Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – First details known for October release

In October, Microsoft is going to roll out new releases for its business applications. Dynamics 365 Business Central will then also be equipped with some improvements and innovations. The release notes recently published by Microsoft provide an overview of the new key features. They also confirm that the on-premise version of Business Central will be the successor to Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

With the upcoming October release, the availability of Dynamics 365 Business Central will be extended. From this point on, the solution can be operated in the cloud, on-premise and as a hybrid model. Customers who currently have a local Dynamics NAV solution in operation can continue to use it. However, subsequent versions of the Dynamics NAV product range will no longer be available under the usual name. Instead, the solution will become “Business Central On-Premise” as part of the new releases.

Optimized productivity and user experience

The new version of Business Central will bring some productivity and usability improvements in the Web Client. Besides a new modern look, improved keyboard navigation and new keyboard shortcuts make working with the program considerably faster and more convenient. Enhanced search functions for pages and reports as well as new filter options for lists also increase user-friendliness – regardless of whether the data is accessed via Web Client or Universal App Client (Smartphone, Tablet or Windows 10).

New tenant management

Business Central (Cloud) will also receive a number of changes in the administration of tenants in October. Partners manage the lifecycle of their customer solutions via the Business Central administration center. The management center is a portal for VARs to interact with customers and manage, for example, troubleshooting and notifications.

Improved development environment for extensions

The upcoming Business Central version also provides new and optimized developer tools, such as sandbox environments with production data, better inline help, a list of available events, support for .NET Interop for on-premise deployments, extension of the Report Data Set in standard reports and field groups for reports.

The new Dynamics 365 Business Central release will be officially available with these and other new features in October 2018. Detailed information of individual functions can already be found in the release notes.