Microsoft's Dynamics 365 April '19 Update: What's new

Microsoft just released a lengthy summarization regarding their April ’19 Update which will have a heavy impact on many of the offerings included in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 canon. We’d like to dissect the update and deliver you the most pertinent information. In terms of Business Central, Sales, Field Service, etc.

In regard to Sales, the April ’19 update has a lot in store. There are a few features that will be made available for those enlisting the services of Microsoft Dynamics 365. These updates will serve to elevate the sales experience within the 365 suites. Take a look at what will be available as of April.

• LinkedIn-driven organization charts, including alerts when key contacts change companies

• Robust customer insights from more data providers

• Microsoft Teams integration, including Relationship Assistant

• Playbook enhancements with guided actions, including content recommendations

• Seamless configure-price-quote integrated experience

• Predict revenue accurately and make informed decisions with sales forecasting

• Simplified first-run experience to get started with Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional

Let’s move on to Field Service and see what’s new for the April ’19 update. Dynamics 365 considers Field Service as a way to empower organizations to evolve from a reactive approach to a proactive and predictive entity. Microsoft also hopes that companies can embrace new business models such as outcome-based service, otherwise known as “anything as a service.” In terms of what’s new for Field Service:

Embedded IoT (with IoT Central)      

• Embedded IoT visualizations

• Device commands

• Device provisioning

Scheduling                  

• Variable resource location optimization   

• Self-service scheduling via a portal    

• Optimization insights

• Optimization objective for as soon as possible (ASAP)

Technician productivity            

• Embedded IoT

Service delivery              

• SLA enhancements

• Enhanced multi-resource work order management

Moving on to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the April ’19 will have a few new offerings and features for customers to enjoy. Not even a year old, Dynamics 365 Business Central has experienced a boom in integrations from businesses looking to digitally transform their businesses. Since its official inception in October, Business Central has transformed businesses through the cloud-based version as well as the on-premise option. The future is bright for Business Central, especially those companies that have enlisted Microsoft’s prime service for streamlining processes.

Productivity enhancements for business users

• Application enhancements     

• List views

• Rich notes and links

• Document focus mode 

• Work date indicator    

• Context or system indicator    

• Quick Entry

• New keyboard shortcuts

• Autosave indicator

• Improvements to scrolling in lists

• Improved contextual search experience 

• Improved all-product navigation

• Personalization enhancements

Self-help and support

• Simplified Help and Support experience

• Page inspection

Productivity enhancements for administrators

• Hardening the integration between Business Central and Dynamics 365 for Sales

• Enhancements for application lifecycle management

• Enhancements to the intelligent cloud for Dynamics SMB and Dynamics 365 Business Central

Powerful features for developers

• Designer enhancements for developers

• Visual Studio Code and AL

• Application as an app

• Standard Web API

All of these new features will be made available as of April 2019 from Microsoft. For all other updates, please check out the full report to dive deeper into the full detailed list of offerings that will be made available to you, the customer. iNECTA is proud to announce these additions and look forward to seeing our customers take full advantage of them in the coming year. As a proud partner of Microsoft, iNECTA is happy to explain how these new features can help elevate your current system and enact positive change overall.