Original post on IoT Evolution
The trend of digital transformation grew swiftly, with business now looking vastly different than even just a decade ago. One of the most notable changes of digital transformation is the abundance of digital devices and applications being adopted and leveraged, especially by industries that usually weren’t known for their technology use. Now, an industry like manufacturing is virtually unrecognizable, with factory floors being transformed into digital havens ripe with devices adding efficiency and ease to a variety of processes.
Historically, manufacturing has always been on the slower side when it came to adopting innovative technology, but the potential of Industry 4.0 has changed that notion as of late. Just a couple of years ago in 2019, the industry 4.0 market was at $70 billion, but it is expected to triple to $210 billion by 2026.
“The huge level of interest in improving efficiencies across manufacturing organizations comes as no surprise as 4.0 technology encompasses holds virtually an endless amount of potential, especially when the workflow and collaboration between people and people – and people and machines – becomes more automated,” said Jeff Li, Senior Director, Partner Service Assurance and head of partnership development and innovation at ConnX, a systems integration, software and platform development, and managed services company serving large global enterprises.
ConnX, a Microsoft Gold Partner for decades, announced it has introduced a premium version of Microsoft’s popular Dynamics 365 product line of enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management intelligent business applications, fully integrated with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Office 365 – embedding click to call, message, share screens and instantly opening up video collaboration.
“Using Teams integration, our customers can now invite anyone in their organization to view and collaborate on customer records right within a Teams chat or channel. They can also make and receive calls from within Dynamics 365 to get work done more efficiently. Customer service representatives can find, view, and act upon customer case records, including troubleshooting steps and follow-up action tracking. Possibly most exciting is its application for field service teams, who can leverage the benefits of this integration and our optimization networking capabilities to be far more efficient and effective on the ground, especially when machines with sensors can automatically alert when factory infrastructure may be at risk of shutting down.”
Among the vast array of new devices and applications available today, Li explained, manufacturers are utilizing real-time data analysis, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and most notably the Internet of Things (IoT) to create “smart” factories.
“There is no longer a reason to separate communications in real time as machine-to-machine or person-to-person,” Li said. “The same networking and edge orchestration and service assurance technology work equally well in the new software-defined networking world. The opportunity to create powerful mash-ups is very exciting as it can drive substantial cost reduction, risk reduction, and faster time to resolution.”
While the vast array of new technology has of course brought new possibilities, practices, and potential revenue streams, it has also brought new challenges to manufacturing IT teams who, in the past, didn’t deal with this volume of technology. To handle the new load of devices and applications, IT teams within manufacturing have begun searching for a communications platform that fits the unique needs of their factory.
“Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Teams integration allows organizations to speed up the flow of work, enabling anyone in an organization to view and collaborate on Dynamics 365 records, from within the flow of work with Teams,” Li said. “Teams can be integrated with Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Marketing, and Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation – all delivered on powerful wireless networks which use AI to ensure constant availability and quality of experience.”
While there are a variety of innovative devices and applications that can help create the communication and collaboration platform organizations today seek, the most used platform today is Microsoft Teams. These platforms, like Microsoft Teams, enable real-time responses to security incidents, mobile and fixed inspection, and supervision using drones and video analytics to help increase worker safety on factory floors.
Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Teams integration allows you to speed up the flow of work, enabling anyone in an organization to view and collaborate on Dynamics 365 records, from within the flow of work with Teams. This joint solution enables enterprises to utilize the best-of-breed technology with voice added to Dynamics CRM with the following benefits from its global integrated communications platform.
Following are the key features of the ConnX optimization platform:
- Dual Datacenter / Carrier Redundancy / Failover
- DID Porting / Bring Your Own Carrier
- 24 x 7 Global NOC support model
- Enhanced End-to-End monitoring and management
- Seamless Service Migration
- Dynamic E-911
- Embedded Fraud Detection and Robocall Protection
“With today’s borderless workforce, business groups often collaborate across departments while working on identifying new market opportunities, researching sales prospects, pursuing sales opportunities, deepening relationships with existing customers, and providing those customers outstanding service experiences,” Li said. “Using Teams integration, our customers can now invite anyone in their organization to view and collaborate on customer records right within a Teams chat or channel. They can also make and receive calls from within Dynamics 365 to get work done more efficiently. Customer service representatives can find, view, and act upon customer case records, including troubleshooting steps and follow-up actions tracking.”
The expansion of capabilities that bring together machine-generated data and human interactions seems to be limitless.
“We are a proud Microsoft Gold Partner and have been working closely with Microsoft for over two decades,” Li said. “For example, when using our Maestro platform, Microsoft Teams is optimized with our SIP solution (Direct Routing). This announcement recognizes decades of creative collaboration with Microsoft and we’re extremely excited about the value even more intelligent and integrated solutions will bring to our customers.”