Dynamics 365 was released in the last six months, and Microsoft is already working on enhancements and new features coming to Dynamics 365 (CRM). Besides the existing functionality and offerings, Microsoft is constantly adding new additions to the Dynamics product line. Today, I will give you a glimpse of what’s coming in 2017 for Dynamics 365 (CRM) using the information that was provided in the ‘eXtreme 365 2017 Conference’ held in Lisbon. I didn’t get a chance to attend this exciting conference, but I am compiling all this news from social media posts by fellow CRM MVPs and attendees.
The key investment areas identified for Dynamics 365 for 2017 are User experience, Customer Insights, LinkedIn integration, Business Edition, and application platform enhancements.
A lot of CRM users have complained about the entity forms user experience, especially with all the white space and no lines, well Microsoft has listened, and an improved UX is on the way.
With Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn, it was inevitable for the two systems to talk to each other. Microsoft’s announcement on April 24th set some of the details surrounding this integration.
Microsoft released Dynamics 365 in two editions: Enterprise and Business. All the applications for the Enterprise Edition’s were released, but only the Financials app was released for the Business Edition. Microsoft has been working to release the Sales and Marketing applications in the Business Edition. With the announcements made on April 24th, it looks like the Sales and Marketing functionality for the Business Edition will be released in Summer 2017. A glimpse for the plan pricing for the Business Edition was shown at eXtreme 365, the only disappointment in this announcement, I saw, was the customer service app being released for 2018 which is a long wait for a lot of our prospects and customers. (*The pricing information captured is from a presentation at a CRM User-centric conference and can change once published by Microsoft.)
Dynamics 365 (CRM) has been a solid platform to develop new apps and therefore also referred as xRM (extensible relationship management). As a platform, it has a lot of features and Microsoft is constantly improving it based on user feedback. One good example is the UX improvement mentioned earlier and additional details were also provided at eXtreme365 on the same.
The most interesting mention here is of Virtual Entity, not a lot of details here but you can expect this to be some sort of integration with the CDS (Common Data Service) platform released by Microsoft.
I didn’t get a chance to provide a lot of information on Customer Insights in this blog post because it deserves a lot of posts by itself. Look out for my next post on Customer Insights. In the mean time, if you have questions or want more information on working with a Microsoft Dynamics partner, email me at [email url=”dvora@ktlsolutions.com” class=””]dvora@ktlsolutions.com[/email].
DAVE VORA | Senior Business Software Consultant/ CRM Lead
Dave is responsible for leading KTL’s CRM consultants, assuring that our solution scoping, architecting and delivery meet and exceed customer expectations. Dave has built lasting relationships with clients by understanding their business needs and providing value by leveraging their existing resources. Along with his consulting team, he has delivered effective solutions beyond traditional CRM constraints. Dave has more than eight years of experience in implementing business software for a variety of industries, including service, government, distribution, not-for-profit and manufacturing. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and also a specialization in Management from University of California at Irvine. His experience includes helping companies embrace technology to fulfill their organizational needs and creating innovative solutions using CRM, GP, Scribe and other Microsoft products.
