Last week we spoke about how excited we were for Microsoft Envision, the company’s premier Dynamics-focussed event, held – historically – on 4^th-6^th April under the name ‘Convergence’. Now, the event is winding to a close and the big message of the event is clear: digital transformation is happening right now and it’s happening everywhere.

The key message of the digital transformation

On Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told business leaders, influencers and CIOs that there were 4 key trends found in businesses across the world. These were:

1. They are becoming more engaged with customers
2. They are finding new ways of empowering their employees
3. They are optimizing their business operations
4. They are transforming products and services using digital content

To compete alongside these businesses, your own organisation will need to become a ‘data company’. This means using data intelligence to help you understand what your employees and customers require. They will then need to apply machine learning techniques to this information to connect the data points and form smart networks of information that generate predictive insight. This, ultimately is how companies and organisations around the world will improve their productivity (a huge issue particularly in the UK), and then be transformed by technology.

How is your business changing thanks to technology?

Dynamics products like AX, CRM, GP and NAV, as well as the broader Microsoft productivity suite including Office, SharePoint and Power Bi, are packed full of innovative new technologies like Cortana, machine learning, and predictive search. These are now used by the broader business community, and help to answer questions like ‘How is your business being changed by digital technology?’ and ‘How is your core business model being changed by digital technology?’ These were questions posed by Nadella at his keynote speech on Monday morning.

Conversation-as-a-Platform

However, it was Nadella’s focus on speech processing and production technology that got the crowd excited. These technologies are already here, thanks to AI like Cortana in our phones, helping us navigate by voice. However, we are now on the verge of seeing conversation as more than a method of navigating existing interfaces. Language itself is becoming the interface. “It is about taking the power of human language and applying it much more pervasively to all of our computers and computing, and then using that medium for even contact with businesses,” he said. “To go beyond applications, the ability for you to be able to be right there and present, to engage with customers while they’re having conversations is, we think, a very powerful step forward.”  

ERP and CRM development is changing forever

While it’s clear that Dynamics CRM and ERP development under a Dynamics framework is already a multi-disciplinary art, it’s about to get more interesting. As speech and language-processing experts enter the fray, Dynamics professionals will benefit from training in the language sciences and broader cognitive sciences. If your business is ready to embrace its digital future, speak to our experienced team about how we can introduce to you to the right resource with the breadth of skills to revolutionise your development team. If you’re a Dynamics project manager or developer looking for a new adventure, upload your CV today and we’ll find you your dream job in no time.