The first batch of new features will soon be available for Power Platform and the entire Dynamics 365 suite. 2023 Release Wave 1 will continue to enhance the way you work with your business data, create personalized lead engagement efforts, optimize your sales cycle, and support industry-specialized functions. Preview access is now available, allowing you to test and validate features in a sandbox environment, and will become generally available in April.

The semiannual Dynamics 365 Release Wave updates are highly anticipated, but it’s no secret that navigating through the Microsoft documentation to research can be difficult and time-consuming, let alone remembering and tracking the progress of updates that interest you. That’s about to be a thing of the past with this new tool: the Release Planner (currently in preview).

The Release Planner is a straightforward interface for searching through update plans. It is organized by application and can be filtered and sorted by a variety of criteria, such as status, availability date, and who the update will be available for (users, admin, etc.).

Microsoft has released plans for this year’s Release Wave 2, with new features and improved usability across the Dynamics 365 suite of applications – Dynamics 365 Marketing, Sales, Business Central, and more.

If you don’t want to read the entire Release Wave plan, here are the updates you should know about.

Community Summit NA is a once-a-year chance to gather with other Microsoft users in a space that encourages growth, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. There's something for everyone, and you'll leave feeling refreshed, inspired, and well-equipped to make real, positive change in your organization.

Efficiency is something we all strive for, but it seems as though only a lucky few can finish their workday without feeling bogged down or sidetracked one way or another. Not everyone has that natural luck, so that’s where Power Automate comes into play. Some Flows are specific to certain Microsoft applications like Business Central, Dynamics 365 Sales, or Dynamics 365 Marketing, but others can be used to facilitate just about anything.

A plethora of no-code-necessary, pre-built Flows are out there for the everyday user just looking to get started. Here are our picks for five prebuilt Power Automate Flows that can help make your everyday a breeze:

While Power Automate is intuitive and accessible for any level of coding experience, it does include its own set of vocabulary that must be learned, as with any new business application. To help you on your journey, whether you’re new to Power Automate or becoming reacquainted, below we’ve outlined the key terms you will encounter when working with Power Automate:

Without a doubt, automation is at the front of the pack, in terms of efficiency-building technology. Automating processes within your business—especially time-consuming, manual, and repetitive tasks—can free up calendars and mindpower for activities that can lend more value to a business.

Enter Power Automate, an application made to connect other apps in order to help them work together to complete your tasks faster, with less effort from you. Power Automate is included these Office 365 subscription plans: Enterprise E3, Business Premium, and Business Essentials (head to our page for pricing and further details). We’ve compiled an overview of Power Automate for those wondering the key questions: what is it, what are its benefits, and how does it work?

With straightforward and tried-and-true features packed to the brim, it’s not hard to see why Business Central Manufacturing is the right choice for so many manufacturers. But that’s not all—so many functions of this already reliable system can be made even easier by sending repetitive tasks through automated flows using Power Automate.

Looking for new business software can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to something that will hopefully be an all-encompassing solution, like an ERP or CRM system. No matter what kind of system you’re in the market for, there are quite a few options out there, and for such a crucial backbone to everyday business processes, understandably no quick decisions can be made.

If you’re looking to add productivity powerhouses like Dynamics 365 Business Central or CRM applications like Dynamics 365 Sales and Marketing into your toolbelt, read on for some of the benefits you can expect when you join the Microsoft business application ecosystem.

How many workdays have been filled completing manual, repetitive, time-consuming business processes, like sending reminders, scheduling meetings, or completing the steps of an approval? These tasks are necessary, but they often require time and energy that employees could otherwise spend on driving the business forward. With advancements in technology and the power of automation, these processes can be done—often from start to finish—automatically, freeing up time in your day for all the other important things you do for your company.

Engaging a customer at the opportune times is a tricky, time-consuming business; yet, this is a necessary act for many businesses to build and retain a loyal and satisfied customer base. Gathering touchpoint data, analyzing customer actions, anticipating customer desires, and sending proper emails or other communication at the right moment—what if all this effort and toil could happen automatically based on the customer’s actions? Fortunately, automation for a broad range of purposes, even across several Microsoft applications, can be easily established.

This blog will demonstrate just one example of Microsoft applications—such as Dynamics 365 Marketing, Microsoft Bookings, and Power Automate—interacting seamlessly to provide optimal, efficient business solutions for you, and a cohesive, satisfying end-to-end experience for your customers.

It’s time. Time to come together again, in-person, and bask in the connections and momentum that comes from being together and learning together. Community Summit North America 2021 will be held in Houston, Texas from October 12-15, and you’re invited. Summit organizers encourage you to come with questions, and you will leave with answers.

If Summit is new to you, or if it’s been a while since your organization has attended, here are the reasons why you should consider attending and how to make the most of Summit NA when you’re there.

Microsoft has announced that it is offering 6 months of free licensing for certain cloud applications to help organizations respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. Licenses available with this offer include Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Apps portals, and Power Virtual Agents. This announcement follows a previous offer for six months of free Microsoft Teams licensing for organizations who have not already implemented Office 365.

Managing leads can feel like a failing juggling act. You keep in touch with most leads but fail to respond to a question one lead has about your proposal. Enhanced sales management applications like Dynamics 365 for Sales are great for keeping track of sales contacts, notes, and dates, but are limited by a user’s ability to complete manual sales tasks.

Business Central from Microsoft gives users more power in their ERP solution than ever before. Through integrations and connections to the other systems they already use, Business Central lets users accomplish more in one program than they normally would in 5. See how you can incorporate the products you use to make Business Central work best for you.

Using a CRM system to track leads and opportunities is a good way to keep up with the sales funnel. However, it is far too easy to neglect leads and opportunities when you are trying to juggle many other tasks and responsibilities. For an organization like ours that uses Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement (formerly Dynamics CRM) for sales management and Office 365 for productivity, it makes sense to utilize every tool we can to keep up with sales. That is why I created a flow to automatically create a task in Microsoft Planner when a lead is created in Dynamics 365.