What news does the Dynamics 365 update introduce?

Recent month, Microsoft has begun to release the first this-year “major“ update of the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform product family marked as the 2020 Release Wave 1. The update offers numerous smaller or larger improvements and new functionalities across all the applications.

The update confirms the commitment of Microsoft to bring regular innovations and improve customers´ value for money. We are introducing you a summary review of the most interesting news. A detailed description of all changes can be found directly on the Microsoft web site.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 news

Lots of changes relate to gradual improvement of user intuitiveness, control and productivity when working with the applications.

Among the selected news related to individual applications, we would like to point out the following:

• D365 Sales: kanban view on business opportunities, calendar view on activities, simplified work with chart view, formatting of notes, new functionalities for sales planning and tracking;

• D365 Marketing: upgraded interconnection with external CMS systems and the Microsoft Forms Pro product, more effective creation of dynamic segments;

• D365 Customer Service: innovated work with knowledgebase, transfer of the functionality into the new Unified Experience user interface;
• D365 Field Service: a new functionality for creation and planning of inspections, a new dashboard for planning resources, new recording of technicians´ work hours.

Important changes for the Team Member license

The way how Team Member licenses can be used will be from now on “enforced” and technically restricted only to dedicated applications designed specifically for these licenses:

• Customer Service Team Member;
• Sales Team Member;
• Project Resource Hub.

Users having this license will not be able to access the standard full-featured Sales / Customer Service / Project Automation applications. The change affects all Team Member licences bought after October 2018 (included) and will be automatically applied on those from 2021.

Postponed term of the original web interface shutdown

Shutdown of the “old” web interface is planned for October 2020. It´s been replaced by so called Unified Experience interface as visually more attractive and substantially more intuitive for the user. With regard to current situation, Microsoft has postponed the term to December 2020. Anyways, it´s high time to start using the new Unified Experience interface, if you´ve not already done so. Study in detail what is connected to this change. We would be pleased to help you with that.

Improvements have affected the Power Platform as well

Lots of news and improvements pertain to the Power Platform and its elements (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI), which represents “an underbody” also for Dynamics 365 business applications.

• Power BI: improvements of conditional formatting of tables similar to Excel, possibilities to adjust the filter panel in reports, personalization of reports´ display for users;

• Power Apps: higher-quality support for the offline regime, new possibilities of analytics of using applications via Azure Application Insights, a possibility to apply themes for model-driven applications;
• Power Automate: new possibilities of RPA (Robotic Process Automation) for GUI automation and integration, copy / paste actions in the flow designer, engage Power Automate also directly in the Office 365 application (since summer 2020).

If you´re interested in some of the news you were unaware of, we can advise you on how to implement them to your company. In case you undergo digital transformation right now or think about implementation of a CRM system, do not hesitate and contact us. We will be pleased to offer you a free consultation and introduce you a demo.