Business Central – Sales Order Agent

With the preview for Business Central 26 we can finally test the Sales Order Agent

Let’s see if there is something to worry about…

When opening Business Central 26 you’ll find the Sales Order Agent Icon on the top right in your Role Center

Currently Sales Order Agent is not processing any tasks because there is no quota available. I think this is caused by the upcoming release of Business Central 26. But never mind, since I tested it the last days I can show you all the interesting stuff 😉

Setup

Let’s start with the agent setup:

The first thing to set up is the mailbox that the agent will monitor. After setting up your mailbox and activating the agent, all incoming mails will be analyzed by the agent.

• Select only available item | Items that are not in stock are not taken into account when searching for matches
• Review quotes when created and updated | If a quote is created or updated the agent demands a review from the user
• Make orders from quotes | The agent transfers the quote into an order if the customer finally orders
• Review orders when created and updated | Same as at the quotes, Review is needed when order is created or updated

Small and simple setup – nothing fancy, straightforward.

Agent in Action

Let’s fire up the agent. Start with a simple request for some available chairs:

In Business Central, the incoming mail looks like this:

After we confirm – the agent goes to work searching for matches in our items. Outgoing mail is prepared:

After confirming this outgoing email, the email is sent. The customer experience looks like this:

No rocket science here, just a simple conversation. The customer is now requesting a quote for a specific item:

Now the sales quote is created, the outgoing email is prepared, and the quote is attached to the outgoing email:

From the customers perspective:

Asking for changes after the quote has been created is no problem:

The quote is updated and a new outbound email is prepared with the updated quote:

And when our customer finally confirms:

The sales order converts the quote into an order and prepares the order confirmation email for our customer.

The Customers perspective:

Conclusion

For the first “real” test I was able to do, the agent looks fantastic. Super easy to use, clear processes and a great help for handling tasks like this.

Here and there I had some problems with permissions, but repeating the tasks solved the problem.

Of course, we have to keep in mind that a lot of customers do not create the bulk of their quotes and orders manually. Many use webshops, EDI/EDX or other tools. But for companies that have a lot of inquiries or orders coming in by mail, this could be a huge benefit – even in this state.

We will have to wait and see how Microsoft finally handles the “monetization” issue in this process. If the price is right and the feature delivers reliable results, this is a no brainer in my opinion.