In today’s competitive landscape, the ability to prepare quickly and deliver relevant, high-impact sales conversations is more critical than ever. Sales teams often spend valuable time gathering case studies, reviewing past opportunities, and preparing client-specific messaging — time that could be better spent engaging prospects.  To address this, we developed “Smart Pitch” — a Microsoft Teams-integrated AI Copilot designed to equip our sales professionals with instant, contextual access to case studies, opportunity data, and procedural documentation.  Challenge  Sales professionals routinely face challenges such as:  These hurdles not only slow down the sales cycle but also affect the consistency and quality of conversations with prospects.  How It Works  Platform  Data Sources  CloudFronts SmartPitch pulls information from the following knowledge sources:  AI Integration  Key Features  MQL – SQL Summary Generator  Users can request MQL – SQL document which contains   The copilot prompts the user to provide the prospect name, contact person name, and client requirement. This is achieved via an adaptive card for better UX.  HTTP Request to Logic App At Logic App we used ChatGPT API to fetch company and client information  Extract the company location from the company information, and similarly, extract the industry as well.  Render it to custom copilot via request to the Logic App.  Use Generative answers node to display the results as required with proper formatting via prompt/Agent Instructions. Generative AI can also be instructed to directly create a formatted json based on parsed values.   This formatted Json can be passed to converted to an actual Json and is used to populate a liquid template for the MQL-SQL file to dynamically create MQL-SQL for every searched company and contact person. This returns an HTML File with dynamically populated company and contact details as well as similar case studies, and work with client in similar region and industry.   This triggers an auto download of the MQL-SQL created as a PDF file on your system.   Content Search  Users can ask questions related to –  Users can ask questions like   “Smart Pitch” searches SharePoint documents, public case studies, and the opportunity table to return relevant results — structured and easy to consume.  –Security & Governance  Integrated in Microsoft Teams, so the same authentication as Teams. Access to Dataverse and SharePoint is read-only and scoped to organizational permissions.  To conclude, Smart Pitch reflects our commitment to leveraging AI to drive business outcomes. By combining Microsoft’s AI ecosystem with our internal data strategy, we’ve created a practical and impactful sales assistant that improves productivity, accelerates deal cycles, and enhances client engagement. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfonts.com 

Efficient file management is essential for businesses leveraging Azure cloud storage. Automating file transfers between Azure File Share and Azure Blob Storage enhances scalability, reduces manual intervention, and ensures data availability. This blog provides a step-by-step guide to setting up an Azure Timer Trigger Function App to automate the transfer process. Why Automate File Transfers? Steps to Implement the Solution 1. Prerequisites To follow this guide, ensure you have: 2. Create a Timer Trigger Function App 3. Install Required Packages For C#: For Python: 4. Implement the File Transfer Logic C# Implementation 5. Deploy and Monitor the Function To conclude, automating file transfers from Azure File Share to Blob Storage using a Timer Trigger Function streamlines operations and enhances reliability. Implementing this solution optimizes file management, improves cost efficiency, and ensures compliance with best practices. Begin automating your file transfers today! Need expert assistance? Reach out for tailored Azure solutions to enhance your workflow. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfonts.com.

Azure Function Apps are a powerful tool for creating serverless applications, but losing the underlying code can be a stressful experience. Whether due to a missing backup, accidental deletion, or unclear deployment pipelines, the need to recover code becomes critical. Thankfully, even without backups, there are ways to retrieve and reconstruct your Azure Function App code using the right tools and techniques. In this blog, we’ll guide you through a step-by-step process to recover your code, explore the use of decompilation tools, and share preventive tips to help you avoid similar challenges in the future. Step 1: Understand Your Function App Configuration Step 2: Retrieve the DLL File To recover your code, you need access to the compiled assembly file (DLL).From Kudu (Advanced Tools), navigate to the site/wwwroot/bin directory where the YourFunctionApp.dll file resides and download it. Step 3: Decompile the DLL File Once you have the DLL file, use a .NET decompiler to extract the source code by opening .dll file using a .Net decompiler and running the decompiler script. The decompiler I have used here is dotPeek which is a free .Net decompiler. To Conclude, recovering a Function App without backups might seem daunting, but by understanding its configuration, retrieving the compiled DLL, and using decomplication tools, you can successfully reconstruct your code. To prevent such situations in the future you can enable Source Control to Integrate your Function App with GitHub or Azure DevOps or set backups. We hope you found this blog post helpful! If you have any questions or want to discuss further, please contact us at transform@cloudfronts.com. Please refer to our customer success story Customer Success Story – BUCHI | CloudFronts to know more about how we used the function app and other AIS to deliver seamless integration. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfonts.com.

Azure Functions are a vital component of serverless computing, offering the flexibility to run event-driven code without the need to manage infrastructure. When integrated with Dynamics 365, they provide a robust mechanism for automating processes and extending the platform’s functionality. This blog explores Azure Function trigger methods and recurrence syntax, highlighting their relevance in Dynamics 365 scenarios. Azure Function Trigger Methods Azure Functions can be triggered by various events. These triggers determine how and when the function executes. Here are some commonly used trigger methods in Dynamics 365 integrations: 1. HTTP Trigger Example: 2. Queue Storage Trigger Example: 3. Timer Trigger Example: 4. Service Bus Trigger Example: Recurrence Syntax for Timer Triggers Timer Triggers in Azure Functions rely on CRON expressions to define their schedule. Understanding this syntax is crucial for scheduling Dynamics 365-related tasks. CRON Expression Format: Examples: 2. Run daily at 2:30 AM: 3. Run every Monday at 9:00 AM: Key Points: Integrating Azure Functions with Dynamics 365 To integrate Azure Functions with Dynamics 365: 4. For asynchronous processes, leverage Azure Storage Queues or Service Bus to manage workload distribution To conclude that, Azure Functions, with their diverse trigger options, provide unmatched flexibility for extending Dynamics 365 capabilities. The recurrence syntax in Timer Triggers ensures that tasks are executed precisely when needed, enabling efficient process automation. By combining these tools, organizations can unlock the full potential of Dynamics 365 in their digital transformation journey. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfonts.com.

Introduction: Businesses in the digital age depend on cloud platforms and ERP systems integrating seamlessly. Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (F&O) and azure integration is one such potent combination. Numerous advantages, such as improved scalability, agility, and data-driven decision-making capabilities, are made possible by this integration. The step-by-step instructions for connecting Azure with Dynamics 365 F&O will be provided in this blog. Steps to achieve the goal: Step 1: Setting up Azure Services a. Create an Azure account: Sign up for an Azure account if you don’t have one already. b. Provision Azure resources: Set up the required Azure resources such as virtual machines, databases, storage accounts, and other services according to your needs. Below are few links to create azure account. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/433827/how-to-get-an-azure-account-without-credit-card https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/free/students Step 2: Configure Azure Active Directory (AAD) a. Click on New on the App Registration page. Set the name and set the type like below screenshots. b. Once you click on Ok button you would get notification like below. c. Now go to API Permission and click on Add permission d. Select Dynamics ERP e. Select Delegated Permission f. Select all permission and then click on Add Permission g. After selecting this permission again add permission on the screen this time selected Application Permission. h. Now we have to generate client secret value. Just select Certificates and secret. i. You will see the below screen where you can generate a new client secret j. Once you click on new you will see below screen where you can set the date to which this secret key would be valid. Max validity is 2 years. k. This is how the secret value would look like just copy Value. l. Now copy the Directory ID and Application ID Step 3: Connect Azure Services to F&O a. Go to Finance and Operations and serach globally Azure Active Directory/Microsoft Entra ID b. And then click on New and add your client id over here and set User ID as Admin. Please Note you should have the admin access right if not this won’t work. Conclusion: Azure integration with Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations empowers businesses to streamline processes, unlock data insights, and achieve operational excellence. Next blog would be how to connect standard API on postman and perform get and post function. Stay tuned! We hope you found this article useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com

Most of the time you would need to import an entire API collection with all of its supported operations to mask all of them or set policies on them. This can be easily done using Azure API management service. To start, log in to your Azure Portal, head over to the API management resource, and go to the API section on the left. From the options, select OpenAPI definition. Here I will use the Pet store API, https://petstore.swagger.io/ Go to the site or the site where your API stores the collection of all supported operations in JSON format. You can either have the JSON file of the collection or a website. In the OpenAPI specification put the link to your JSON collection or upload the JSON file and fill in the rest of the details and click on the Create button. You can see the list of operations appear. Hope you enjoyed this blog!

In my previous blog, we created and deployed an Azure function using the Azure Portal itself. Now In this part of the blog, we will see how we can create and deploy Azure Function using Visual Studio. To proceed you would need ASP.NET and Azure Development extensions installed on top of your Visual Studio. If you haven’t had these installed you can go to Apps and features on your device and modify the installed program by selecting the change option instead of Uninstall. After installing these extensions, Create a new Project and search for Azure functions. Give the Project any desired name. Set the trigger for the function as HTTP. A sample piece of code will get loaded. In this scenario, I will modify the default code and write my custom logic, which adds two numbers. To run this logic, press F5 button on your keyboard and copy the URL, hitting this URL will trigger our function. Paste and run this URL in a web browser. As you can see on hitting the URL the function gets triggered and our two numbers get added in the output. Now we have to publish our function, it’s been working amazingly. Right-click on the Project Name and click on the Publish button. Select the target as Azure. Select Specific Target as Azure Function. Select the desired Function app instance or create a new one. Click on the final publish button. Wait for the function to successfully get deployed. Now we will check this in the Azure Portal and trigger it from there, Log in to the Azure account. You will find the recently deployed function in the left pane in the Functions section. Open this function and get its URL. Paste and run this URL in a web browser. You can see the output. Hope you understood the process of deploying serverless Azure functions using Visual Studio. Have a great day!

Learning serverless Azure Functions and deploying them, might sound like a daunting task. Azure functions are one of the most essential features of Microsoft Azure. In this article, we will see how we can create and deploy our first function using Azure Portal itself. In the next blog, I will also demonstrate how we can publish functions using visual studio. To start, login into your Azure Portal. Search for the Function app and click on create. Select desired resource group, give your function app a unique name, and fill in the rest of the options as required. After the deployment completes, open the resource. Go to the functions section on the left-hand pane. Click on the Create button. Select the “Develop in Portal” option as we are using Azure Portal to create our function. And select “HTTP trigger” now as we want to trigger the function using its API. Go to the “Code+Test” option, you’ll find a sample code. Change values in it for a personal response. You can also change the logic of the code from default. Here I am passing my name as Body in the request (input) section. As you can see based on the request body I have received a personified response. You can use the get function URL option and display desired output on hitting the URL. The output section in the default code is the last line “return new OKobjectResult(youroutput);” Hope you learned to deploy a function using the portal from this blog. Have a great day!

In the previous blog, we learn about how to use the Environment variable in Azure Function. Environment variables are most important and confidential as they might contain the system credentials or configure that you don’t want any to access directly. The most unsecure way to store them is directly inside the Configuration of Azure function so in this blog we will see how to store the Environment variable inside the Key Vault and use the Key Vault reference in Configuration. You can create an Azure function and use Environment Variable to do so do refer to my previous blog: Step 1: Create a Key Vault Login to Azure Portal and click on + Create a resource called “Key Vault”. Click on Create You can create a new resource group or select the existing group based on your preference. (You can create all resources related to a single project in one resource group so that it will easier to manage resources project wise) You need to set up the Access policy during the creation or after creating the Key Vault. We will set up an access policy for Azure Function later in the blog. Step 2: Set an Access policy for Azure Function. Open the Azure Function in which you want to use the reference of Azure Key Vault. Navigate to Identity Tab and toggle System assigned status to “ON”. Copy the Object (Principle) ID as we are going to use it during adding access policy. Open Azure Key Vault and Navigate to the Access Policies section. Click on + Add Access Policy We will only Add Get Permission in the Secret permissions section. You need to only add the permission that you want to allow your Azure Function can perform. Select the Principle User. Copy the Copied “Object ID” into search it will be easier to find it. Click on Add. Once you will add a resource in the access policy, it will allow your resource (Azure Function) to perform a Get operation on all the secrets from Key Vault. Do not forget to Save after you add the policy. Step 3: Add Secret and Configure it inside Azure Function Navigate to the Secrets section and Click on + Generate/Import Enter the Name and Value(Credentials/Configuration) Open the current version and Copy the secret URL as it will be required while configuring the Reference. Navigate to the Configuration section of Azure Function. Change the Configuration and add the KeyVault Reference as below: @Microsoft.KeyVault(SecretUri=<Copied SecretURL>) Do not forget to Save after changing the configuration Step 4: Testing using Postman We will require the API testing tool, here I am using Postman and the following is the link to download “Postman”. https://www.postman.com/downloads/ Copy the Function URL and send a post request. As result, you will notice the username is coming from KeyVault as we have to change the configuration. Conclusion: This is how you can secure your Environment Variable using Azure KeyVault. You can set up multiple KeyVault for different deployment and access policies depending on the requirement. When you are storing the Credentials and Configuration in KeyVault, you just need to set up the Access policy. All configuration is managed by the Azure Admin and if origination has a policy that they don’t want to share the credentials they can follow this process and only share the KeyVault URL with the developer so that they only need to configure it.

In this blog, we will see how we can trigger the logic app using the azure function app. Let’s start with creating a logic app (HTTP triggered) that sends an email when the logic app URL is hit in the function app. Step 1: Create a logic app resource and start by adding an HTTP GET request trigger. Url will auto-generate after saving the logic app. Step 2: Add send email block after that to receive an email Step 3: now create a function app in visual studio by creating a new project. Step 4: Add project name and now select type of function app, select the create option Step 5: Add the below code to the auto-generated code template in the visual studio Step 6: Run the function locally. then you will get URL in the command prompt copy that and paste it into your browser. Step 7: After entering the URL you should receive an email as mentioned in the logic app. In this way, the logic app triggered successfully using the function app Hope this blog helps you. Thank you!!