The world continues to change, and it is increasingly necessary to develop and implement solutions that meet the needs of our customers.  The speed that is required in these times makes it necessary for technological developments in companies to fly!   To solve real business challenges in no time is no longer a fictional idea thanks to Power Platform.

Microsoft Power Platform is a game-changer for organizations looking to innovate, streamline operations, and stay competitive in the digital age. Its user-friendly approach democratizes app development, data analysis, and automation, making these powerful tools accessible to individuals across the organization. Whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, Power Platform can empower you to harness the full potential of your data and processes, driving success in today’s fast-paced business environment.

As one of the leading low-code/no-code tools, has emerged as a powerful solution to meet the demands of multiple workflows across the organization. This comprehensive platform has the capability of empowering different areas of the organizations to create custom applications, automate workflows, and analyze data without the need for extensive coding expertise.

By significantly speeding up the application development process, businesses can quickly respond to changing requirements and market demands, while at the same time lowering development costs and maximizes the utilization of existing Microsoft 365 licenses.  By empowering more people and areas in the organization to effectively automate routine tasks and workflows, productivity and efficiency across the organization grows.

But these are some of the already known and practical functionalities of Power Platform as we know it.  What happens when we bring the latest AI advances to this low-code development platform?  We have a revolutionized development platform that looks to the future. 

Power Platform: Moving ahead of times leading the new era of AI-generated developments with Copilot.

Microsoft Power Platform has embarked on a journey to empower developers with AI-driven development experiences since 2021. Power Apps was among the first to leverage GPT in a commercial capacity, enabling express design for converting drawings, images, and Figma documents into app user interfaces (UIs). This fusion of AI and low-code is revolutionizing solution-building and transforming work, collaboration, and creation.

By introducing Copilot in Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents the platform further democratizes development and enables even more people to create innovative solutions by the simple use of natural language. Now, anyone can generate an idea of an innovative solution and simply describe it in words, and copilot can create it for you via an intuitive and intelligent low code experience. This innovative functionality will accelerate development for citizen and professional developers alike. By just describing your app, flow, or bot in natural language allows Copilot to create it within seconds, making it remarkably easy.

In Power Apps, Copilot simplifies keeping data at the core of applications by automatically generating data tables. Makers can refine apps using natural language, enabling both novice and professional developers to save time for more complex tasks.

In Power Automate, Copilot streamlines workflow creation by automating flows, saving time and reducing time to market. A 50 percent reduction in development time was observed during the October 2022 preview.

Power Virtual Agents benefit from Copilot as well, allowing quick and intelligent chatbot creation and modification. An in-studio copilot utilizes generative AI for rapid topic development.

Microsoft Power Platform also enhances user experiences with embedded GPT-enabled chatbots in Power Apps and GPT-enabled data exploration, providing actionable insights.

Imagine all the possibilities with Microsoft Power Platform with Copilot.  Here are some examples:

– Expense Reporting App: In a corporate environment, employees need to submit expense reports regularly. Using Power Apps with Copilot, a company can create an expense reporting app.  By describing types of expenses in natural language, Copilot can generate the necessary forms and tables.

– Automated Workflow for HR Onboarding: HR departments need to efficiently onboard new employees. Using Power Automate with Copilot, companies can automate HR onboarding workflows by describing the onboarding process, and Copilot will create the necessary workflows. This accelerates the onboarding process, ensuring a smoother experience for new hires.

– Data Analysis Dashboard: An organization wants to gain insights from their data but lacks expertise in data analytics. Power BI with Copilot can be used to create a data analysis dashboard. Describe the data you want to analyze, and Copilot generates interactive charts and graphs, allowing non-technical users to make data-driven decisions.

– Customized Project Management Tool: Project managers often need specialized tools to manage their projects. Using Power Apps with Copilot, project managers can create customized project management applications. Describe the features and functionalities needed, and Copilot designs the application.

– Performance Feedback System: Organizations require a system to collect and analyze employee performance feedback. Power Apps with Copilot can help build a feedback system by describing the feedback forms and criteria, and Copilot generates the system. This streamlines the performance evaluation process.

These examples illustrate how Microsoft Power Platform with Copilot can be applied to a wide range of real-life scenarios, from automating routine tasks to creating custom applications and chatbots.

In conclusion, low-code development and AI are driving innovation and accessibility in solution creation. Copilot empowers both non-technical individuals and IT departments to bring their ideas to life, fostering rapid innovation with built-in admin and governance tools.

Discover how to elevate your organization’s efficiency enhancements through the innovative Copilot, which introduces a fresh approach to work.

October is Cyber Security Awareness month, taking each year more relevance in the business industry. In today’s digital landscape, the security of data and systems is paramount. Organizations face increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, a deluge of alerts, and the overwhelming task of fast incident resolution.

Microsoft Sentinel, a scalable, cloud-native solution, offers businesses a comprehensive set of features that provide a robust defense against these challenges.

What is Microsoft Sentinel?

Microsoft Sentinel is a multifaceted security solution that encompasses various crucial elements:

1. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): It offers advanced monitoring, alerting, and response capabilities, allowing organizations to detect and mitigate security threats swiftly.
2. Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR): By automating repetitive tasks and orchestrating incident response, Sentinel streamlines security operations and accelerates incident resolution.
3. Intelligent Security Analytics: Microsoft Sentinel is powered by sophisticated analytics and threat intelligence that provides a deep understanding of the security landscape, enabling proactive threat hunting.

The Benefits of Microsoft Sentinel

Microsoft Sentinel is designed to provide a wide array of benefits to organizations seeking to bolster their cybersecurity defenses and streamline security operations:

1. Unified Security Solution: Sentinel offers a single solution for attack detection, threat visibility, proactive hunting, and threat response. This unified approach simplifies security management and reduces the complexity of handling disparate security tools.
2. Azure Monitor Integration: Sentinel inherits the tamper-proofing and immutability practices of Azure Monitor, ensuring data integrity. Azure Monitor, an append-only data platform, now includes provisions for data deletion to comply with regulatory requirements.
3. Scalable Data Collection: Sentinel can collect data at cloud scale from various sources, including users, devices, applications, and infrastructure. It provides visibility into both on-premises and multi-cloud environments, ensuring comprehensive threat monitoring.
4. Advanced Threat Detection: Microsoft’s analytics and unparalleled threat intelligence are at the core of Sentinel’s threat detection capabilities. It can identify previously undetected threats while minimizing false positives.
5. AI-Driven Investigation: The platform facilitates security investigations with the power of artificial intelligence. It enables users to hunt for suspicious activities at scale, leveraging Microsoft’s extensive cybersecurity expertise.
6. Automation and Orchestration: Sentinel streamlines incident response with built-in orchestration and automation features. It can execute common security tasks automatically, reducing response times.
7. Integration with Azure Services: Microsoft Sentinel natively integrates with proven Azure services like Log Analytics and Logic Apps. It enriches security investigations with AI, offers Microsoft’s threat intelligence stream, and allows organizations to incorporate their threat intelligence.

Practical Features of Microsoft Sentinel

Microsoft Sentinel offers several practical features that enhance its functionality and usability:

1. Data Connectors: To begin using Microsoft Sentinel, you must connect it to your data sources. The platform provides a multitude of connectors for Microsoft solutions, such as Microsoft 365 Defender, Azure Active Directory, and more. Additionally, it offers built-in connectors for non-Microsoft security and application ecosystems, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of data sources.
2. Interactive Reports: Once onboarded, Microsoft Sentinel offers integration with Azure Monitor workbooks, allowing users to create custom reports. It simplifies data visualization for security operations center (SOC) engineers and analysts, providing high-level insights across various data sources.
3. Alert Correlation: Microsoft Sentinel uses analytics to correlate alerts into incidents, reducing noise and enabling more efficient threat investigation. It provides both built-in and machine learning-based correlation rules, helping to identify high-fidelity security incidents.
4. Playbooks: To automate and orchestrate common security tasks, Microsoft Sentinel offers playbooks. that can integrate with Azure services and external tools, streamlining data ingestion, enrichment, investigation, and remediation.
5. Investigation Tools: Microsoft Sentinel’s deep investigation tools assist in understanding the scope and root cause of security threats. Interactive graphs enable users to explore the connections between entities, helping to uncover the origins of potential threats.
6. Threat Hunting: The platform provides powerful hunting search-and-query tools based on the MITRE framework. It allows proactive threat hunting across data sources, enabling the creation of custom detection rules and alerts for security incident responders.
7. Notebooks: Microsoft Sentinel supports Jupyter notebooks in Azure Machine Learning workspaces, extending its capabilities for threat hunters and analysts. Notebooks enable advanced analytics, custom data visualizations, and integration with external data sources.

In conclusion, Microsoft Sentinel is a powerful tool for organizations looking to enhance their cybersecurity posture. Its unified approach, AI-driven capabilities, and comprehensive feature set make it an invaluable asset for detecting, investigating, and responding to security threats. As the threat landscape continues to evolve, Microsoft Sentinel equips organizations with the tools needed to stay ahead of cyber adversaries.

Don’t wait any longer, implement your Sentinel.

Business Continuity

In an increasingly digital world, business continuity is crucial for organizations of all sizes. In times of crisis, it’s more important than ever to keep operations and services up and running.

Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup are two Microsoft solutions that help businesses ensure business continuity. These tools allow for a rapid and effective response to any incident that may disrupt normal operations.

Tools like Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup enable organizations to recover quickly from interruptions and minimize downtime. Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup are comprehensive solutions that enable businesses to protect their data and systems against a variety of threats, from natural disasters to system failures and cyberattacks.

What is Azure Site Recovery?

Azure Site Recovery is a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution from Microsoft that allows for the replication and failover recovery of virtual and physical machines.

Some of its key features include:

• Managed replication and failover from an administration console.
• Migration of virtual machines (VMs) between Azure regions or from local data centers.
• Management of recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO) with an RPO of up to 30 seconds.

This solution can be useful during a crisis by allowing businesses to keep their systems running, even when their local infrastructure is affected.

What is Azure Backup?

Azure Backup is a Backup as a Service (BaaS) solution that provides integrated backup and recovery functionalities in the Azure platform.

Some of its key features include:

• Backup and restoration of virtual machines, files and folders, Exchange, SharePoint, SQL, and more.
• Multi-factor authentication and alerts of suspicious behavior to reduce the threat of malware or ransomware attack.
• Ability to set short or long term data retention times (up to 99 years).

During a crisis, Azure Backup can help businesses protect their data and recover quickly in case of data loss.

Success Cases with Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup

Many businesses have found success in implementing Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup to protect their operations.

A study conducted by IDC in 2019 highlighted several benefits reported by respondents, including ease of integration with existing systems, improved recovery management, and more efficient performance resulting in fewer RTOs and RPOs.

These success cases illustrate how Azure solutions can help businesses maintain business continuity during times of crisis.

Preparing for the Future with C-ven Technologies

At C-ven, we are ready to talk to design the best strategy together so that the operational continuity of your company remains the most important thing.

Working with a trusted partner like C-ven Technologies can make a difference when implementing Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup.

info@c-ven.com

Initial challenge

The Chamber of Commerce and Production of Santo Domingo (CCPSD), the oldest institution of its kind in Latin America, faced the challenge of staying relevant in the digital era. With manual processes and a growing internal and external demand, the CCPSD needed a comprehensive solution that would allow it to maintain its public function of commercial registration in an efficient and satisfactory manner.

Solution implemented

In partnership with Microsoft, C-ven Technologies implemented Dynamics 365 Customer Service as CCPSD’s primary CRM solution. In addition, it used Power Apps and Azure to optimize shift management and support background processes. These solutions were effectively integrated with the Chamber’s document manager, OnBase.

Benefits and results

The implementation of Dynamics 365 Customer Service has had a significant impact on the CCPSD. The face-to-face processes of receiving, digitizing and analyzing documentation have been improved, leading to greater efficiency and quality in service delivery. In addition, the development of a web portal for online applications has allowed 24/7 access from any location and device, providing users with an easy and secure way to manage available procedures. These advances have generated a positive impact both internally and externally, improving user experience and customer satisfaction.

Impact

The implementation of the Dynamics 365 Customer Service platform has had a significant impact at the national level, generating significant improvements in two key aspects:

First, user service has been optimized by improving the face-to-face processes of reception, digitalization and analysis. This has led to greater efficiency and quality in the delivery of documentation, providing users with a more agile and satisfactory experience.

Secondly, improvements in the development and implementation of the web portal for online service requests have enabled a service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This portal can be accessed from anywhere in the world and any device, which has made it easier for users to manage all available CCPSD procedures easily and securely.

It is important to highlight that the solution implemented by the CCPSD has not only benefited the institution, but will also serve as a basis for the other 31 Chambers in the country, allowing them to improve their own commercial registry services.

Innovation and differentiation

The implementation of Dynamics 365 Customer Service has allowed the CCPSD to innovate and differentiate itself in its industry. The ability to have real-time, up-to-date information has significantly improved decision-making, providing the Chamber with the agility and responsiveness needed in a dynamic business environment.

“The implementation of Dynamics 365 Customer Service has been a resounding success for the CCPSD. We have been able to streamline our processes, improve customer service and offer a more efficient service,” says Antonio Ramos, Executive Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Production of Santo Domingo.

The International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP) is the world’s largest independent community of Microsoft partners. Members meet to network, share insights, opportunities, and develop Partner-to-Partner (P2P) collaborative partnerships.

Each year the IAMCP honors members around the world who have demonstrated excellence in partnering. Winners and finalists are selected by a panel of international judges from a pool of global entries according to different regions.

“Congratulations to C-ven Technologies and KCP Dynamics for being the 2023 IAMCP Americas P2P Awards Finalists. The IAMCP P2P Awards recognize member companies that demonstrate excellence in partnering resulting in better solutions for customers and improved business outcomes. In a global community that thrives on partnering, receiving this award is an impressive accomplishment.” Paul Solski, International P2P Committee Chair

“We are delighted to be recognized by the IAMCP with the 2023 Americas P2P award finalist. As a company, we build partnerships to enhance the breadth and depth of our solutions and do business smarter. With its numerous P2P initiatives, the IAMCP makes partnering easier. We also recognize the incredible synergy with KCP Dynamics, that made possible the great outcome for the customer in the nominated projects.” Luis Guzman, CEO C-ven Technologies.

About The IAMCP

IAMCP is a professional association of Microsoft partners dedicated to helping companies and individuals in the “Microsoft ecosystem” to broaden their base of business opportunities through partnering with other IAMCP members — both within their own communities and around the world. The association is organised in chapters across three
main regions: Americas, APAC, EMEA.