models like GPT-3 to provide intelligent assistance for finance tasks and workflows.

CoPilot for Finance helps with things like analyzing financial data, generating reports, creating presentations, answering questions, and automating manual processes.

Copilot for Finance, now in public preview, connects to the company’s financial systems, including Dynamics 365 and SAP, to provide role-specific workflow automation, and guided actions. It also provides recommendations in Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 applications, saving time and letting you focus on company success.

Key Capabilities

Microsoft Copilot for Finance
CoPilot for Finance includes several innovative capabilities and features.

– Conversational Answer

CoPilot understands finance questions posed in natural language. It can provide direct answers to common inquiries about financial data, accounting, investments, forecasting, and more.

– Automated Analysis

CoPilot can analyze financial documents, data, reports, and models to extract key insights, trends, and metrics. This automated analysis saves significant time compared to manual review and lookups.

– Advanced Calculations

The AI assistant can perform complex financial calculations and scenario modelling easily. CoPilot can do common tasks like cash flow analysis, risk modelling, valuation, forecasting, and more.

– Document Creation

CoPilot can automatically generate formatted financial documents including reports, presentations, invoices, budgets, and statements. It greatly speeds up financial reporting and documentation.

– Process Optimization

CoPilot looks for ways to streamline financial workflows, reduce errors, and improve efficiency. The AI assistant provides personalized recommendations to optimize routine finance processes.

Benefits of CoPilot for Finance

CoPilot for Finance can significantly benefit finance professionals and teams. This improves productivity, efficiency, and accuracy for common finance tasks.

– Increased Productivity
CoPilot can help automate repetitive tasks like data entry and report generation. With this, Finance staff can focus on more strategic initiatives.

– Greater efficiency
The tool can quickly analyze data, spot errors, and make recommendations. This allows finance teams to work faster and smarter. CoPilot reduces the time spent on manual processes.

– Enhanced insights
By processing volumes of data faster, CoPilot enables deeper analysis of financial information to uncover trends and opportunities.

– Better collaboration
CoPilot facilitates collaboration by allowing multiple people to work within the same documents and models simultaneously. The AI learns team preferences too.

To learn more, watch our recent webinar: ‘Copilot Lab: Launch Your Coplot Adventure with Evolveconnect’ as industry experts Martins Ilesanmi, M365 Global Ops Global Manager, and Zakariyah Oyeniyi, Microsoft Office 365 Consultant, dive into the launch of Microsoft Copilot.

 

Integration

microsoft copilot for finance integration

Microsoft CoPilot for Finance is designed to integrate seamlessly with Excel and other Microsoft 365 apps like Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint. This provides a unified workflow experience for finance professionals.

CoPilot is currently integrated with these applications as an add-in as Preview.

– Outlook

– Excel

– Dynamics 365

CoPilot can be invoked directly within Excel to provide contextual suggestions.  It also offers automation for financial modeling, analysis, and reporting tasks. You can have a conversation with CoPilot through the sidebar in Excel while working on spreadsheets. It will help fill in formulas, create pivot tables, generate charts and graphs, and more based on your natural language prompts.

The add-in works across desktop, web, and mobile versions of Excel so you can access the same AI-powered capabilities wherever you’re working. CoPilot remembers your company data, formatting preferences, and typical tasks so the integration is customized.

Since CoPilot hooks into Excel, you can leverage its help while emailing reports through Outlook.  CoPilot understands context and delivers assistive AI right where and when you need it.

The Road Ahead For CoPilot

Microsoft CoPilot for Finance is an exciting new addition to the CoPilot family of AI-powered productivity assistants.

In summary, CoPilot for Finance represents an important step in bringing the power of AI to one of the most essential business functions. As AI continues to evolve, we can expect to see more specialized tools like CoPilot that focus on boosting productivity in specific domains. The future looks bright for integrating AI into finance workflows in ways that save time, drive insights, and allow professionals to focus on higher-value strategic tasks.