As expected, with the release of Forms Pro that Microsoft have announced that Voice of the Customer is being deprecated.
Voice of the Customer will be removed and end of June next year and no new surveys can be created, and no further responses will be captured.
More details at https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/it/2019/07/01/voice-of-the-customer-deprecation/
I will be speaking on Azure IoT PaaS and SaaS systems at Notts IoT on Thursday July 11th at 7pm at Rebel’s offices in Nottingham.
I will be talking about and demoing Azure IoT Hubs, Accelerators and IoT Central. I will be bring various devices with me including Raspberry Pi, MXChip AZ3166 and Flic button
Forms Pro has been released as of July 1st and is in General Availability.
If you have a Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Enterprise or Talent License, Forms Pro is included. Included are just 2,000 responses a month per tenant, if you need more responses you can purchase them via the Microsoft 365 portal.
If you have been on the Public Preview, the preview will end and be replaced by a 30-day trial which will revert back to Microsoft Forms unless you qualify for a license through Dynamics 365. Alternatively you can purchase Forms Pro via the Microsoft 365 portal.
The announcement is on the Microsoft 365 Message Centre https://admin.microsoft.com/AdminPortal/home?switchtomodern=true#/MessageCenter?id=MC182397
More details on Forms Pro at https://docs.microsoft.com/forms-pro/
There is no training material at the time of writing for Forms Pro.
With the release of Forms Pro, I am expecting Voice of the Customer (VoC) to be deprecated soon – keep an eye on https://docs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/get-started/whats-new/customer-engagement/important-changes-coming – as the exams for Marketing and Customer Service have recently had the below added.
“Notice of planned skills update: In October, Voice of the Customer skills and exam questions will be replaced with Forms Pro skills and questions. The exact date of that change and the associated changes to the Skills Measured will be communicated in August, 2019. Please prepare for your exam accordingly.”
I wrote a couple of years ago about my experience with taking exams at home aka Online Proctored Exams
I have taken over 10 exams at home and was comfortable and familiar with the process but when I took at exam last night I discovered a whole new experience.
First the PVProctor program no longer worked and I needed to download a new OnVue tool.
The check-on process is now self-service that you complete using your mobile phone on https://m.proctorcam.com/
You need to take a photo of your face, a photo of your id and then 4 photos of your desk area. No more showing the proctor around using your webcam.
The check-in process using AI to determine if there are any issues and although it felt like it took longer taking and uploading the photos, it was actually quicker, just a little stressful the first time.
If all goes well you don’t need to speak to the proctor before starting the exam.
More details of the new check-in process at https://home.pearsonvue.com/Test-Owner/Deliver/Online-Proctored.aspx
Jens Kofod has written an excellent revision guide for the MB-210 Dynamics 365 for Sales Exam https://iiu.dk/2019/04/27/exam-prep-guide-mb-210-microsoft-dynamics-365-for-sales/
Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional is a version of Dynamics 365 for Sales aimed at Small and Medium Businesses at a reduced license price.
Sales Professional is aimed at organisations that have simpler sales needs and want to get up and running quickly.
With Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional you get:
The following functionality from Sales Enterprise has been removed:
There is also a restriction in the number of custom entities (15) that can be created.
https://docs.microsoft.com/learn/paths/working-with-dynamics-sales-professional/
This post is part of a series for preparing and revising for the Dynamics 365 Fundamentals exam, MB-900. You can find the whole series here.
Microsoft have announced that all customers on older versions (6.x and 7.x) of Field Service must be upgraded to 8.x with Unified Interface by February 2020.
If you have Field Service, this could be a significant change and will require re-configuration, testing and training.
For our current Field Service project, we chose to go with v8.x from the beginning
If you want to discuss your Field Service implementation, please get in touch.
There are three different options for deploying cloud services:
Public Cloud is the most common deployment type where everything is run by the cloud provider with no local hardware to manage.
You gain economises of scale by sharing resources with other cloud users. There are several public cloud providers including Microsoft Azure.
Private Cloud is where the cloud resources are dedicated to a single organisation. The cloud environment could be in your own data centre or in a facility managed by a third party.
You gain complete control and security over computing resources.
Hybrid Cloud combines Public Cloud and Private Cloud. Hybrid Cloud allows you to run applications in the most appropriate location e.g., your web servers in the public cloud accessing database in a private cloud.
Advantages
https://azure.microsoft.com/overview/what-are-private-public-hybrid-clouds/
This post is part of a series for preparing and revising for the Dynamics 365 Fundamentals exam, MB-900. You can find the whole series here.
SaaS means Software as a Service, and is the provision of complete cloud software applications over the internet.
Examples of SaaS application are Office 365 and Dynamics 365.
You typically pay for SaaS applications on a per user per month/year.
The shared responsibility model applies, it is just that the cloud provider takes more of the responsibility in making sure the systems are up to date and available.
https://azure.microsoft.com/overview/what-is-saas/
This post is part of a series for preparing and revising for the Dynamics 365 Fundamentals exam, MB-900. You can find the whole series here.
PaaS means Platform as a Service, and is the provision and management of resources over the internet where you do not have access to the underlying computing infrastructure. You combine the resources to deliver services to your users.
Examples of PaaS services are web applications and logic apps.
You typically pay for PaaS resources as you use and PaaS resources can be scaled up and down easily. PaaS is often lower cost to operate and run than IaaS.
With PaaS you don/t have to worry about installing, managing and updating operating systems and you can concentrate on creating services for your users.
The shared responsibility model applies, it is just that Microsoft takes more of the responsibility in making sure the resources are up to date.
PaaS is commonly used in these scenarios:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/overview/what-is-paas/
This post is part of a series for preparing and revising for the Dynamics 365 Fundamentals exam, MB-900. You can find the whole series here.
