Featured News

Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Connection Security

As of October 5, 2018, Dynamics 365 (online) version 8.2 in the Dynamics 365 Government environment requires connections to the Customer Engagement applications to utilize Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or higher. This aligns with updated Microsoft and industry security policies and best practices.

Please note: This change only affects Microsoft Dynamics 365 Online Customer Engagement, not on-premise versions.

What is the change: All Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement online versions support TLS 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2, but to comply with federal requirements, Microsoft will begin blocking connections to the product from clients or browsers that are using TLS 1.0 and 1.1.

How will customers be impacted: All supported browsers for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (versions 7.x – Version 9.x) currently comply with the TLS 1.2 standards and will continue to work as before. If customers have disabled the TLS 1.2 protocol on their browser or utilize a custom Windows client built with .NET 4.5.2, they will lose connectivity to organizations with Dynamics 365 (online), version 8.2. For customers who have deployed a non-Windows application that connects to a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement instance, they will need to verify that the technology stack used supports TLS 1.2.

For details on how to avoid or mitigate the impact and examples of errors, review Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (online) to require TLS 1.2 for connectivity.

Dynamics 365 Sitemap and Command Bar Updates

Microsoft has been listening intently to customer feedback since the Dynamics 365 Unified Interface was introduced. Customers have found the navigation model to be too complex. As part of the October update, Microsoft has taken some steps to improve the product navigation. The latest UI update comes with some changes to the sitemap. These changes will be the default experience for new email trials and will eventually roll out to the entire community.

Some of the changes include:

• The Sitemap is expanded by default and is persistently pinned to promote user recall.
• The sub area in focus is highlighted to indicate where in the app the user is.
• The command bar background color is changed to show association with the area it effects.

Review this announcement to see examples of the updates in the site map and the command bar.

Preview: Introducing the Power platform Admin center

If you’ve monitored the metrics and analytics of Dynamics 365 then you have probably used the Organization Insights solution. If you've managed Dynamics 365 (online) tenants and instances, then you've used the Dynamics 365 Admin Center. With the merge of Common Data Service and the Dynamics 365 platform, Microsoft is launching a new Power platform Admin Center to allow customers to view Customer Data Service for Apps analytics without having to install a separate solution. The Power platform Admin Center will also include admin settings. For more information on the analytics, view Common Data Service for Apps analytics. Once customers confirm they see the new Common Data Service for Apps analytics, then they can remove the Organization Insights managed solution.

The Power platform Admin center will continue to add functionality until this becomes the only admin center to accomplish all tasks related to Power platform. Until the move to the Power platform Admin center is complete, customers can still manage their admin settings for Customer Engagement as usual, but keep in mind that many of these settings:

...are moving here:

For more information about the Power platform admin center, review:

Preview: Introducing the Power platform Admin center

New Dynamics 365 (online) support center

Manage Common Data Service for Apps Settings

NOTE: This topic is pre-release information and is subject to change.

Microsoft Introduces Dynamics 365 Government for the Department of Defense

In the first half of calendar year 2019, Microsoft will introduce the suite of Business Applications capabilities and features designed to meet workloads at Impact Level (IL) 5, as defined by the Department of Defense (DoD). This means Dynamics 365 Government will soon be available in Microsoft’s DoD cloud which is for the exclusive use of the DoD. This suite of business application is designed to provide DoD customers seamless integration with Office 365.

Microsoft is also expanding the Dynamics 365 capabilities and features to begin supporting the complex regulatory compliance requirements of the DoD, to include processing DoD controlled unclassified information. We’re making major progress in delivering this environment and are on track to make Dynamics 365 Government for IL 4 generally available to customers with regulations that require it by end of this calendar year (2018); authorization to follow in 2019.

For more information, review this post on the Microsoft Industry Blog.

Updates & Releases

Dynamics 365 for Marketing Update Release

The latest update of Dynamics 365 for Marketing is now available. This update provides many performance and stability improvements, plus a few new features. To benefit from this update, customers must manually apply it to each of their Dynamics 365 for Marketing instances as described in this article, Keep Marketing up to date.

What’s New:

• The segmentation designer now makes it easier to understand and update existing segments by keeping all entity relationships visible and editable.
• Email insights now include a calculated click-through rate (CTR) that tells you how often recipients clicked on a link included in the message.

Announcements:

• Dynamics 365 for Marketing is now available in all the languages and countries/regions supported by Dynamics 365 (online).
• The Dynamics 365 for Marketing pricing model has been adjusted to better reflect the way marketers use the product and consume its resources.

For more information about the update, review this post and for the announcements, review this post.

Field Service and Project Service Automation Update Release

The latest update to the Field Service and Project Service Automation solutions for Dynamics 365 are now available. This release includes improvements to quality, performance, and usability, based on customer feedback and requests.

Field Service enhancements (v7.5.2.61)

Resolved issues include:

• Numerous issues and improvements to the solution upgrade process
• Permissions privilege validation prior to Address suggestion window pop-up
• Mark as complete for Work Order Service Task from grid fails in background
• Update sharing logic not to use ExecuteMultiple

Project Service Automation (v2.4.5.48) Enhancements

Resolved issues include:

• Duration is not respected for manual tasks after refreshing when auto-scheduling
• 502 Timeout Exception on MS Project publish to existing project after deleting high number of tasks
• Error assigning an account when the quote is closed
• Unable to add existing or write in opportunity product line item in opportunity form

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

Microsoft Social Engagement 2018 Update 1.9

The Microsoft Social Engagement 2018 Update 1.9 is now available.

New and updated features:

• After signing in to Social Engagement, the app presents a new start page called Home. It provides helpful resources and additional information in one spot. More features will be added in future releases.
• Quick setup and initial insights in fresh solutions on the new Home page.

For more information visit What’s new in Social Engagement.

Preview: Dynamics 365 (on-premises) version 9.0.2

The public preview for Dynamics 365 (on-premises) version 9.0.2 is now available through the Insiders Program https://experience.dynamics.com/insider/. For customers who have never enrolled in the Insider program, a registration is required. Once signed in, customers can select Dynamics 365 v9.0.2 to access the English language (en-us) download and 90-day trail key. Customers also have the option of downloading and testing the following components: Dynamics 365 for Outlook v9.0 and the Dynamics 365 version 9.0 Report Authoring Extension (with SQL Server Data Tools support). Reminder: Do not test with production data or as a production environment.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Online Releases

The October 2018 Updates for Dynamics 365 online versions 9.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. For more information about the October service update for Dynamics 365 (online), review this blog post.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 9.1 (online) Update (9.1.0.0012 or higher) updates and resolved issues include:

• Incremental system-wide performance improvements have been made in this update
• The wrong tooltip displayed when using custom icons
• Grids appeared as white screens instead of showing a loading icon
• Users were unable to view newly created opportunities in a shared account
• The New Case button could not be customized
• Users received a script error when accessing Orders and Quote records

Service Update 1 for Microsoft Dynamics 365 9.1 (9.1.18101.0001 or higher) updates and resolved issues include:

• When Word template download failed, the Word template progress dialog remained open and the wrong error message did not display
• Queues dropdown did not appear for users with certain roles assigned
• App designer displayed a different form than the one selected in the case entity settings
• In the IE browser, users could not change form sections after opening a record
• Users saw overlapping panes when viewing a contact
• An error occurred when selecting Print preview option from a Case form

Additional News

New AI and mixed reality business applications for Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft introduced Dynamics 365 two years ago to tear down the traditional silos of customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). Microsoft set out to reimagine business applications as modern, unified, intelligent and adaptable solutions that are integrated with Office 365 and natively built on Microsoft Azure. With the release of new AI and mixed reality applications, Microsoft is taking another step forward on the journey to help empower every organization on the planet to achieve more through the accelerant of business applications.

Microsoft is happy to announce the following new class of AI applications that will deliver out-of-the-box insights by unifying data and infusing it with advanced intelligence to guide decisions and empower organizations to make informed actions:

Dynamics 365 AI for Sales: Helps salespeople prioritize their time to focus on deals that matter most, offers a detailed analysis of the sales pipeline, and surfaces insights that enable smarter coaching of sales teams.

Dynamics 365 AI for Customer Service: Surfaces automated insights that help guide employees to take action and leverage virtual agents to help lower support costs all without writing any code.

Dynamics 365 AI for Market Insights: Helps empower marketing, social media and market research teams to make better decisions.

For more information on the offerings and to see them in action with Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella and a member of the Dynamics 365 engineering team, review this announcement.

Connected Field Service for Azure IoT Central

Microsoft is pleased to announce a new integration between Azure Iot Central and Dynamics 365 for Field Service, coinciding with the general availability of Azure IoT Central. When customers encounter unplanned outages in a traditional break-and-fix service model, they expect a well prepared technician to respond immediately. Unplanned outages can cost the customer quite a lot: $647 billion is lost globally each year when assets, machines, equipment, and systems are unavailable. Harnessed by Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled assets, it is possible to catch issues before they occur, and then plan for scheduled maintenance. However, implementing integrated solutions from IoT devices all the way up to business applications can prove challenging and complicated, and often calls for an interdisciplinary understanding of IoT and business application systems such as CRM or ERP.

Microsoft has made it our mission to provide a powerful yet simple, get-started experience to integrate Azure IoT Central with Dynamics 365 for Field Service in minutes, so that organizations are able to quickly move from idea, to pilot, to production, without requiring code expertise.

For more information about Connected Field Service for Azure IoT Central, check out this blog post, this overview, and these quick tutorials.

Upcoming changes to new trials and new Common Data Service (CDS) for Apps environments

Unified Interface uses responsive web design principles to provide an optimal viewing and interaction experience for any screen size, device, or orientation. Today users land in the legacy web client experience as soon as they sign in, causing confusion if they have their workloads defined in apps. Upcoming changes to the new trials and new Common Data Service (CDS) for Apps environments will help simplify this experience. Users will land on the app selection page when they sign in instead of the legacy web client application and this page will showcase applicable app modules to the user. When creating a new app module, customers will only have the option to do so based on the Unified Interface and not the legacy experience.

For more information on the changes and to sign up for a trial, review this blog post.

Preview: Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework

Channel Integration Framework is a cloud-to-cloud extensible framework—set of APIs (methods, events, and protocols)—to build and integrate immersive communication experience. This allows third-party communication widgets running on channel provider cloud to interact with Dynamics 365. With this framework, customers can bring their own (third-party) channel provider or channel aggregators into Dynamics 365 Unified Interface Apps, where the Channel Integration Framework acts as an interface between the channel providers or aggregators and Unified Interface Apps.

Advantages:

• The framework is channel agnostic. Build channels like voice, video, chat, co-browse, social media, and any channel that is a JavaScript based widget.
• The Channel Integration Framework exposes standard and supported JavaScript APIs that customers can consume for the communication between the channels and Unified Interface Apps.
• Configure screen pops to display the customer information that can aid the agents to start the conversation efficiently and effectively.

For more information, review this blog post.

Training Corner

Monitoring Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Service Health

The Office 365 Admin Center provides health information for multiple cloud services to include Dynamics 365. Some customers require greater visibility into monitoring the service health of their Dynamics 365 instances, but users must have the appropriate roles within Office 365 to access the messages in the Admin Center. Customers can use the Office 365 Service Communications API to query and get the current service status specifically for Dynamics 365. For more information and sample queries, review Monitoring Dynamics 365 CE service health and messages using the Microsoft Office 365 Service Communications API.

How to trigger a plugin when Product License is updated in Office 365

Review this step-by-step instructional guide on how to trigger a plug-in in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement when Product License is updated in Office 365 for a Dynamics 365 user.

First Look & Demo: Dynamics 365 AI for Sales

Microsoft Dynamics 365 has infused built-in AI since early 2016 with embedded intelligence such as the Relationship Assistant, Email engagement and forecasting features. One of the newest additions to the AI features is Dynamics 365 is AI for Sales. For more information about this new feature and to watch a demo, take a look at this post on the Dynamics 365 Community site.

Microsoft Ignite On-Demand Sessions

Connecting with tech professionals and posing questions to the experts who build the tools you use every day. Nothing compares to experiencing Microsoft Ignite in person—but even if you couldn’t make it this year, you can still benefit from the learnings and inspiration. Here’s your chance to see the sessions you missed that everyone else is talking about. Take a look at the On Demand Sessions. There are over 100 sessions for Dynamics 365 including topics on Adobe Marketing Cloud, Common Data Service for Apps, data migration from on-premise to the cloud and business transformation with AI.