From October 2019 to March 2020, Microsoft will be releasing a huge number of new features and improvements across the Dynamics 365 platform in what is referred to as the 2019 Release Wave 2 Plan.
If your organisation is currently using Dynamics 365 Sales, or you are considering implementing it, this article aims to provide you with an overview of just some of the key features and changes coming in Wave 2, and the ones we think you will be most excited about! These include:
- Simplified Lead Management Experience
- Contextual email communication
- Business Card Scan
- Microsoft Teams integration enhancements
Dynamics 365 Sales is positioned as “an enterprise-grade customer engagement software that enables sales teams to build strong relationships with their customers, take actions based on insights, and close deals faster”. It is the most popular application on the Dynamics 365 platform, and, in this latest release wave, Microsoft are investing heavily with a view of continuing to deliver greater value to you, their customers.
Microsoft have focused on the following five key themes with these latest improvements:
- Reliability and performance
- Modern and simple user interface
- Relationship-selling enhancements
- Sales productivity
- Ecosystem enablement
Overview of each key feature:
Simplified Lead Management Experience
With a focus on maximising your productivity, Microsoft are introducing lead management improvements in three ways:
- The auto-population of known data
When you create a new lead with an existing account or existing contact, the details of that record will now be automatically filled on the lead record.
- The display of lead notes and attachments on an opportunity record when a lead is qualified.
Once a lead has been qualified, its notes will now automatically be available on the opportunity record, to help you maintain context where an opportunity originated from a Lead.
- The ability for users to optionally create opportunity, account, or contact records (based on organisational-level settings).
Previously, on the qualification of a lead, an account, contact, and opportunity record were always created, even if you didn’t need them.
With this new feature, when you qualify a lead, a new pop up dialog will appear asking you which type of records you would like to create. The change first needs to be enabled by an administrator within System Settings.
How do you get it?
Features 1 and 2 include a change to the user experience and will be enabled automatically.
Feature 3 will need to be enabled by administrators to make it available to users.
When can you get it?
It will be made generally available in October 2019
Where can I find out more about this feature?
Visit Microsoft’s website
Contextual email communication
This feature was a top request by customers as, due to available integrations with Outlook, only a lightweight email editor experience was previously available to you within Dynamics 365 for Sales.
With this feature, using a pop-up non-blocking window, an email composition screen will open on top of the existing form, allowing you to copy and paste data from the background record, navigate to related record, and edit recipients and insert templates.
How do you get it?
This feature must be enabled or configured by an administrator to make it available to users.
When can you get it?
It will be made available for Public Preview in October 2019
General availability date still to be confirmed
NOTE This feature is available in the Unified Interface but not the legacy Web Interface. Follow this link for more information from Microsoft about the Unified Interface, or contact SpiderGroup on 01179330570 to discuss your transition needs.
Business Card Scan
This feature was a top request by customers because business cards are still used extensively, being handed out at meetings, networking events, and conferences; but adding their details to Dynamics 365 takes time, as well as it can be easy to misplace or lose a card before you’ve had the chance add them to the system.
The new Business Card Scan feature provides a quick way for you to capture information form a card, on the go, with the details being analysed and automatically inputted into respective fields within Dynamics 365 Sales, saving you time, and avoiding missed opportunities.
How do you get it?
This feature includes a change to the user experience and will be enabled automatically.
When can you get it?
It will be made generally available in October 2019
Where can I find out more about this feature?
NOTE This feature is available in the Unified Interface but not the legacy Web Interface. Follow this link for more information from Microsoft about the Unified Interface, or contact SpiderGroup on 01179330570 to discuss your transition needs.
Customisation of the Opportunity Close dialog box
This feature was a top request from customers to enable you to capture close/win details based on your strategic sales initiatives, instead of being limited to the non-customisable default experience.
This new feature will enable administrators to add fields such as Profit Margin or Winning Product to the Close as Won form, or fields such as Competitive Advantage to the Close as Lost form; ensuring users can close an opportunity with the relevant details required by the organisation.
How do you get it?
This feature must be enabled or configured by administrators to make it available to users.
When can you get it?
It will be made generally available in October 2019
Where can I find out more about this feature?
NOTE This feature is available in the Unified Interface but not the legacy Web Interface. Follow this link for more information from Microsoft about the Unified Interface, or contact SpiderGroup on 01179330570 to discuss your transition needs.
Microsoft Teams integration enhancements
In April 2019, Microsoft introduced Dynamics 365 with Teams, and wave 2 sees further enhancements to help you connect Dynamics 365 records to Teams channels without having to leave the Dynamics 365 app.
These enhancements include suggestions based on users associated with a Dynamics 365 record, and the ability to add a Dynamics 365 tab to a Teams channel. With this feature you can simply and easily start Teams collaboration directly from Dynamics. Just create a connection and start your conversation!
How do you get it?
This feature includes a change to the user experience and will be enabled automatically.
When can you get it?
It will be made generally available in October 2019
Where can I find out more about this feature?
NOTE This feature is available in the Unified Interface but not the legacy Web Interface. Follow this link for more information from Microsoft about the Unified Interface, or contact SpiderGroup on 01179330570 to discuss your transition needs.
If you would like to see some of the above features in action, why not check out Microsoft’s “Dynamics 365 Sales 2019 Release Wave 2 Overview” video
Alternatively, you can browse the release plan in more detail online, or download it as a PDF, which also includes information about PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, and Common Data Model and data integration
