Dynamics365: 2020 release wave 2 encompasses an intensive description of all the features Microsoft intends to add to several platforms affiliated with Dynamics365 (D365). These new additions are aimed at transforming businesses in the following areas: marketing, sales, field service, customer service, finance, supply chain management, fraud protection, human resource, commerce, and business centers. For this reason, businesses along with their customers are expected to have a delightful experience while using the features of the new Dynamics365. A summary of the new additions and their intended outcome are highlighted here.
Sales
The new Dynamics365 plays a vital role in promoting CRM, the productivity of sales agents, quick access to customer information, and product demonstrations to prospective buyers. A mobile app version is part of the release plan, which will enable on-the-road sellers to quickly access customer information and update their CRM tools. Dynamics365 Forecasting will permit you as a CEO to easily predict the patterns of demand while Gamification will enable you to boost the productivity of their employees. Sales Insights will allow you to score opportunities to enable sales teams to uncover top deals. Product Visualize will permit you to project a 3D model of equipment you intend to sell to a prospective buyer to foster an enriched sales conversation.
Marketing
You can now hold virtual events with Microsoft Teams courtesy of Dynamics365 Marketing. Natural language experience in Dynamics365 Marketing augments segmentation eradicating the need for expert skills to build complex segments.
Customer and Field Service
The Omni channel for D365 Customer Service enables a sales agent to serve multiple customers at a go. The extensibility option in the Omni channel allows you to integrate Dynamics365 Customer Service with mobile applications, etc. Customer’s issues that are related can be solved instantly using similar case suggestions in D365 Customer Service Insights to allow you to focus on key areas that require attention.
Monitoring KPIs (key performance indicators) and work order completion metrics will no longer be an issue with D365 Field Service, due to its intelligence capabilities. Additionally, you can also manually schedule for multiple days and perform enhanced matching based on skills.
D365 Customer Voice (previously known as Microsoft Forms Pro) utilizes customer satisfaction metrics to evaluate and manage customer feedback. It integrates customer data platform coupled with customer insights tools to appropriately respond to this feedback.
Finance and Operations
Common tasks in finance can be automated with an aim of reducing manual processes via intelligence and insights features of D365 Finance. D365 allows you to optimize planning for manufacturing to plan for supply and production in near real-time with in-memory services via Supply Chain Management. Dual currency and valuation features will permit the maintenance of multiple cost accounting ledgers.
Operational workflows can be unified to reflect visibility, insights, and collaboration across teams from sales to finance using D365 Project Operations. New additions allow this feature to connect all of your business’ departments in one application to optimize operations for maximum profitability.
Human Resources
New additions to D365 Human Resources permit employees and managers to directly manage leaves and absence from Microsoft Teams. Consequently, streamlined integrations to recruiting payroll partners are enabled leading to the development of Human Capital Management ecosystem.
Commerce and Fraud Protection
D365 Commerce additions grant none developers the power to design and manage digital consumer experiences via third-party services, connectors modules, etc. D365 Fraud Protection that can now be integrated with commerce, has a new manual review feature to flag transactions for review.
Release Dates
The release plans were available from July 23rd 2020, published in 11 languages. Early access for testing purposes was on August 3rd 2020 and the features were meant to be generally available in 1st October the same year. However, each feature has an individual release date that deviates from the stated dates.
A summary of these new features can be accessed online or downloaded as a PDF file.
