What's new in Dynamics 9.0

During June (June 19th-21st 2017) Microsoft have been running a "Preview Executive Briefing for July 2017 Update for Dynamics 365" directly from Redmond. Luckily If you are signed up for the Technical Preview then they should be available in your Org by the start of July 2017

You can find links to watch for yourself here if you would like to watch them yourself (you will need to register to see)

Day 1 - https://infopedia.eventbuilder.com/view?eventid=r9h2n6

Day 2 - https://infopedia.eventbuilder.com/view?eventid=t2n8h3

Day 3 - https://infopedia.eventbuilder.com/event?eventid=u0d3a5

I will be covering some new or updated functionality that I have spotted and tweaks to Dynamics and the new "Edition" Modelling.

So lets just start right away with the new editions - We have Enterprise and Business Editions:

Business Edition will be leading the way with the new "Unified Client UI" The idea behind this would be to allow the same look and feel across all platforms (Web/App/Mobile/Outlook). Business Edition seems to be focused on SME with a restriction on Storage, Apps in AppSource and Number of Custom Entities (However this will not limit and upgrade to Enterprise)

Enterprise Edition did not get to much coverage other than to say it will be similar to he current model of Dynamics, and will not allow you to downgrade to Business. On release it will not get the V9.0 UI but it will follow.

Unified Client the UI itself has a lovely makeover, I was always disappointed when the Metro Tile look appeared and everything was flat. Now we have some colour and life back into things it makes it look more appealing to me.

Now let's talk about what functionality will be available in V9 ................ Multi Select Option Sets {This is not a drill - Actual Working, Multi Selecting, Text Narrowing, Filterable, Shiny, Pretty, Functional, Life Saving, Intersect Entity Removing Option Sets} Is the main takeaway that I have from the 3 days, it's been 10 years in the making and the most requested item on CRM Ideas but it has been worth the wait.

There was close to 10 hours worth of presentations and I am not going to cover it all in here but lets see what we can expect.

Activity Timeline

The Social Pane has been revamped and renamed to "Timeline Control" it now has Notes, Activates and Posts combined into 1 feed in chronological order. You can view attachments and assign tasks inline, Another interesting premise to increase productivity is the "What you have missed" section allowing you to see what has been created since the last time you accessed that record. You can also configure what activity types show in the Timeline on a form by form basis.

Universal Scheduling

Microsoft look to be bringing the Scheduling engines for Field Service, Project Service, Sales & Customer Service together as one. A nice feature is the ability to add a skill to a product and then schedule a resource based on matching criteria for that product to work on the related case. You can also set Primary and Secondary resources in a region for specified Work OrderTypes.

RSO (Resource Scheduling Optimization)

RSO is known commonly as the Scheduling Engine - This will check your constraints and business objectives to schedule the best resource for the specified job. You can now create a schedule directly from the schedule board. Enhanced error reporting and troubleshooting gives friendlier messages now.

Event Management

New to the Marketing Module Microsoft have introduced "Event Management" this is only available in Business Edition Marketing. having its own business process of Plan>Launch> Close allowing you to track all stages from pre planning to event feedback to converting to a lead. There is an "Event Portal" that will allow people to sign up and see the calendar (This can be customised as per any Portal)

LinkedIn Sales Management

Sales Navigator will allow you log into your LinkedIn profile and can pull through any information that is stored in LinkedIn for a lead. Data like - Who can introduce you, Any highlights that will start conversations, Requesting Introductions. There is also matching criteria that finds similar people who you can convert and start to add as leads. As well a link to the company as well as the individual. You can save the Account from Sales Navigator into CRM.

Virtual Entities

I think the best way I can describe this would be way to connect to ODATA V4 and bring in results to CRM that will then allow you to use in a plugin or workflow. There is no schema created for the entity and not stored in the Database. You will need to define a Data Source for the creation of the entity which can then be selected during the configuration. Bringing back SIC codes for industries from Government websites would be a good example of this.

Organizational Insights

Org Insights is one of my favourite new(ish) features and it seems to be adding many new functions to the dashboards. You now have a higher level of reporting data creation - What Business Unit, What Security Role etc.. A dashboard which defines what Dynamics APP (Sales,Marketing,PSA) is being used therefore it begins to help define the correct licenses that are needed. There are now proactive warning messages when workflows or plugins fail linking you directly to the failed item.

Multi-Select Option Sets

The one that everyone was waiting for... It is very self explanatory you can add a new field type of multi select option set. If you have an existing Global Optionset you can set this as a Multi Select. When creating a record and ticking the boxes for the multi select it will show on the form separated with a ";" and the same in your view. From an Advanced Find you can set to match on 1 result or all results. It will work on Web & Mobile Client. .

Business Process Automation

Introducing Microsoft Flow and Action workflows directly from a Business Process. Think about Sending an Account to Navision using Microsoft Flow at the click of the button....That's what we are getting here. There are now views that will show records based on the BPF stage. Interactive Service HUB dashboards have been brought in to allow entities and charts for Business Processes. Actions can now be added to a Business Process Flow to run a workflow or Action which will be a trigger button on your ribbon.

A lot of new Features, Updates and Toys

What is your favourite new item?