Featured News

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Update Policy

For customers who are currently running older versions of Dynamics 365, Microsoft will continue to provide you with the ability to schedule an update to the latest version and will send reminders to your Dynamics 365 administrators to schedule your update.

• Dynamics 365 (Online) version 8.2 will be fully supported until January 31, 2019. After that date, all customers will be updated to Dynamics 365 (online) version 9.0.
• From February 1, 2019, onwards, Microsoft will only support the latest generally available version.

Here are the recent versions of Dynamics 365:

View the Manage Updates page on the Microsoft Documentation site for more details.

New user experience to Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement

The next update to Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement is coming in October, bringing a brand-new user experience among a host of new and updated capabilities.

The Unified Interface is a new metadata driven client interface that provides consistent experiences across all applications, devices, and forms. Whether you are on a browser, tablet, or phone, you will be able to consume similar experiences, including:

• Similar forms to update and view your records
• Interactive dashboards across all devices to view your information and drill into it
• Reference Panel is now available to be used with all entities supported in Unified Interface
• Support for right-to-left (RTL) languages
• Accessibility improvements across all experiences on Unified Interface

The complete list of features is available here. More details will be provided about the preview program through the Insider portal soon.

The new update—Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement apps, Version 9.0.2, On-premises update—will release in October 2018. Customers currently in “December 2016 Update for Dynamics 365” (Microsoft Dynamics 365 version 8.2) can update to this version once it is available.

Announcing: Dynamics 365 for Marketing August 2018 update

Microsoft is proud to announce the August 2018 update of Dynamics 365 for Marketing is now available. Dynamics 365 for Marketing is a marketing-automation application that helps turn prospects into business relationships. The app is easy to use, works seamlessly with Dynamics 365 for Sales, and has built-in business intelligence. Some key features include:

• Customizable templates to create graphical email messages and online content such as landing pages
• Drag-and-drop design tools to create multichannel campaigns to send emails, generate follow-up activities and launch workflows
• Import leads from LinkedIn
• Use dashboards and reports to track the performance of marketing initiatives

Review this announcement for information on how to get the update and additional documentation on the application features.

Updates & Releases

Update for editable grids in Dynamics 365 for phones mobile app

Users of the Dynamics 365 mobile app can view and quickly edit entity data in views and sub-grids using editable grids. This capability has existed since the introduction of the editable grids feature in Dynamics 365. While this feature has been beneficial for tablet users, Microsoft has received feedback from mobile phone users that their experience has been limited. This is because the editable grid control was optimized for tablets and, subsequently, does an automatic rendering of the editable grid control on phones resulting in a less than optimal experience for phone users.

At this time, Microsoft has made the decision to restrict the use of editable grids on phones. For more information, review this post in the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Team Blog.

Unified Service Desk 4.0 Release

The Unified Service Desk 4.0 Release is now available. With the release of Dynamics 365 (online), version 9.0, Microsoft introduced a new user experience which uses responsive web design principles to provide an optimal viewing and interaction experience for any screen size, device, or orientation. Unified Service Desk supports the apps built using Unified Interface framework. Version 4.0 includes the following new features:

• .Web Client - Unified Interface Migration Assistant to help seamlessly migrate existing Unified Service Desk configurations from Dynamics 365 Web Client to Dynamics 365 Unified Interface App
• Close Confirmation Window is introduced to prevent the accidental closure of the Unified Service Desk client application
• Unified Interface KM Control is introduced to enhance the knowledge base search experience
• Some of the features that are not yet in the Unified Interface can now be accessed in the Unified Interface client to include Advanced Find, Bulk edit, Merge records and Record Sharing.
• Previews are also available for new features that may be added

For more information on the release, review this blog post.

Microsoft Social Engagement 2018 Update 1.8

The Microsoft Social Engagement 2018 Update 1.8 is now available.

New and updated features:

• After signing in to Social Engagement, customers can select the smiley symbol and provide feedback about the app and the service.

• When a comment on WordPress is removed by the author, it's also removed from the Social Engagement databases.
• In accordance with the Facebook Graph API v3.0 changes from August 1, 2018, Social Engagement no longer supports engagement actions for Facebook user profiles.

For more information on the update, review this blog post.

Dynamics 365 Resource Scheduling Optimization Version 2.7

The Resource Scheduling Optimization v2.7 release is now available.

New and updated features:

• Enabled capability of scheduling ‘Location Agnostic’ resources.
• Ability to create simulated optimization from the schedule board and visualize it.
• Hardening of schedule definition experience through validation rules
• Able to reset 1 or more RSO optimization schedules (instead of reset all)

For more information on the features included in the release, review this blog post.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Portal Capability Releases

The September 2018 portal capability updates for Microsoft Dynamics 365 are available (v9.0.9.2).

Some of the resolved issues include:

• Knowledge Article Feedback calculation was not correct and always showed a value between 0-1.
• Portal was throwing a generic error if multiple instances of same field were placed on Entity forms or Webforms.
• Confirmation dialog Yes/No buttons were not aligned within the Close case dialog.
• If entity list actions had confirmation dialog setup, they didn't work properly when the entity list was used in a web template.

For more information on the features included in the release, review this blog post.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Online Releases

The August and September 2018 Service Updates for Dynamics 365 online versions 9.x and 8.x are now available.

The naming conventions for versions 9.x have changed to clarify the link between the version number and service update. For example, Service Update 14 will correspond to version number 14XX. Occasionally a Service Update will be canceled and all the associated fixes will be rolled into the next Service Update, thus the Service Update numbers will not always increase incrementally.

Service Update 14 (9.0.2.1455) resolved issues include:

• The error message text for SLA-related failures has been improved
• PowerBI on the CRM dashboard is not rendering correctly on Internet Explorer 11
• Outlook freezes when setting the Regarding field while the mail notification is visible
• Characters in a text field within a subgrid are truncated
• The pop-up window for duplicate detection is too small
• Improvements made to the number of requests that can be included in an OData batch call

Service Update 17 (9.0.2.1708) resolved issues include:

• The PublishAll action times out
• Scrollbar and paging buttons are not appearing for inline Subgrids in Chrome
• Escaped HTML tags appear in the body of some email clients
• Activating account records via the ribbon changes read-only fields to editable
• Opportunity Edit Properties are displaying nearly invisible text boxes
• The Customer field does not populate when converting Email to Opportunity

Service Update 20 (9.0.2.2061) resolved issues include:

• The editable subgrid is not properly rendered on refresh method
• When creating bar charts, the x-axis labels are not properly rendered
• Upgrading to version 9.0 causes performance issues during upgrade
• When a user inserts a dynamic field in the URL configuration of a hyperlink in a workflow, it is displayed as "NULL"
• Custom security role names revert back to the default name upon upgrade
• Emails with attachments are not synchronizing into CRM

Service Update 22 (9.0.2.2257) resolved issues include:

• After canceling openConfirmDialog, the Quick Create form stays loading and the Save button does not work
• SQL errors produce intermittent performance issues
• The timeout has been extended for UpdateBusinessIdForEntity
• The Activity Wall Create Task button opens the main form instead of the inline form when clicked from More [...] command list
• ValidFor properties are not set correctly for system attributes when the attribute metadata is updated
• Dynamic Help for Server-Side Sync passes unsafe characters in the call stack parameter

Service Update 23 (9.0.2.2381) resolved issues include:

• Wrong icons displayed after importing a customized solution to v9
• Read-only fields became editable when field metadata was modified
• Rollup field value was not displayed automatically in the IE and Chrome browsers
• Users could not read the complete Instance name unless column width was expanded manually
• Jquery not displaying when bulk editing custom entity settings
• Error "An item with the same key has already been added." occurred when upgrading to V9.0

Service Update 19 (8.2.2.2257) resolved issues include:

• Performance Improvement: Async jobs are validating slowly
• The Look-Up field needs to be selected twice to function
• Custom messages feature not functioning. Default message displayed instead of custom one
• The From field on emails is not automatically populated when there is custom field mapping between the account and email
• In some scenarios, record GUIDs are appended in a Word template
• CRM App gives an error when attempting to load

Service Update 20 (8.2.2.2361) resolved issues include:

• Email forwards time out when containing an attachment of 10 MB or larger
• The multi-line text field does not break the line on the phone app when set as read-only
• Client telemetry has been updated to report offline draft information
• Orphan Active Workflow records are created when importing a new version of a solution
• The Import Data, Option Set field mapping is not showing the scrollbar
• Upgrading a solution will fail if there are multiple sitemaps

Service Update 21 (8.2.2.2423) resolved issues include:

• Server allows plug-in assemblies with unsupported .NET Framework versions to be registered in error
• The Date Only record field displays a date and time instead of just a date
• Encrypted org properties are not cached when the 'cache encrypted org properties indefinitely' option is selected
• Business process flows cannot be imported into organizations as part of a solution
• Fetching entities from CRM results in null ref exception
• A sync error deletes user metadata, preventing an application from loading

Additional News

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Outlook is unable to render webpages

When attempting to render webpages via the Outlook folder pane using the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Microsoft Outlook add-in (Outlook client), the view pane remains blank and "Waiting for a page to be retrieved from a CRM server..." displays, but the corresponding webpage does not load.

When tracking an item or opening an already tracked item in Outlook, the tracking details section that normally shows the Regarding and Tracking Status is blank.

These issues are due to the an issue found in the August Office Insider Update where DDPI settings (optimizations for multiple monitor displays) causes the add-in to never be able to display the pages requested.

As a workaround while this issue is under investigation, System Administrations can navigate to the following location within Outlook:

File > Options > General > User Interface Options > When using multiple displays

And change the value of this setting to "Optimize for compatibility" (it will also notify you an application restart is required).

For more information, review this support article.

The 2018 State of Global Customer Service Report

Customer experience is quickly becoming the number one brand differentiator. So it’s no surprise that 95 percent of survey respondents in the new 2018 Global State of Customer Service report indicated that customer service is important to their choice of and loyalty to a brand.

What are customers looking for? These are just a few of the findings:

• A desire to be heard. Customers want a voice. An average of 90 percent of respondents wanted to provide feedback about their experience but are only given the opportunity 37 percent of the time.
• Service anytime, anywhere. Customers expect to receive service through any channel and on any device, with 59 percent of respondents having used multiple channels to get questions answered.
• Digital and emerging tools. AI-driven virtual agents are trending. Bots built using technology like natural language processing and machine learning can provide an intelligent, conversational and effortless customer service experience.

Download the 2018 Global State of Customer Service Report to learn more.

Training Corner

Microsoft Ignite

Join us in Orlando, September 24-28 for Microsoft Ignite. This conference offers attendees a chance to learn the latest insights and gain new skills from technology leaders and practitioners shaping the future of cloud, data, business intelligence, teamwork and productivity. From demos to keynotes, learn about new tech in a way that speaks to you. Plus, get exclusive access to the latest updates and developments across Microsoft’s products and solutions. This year’s keynote speaker is Microsoft’s very own Chief Executive Officer, Satya Nadella.