Dynamics 365 – 2021 Release Wave 1 | Part 1

It’s that time of year again! It’s February and that means that we are able to get early access to some of the new features and updates in Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform! I will be writing a series of articles on what is new and what is coming in this release. In this article I will be discussing generic features and updates for Dynamics 365 Sales. Just for the folks who are not familiar with the release cadence, Microsoft Power Platform and Customer Engagement apps (Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Marketing, and Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation) deliver two major releases per year which occur in April and October. These releases offer new capabilities and added functionality. Since these releases include features that affect the user experience, you can opt in for early access to try out and test some of these features. Click here to see the early access features for this release. I have to tell you, I am super excited about what folks at Microsoft came up with for this release so let’s dive right in!

General

There are some settings that have changed like the duplicate detection experience that was updated in October 2020. This needed to be enabled by an administrator, but with this release this will be enabled by default. The same goes for the ‘Merge Records’ experience. You probably also remember the updated experience for relevant search for model driven apps, which added a search bar at the top of the screen? Well, this will also be set as the default experience if relevant search is turned on in an environment.

There are some additional enhancements to the global relevance search in this release. Please note you have to have the new relevance experience enabled in order to take advantage of these features. The search itself hasn’t changed, but the ability to perform actions has been added. These actions can be done directly from the suggested results and/or from the search result page. Today not all tables have these quick actions (only accounts, contacts, appointments, tasks, phone calls, emails and custom tables) but Microsoft will add more tables in the future. Below is a list of the tables that will have quick actions and what those actions are. The expectation is that administrators will be able to configure actions for each table as well. I.E if you don’t want to have the share actions available for accounts, this can be turned off. This configuration option is not available yet, but is expected to be there sometime in March. To learn more about quick actions take a look at the docs site here.

There will be some major improvements to navigation in model-driven apps. There are not a lot of details on this. When you look on the docs site, there is talk about a page side pane that will allow another page to be opened to the far side of the current page. This sounds very promising and like something we haven’t seen before! Unfortunately that is all I can share about this, but as I learn more I will make sure I write about it!

Another features that was not available for early release and is scheduled for public preview in April is the ability to send in-app notifications for model-driven apps. YES! We’ve been waiting for this for quite some time now. This notification will show up in a side panel directly on top of the record you’re in when the notification hits. This feature is set to be released to the general public in June 2021.

Quick view forms that have multi-line fields in them will automatically be expanded so users don’t have to scroll down to read the entire content of the field.

D365 Mobile App Enhancements

There have been several improvements made to the Dynamics 365 mobile app:

• Users can now scroll the tabs on forms. This allows them to read the tab names, and scroll back and forth to find the correct tab they want to access.
• Sub grids on forms now have a header that stands out from the ‘regular’ sections on a form. Sub grids with no data in them will show an ‘Add’ button which makes it easier and faster for users to add related records.
• Commands on the sub grid will now show up in a window that will launch from the bottom of the app, making this a more consistent user experience.
• When opening a view in the mobile app you will notice there is a search bar on the top of the view.
• User will also notice the ability to set the sort order of the view.
• Business process flows in the mobile app will show more details like the name of the process and how long it’s been active.

As you may or may not know, Microsoft is working on a new mobile app for Dynamics 365 Sales. This new app is currently in preview and I wrote an article about it which you can access here. Microsoft is adding functionality to this mobile app, which you can read about here. Some of these features will be available for public preview later this month and in June. Once I get access I will be writing an article about the functionality. In the meantime you can review these features here.

Dynamics 365 Sales

There are not a lot of features in early access for Dynamics 365 Sales, which means not a lot for me to try out.
Personal Settings: The personal settings feature allows users to access additional personal settings through the area changer on the bottom of the screen. When clicking on the area changer users will see ‘Personal Settings’ have been added. When navigating to Personal Settings, users will see email templates, email signatures and insights on the site map. Other personal options are still available by clicking the gear icon on the top bar.

It looks like some of the features listed under the ‘Digital Selling’ header on the docs site are related to the Sales Accelerator. NOTE: The Sales Accelerator is a feature of the Sales Insights add-on. I wrote an article about it when it was still in preview.

Automation and adaptive sequences allows the system to execute activities automatically. Sequence automation is the ability to automatically send emails to prospects or customers when the next step in a sequence is (you guessed it..) to send an email. Sequence forks will be also be added. These represent the ability for the system to pick the next step in a sequence based on a trigger. Last but not least sequence listeners will be added which allows the system to ‘listen’ to certain email engagement actions like opening an email, viewing an attachment, or clicking a link in an email.

The ability to Personalize work queue will give users the ability to do exactly that, personalize the way the work queue in sales accelerator looks. They will be able to change some user-defined settings and the view(s) used for the work queue. They will also be able to see upcoming outlook meetings and even start a new Microsoft Teams meeting directly from within the Sales Accelerator!

As I understand it, the Pipeline Manager Workspace is not a new app, but an actual work space that users can access through the Sales Hub. Unfortunately there is not a lot of information I can share on this one either since this won’t be available until later this year, but as soon as I get access to it I will write a detailed article on it! In the meantime feel free to check out what Microsoft has documented on the subject here and check out the screenshot below to get a taste of the new workspace!

The automation and adaptive sequences and the personalize work queue functionality and Pipeline Manager Workspace is set to be available for public preview in April of 2021. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

Microsoft will continue to work with telephone systems to build easy to deploy integrations. Customers who currently have Dynamics 365 and their CTI system (computer telephone integration) connected using the Channel Integration Framework can record calls and use conversation intelligence. Please note that this is only available with the Sales Insights add-on and this feature will become available for public preview in April 2021.

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