In a true CI/CD fashion, Microsoft makes public its Dynamics 365 features release plans months before starting production deployment. New and upgraded features are rolled out twice per year in two phases: wave 1 (April – September) and wave 2 (October-March).
The company published the 2020 wave 1 plan last month, with deployment set to begin on April 1st. Some of these features, like UX improvements, will be automatically enabled for end users during April. We suggest you review the full list of updates if you haven’t done so yet and assess ; whether or not a heads-up to those affected is in order.
Meanwhile, customers and partners can explore a host of early–access features in a non-production, sandbox environment. It’s always recommended to test these new functionalities ahead of deployment to ensure they run properly within your ecosystem. Early access also offers a great opportunity to revise business and reporting processes to see how the new tools can help optimise workflows.
We have gone through the official documentation and highlighted a few features for you and your staff. To tinker with before wave 1 kicks in. You can find a step-by-step guide on how to turn on early access here.
Enhanced automation and data-sharing for marketing
Dynamics 365 Marketing is getting several additions to improve the customer journey experience and the automation of personalized email marketing. Delivering more dynamic and content-rich messages is now easier thanks to new test-sending and content design capabilities. Smarter customer journey management allows users to set time-sensitive automated emails to expire at a given time. While defining segments is now quicker and more intuitive.
In addition, marketers can now export customer data and results reports to Excel for further manipulation and analysis.
Sales forecasting and smoother user experience
To facilitate the creation of bottom-up sales forecasts that help managers goal progress; Microsoft is introducing new model customization capabilities and increased forecast accuracy. End users will also enjoy a more seamless user experience, with easier email template selection and faster product-to-opportunity matchmaking.
Good news for administrators! You’ll finally be able to explore feature settings and configure the Sales Hub application from a single location. Not, until April, however.
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Dynamics 365 features: Greater efficiency of service and supply chain management
Microsoft is making it easier to deliver customer service in a faster and more personalized manner. Both remotely and on the field. Dynamics 365 Customer Service is improving search of and access to knowledge articles. As well as providing a more immersive timeline experience to review and register a customer’s history in real time.
As for Field Service, the module is getting a new dashboard for service managers to control the use of resources. Additionally, technician time tracking entries are being integrated into the platform for enhanced visibility.
In yet another push towards operational efficiency, Microsoft is also expanding IoT capabilities for Supply Chain Management. You can now set up notifications and relevant actions for users to take during order delays. Quality anomalies and equipment down scenarios. Users can set up devices via a non-code interface for quick and effortless access to this IoT intelligence service.
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