Dynamics 365 Wave 1 Release 2020 – Customer Engagement highlights

Microsoft’s eagerly awaited 2020 Wave 1 Release has not disappointed. The release notes detail some great developments across the whole Dynamics 365 stack. There are hundreds of updates and additions.

This article summarises Incremental’s favourite updates in the world of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, specifically Marketing, Sales, Project Service Automation, Field Service, Customer Service and Customer Insights.

Marketing

Dynamics 365 Marketing is a product with real momentum. Event management is the biggest development in this release with new features to increase speed and flexibility of use. Registration is now possible through marketing forms, with some great drag and drop functionality for design. This along with the Forms Pro integration for customer feedback will bring some real efficiencies.

For a more in-depth look at the updates coming to Marketing, see our separate article –Dynamics 365 Marketing – April 2020 release notes.

Sales

A key focus area for Dynamics 365 Sales in this release is forecasting. The developments will be a welcome addition to many who struggle with the complexity of forecasting in their business. Recognising that a “one size fits all” approach to forecasting doesn’t work in today’s climate, the new features account for several variables and allows for increased customisation, forecast adjustments and pipeline management improvements.

For a summary of all the updates coming to Sales, see our article dedicated specifically to Dynamics 365 Sales’ release notes.

Project Service Automation

Whilst Project Service Automation doesn’t strictly sit with Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement anymore, the developments are still worth a mention. The focus of the releases in 2020 will be on providing a modular offering for organisations with project-based services. This will bring together existing (and new) capabilities to produce a functionally rich Quote to Cash process for projects.

Microsoft’s idea of “taking advantage of the best of Office 365 and Dynamics 365 solutions for project management” will be of great interest to the construction industry, for example. This enhancement will assist users with more complex requirements with regards to raising quotes, supply chain management and/or manufacturing, all with a special focus on project delivery.

Field Service

As with many of the updates, Microsoft are merging connectivity developments with AI to bring increasing business value. In Field Service the new IoT (the internet of things) alerts add AI-based suggestions to improve proactive service delivery.

Time saving efficiencies will be provided by the improvements to:

• Scheduling (drag-and-drop ability)
• The ability to capture inspection results in the field
• The ability to capture time entries directly in Field Service (using the same time entry entity that PSA has without being required to install PSA).

Customer Service

The focus on productivity and efficiency in the Customer Service releases for Wave 1 is great news for all those busy customer service agents and administrators who will benefit from improved access and enhanced navigation.

The key evolution in Dynamics 365 Customer Service in 2020 will be its connectivity with Omnichannel, Customer Service Insights and Power Virtual Agent to provide a powerful, flexible and intelligent product that is hard to beat.

Key updates coming to Customer Service:

• Omnichannel for Customer Service – live chats to include voice/video communication.
• Dynamics 365 Customer Service Insights – suggestions for the best bot topics to automate.
• Power Virtual Agent – ability to add images and online-hosted videos to the bot topics and adding voice-based interactions.

For more detail on each of the above updates, see our article Dynamics 365 Customer Service – April 2020 release notes.

Customer Insights

Additional predictive insights and near real-time data ingestion are just two of the many features in this Wave 1 release for Customer Insights. For more details, register for our webinar on 27^th February, where Microsoft and Incremental Group will bring you up to speed on the latest developments. Register here.

There are many more features included in the 2020 release Wave 1 plan. The above are just a few of our favorites. To get more information on the latest Dynamics 365 features which are relevant to your organisation contact Incremental Group. Incremental Group are experts across Finance, Business Central, Power Platform and data. As a Microsoft gold partner, we are well equipped to help you deliver your Dynamics 365 project, large or small.

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