Copilot Supplier Relationship Management

The phrase customer relationship management (CRM) may seem self-explanatory, but when you put it in the context of something as complex as a large company it can get murky—much like the concept of supply chain for some people. Is supply chain procurement? Is it delivering raw materials to factories? Is it getting finished products to retailers? Is it storing materials?

Of course the answer is that supply chain is all of those things and more. Customer relationship management is similar in that it permeates all aspects of a business. Without customers purchasing products or services, what happens in business? Not much—which means it’s crucial to track your customers throughout their journey. Customer relationship management software makes that far easier than trying to use siloed files and documents and cobbled-together, inefficient systems.

When CRM and enterprise resource management (ERP) come together, the result is a powerful, fully integrated system. When you add generative artificial intelligence (AI), as with Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365, the result is optimization across your organization. Copilot is AI-enabled, and is like having an assistant, highly trained in your processes, ready to help you manage all the tedious tasks that are necessary to keep your system running smoothly.

Copilot, in conjunction with Microsoft Dynamics, is “part of an extremely fast-evolving technology that is going to touch many pieces of the way we do business,” says Daryl Moll, Velosio’s Copilot expert. “It’s going to make the way we did business yesterday more efficient tomorrow. The whole platform puts everybody in a position to be their most efficient and their most competitive in the market.”

How many time-consuming tedious tasks are required in the course of an average day for a supply chain professional? Manual data entry, the never-ending emails both received (how many are in your inbox now?) and sent, note taking during and after meetings or calls, not to mention processing purchase orders and receivables, and so many other tasks must be completed regularly for smooth operations and many of them have a direct impact on customer relationships.

Then, break down how Copilot can help with managing that relationship through each stage.

Copilot, 365 Supply Chain Management, and Customer Relationships

Copilot in Microsoft Supply Chain improves communication, data entry, note taking, and content generation so that it improves aspects of all of your business applications.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 offers tools to simplify numerous tedious and time-consuming processes using natural language.

Communication

Having clear records of emails and calls with customers is essential for customer satisfaction and maintaining customer relationships. Those records also contain information and data that can offer valuable insights about your overall business.

One example is the ability of the software to monitor news that may impact key supply chain processes, such as weather events, and automatically send alerts to vendors and partners that may be affected. All you need to do is review the email and click send.

Another benefit is in the capability of scheduling meetings and calls, as well as following up when appropriate. Keeping the lines of communication open is one of the most important aspects of managing a complex supply chain operation, but it’s dangerously easy to forget to actually follow up. Copilot supplier relationship management for supply chain makes sure those follow ups don’t fall through the cracks of your busy schedule.

Imagine that you’ve been notified that a shipment is delayed due to a weather event. The high priority customer orders need to be delivered via an alternate distribution route. Think of everyone who should be notified of the changes. Now imagine if you had an assistant to generate a checklist, draft emails for you to review, and put follow up communications on your schedule.

That’s what Copilot in Dynamics 365 does.

Data Entry

Virtually no one enjoys data entry. It’s tedious and boring, and most of all, it’s necessary. Without data entry, accurate records aren’t possible. Whether the data consists of information from purchase orders, receivables, departmental reports, dates of outreach, or anything else, it must be entered into your system so that it can be tracked, analyzed, and ultimately used to improve business.

When it comes to supplier relationship management, accurate data entry is the cornerstone of effectively and efficiently using CRM and ERP together. Copilot can log into multiple systems, handle the tedious task of data entry—with greater accuracy than a human—and allow you and your team to focus on other, higher-level tasks.

Note Taking

Much like data entry, note taking can be tedious and time consuming. It can also lead to mistakes. When you’re on a call, and four other things are happening simultaneously, it can be nearly impossible to immediately, accurately make notes about the conversation during or after the call, yet those notes are necessary for good customer relationship management.

Meeting summaries are similar. Taking notes during a meeting means not fully participating in the meeting, and if you happen to be leading the meeting, it’s not really possible to take notes. Writing a summary following a meeting may mean forgetting to include key points, or worse, forgetting to write the summary at all.

Generative AI can take notes in real time, so that you records are complete, accurate, and don’t require your time or brain-power.

Content Generation

The content generation capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot are one of the more surprising elements for our clients. We’ve already mentioned the email drafts, but Copilot goes farther. Because it’s plugged into all of your systems, it can extract insights based on information gathered from a variety of sources. Then, it turns these insights into action with contextual email outreach.

You simply review the draft, edit it to your preferences, and hit send. “You can have a higher level of communication with less work,” says Moll. “A draft email with a lot of content that may have taken an hour to generate previously, now takes 30-seconds to a minute.”

Along with the email capabilities, AI generated product descriptions can save an enormous amount of time. Some clients have found that using Copilot to generate automated descriptions for their Shopify store is the most efficient and least costly method for creating those all-important descriptions. The descriptions are customizable, so that the preferred writing style, length, and tone can be set.

Ready to Save Time?

Improve accuracy, save time, and increase efficiencies in your supplier relationship management operations with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot. Harnessing the power of natural language processing through a thoroughly tested large language model gives you an edge in the business world. We’re happy to provide a demonstration so you can see how this powerful tool can increase innovation and improve business for your organization.

Get rid of repetitive task, create creative content, and make data-driven decisions. Copilot is poised to deliver on the promise of technology. Understand Copilot’s capabilities and how they can best fit in your company’s workflow and goals. Contact us to learn more.