Latest news with #SimonKhoury
Zawya
9 hours ago
- Business
- Zawya
Reimagining customer engagement with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Copilot
IT Max Global highlights how generative AI, specifically Microsoft's Copilot, is transforming the customer service landscape while delivering AI-enhanced, cohesive experiences that are responsive, contextual, and personalized. Generative AI in the form of Microsoft Copilot has the power to take organizations to new heights, according to a series of executive roundtables, organized jointly between IT Max Global and Microsoft. Dubai, UAE: The new generation of artificial intelligence (AI) agents, exemplified by Microsoft Copilot, allows for a native AI-driven customer experience that transforms the way customer service is delivered from end to end. Organizations can now reimagine the entire service journey, achieve unprecedented efficiency, and provide consistently exceptional, fluid, and cohesive experiences, according to IT Max Global, a leading innovation and IT services provider serving both government and private sector clients. With the UAE leading the way in AI readiness in the Middle East, IT Max Global and Microsoft recently co-hosted a series of executive roundtables in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, focusing on the topic 'Reimagining Customer Engagement with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Copilot.' According to Simon Khoury, Innovation Lead at IT Max Global, an AI-first customer service experience drives both quantitative and qualitative shifts for organizations. Quantitatively, companies with an AI-first strategy experienced increased efficiencies and more streamlined operations – hiring up to 89 percent fewer human service reps in 2024-2025, versus companies that did not use AI extensively. Meanwhile, the adoption of Agentic AI – autonomous AI agents with human-level language capabilities – improves the quality of the customer journey, delivering increased satisfaction. Next-generation platforms like Dynamics 365 Customer Service are purposely built to leverage AI agents, enabling organizations to create a personalized, high-impact experience without compromising service quality. In this new paradigm, automated systems resolve most customer requests directly, while more complex issues are escalated to specialized support staff who are aided by contextual, real-time AI. This leads to a more effective and memorable service experience, while simultaneously improving employee job satisfaction and retention. It replaces the traditional system where data is siloed and organizations are unable to properly route interactions between various fragmented channels and teams. 'Customer experiences can make or break an organization,' says Simon Khoury. 'A fragmented customer service experience is inefficient, impersonal, and frustrating. Conversely, customers will reward you for successfully delivering a memorable service experience. This highlights the need to design an end-to-end, AI-first customer engagement journey where every touchpoint is an opportunity to generate customer loyalty. However, this requires significant change and a whole new breed of implementation partners such as IT Max Global, with deep expertise across a range of disciplines.' Microsoft: transforming customer engagement from within Maureen Khoury, Strategy Director of Customer Service Business Applications at Microsoft, illustrated Microsoft's multi-year journey to modernize its customer engagement, allowing it to reach more than a billion consumers across 120 countries. From disparate solutions across 16 different systems and 500 tools and vendors, Microsoft harnessed Dynamics 365 and Copilot to create a unified customer care platform for itself. This gave Microsoft greater insight and firsthand experience that improved its ability to transform the customer engagement of organizations across numerous sectors, including manufacturing, government, finance, electronics, and real estate. Today, prominent industry analysts identify Microsoft as a leader in customer and field service solutions. Through Microsoft Dynamics 365, organizations gain a 360-degree view of customer data, while Copilot's AI functionality is embedded across a wide variety of service processes for over 40,000 organizations. These organizations benefited from improved customer engagement, including greatly reduced waiting and issue resolution times. Additionally, Microsoft enables seamless integration of AI into existing workflows, avoiding extended downtime and bringing increased workforce productivity and higher customer satisfaction. 'Customers in the UAE have rapidly increasing expectations for convenient, personalized customer experiences from any location and across their preferred communication channels,' Maureen Khoury says. 'Regardless of industry, we are witnessing an era where organizations are facing this customer service mandate. The attendance and active engagement of senior business leaders during these executive roundtables is certainly a testament to this. We look forward to partnering with IT Max Global to help organizations in the UAE transform their customer journeys.' The roundtable series was hosted across two days – the first at Saadiyat Rotana Abu Dhabi and the second at Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre. Simon Khoury and Maureen Khoury was joined by the panelists Inge Rademeyer, Experience Strategy Director at Memac Ogilvy, and Ankesh Agarwal, Director, Group Customer Experience at Majid Al Futtaim, and was moderated by Lorette Roos, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft. Leading both the session and the panel discussions was Sabah Corm, Chief Operating Officer of IT Max Global. IT Max Global and Microsoft regularly roll out updates to their AI-first customer engagement solutions. These enhancements will further improve organizations' capability to provide personalized customer journeys and enable them to elevate their customer engagement to a whole new level. About IT Max Global: Founded in 2010, IT Max Global is a premier innovation and IT service provider, boasting a team of over 150 skilled professionals dedicated to delivering transformative technology solutions. Operating throughout the MEA region, IT Max Global is renowned as an uncompromising Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP). A powerhouse in infrastructure, AI, analytics, digital transformation, and unified communications, IT Max Global is committed to driving innovation and excellence. Its comprehensive service offerings and unwavering focus on clients' long-term success and adaptability position IT Max Global as a trusted technology partner for both public and private sector organizations. With a reputation for excellence and a steadfast commitment to staying ahead in the rapidly evolving technological landscape, IT Max Global is dedicated to helping public and private-sector clients thrive and achieve their goals.
Mid East Info
11 hours ago
- Business
- Mid East Info
Reimagining Customer Engagement with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Copilot - Middle East Business News and Information
IT Max Global highlights how generative AI, specifically Microsoft's Copilot, is transforming the customer service landscape while delivering AI-enhanced, cohesive experiences that are responsive, contextual, and personalized. Generative AI in the form of Microsoft Copilot has the power to take organizations to new heights, according to a series of executive roundtables, organized jointly between IT Max Global and Microsoft. Dubai, UAE – 23 June 2025: The new generation of artificial intelligence (AI) agents, exemplified by Microsoft Copilot, allows for a native AI-driven customer experience that transforms the way customer service is delivered from end to end. Organizations can now reimagine the entire service journey, achieve unprecedented efficiency, and provide consistently exceptional, fluid, and cohesive experiences, according to IT Max Global, a leading innovation and IT services provider serving both government and private sector clients. With the UAE leading the way in AI readiness in the Middle East, IT Max Global and Microsoft recently co-hosted a series of executive roundtables in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, focusing on the topic 'Reimagining Customer Engagement with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Copilot.' According to Simon Khoury, Innovation Lead at IT Max Global, an AI-first customer service experience drives both quantitative and qualitative shifts for organizations. Quantitatively, companies with an AI-first strategy experienced increased efficiencies and more streamlined operations – hiring up to 89 percent fewer human service reps in 2024-2025, versus companies that did not use AI extensively. Meanwhile, the adoption of Agentic AI – autonomous AI agents with human-level language capabilities – improves the quality of the customer journey, delivering increased satisfaction. Next-generation platforms like Dynamics 365 Customer Service are purposely built to leverage AI agents, enabling organizations to create a personalized, high-impact experience without compromising service quality. In this new paradigm, automated systems resolve most customer requests directly, while more complex issues are escalated to specialized support staff who are aided by contextual, real-time AI. This leads to a more effective and memorable service experience, while simultaneously improving employee job satisfaction and retention. It replaces the traditional system where data is siloed and organizations are unable to properly route interactions between various fragmented channels and teams. 'Customer experiences can make or break an organization,' says Simon Khoury. 'A fragmented customer service experience is inefficient, impersonal, and frustrating. Conversely, customers will reward you for successfully delivering a memorable service experience. This highlights the need to design an end-to-end, AI-first customer engagement journey where every touchpoint is an opportunity to generate customer loyalty. However, this requires significant change and a whole new breed of implementation partners such as IT Max Global, with deep expertise across a range of disciplines.' Microsoft: transforming customer engagement from within Maureen Khoury, Strategy Director of Customer Service Business Applications at Microsoft, illustrated Microsoft's multi-year journey to modernize its customer engagement, allowing it to reach more than a billion consumers across 120 countries. From disparate solutions across 16 different systems and 500 tools and vendors, Microsoft harnessed Dynamics 365 and Copilot to create a unified customer care platform for itself. This gave Microsoft greater insight and firsthand experience that improved its ability to transform the customer engagement of organizations across numerous sectors, including manufacturing, government, finance, electronics, and real estate. Today, prominent industry analysts identify Microsoft as a leader in customer and field service solutions. Through Microsoft Dynamics 365, organizations gain a 360-degree view of customer data, while Copilot's AI functionality is embedded across a wide variety of service processes for over 40,000 organizations. These organizations benefited from improved customer engagement, including greatly reduced waiting and issue resolution times. Additionally, Microsoft enables seamless integration of AI into existing workflows, avoiding extended downtime and bringing increased workforce productivity and higher customer satisfaction. 'Customers in the UAE have rapidly increasing expectations for convenient, personalized customer experiences from any location and across their preferred communication channels,' Maureen Khoury says. 'Regardless of industry, we are witnessing an era where organizations are facing this customer service mandate. The attendance and active engagement of senior business leaders during these executive roundtables is certainly a testament to this. We look forward to partnering with IT Max Global to help organizations in the UAE transform their customer journeys.' The roundtable series was hosted across two days – the first at Saadiyat Rotana Abu Dhabi and the second at Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre. Simon Khoury and Maureen Khoury was joined by the panelists Inge Rademeyer, Experience Strategy Director at Memac Ogilvy, and Ankesh Agarwal, Director, Group Customer Experience at Majid Al Futtaim, and was moderated by Lorette Roos, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft. Leading both the session and the panel discussions was Sabah Corm, Chief Operating Officer of IT Max Global. IT Max Global and Microsoft regularly roll out updates to their AI-first customer engagement solutions. These enhancements will further improve organizations' capability to provide personalized customer journeys and enable them to elevate their customer engagement to a whole new level.
Zawya
05-03-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Driving change in utilities: Unlocking AI & data potential with strategic leadership
Simon Khoury, Innovation & Analytics Lead, shared his expertise on the session 'Strategic Leadership in Utilities: A Data & AI Roadmap for Success' during TAQA's ETLAQ Leadership Training Event, hosted by ADGM Academy Dubai, UAE – Data and artificial intelligence (AI) are crucial components in creating innovative solutions that will help drive operational efficiencies within the power and water utilities sector, says IT Max Global, a premier innovation and IT services provider. From data management to predictive analytics and machine learning, utility companies will be equipped with the right tools and accurate information to perform data-driven decision-making and AI-powered insights to achieve enhanced energy and distribution forecasting, automated maintenance, and even improved regulatory compliance in the industry. 'AI in utilities is both a challenge and a solution,' says Simon Khoury, Innovation Lead at IT Max Global. 'While computer centers needed for AI have put massive pressure on grids, AI itself holds the solution to the power sector's growing challenges. The key is a strong data strategy—there can be no AI without Information Architecture or IA. The real transformation happens when organizations align business goals with AI-driven insights.' Speaking from his practical experience at IT Max Global, a premier innovation and IT services provider working with multiple governmental and utilities entities, Khoury underscored that the true foundation for impactful AI and data initiatives in the power and water utilities sector lies in strategic leadership, and its ability to induce structural and mentality changes conducive to leveraging data & AI effectively. As utilities companies increasingly turn to AI and data to fuel transformation, success is much less about the technology itself, and more about effective leadership and change management. That was one of the main takeaways from Khoury's featured talk at TAQA's ETLAQ Leadership Training Event at the ADGM Academy. During his session, titled 'Strategic Leadership in Utilities: A Data & AI Roadmap for Success,' he offered insights into how future industry leaders can leverage data and AI to drive sustainable innovation in the power and water utilities sector. Addressing Barriers to AI & Data Adoption Khoury's presentation focused on real-world challenges surrounding AI and data projects in utilities, emphasizing that many barriers are not technological but instead tied to people and processes. He led with case studies to come up with a 'success blueprint' that addresses the type of structure, mindset, foundations needed to achieve success in utility-related data & AI initiatives. This roadmap underscores how utilities can successfully implement advanced technology while aligning it with strategic business goals. Khoury also introduced the concept of the AI Ladder —a structured approach to achieve AI maturity. 'The biggest mistake we see leaders making is jumping to the AI mandate without prioritizing a strong and purposeful data strategy. If AI is the refinery, data is the new oil. Another common leadership mistake is not realizing the needed reshuffling of the traditional organizational and business unit structures. I always advocate for progressing from a centralized/decentralized business units tasked with AI initiatives to what we call a 'Federated' model built around data topics that combines the best of both worlds', said Khoury. ETLAQ is a prestigious initiative that empowers Emirati graduates to lead in the utilities sector, serving as a launchpad for Emirati graduates with outstanding academic credentials seeking to build their careers in one of TAQA's operating companies. IT Max's participation at the event is in line with the company's support of broader efforts to equip future leaders with the tools to navigate digital transformation and maximize AI's potential in the utilities sector. This also aligns with the brand's aim to reinforce the UAE's commitment to innovation, sustainability, and digital transformation. Media contacts: Albert Alba Senior Communications Manager albert@ Iman Ashraf Communications Manager iman@ Sally Gerdak Senior Marketing Executive About IT Max Global: Founded in 2010, IT Max Global is a premier innovation and IT service provider, boasting a team of over 150 skilled professionals dedicated to delivering transformative technology solutions. Operating throughout the MEA region, IT Max is renowned as an uncompromising Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP). A powerhouse in infrastructure, AI, analytics, digital transformation, and unified communications, IT Max is committed to driving innovation and excellence. Its comprehensive service offerings and unwavering focus on clients' long-term success and adaptability position IT Max as a trusted technology partner for both public and private sector organizations. With a reputation for excellence and a steadfast commitment to staying ahead in the rapidly evolving technological landscape, IT Max is dedicated to helping public and private-sector clients thrive and achieve their goals. For more information, visit .
