The Horizon: March 2024

As we exit the first quarter of 2024, we’re excited for spring here at Cloudwell HQ. But a change of season isn’t the only thing on the horizon…

As usual, we’ve been keeping tabs on the latest developments in the Microsoft technosphere that might affect you and your business.

Here are some of our highlights.

Pnp PowerShell release

PnP PowerShell just got even more, well, powerful.

Described as a ‘swiss army knife’ for managing Microsoft 365 environments, Microsoft has added a bunch more features and enhancements to PnP PowerShell.

Release v2.4.0 includes 15 new cmdlets including SharePoint Embedded operations, file format conversion, analytics data retrieval, and enhanced cloud environment support, among others.

Imagine the possibilities.

Microsoft Loop automation

It’s never been quicker and easier to stay in the loop.

We’re frequent flyers with Microsoft Loop here at Cloudwell, so we’re excited to see that the Loop team has added automation to help streamline workflows.

You can speed up repetitive tasks by using Power Automate-backed rules, with each rule having a Trigger, Condition and Action.

Find out how it works with this step-by-step guide…

Introducing Copilot for Finance

Following on from Copilot for Service and Copilot for Sales role-based AI assistance, Copilot for Finance is now available for public preview.

Designed to transform modern finance by reducing repetitive tasks, Copilot for Finance taps into your existing financial data sources, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 and SAP, and the Microsoft Graph.

Key features include:

  • Data analysis using natural language prompts to identify anomalies, risks and unmatched values.
  • Automated data structure comparisons to ensure the reliability and accuracy of financial records.
  • Complete summaries of relevant customer account details in Outlook to speed up the collections process.
  • Presentation-ready visuals and reports from raw Excel data.

 

Want to know more?

Power Platform security news

Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are facing a double threat right now. There’s the threat of increasingly sophisticated attacks, plus an eagerness among employees to use AI-assisted business processes, which in turn puts additional pressures on security systems.

So, Microsoft’s new Power Platform security features to protect enterprise solutions are welcome news.

Here’s what to expect:

A new Security Hub in the Power Platform admin center for managing Power Platform security at scale.

New cutting-edge features for data exfiltration prevention, including the latest advancements in network isolation techniques and ongoing scrutiny of user permissions.

Integration with Microsoft Sentinel to provide a holistic view of your organization’s security operations.

Want to know more about Power Platform’s new security features?

New Copilot capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

New Copilot capabilities are coming to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and if you’re an existing customer, you could get to try them out before they hit the shelf.

Here’s how to sign up.

***

That’s it from us for this month. For more Microsoft horizon-spotting, check out our CEO Pat McGown’s blog.

And don’t forget, as a Microsoft Gold Partner, Cloudwell makes it our business to provide innovative enterprise solutions for your business.

Get in touch and let us solve your biggest challenges.