Announcing new AI and mixed reality business applications for Microsoft Dynamics

Today, I had the opportunity to speak to press and analysts in San Francisco about our vision for business applications at Microsoft. In addition, I had the privilege to make two very important announcements: the upcoming availability of new Dynamics 365 AI applications, and our very first mixed reality business applications: Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Dynamics 365 Layout.We live in a connected world where companies are challenged every day to innovate so they can stay ahead of emerging trends and repivot business models to take advantage of new opportunities to meet growing customer demands.To innovate, organizations need to reimagine their processes. They need solutions that are modern, enabling new experiences for how they can engage their customers while making their people more productive. They need unified systems that break data silos, so they have a holistic view of their business, customers and employees. They need pervasive intelligence threaded throughout the platform, giving them the ability to reason over data, to predict trends and drive proactive intelligent action. And with adaptable applications, they can be nimble, allowing them to take advantage of the next opportunity that comes their way.

Spotlight

Eastern TV

Eastern is a full service media production company with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Miami. With clients in broadcast, online and corporate, Eastern’s focus is on the subtle art of storytelling. Our approach pairs extensive experience with technical mastery, allowing us to deliver compelling narratives within high-gloss wrappers.

OTHER ARTICLES
Solutions, Business

AR in B2B Sales: What to Expect

Article | July 7, 2022

The potential of augmented reality technology goes beyond games and photo filters. It can benefit B2B businesses, especially their sales departments, in more ways than one. B2B sales is about converting potential clients into customers by using all the features and benefits of your product or service. Highlighting the profit the clients will make using your product or service is your priority. But how does augmented reality (AR) play into all of this? Here are three interesting use cases of AR in B2B sales for you to look at: AR in Exhibitions: Stand Out From the Crowd At exhibitions, if you do not stand out among your competitors, you might not attract any visitors to your stand. AR can bring your stand the footfall you expect. At 2017’s North American International Auto Show, Ford used AR to attract visitors. A visitor could sit inside the car and simultaneously see what was happening under the car’s hood on a big display screen. The experience impressed visitors and earned Ford brand visibility. AR in Data Visualization: Present Interactive Insights AR helps in presenting the value of your product or service in an interactive 3D visualization. A great example of this would be IBM’s Immersive Insights, a visualization tool that presents data in 3D space. Spectators can explore and understand data insights without feeling burdened with just numbers. This technology has potential in the B2B sales space as it can simplify complex data visualization and attract your prospects with visual appeal. AR in Product Presentations: Realistic and Immersive Experience There are always aspects of your product or service that you need to highlight in front of your prospective clients in unique ways so they can see the value of your offering. AR allows you to present your product in a realistic way. IKEA used AR to help clients try their furniture in their offices and apartments by superimposing it on their surroundings with the IKEA Place app. Realtor.com and industrial machines like CAT also help customers see what the offerings look like so that they can make informed decisions even without physically interacting with the product or service. Wrapping It Up Using AR in B2B sales is still an evolving concept, but can become a substantial tool in the toolkit of B2B sales teams that want to try new things to boost their numbers.

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Technologies, Virtualization

New Doom VR Mod Releasing Soon For Oculus Quest

Article | July 27, 2022

The release will feature 5 sets of VR weapons and a launcher that will allow you to mix and match different Doom mods with ease. There’s support for smooth locomotion and teleport movement options, plus you’ll be able to switch between a couple of different walking speeds for the former. The person behind the mod is DrBeef, who has previously completed a number of well-known Quest ports and VR projects. He was behind the Lambda1VR mod for Oculus Quest, as well as QuakeQuest and many others.

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Technologies, Business

Boost Your B2B SaaS Business with Live Streaming

Article | July 20, 2022

Live streaming is an effective tool to attract the attention of your potential clients in the B2B SaaS domain. You can influence users and prospects without stretching your marketing budget. In a survey by Wyzowl, it was reported that 86% of businesses were relying on videos as a marketing tool. All you need to make the most of this tool is a good device, a strong internet connection, and the right live streaming application. Live Streaming: It’s All about the Connection Every business focuses on creating connections with their prospects through every form of communication, like discord, social media and websites. As a medium, live streaming offers an exciting opportunity to make this connection interactive. Let us look at what it can help you do: Build Your Brand Real-time comments, likes, and shares take brand interaction to another level. You can reiterate your brand’s ability to responsibly respond to your customers and create a new benchmark for how you deliver customer experience. Since live streams are unscripted, you can also showcase your brand’s ingenuity in handling customer issues without any hang-ups. Connect With Customers A live stream will help you connect with your customers in a novel way. Not only will your customers participate in your brand journey, but they will also feel excited to learn about your offerings. Tapping into their curious minds and influencing their buying decisions will be easier once they become visually engaged in your stream. Get Instant Feedback Product enhancements are a result of priceless customer feedback. When you present your products to customers over a live stream, they understand the product features and benefits in real-time and offer their feedback instantly, so you know what you need to work on. This feedback can also be the fodder for your content and marketing strategies. Keep Customers Informed Customers prefer watching interactive videos more than reading detailed emails on products. Keep your customers informed and updated about your latest product information through regular live streams. You can highlight important product updates that can help customers elevate their businesses and address any concerns that might hamper your sales through a stream. Boost Your B2B SaaS Business with Live Streaming Now that we have seen what exactly live streaming can do for businesses, let us narrow it down to the B2B SaaS domain. Here is how you can improve your SaaS sales with live streaming: Speed up problem resolution Allow customers to request live streams on what they need. Through live streams, you can troubleshoot for them without making them wait in queues or for your responses over email. If you address one customer’s problem over the stream, it can help you reduce and eliminate similar problems other customers are facing. Conduct detailed product tours If you live stream your product tour, you can show your customers how it works in detail. Product tours will help you create a personal connection with businesses because you can highlight how your product will help them address their pain points. You can also answer questions in detail and communicate with them better. Save the videos as tutorials Your live streams can become tutorials for your customers. Your ‘How-to’ live streams can help them understand your product and solve their problems without any brand intervention or waiting period. Reel in the customers Give your customers a glimpse of the trends in the SaaS industry. Update them on industry events, expos, and conferences they can attend. Let them see what goes behind making the product and get their opinion on new product ideas. It’s a Wrap B2B SaaS leaders must develop appealing live streaming strategies to solve customer problems, identify their needs, and connect with them on new platforms to increase sales and product uptake.

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Should You Buy A PSVR In 2020?

Article | April 16, 2020

At 5+ million units sold, Sony’s PlayStation VR (PSVR) is thought to be the most successful VR headset on the market. The kit’s had a great run since launch in 2016, but should you buy a PSVR in 2020? Just under two years ago, we stated that you should “definitely” buy a PSVR in holiday promotions. The price, paired with a growing library of games, made it an easy recommendation. But this industry moves quickly and there are a lot of new factors that complicate the question of if PSVR remains a worthy purchase.

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Spotlight

Eastern TV

Eastern is a full service media production company with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Miami. With clients in broadcast, online and corporate, Eastern’s focus is on the subtle art of storytelling. Our approach pairs extensive experience with technical mastery, allowing us to deliver compelling narratives within high-gloss wrappers.

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Mixed Reality Creation Tool Microsoft Marquette Leaks

VRFocus | October 29, 2018

Though Microsoft have been involved in virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) for some time, notably with the Microsoft HoloLens and the various Windows MR devices, its growth has been slower than the company expected. However, Microsoft may be hoping to change that with the release of a new tool for creating in mixed reality.A Twitter user called WalkingCat has tracked down a leak for an MR prototype tool designed for PC VR headsets. The tool allows users to plan their creations in 3D, instead of on a 2D screen, with the intention of making things more intuitive and easy to test.Microsoft has said that Marquette was initially designed as an internal tool, before it was recognised how useful it could be if it were made available to the wider user base. There Marquette tool has been described as an evolution of similar tools that have been previously released for VR.Marquette is said to have a robust toolbar, complete with fill tools, paintbrushes, text, shapes, backgrounds, animation and saved colour palettes among other things. Users will be able to access assets with what are said to be few performance issues.The UI does of course conform to Microsoft standards, containing aspects of Fluent Design. Users will also be able to create their own home space with access to additional programs such as Outlook, Visual Basic, OneNote and others.The website suggests that Marquette is still in development and is not quite ready for release, but the development team thinks it will be ready for a Beta soon. The team has also indicated that it is looking for feedback for how to improve the tool, with promises of updates in the future.

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Aerospace Company PACE Joined Microsoft Mixed Reality Program

VRFocus | October 29, 2018

The Microsoft Mixed Reality Program has been running for some time, with the aim of identifying companies who are involved in the creation of mixed reality (MR) hardware and software with the aim of providing Microsoft development tools, programs and services for promising companies. One of the latest to join the company is aerospace company PACE.PACE has announced that its parent company TXT E-Solutions is participating in Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Partner Program (MRPP), with the aim of advancing the adoption of MR technology, and the Microsoft HoloLens.TXT E-Solutions wishes to use the capabilities and technology offered by the MRPP to extend the capabilities of its existing products as well as to develop new software and services. The area of most interest to the company is the configuration of aircraft and passenger cabins, with the company hoping to develop systems to help airline buyers explore the available options.Another area of interest to PACE and TXT is education and training using MR for pilots, cabin crews and technicians, with the aim of creating environments for engagement and knowledge retention.

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Luminous Group Signs On As Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner

VRFocus | October 03, 2018

Luminous Group was originally founded at Digital Surveys some 30 years ago, and in recent years have radically changed focus to work in the area of 3D mapping, along with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) for a range of industries, rebranding to reflect this new direction. The company has now been accredited as a Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner.Microsoft created the Mixed Reality Partner Program to ensure customers have a broad range f partners to work with, while being assured that these partners have the capability to support products involved with HoloLens and other MR technologies.Ben Bennett, managing director and founder of Luminous Group said: “Mixed reality has enormous growth potential in a wide range of commercial environments. We’re really excited to be at the forefront of it and working in partnership with Microsoft gives us the edge in helping realise that potential. The Microsoft partnership program is the greatest validation that we’re pushing our business in the right direction and in partnership with Microsoft we can start to push even more boundaries of possibility.”

Read More

Mixed Reality Creation Tool Microsoft Marquette Leaks

VRFocus | October 29, 2018

Though Microsoft have been involved in virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) for some time, notably with the Microsoft HoloLens and the various Windows MR devices, its growth has been slower than the company expected. However, Microsoft may be hoping to change that with the release of a new tool for creating in mixed reality.A Twitter user called WalkingCat has tracked down a leak for an MR prototype tool designed for PC VR headsets. The tool allows users to plan their creations in 3D, instead of on a 2D screen, with the intention of making things more intuitive and easy to test.Microsoft has said that Marquette was initially designed as an internal tool, before it was recognised how useful it could be if it were made available to the wider user base. There Marquette tool has been described as an evolution of similar tools that have been previously released for VR.Marquette is said to have a robust toolbar, complete with fill tools, paintbrushes, text, shapes, backgrounds, animation and saved colour palettes among other things. Users will be able to access assets with what are said to be few performance issues.The UI does of course conform to Microsoft standards, containing aspects of Fluent Design. Users will also be able to create their own home space with access to additional programs such as Outlook, Visual Basic, OneNote and others.The website suggests that Marquette is still in development and is not quite ready for release, but the development team thinks it will be ready for a Beta soon. The team has also indicated that it is looking for feedback for how to improve the tool, with promises of updates in the future.

Read More

Aerospace Company PACE Joined Microsoft Mixed Reality Program

VRFocus | October 29, 2018

The Microsoft Mixed Reality Program has been running for some time, with the aim of identifying companies who are involved in the creation of mixed reality (MR) hardware and software with the aim of providing Microsoft development tools, programs and services for promising companies. One of the latest to join the company is aerospace company PACE.PACE has announced that its parent company TXT E-Solutions is participating in Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Partner Program (MRPP), with the aim of advancing the adoption of MR technology, and the Microsoft HoloLens.TXT E-Solutions wishes to use the capabilities and technology offered by the MRPP to extend the capabilities of its existing products as well as to develop new software and services. The area of most interest to the company is the configuration of aircraft and passenger cabins, with the company hoping to develop systems to help airline buyers explore the available options.Another area of interest to PACE and TXT is education and training using MR for pilots, cabin crews and technicians, with the aim of creating environments for engagement and knowledge retention.

Read More

Luminous Group Signs On As Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner

VRFocus | October 03, 2018

Luminous Group was originally founded at Digital Surveys some 30 years ago, and in recent years have radically changed focus to work in the area of 3D mapping, along with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) for a range of industries, rebranding to reflect this new direction. The company has now been accredited as a Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner.Microsoft created the Mixed Reality Partner Program to ensure customers have a broad range f partners to work with, while being assured that these partners have the capability to support products involved with HoloLens and other MR technologies.Ben Bennett, managing director and founder of Luminous Group said: “Mixed reality has enormous growth potential in a wide range of commercial environments. We’re really excited to be at the forefront of it and working in partnership with Microsoft gives us the edge in helping realise that potential. The Microsoft partnership program is the greatest validation that we’re pushing our business in the right direction and in partnership with Microsoft we can start to push even more boundaries of possibility.”

Read More

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