Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform have two major releases each year, where new features are published. These features are deployed over the months that follow the platform update, so keep an eye out for the preview and general availability dates below and note that they can and do change! Read on as I discuss the 2022 wave 2 release into detail.
Why are there separate release notes?
Good question! The Power Platform, on which Dynamics 365 is built, is now a vast set of tools in its own right, and worthy of its own set of release notes. Many of the features published in the Power Platform release notes will have a direct impact on the behaviour of Dynamics 365 (as Dynamics 365 is a set of Power Apps), so it’s important so consider both documents, even if you think you aren’t using the Power Platform.
Now let’s delve into the highlights from this set of release notes.
Conversation Intelligence Suggestions
Those of you that know me will know that I am already a big fan of the Call Intelligence feature, and it’s one that we make a lot of use of, internally too. And, just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, it pops up in the release notes with a feature that will use AI to provide insights to sellers during calls, such as talking points on product and service details, competitive battle cards, pricing, and more.
Preview in Jan 2023, Generally Available Mar 2023
Teams Chats on the Timeline
Another heavily used and fast-adopted feature amongst our customers, and internally, is the embedded Teams chat tool within Dynamics 365, with the ability to create chats linked to specific records. This is a great way of keeping Teams organised, whilst allowing users to quickly collaborate with the right people to complete the task at hand. This feature introduces the ability to have those Teams chats visible as an activity on the timeline of the record, adding greater visibility to the fact there is a linked chat available.
Generally Available Oct 2022
Project Baselining
This one has been a really long time coming, and whilst we’ve managed to fill the gap for our customers with some customisation, its great to see the baselining feature finally part of core product. Really, this a new Project for the Web feature, but this isn’t the time to get into the architecture, just enjoy it! This feature adds baselining capabilities as well as the ability to create snapshots of a project plan.
Generally Available Mar 2023
Not to Exceed Limit on Work Orders
This is a new Field Service feature. Field Service hasn’t featured much in the last few sets of release notes as Microsoft have been working hard on updates to the underlying infrastructure to ensure the core product is robust and scalable for the future. This feature adds the ability to set not to exceed limits for cost and sell prices on work orders. Users can also receive a warning when the limit is getting close, so they can take action as required. This is a great tool for helping to manage end customer’s expectations.
Preview Aug 2022, Generally Available Oct 2022
Automated Callbacks in Customer Service
As the voice channel becomes more and more natively integrated into the out of the box customer service offering, its great to see enterprise grade features such as this start to arrive. This feature allows end customers to request a callback from a customer service agent, whilst maintaining their place in the queue, levelling workload in busy periods whilst providing the best experience for the end customer.
Generally Available Jan 2023
New B2B Marketing Dashboard
We are continuing to see huge demand for Dynamics 365 Marketing, it makes a lot of sense for any organization already using any other Dynamics 365 apps due to the great feature set now available and the single underlying data store removing the need for any complex integration with other marketing tools. Microsoft continue to invest in the ongoing development of the marketing tool too, with this new dashboard one recent example. It will allow users to track leads from generation through to close, analyse to performing channels and assets, the sales pipeline, and more.
Preview Oct 2022, Generally Available Dec 2022
Sales Accelerator Loops
It seems like a small change, but the ability to create loops within Sequences when using the Sales Accelerator is something we get asked about a lot! The Sales Accelerator is a great tool and can measurably increase efficiency within sales teams, but sequences, to date, have only been configurable in a linear fashion. Sellers can add their own activities in, and snooze scheduled ones, but the ability to create a loop, for example when chasing for a response to a proposal, is something that will cater for many real-world scenarios.
Generally Available Nov 2022
Project Budgeting
Another big one in the world of Project Operations is the ability to create a versioned snapshot of a project budget, including time, expense, and material information. This will allow project managers to track progress against a fixed budget.
Preview Jan 2023, Generally Available 2023
Summary-Wave 2 release
You can find the complete release notes here.
Dynamics 365: Microsoft Dynamics 365 2022 release wave 2 plan overview | Microsoft Docs
Power Platform: Microsoft Dynamics 365 2022 release wave 2 plan overview | Microsoft Docs
As you will be able to see from the full release notes, this blog has just scratched the surface of all the new and improved features that are coming. This really demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to continually investing in Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform and should give you confidence that it’s a safe choice for a business applications platform on which to run your entire business.
If you’d like to learn more, please get in touch today.
About the Author
Tristan Shortland
Driving change within Infinity’s Innovation Lab, our Chief Innovation Officer, Tristan, oversees the latest technological development across Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365 and Azure.
You can find Tristan on LinkedIn.
