We’ve got the latest release for Customer Insights – Journeys (Realtime marketing) from Microsoft. Just a couple of items in this release but worth checking out so you know what is on the way (if not already in your environment!).

Join Amey Holden and I, for the final interactive webinar in the series where we will answer YOUR questions all about moving from Outbound Marketing to Real-Time Marketing in Customer Insights – Journeys! 💡We all know the deadline is looming and you WILL lose access to Outbound functionality and make sure your organisation (or clients) are taking advantage of Realtime functionality. It’s a mammoth task for some companies, and we get that. We can’t help everyone individually so this is our way of giving back and trying to help more people where we can.

If you’ve missed out on any of the previous webinars from Amey Holden and I, you can check them out by viewing the recordings in my YouTube playlist. The last two will be added there once they have been held on June 25th. Hope they are useful!

Part of the June release includes the public preview of AI-powered conversational journeys. In this post from Sundar at Microsoft, the VP of Products, Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Applications walks through why it’s been provided as a feature and when you might use it. With this solution, organizations can use custom-built AI agents and service representatives to proactively reach out across channels—like informing a customer about a cancelled flight and guiding them to a resolution in the same conversation. Is it something you think you would use?

This is the link to the official Microsoft documentation page on Conversational journeys. One thing to keep in mind, to use conversational journeys, you need Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys and Dynamics 365 Contact Center. If you want to use AI agents, you also need Microsoft Copilot Studio. Is this right for you?

Another link to the official documentation, this is all about using the new option to allow people to cancel their event registration themselves. You now have the option to add a cancel registration button to your Realtime emails. Definitely something that has been needed for a long time!

This is a nice article on the Dynamics 365 Fast Track Blog from Nikolai Popov all about the Quiet Time Feature in Realtime, but adding in the time zone identification. The Quiet Times feature enables organizations to configure specific periods when automated messages shouldn’t be sent to customers. With the new advanced options, this is where you can allow quiet time to be interpreted using recipient’s time zone becomes valuable.

An interesting article from Brig Pahwa. It looks at the integration of AI into Marketing strategies, not being just a trend but a fundamental shift, offering unprecedented opportunities for personalisation, efficiency and return on investment.

I thought this article from dmarcian was interesting providing an overview of a report on data breach investigations. Verizon has released the eighteenth edition of their Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) covering cyber incidents taking place between November 2023 and October 2024 and representing victims from 139 countries. Good to be informed!

Important information if you are in New Zealand or work with customers there. The New Zealand Government (NZGov) has introduced a comprehensive new framework titled “Secure Government Email Common Implementation Framework” (SGE) designed to enhance email security across public sector agencies. This new framework and outlines technical guidance and best practices, like DMARC, for protecting email systems against phishing, spoofing and unauthorized use. Check out this post from dmarcian.