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Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation version 3: What can we expect of the new Unified Client Interface only version of PSA

apa Profile Picture apa 8,280

Microsoft released a video of the Business Applications Spring 2018 Release a while back. The final 24 or so minutes of this 1 h and 6 min long video include a very nice part about version 3 of Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation by Elliott Ichimura and Rupa Mantravadi as they go over the new features of V3 through a demo. Quick eyes catch the new features and improvements but if you're fairly new to PSA, some nuances might escape you. Let's summarize the video in 10 points. You can find this official video, released by Microsoft, at the bottom of this post.


1. UCI only

The reality is that both PSA and Field Service will indeed be apps leveraring the Unified Client Interface. Bye bye to the traditional web client!

UCI.png


2. Warp Drive Mr. Scott

The UCI is really fast and smooth on the video. Especially the Schedule load times are impressive!


3. Pricing dimensions

Pricing dimensions can added by customizing Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement to affect sales and cost prices based on desired variables.

multidimensional-pricing.png

amount-based-pricing-dimensions.png

Amount Based Pricing Dimensions

markup-based-pricing-dimensions.png

Markup Based Pricing Dimensions

 

 cost-price-list.png

Cost Price List including pricing dimensions

 

sales-price-list.png 

Sales Price List including Role price markups


4. Time and Expense entry experience

The "calendar view" is deprecated. Time and Expense entries are now done using regular customizable forms. If you have used the Project Resource Hub in 9.0 then you are familiar with the experience. See the custom Resource Work Location and Work Hours fields that leverage multidimensional pricing?

2022.Time-Entry.png


5. Bye Bye WBS, welcome Schedule

The old hard coded Work Breakdown Structure is no more. We now have a Schedule.

Schedule.png


6. No more Chargeability View

The hard coded Chargeability View used to set Project Contract specific pricing (yes, Project Contract, not Project) is also out. Instead changes made to a Project Contract's pricing are made directly to the Order Project Price List.

price-list-1.png

price-list-2.png


7. Copy Quotes and Project Contracts

Copying Quotes and Project Contracts is now possible. This will speed up setting these records if they should be based on existing ones.

contract-copy.png


8. Add Resources on Tasks without booking them (Spring '18 release notes)

Project managers can assign named or generic resources to project tasks without a prior booking. This will give more flexibility to resourcing. So long Generate Project Team button.


9. Universal Resource Scheduling on the Unified Client Interface

URS has also landed on the UCI. This will allow organizations to leverage its power using the Unified Client Interface.

URS-on-UCI.png


10. The other stuff

This isn't everything. Sign up for the Private Preview to gain access to V3 and to test out what's coming!


The video


Disclaimer:
This blog post reflects my personal findings which are based solely on the video and Spring '18 Release Notes released by Microsoft.

Comments

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  • Jinal Profile Picture Jinal 30
    Posted at

    Hi Antti, I love your bogs, they are really useful. I saw the video yesterday after reading your blog. Very good job on put this in blog.

  • apa Profile Picture apa 8,280
    Posted at

    @puet93 sorry for the delay in my reply. We will have the same functionality in V3 eventually. And the calendar view is coming back to V3 at some point :)

  • Priyesh Profile Picture Priyesh 7,363 User Group Leader
    Posted at

    Somehow, I miss the Calendar view in v3 already. It was so visually informative and easy to look at.

  • puet93 Profile Picture puet93 110
    Posted at

    Antii, i have only one question that im struggling to find the answer.

    I know that the calendar view will be deprecated for Time Entries, but what i need to know is: Will people still be able to import ther bookings from Resource Bookings? (Like in Calendar View, Import from, resource booking, assignment....).

    I see lot of improvements with v3, but that functionality is really important for us, it reduces the times of creating time entries a lot for our people. But i want to go out of all the hardcoded JS in current PSA !!!!

  • Darren G Profile Picture Darren G 166
    Posted at

    Thanks for the summary Antti. I just came across the video now and was blown away with the look, feel and speed of the UCI. Are there any updates on the GA dates for the Asia region (Australia in particular)?

  • apa Profile Picture apa 8,280
    Posted at

    Thanks for the comments. To wait or not to wait. This is a really good question and it's also hard to answer not knowing your entire scenario and when you are planning to go live with PSA. The fact is that if you use V9 of D365 CE, the Unified Client Interface will be a reality for you in PSA when V3 is GA.

    I'm going to grab that "sales side" part of your question. You can keep using the classic web client for leads and opportunities but I'm not sure if it really makes a lot of sense to use two different user interfaces. Won't the users get really confused? They will most likely use the "sales" features on the UCI when they switch to it anyways.

    If you are running V9 right now, I would actually consider a test group for the Sales Hub which uses the UCI. This way you could prepare for the upcoming V3 of PSA. If you can wait with your PSA implementation, I'd familiarize users with the UCI right now and I would hold off on implementing PSA until V3. I'm thinking this way your users would already know UCI and you wouldn't need to basically train them all over again.

    So yeah, to generalize I do say hold off until V3 but it's not always that black and white.

  • hseay19 Profile Picture hseay19
    Posted at

    Great Blog! If I'm in the process of implementing PSA currently then would you wait for the new release? We've had many problems with the current version and it looks like version 3 will be much better. If we were to wait for the upgrade, would this upgrade effect parts of sales side in D365? We are trying to keep those parts separate from PSA as of right now and eventually will combine the two in the near future but for now we have no intention of upgrading the sales side.

    Thank you!