Dynamics 365 CRM

Microsoft release plans for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform 2022, release wave 1

Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform 2022

 

Microsoft has recently released the 2022 release wave 1 plan for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, a compilation of new capabilities that are planned to be released between April 2022 and September 2022. This first release wave of the year is packed with new features and enhanced capabilities, supporting Microsoft’s continued investment to power digital transformation for Microsoft users.

1. Dynamics 365 Sales

  • Harnessing the power of data. Users will be able to forecast and compare projections on an annual basis, in addition to the previous monthly and quarterly options.
  • Enhanced collaboration. Sellers will be able to use Microsoft Teams from within Dynamics 365 Microsoft Power Platform 2022 and also be notified of customer interactions such as open, read, and forwarded emails and their responses, plus attachment downloads and link clicks.
  • Syncing mobile phone contacts with Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform logging. Enhanced collaboration capabilities will mean that users will be able to create Dynamics 365 contacts from their mobile phone contacts and sync logging based on recent mobile phone calls.
  • Business data will be actionable from within Microsoft 365 interfaces, enabling sellers to quickly establish context and act on data. A single workspace in the Sales Hub will enable sellers to adjust their sales pitch using AI-guided live feedback and suggestions.
  • Managers can track team performance and provide valuable coaching to help boost customer satisfaction.

2. Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform Marketing

  • Collaborative content creation within Microsoft Teams. Marketers will be enabled to use content fragments and themes to improve authoring efficiency.
  • Investments in Data and AI will enable marketers to also author content with advanced personalisation using codeless experiences.
  • Every customer interaction matters. In this release, Microsoft are enabling users to continue conversation with their customers by responding to SMS replies through a personalised experience based on responses using custom keywords that can be added to journeys.

3. Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform Customer Service

  • New Customer Service Admin center app. This will simplify set up with guided, task based experiences making it easier to get up and running quickly.
  • Enhanced inbox view. This will allow users to rapidly work through issues across channels while maintaining focus on the customer.
  • Continued investment in collaboration with Microsoft Teams include data integration, AI-suggested contacts and AI-generated conversation summaries, as well as investments in knowledge management, all designed to deliver capabilities that ensure personalised service across channels, empower users and make collaboration easier in an ever increasing remote working world.

4. Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform Business Central 

  • A simplified customer onboarding experience will be enabled with the use of a modern Help Pane that gives users guidance and learning content where they need it the most, in the context of their work. The Help Pane flattens the learning curve, increasing productivity and business process adoption.
  • Easier to trigger a Power Automate flow directly from Business Central pages, in this release, which can save time by automating business processes.
  • Collaborating on Business Central data in Microsoft Teams is smoother thanks to Microsoft removing the licensing friction. 
Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform enables users and organizations to analyze, act on, and automate the data to digitally transform their businesses. Microsoft Power Platform today comprises four products: Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents. It also has two add-ins: AI Builder and Power Apps portals.

5.2. Power BI

  • For individuals, accessibility improvements will help to improve the create experience and users will benefit from enhanced collaboration capabilities via OneDrive.
  • For teams, new capabilities will be added to the Power BI integration in Teams as well as integration with PowerPoint, and enhancements to Goals focussed on enterprise needs. 
  • For organisations, empowerment through the improvement of experience with big data through automatic aggregations, data protection capabilities via data loss prevention (DLP) policies and providing improved visibility into user activity to admins. 

5.3. Power Apps

  • Empowering developers of all skill levels to build enterprise-class apps, instilled with intelligence and collaboration capabilities. 
  • Different makers will be able to collaborate on the same app, to simultaneously work and merge changes, accelerating development and better manage collaboration. 
  • Makers and Developers will have the chance to be more productive with Dataverse. AI models such as GPT-3 and PROSE will power the process of leveraging intelligence to assist development with natural language to code. 
  • Key updates will ensure faster and safer delivery of apps across an organisation. These include allowing packaging of apps to be deployed on Android and iOS and improvements to governance capabilities to ensure safe and scalable rollouts. 

5.4. Power Automate

  • Power Automate is being made more accessible than ever, making it easier for organisations to automate tasks.
  • Increased usage of automation means that this release will have added features to make it easier to manage robotics and machines and also the credentials of users and accounts.
  • Features will be increasingly automatable by default, in line with the API-first approach, supporting organisations to manage their Power Automate infrastructure in a way which suits them.

5.5. Power Virtual Agents

  • Proactive bot update messaging will be enhanced by triggers through clicks and page navigation rather than waiting for a trigger questions from a user, one of many improvements to enhance the authoring experience. 

5.6. AI Builder

  • AI BUILDER is adding capabilities around document automation, with a particular focus on the ability to process unstructured documents, for example, contracts or emails.
  • A Feedback Loop process will enable the improvement of model accuracy and added capabilities will help to manage the governance and lifecycle of AI Models.
The inclusion of the dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform helps automate processes, build solutions, analyze data, and create virtual agents. Together, it envisions increased flow and efficient use of data for an impactful customer-centric digital business transformation.

Summary 

The 2022 wave 1 release plans introduce us to an abundance of enhancements as well as new features, and we look forward to testing the new functionalities as they are released. Early access is available from 31st January 2022, followed by general availability from 1st April 2022.

As always, we’re here to support our customers. If you’d like to discuss any of these changes or need support, please get in touch. You can drop us an email at info@digitalclouduk.com or call us on 01204 588229.