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Microsoft 365 Event on Boosting Productivity & Efficiency through AI

Oct 30, 2023 3:22:05 PM by Michelle

Microsoft 365 Event How to boost efficiency and productivity by x3 using Artificial intelligence

Microsoft 365 Event on Boosting Productivity & Efficiency by x3 using Artificial Intelligence Overview

On 29 August 2023, VLAN Asia hosted an event called “How to Boost Productivity and Efficiency using Artificial Intelligence (AI)” at WORQ TTDI. The purpose of this event is to educate people about how powerful productive tools such as Microsoft 365 can assist users in their everyday tasks at work. The event covered few of the core productivity tool topics covered are Microsoft 365 Copilot, Bing Chat Enterprise and Azure Open AI, providing the audience with invaluable information about the application of AI in different business processes.

This blog will first elaborate on the modern problems that employees are facing at every stage of the business. The following information will consist of the key highlights and takeaways from the event.

The Rise of Digital Debt and Key Takeaways

Microsoft AI and digital debt

The event began with our speaker Poh Siang, who says that we are all subjected to digital debts. Digital debt refers to the off-balance-sheet accumulation of all technology work a company needs to do in the future. Examples of digital debt in a business would be outdated systems and infrastructure, lack of automation, technical complexity and inefficient data management and more. According to Poh Siang, 64% of employees don’t have enough time and energy to do their job while 57% of employees’ time is spent communicating and 43% of employees’ time are spent creating. He also added that 75% of employees say that they would delegate as much work as possible to AI to lessen workload and focus on things that require informed decision.

Some of the major key takeaways from the event are:

Microsoft 365 Productivity and Efficiency Key takeaways

AI is not a threat to jobs, but an opportunity to enhance work efficiency and productivity. Employees should learn how to incorporate AI into their day-to-day work, such as using automation for accurate data entry.

Businesses need to be ready for AI implementation by having proper working devices, OS systems, security, management tools, and collaborative tools. Microsoft offers various solutions for these requirements, such as Intune, Windows Autopatch, and Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft supports Bing Chat Enterprise, a powerful tool that can help employees with various tasks, such as finding information, generating content, creating graphics, and more. Bing Chat Enterprise can be accessed through Microsoft Edge browser, which also provides features such as site articles and web search results.
Bing Chat Enterprise is a secure and responsible AI tool that does not save business data or chats. It is available on phone and web and feels like having a personal assistant beside you. Bing Chat Enterprise can also adjust your speech style according to the context, such as formal or casual.

Digital Transformation with Generative AI

azure open ai adrian ang

Azure OpenAI is a cloud-based serviced that provides organisations access to advanced language models which are developed by OpenAI and includes the GPT-4 and GPT 3.5, ChatGPT, Codex and DALL-E 2 model series. It is important to note that these two models can be fine-tuned to an organisation’s specific needs and various use cases such as content generation, summarisation, semantic search and natural language to code translation: making an organisation more efficient and productive. Adrian Ang brought generative AI into picture where it is a rapidly evolving field that has potential to impact every sector of an economy such as Tax & Advisory, retail and media companies. Generative AI will revolutionise the way companies generate content such as images, videos and audios. To simply put it all together, generative AI is using a neural network (or a computer brain) to identify patterns and audio within existing data to create new data for an organisation.

Companies that do not leverage on Azure OpenAI service may face challenges in adopting AI technologies. Some of these challenges include lack of expertise, data quality and quantity issues, security and privacy risks and integration with existing systems.

Some of the major key takeaways from the event are:

generative AI and azure

Azure OpenAI is a cloud-based platform that allows users to access and customize powerful AI models such as GPT-3.5, GPT-4, ChatGPT, Coding and DALL-E.
Azure OpenAI can help businesses leverage AI to automate tasks, generate content, create conversational agents, code applications and design images.

Azure OpenAI is part of the generative AI era, which is a new paradigm of AI that can create novel and diverse outputs from minimal inputs.
Azure OpenAI offers security, scalability and reliability for users who want to deploy AI solutions in their own domains.
Azure OpenAI requires users to be mindful of the ethical and privacy implications of using AI, especially when dealing with personal information in ChatGPT.

VLAN Asia’s Solution to Managing Subscriptions

VLAN Asia self service portal

In the event, we discussed how we can help our clients with adding, removing and buying of licenses for Microsoft products and services. We’ve developed our own self-service portal which is a web-based platform created for our clients to manage their subscriptions. A derivative from our internal SaaS management system. A portal that allows end users IT managers to manage their organisation’s own licenses without the Microsoft Partner’s intervention. A simplified portal that allows partners to let end users manage their own license requirements and an improved solution that reduces risk of licensing the wrong company.

The problem we are trying to address are:

Turnaround Time: Slow turnaround time for end-users to add and remove licenses
Billing Error: Incorrect billing due to dispute in add/remove commencement dates
Security: Security risk as enduser IT engineers have full access to amend business critical communication channels with little oversight
Costing: High cost of resource for a simple task of adding and removing licenses

The service portal encompasses various features that allow customers to create new subscriptions, add or remove licenses, view license billing, change payment methods, download invoices and receipts and contact support. We’ve constructed a system that improves transparency and accountability in the license procurement process. Some of the features include:

Single sign-on through Office 365: Easily access using Office365 account and manage license subscriptions
Manage portal users: Set permission on who can access the portal
Subscription approval: Set additional approval for risk management
Add/remove licenses: Easily add and remove licenses in few clicks
Check & track status: Check current status and track number of subscriber
Email notification: Receive email notification on any update/changes made on the subscriptions
Reporting: Daily and monthly change consumption report.

How does this benefit a business?

Reduce mistakes of wrong invoicing
Reduce manpower cost
Improve accountability of license requestor
Real time license management and reporting
Reduce turnaround time for licenses acquisition and removals

In summary, VLAN Asia’s event, “How to Boost Microsoft Productivity and Efficiency by x3 using Artificial Intelligence”, offered invaluable insights into enhancing employees’ productivity and efficiency through the utilization of artificial intelligence tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Bing Chat Enterprise, and Azure OpenAI. The event not only educated attendees about these tools but also underscored the significance of self-service portals and their role in facilitating businesses in managing Microsoft licenses.