Microsoft Dynamics 365 Wave 1 & 2 Top Highlights of 2021

Wave 2

The Wave 2 release in October 2021, brought further exciting developments across Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform.

This release was infused with more AI than ever before, across all the first party apps and the Power Platform, here are some of our highlights:

Marketing

• Real Time Marketing added the ability to start automated marketing journeys from any event, anywhere. This allows customers to trigger their marketing journey from third party systems or apps and pass contextual information into the journey for personalisation.
• The addition of integrated SMS sending capability also simplifies deployments and streamlines systems.
• The integration between Microsoft Teams (a theme for this release) and Dynamics 365 Marketing was also deepened to allow the creation of webinars, and their respective registration processes in Teams, with a simple integration to design follow up journeys directly in Dynamics 365 Marketing.

Sales

• The standout feature from this release was the tighter integration between Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365 (not just sales), allowing users to create chats from directly inside the application, invite any user within the organisation to collaborate on a record, with or without a license, and the ability to see co-authoring presence on records.
• These major benefits were quickly and easily adopted by our customers, with no training required as the Teams and Dynamics 365 experiences are used day in and day out. This was the combination of the two platforms into a single, productive experience.

Customer Service

• The enhancements to the Teams integration also offered great benefits to customer service teams, further enhancing their ability to work and collaborate, in remote environments. Some teams disrupted by the events of last year, have moved to permanently remote setups; meaning staff aren’t constrained to an office and businesses can cast their nets much wider to find the right talent.

Field Service

• As with the other applications, additional productivity enhancements meant that engineers’ lives have become easier. Work order forms and ribbon processes were simplified, as well as enhancements to the native mobile application. The retirement of the Reso Field Service app, whilst this poses some migration effort for some customers, will ultimately result in a much simpler to maintain system.
• In addition, the Field Service release had some features deployed as a result of suggestions from the community, this example came from an idea via the Experience Dynamics 365 site, proving that Microsoft listens to customers and partners, proactively actioning their feedback.

Project Operations

• Whilst there was still no upgrade path made available, many new features were added to the Project Operations application. A major improvement (in preview) is the ability to completely manage the subcontracting process from end to end within Project Operations, as the ability to add recurring charges and enhancements to task scheduling.

Our Year

Despite the challenges the pandemic has brought both personally and professionally for many, Infinity Group continued to grow and develop in 2021. Our Business Applications delivery team grew by 11, each one of them bringing to the forefront diverse knowledge, experience, and skills.

Keeping up with the rapid pace of change within Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform is a constant challenge and we’re proud of how we approach the problem — through constant collaboration and a strong focus on personal development. The entire Business Applications team meets every Friday to discuss achievements (professional and personal!), challenges, new developments, and exciting updates, all while ensuring a strong team ethic is maintained whilst sharing important information.

2022

We’re greatly looking forward to 2022, with the first wave of changes imminent, we can’t wait to see what the next round of development brings. We’re also looking forward to getting out and seeing our customers face to face again when it’s safe to do so. We work on long and complex projects, and are dedicated to building lasting personal relationships with our customers, so it’s been hard only communicating via Teams for so long!

If you are keen to discuss how to get the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform packages for your business, please get in touch to speak with any of our Consultants.