Directions EMEA 2024 Vienna: Key Topics and Highlights
From 6 to 8 November Navtech Group attended the annual conference for Microsoft Dynamics partners – Directions EMEA 2024, hosted in Vienna, Austria. The team had the pleasure of attending 3 days of insightful sessions covering a wide variety of topics and networking with partners, friends and leaders. The slogan of this year’s Directions EMEA was #ShareTheFuture and the emphasis on AI was expected. The improvements Microsoft has made are significantly contributing to the shared collaboration between us and Copilot as our virtual assistant, highlighting the future power that this partnership holds.
The conference showcased innovations and updates in various parts of the Dynamics family of products, but AI was the topic that really stood out. There were numerous sessions presenting the features and benefits of AI and the assistant developed by Microsoft:
- Copilot in Business Central
- AI agents in Business Central
- Building your own agent in Copilot Studio
- Demoing Copilot in Business Central for your customers
- Developing and testing Copilot
- Copilot Studio vs. OpenAI ChatGPT
- Copilot for Finance with Business Central
Sales Order Agent in Business Central
One of Microsoft’s breakthroughs that caught our attention was the introduction of AI Agents in Business Central, in particular – the Sales Order Agent. Note that there is a difference between Copilot and the AI agents – with Copilot in Business Central you are the pilot, and AI is your virtual assistant. On the other hand, the agents work autonomously alongside or on behalf of a person or team. Both AI features are built on Microsoft’s approach of security, privacy, compliance and responsibility.
The Sales Order Agent handles the task of receiving and processing customer sales orders. The Agent receives item requests, identifies the customer, drafts the sales quote, verifies the item availability, sends the sales quote to the customer for approval and once that is received, it creates a sales order. What is more, the Sales Order Agent handles these processes by just using natural language - the conversational prompt you would give to your colleague would instead be given to your Agent (for example, an email with an order from a customer).
The Sales Order Agent handles the task of receiving and processing customer sales orders. The Agent receives item requests, identifies the customer, drafts the sales quote, verifies the item availability, sends the sales quote to the customer for approval and once that is received, it creates a sales order. What is more, the Sales Order Agent handles these processes by just using natural language - the conversational prompt you would give to your colleague would instead be given to your Agent (for example, an email with an order from a customer).
These AI innovations are not intended to take away people’s jobs. Rather, they are becoming our helping hand in optimizing time management and directing our focus to the more challenging tasks, which require our full attention and time. What is important is that the control remains yours. You decide what roles and restrictions the AI Agent has, and you monitor its work in order to make any necessary adjustments.
In addition to the extensive coverage of the AI topic, the sessions this year also introduces updates and improvements in Dynamics 365 Business Central such as:
- Subscription Billing
- What’s new in Sustainability for BC
- What’s new in Electronic Documents (E-Invoicing)
- What’s new in Service and Project management
- Dynamics 365 Field Service
- Reporting upgrades
- Power BI
- Microsoft licensing updates
Microsoft listened to their customers’ feedback and addressed their needs
The Microsoft team works extensively to provide everything needed to enhance the productivity of Business Central users. After the 2024 release wave 1, we get subscription billing in Business Central – contract management, recurring billing management, usage-based billing, revenue and expense recognition by deferrals.
The reporting in Business Central is also expanded with more than 70 new Power BI interactive reports, rich Excel layouts, better document reports with Word layout optimization, enhanced financial reporting and data analysis.
As the regulations for companies to track carbon emissions are becoming more demanding, the new sustainability features in Business Central are becoming a significant part of our business management. These include a new role centre – Sustainability Manager, Forecast Elements – Scorecards and Goals, Purchase Documents connectivity, new emissions calculations, new reporting features – Sustainability in Financial Reporting, etc.
E-Invoicing is becoming increasingly mandatory across Europe. Several countries in Europe have already mandated Е-invoicing. However, it appears that this requirement will spread across all EU countries by 2030. This is why Microsoft invests in improving E-documents in Business Central, including enhancing Copilot’s capabilities. Copilot plays a role by auto-matching incoming e-invoices with Purchase orders, which is still something you can manually – but who wouldn’t want to save time from these repetitive tasks?
In addition to the updates announced in the Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 release wave 2, we also had the opportunity to preview what’s coming in the future.
The reporting in Business Central is also expanded with more than 70 new Power BI interactive reports, rich Excel layouts, better document reports with Word layout optimization, enhanced financial reporting and data analysis.
As the regulations for companies to track carbon emissions are becoming more demanding, the new sustainability features in Business Central are becoming a significant part of our business management. These include a new role centre – Sustainability Manager, Forecast Elements – Scorecards and Goals, Purchase Documents connectivity, new emissions calculations, new reporting features – Sustainability in Financial Reporting, etc.
E-Invoicing is becoming increasingly mandatory across Europe. Several countries in Europe have already mandated Е-invoicing. However, it appears that this requirement will spread across all EU countries by 2030. This is why Microsoft invests in improving E-documents in Business Central, including enhancing Copilot’s capabilities. Copilot plays a role by auto-matching incoming e-invoices with Purchase orders, which is still something you can manually – but who wouldn’t want to save time from these repetitive tasks?
In addition to the updates announced in the Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 release wave 2, we also had the opportunity to preview what’s coming in the future.
Dynamics 365 Business Central 2025 Release Wave 1
Mike Morton, Vice President of Microsoft 365 Dynamics Business Central product team, introduced the main investment areas for the 2025 release wave 1. We can expect significant E-Documents enrichments, manufacturing enhancements, CSRD reporting, capturing emissions with Gen. Journals, water and waste intensity management and more. A great part of the Microsoft’s investment will go into generative AI: Sales Order Agent (extended availability in more countries), Bookkeeper agent, Copilot suggestions for GHG emissions, auto-fill fields, improved E-Invoice matching with Copilot.
Attending Directions EMEA 2024 was a truly valuable experience that provided fresh insights, groundbreaking solutions, and meaningful connections. The sessions and discussions deepened our knowledge and expertise in the ERP field as we exchanged perspective with other Dynamics partners and found inspiration in their practices and innovative ideas. We are eager to explore how utilizing the new functionalities of Dynamics 365 Business Central, we will contribute to our customers’ competitiveness and enhance their operational efficiency.
