Monday, September 16, 2024

Microsoft Dynamics 365 & Power Platform Wave 2 2024: Key Features



Microsoft Dynamics 365 & Power Platform Wave 2 2024: Key Features

Hello everyone, in this blog,  we'll be discussing some of the key features of MS Dynamics 365 & Power Platform Wave 2 2024 and exploring how to use these features in preview within the environment.

With that said, let’s dive into the exciting new features released in Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Wave 2 2024!


The 2024 wave 2 release for Dynamics 365 brings new innovations that provide you with significant capabilities to transform your business. Before we dive into the details, let me briefly explain what Dynamics 365 Wave 2 is. Microsoft announces significant feature updates for Dynamics 365 various modules and the Power Platform twice a year, in the months of April and October. Prior to the public release, users can explore these features in a preview to get a glimpse of what's coming next by enabling the update in their D365 environment. However, some features may not make it to the final release due to technical or other factors.


Features from the following apps are available as part of early access: 
  • Dynamics 365 Sales 

  • Dynamics 365 Customer Service 

  • Dynamics 365 Field Service 

  • Finance and Operations cross-app capabilities 

  • Dynamics 365 Finance 

  • Dynamics 365 Project Operations 

  • Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management 

  • Dynamics 365 Business Central 


We will discuss on Sales module, Customer service module and power platform updates. Following demos are covered in this blog -

1. 360-degree view with Copilot Account summary
2. Canvas Apps Co Authoring
3. Lead Qualification Process
4. Analyze Opportunities with Grouping & Aggregating
5. Sales- Copilot Email Assistance
6. Compose emails using improved attachment experience
7. Restore Deleted Records

Dynamics 365 Sales 

Sales: Copilot and AI innovation


Sales: Seller Experience

Dynamics 365 Customer Service


Pre-Release Features 

Some features are available in a pre-release environment. By setting up a trial environment, users can explore these features and understand their functionalities. Although the official release is scheduled for October, some features might be available to the public in November, December, or even later.


Copilot and AI innovation: Copilot is an AI assistant that helps sales teams be more productive and efficient in their daily work. It has a chat interface that sellers can use to get a quick summary of their opportunity and lead records, catch up on updates, prepare for meetings, and read the latest news about their accounts.

Seller experiences: Seller experiences focus on features and tools that are meticulously designed to cater to the unique needs and challenges faced by sellers in their daily lives.


Enable 2024 Release Wave Features for an Environment:

  1. Go to Power Platform Admin Center: Log in at admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com.
    You will see all the environments under your tenant listed on the dashboard.

  2. Select Environment: Click on the environment where you want to enable the release wave features.

  3. Access Update Settings: In the environment details, click "Manage" under the update section.

  4. Enable Features: Click "Update Now" to enable the 2022 release wave features.

  5. Wait for Completion: The environment will update, and the status will change when the process is done.

  6. Verify Update: Check the status to confirm that the features are enabled.

You can see the status as well


1. Get 360-degree view with Copilot Account summary

Let’s start with the first feature: the 360° view of the account- This new feature extends that capability to provide a comprehensive view of the customer account, including all related information, making it easier for salespersons to access all relevant data without needing to navigate through various sections or tabs. You will be able to configure the fields you want to display, giving you quick insights into what's happening with your customer accounts.


-With the Account summary feature, you can access a consolidated summary of vital customer data, including buying behavior, associated opportunities, leads, marketing campaigns, and the latest news about an account through the power of AI. This enables you to quickly research an account. You no longer need to spend excessive time shifting through scattered information or manually compiling account details. 


This feature will be released into the following Microsoft Azure geographic areas: Germany Norway Singapore South Africa Switzerland United Arab Emirates Sweden Qatar United States Europe Asia Pacific United Kingdom Australia Brazil Canada India Japan France Korea.


Demo - 

To see how it works, make sure the wave 2 update is enabled in the respective environment.

Simply, open any account and open the copilot. It’ll take a few seconds to analyze and get account information. Then you should be able to see the account summary.
You can also check the related opportunity or lead summary








Reference - Get 360-degree view with account AI-generated summary | Microsoft Learn


2. Seller Experience: Lead Qualification Process


Next up is the Lead Qualification Process. If you're familiar with the Sales module, you know that when working with the Lead entity, you need to qualify the lead to convert it into an opportunity. During this process, customer and contact information must be filled in before creating an opportunity.


This new feature enhances the lead qualification process, giving you options to create new customer records, new contacts, or associate existing ones. It also allows you to create multiple opportunities from a single lead, which is helpful in complex sales scenarios.


Demo - 

To enable the new Lead Qualification experience

  • you first need to ensure that the 2024 Release Wave 2 is activated in your instance. I’ve already done, 

  • then go to "Lead + Opportunity Management." You’ll see options: Lead Qualification 

  •  turn on the new Lead Qualification experience. 

  • As soon as it’s activated, a lot more configuration options become available.

  • you can see which records will be created when a lead is qualified: an account, contact, and/or opportunity. 

  • You can also choose whether this should happen automatically or let the seller decide. For instance, if the opportunity is created automatically, only the Lead Qualification details will be shown.

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You can allow sellers to create up to five opportunities at once when qualifying a lead, or limit them to one. The checkbox ‘Let seller create up to 5 opportunities from a newly qualified lead allows sellers to generate a total of 5 opportunities (at the same time) as part of the qualification process.


you can leverage Co-Pilot to summarize key lead information, which will be posted to both the lead and related opportunity records.




Reference
- Customize lead qualification for a seamless experience | Microsoft Learn

3: Power App - Analyze opportunities with grouping and aggregating

In this new release, grouping and aggregation options have been added to Read-Only Views. Previously, this functionality was only available in Editable Grids. You can now group opportunities dynamically based on specific fields such as account name, seller name, or closing date/month and perform aggregations such as sum, average, minimum, and maximum. This feature is especially useful for tracking numeric fields like estimated revenue in opportunities. This functionality enhances your ability to segment and target specific areas of your pipeline, giving a more personalized and effective approach to each opportunity.


Please note that this feature is not available for all field types, such as multi-selection fields.

As a seller, you can:

  • Group opportunities by account name, seller name, closing date/month, or any other relevant field.

  • Aggregate numeric values such as estimated value and actual revenue in the editable grid.

Demo - 

Open any opportunity view and click on the dropdown of a field, you should be able to see the “Group By” option. Same way, click on another field to aggregate the values.



Reference
- Analyze opportunities with grouping and aggregating | Microsoft Learn

4. Customer Service : Elevate your sales pitch using Copilot email assistance


Using email assistance can be incredibly helpful nowadays. With Copilot, you can create personalized, high-quality emails that cater to each customer’s specific needs. Thanks to natural language processing (NLP), Copilot helps you write clear, concise, and engaging emails that connect with your audience. This can boost customer engagement, increase sales, and improve your brand’s reputation. Plus, you can tweak the tone and length of the emails to better match your customers’ preferences, helping you build stronger relationships. You can translate the content into any language and customize the suggested content before sending it out.


Sales Copilot lets you spend less time composing emails. With this feature, you can:

  • Select a predefined category or enter your text and Copilot will suggest content with specific prompts and actions.

  • Adjust the tone and length of the email.

  • Customize the suggested content before you send it.

Demo - 

Open Any Contact or Account, create a new activity type “Email”. Explore the Copilot features.


This feature will be released into the following Microsoft Azure geographic areas: Germany, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United States, Europe, Asia, Pacific, United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan, France and Korea.



5. Compose emails using improved attachment experience

The enhanced attachment experience allows agents to drag and drop attachments in emails, saving time and increasing their productivity. A reminder is sent to agents if they forget to include an attachment that they've mentioned in the email subject or body.


Feature details

With the enhanced email attachment experience, agents can:

  • Add attachments by dragging and dropping them to the email- You can now drag and drop attachments into the email, which wasn't possible earlier.

  • Copy attachments from one or more emails and paste it to another email- You can copy attachments from one or more previously composed emails.

  • Download and attach email as an attachment to another email.

  • Bulk download and deletion of attachments.

  • See the attachment size in the appropriate units-  Previously, the attachment size was only visible in bytes, but now you can see it in KB, MB, etc.

  • Toggle between the tile and grid views.

  • Export attachment details to Excel-

  • Receive reminders to add attachments-  If you use words like “please find attached” in your email and forgot to attach a file, you'll get a reminder pop-up to add the missing attachment

  • Add attachments before saving an email- 

  • Add previously used attachments -  You can now add attachments that you’ve used in previous emails, which is a cool addition.


Demo -

Open any account/Case

Create a new activity  “EMail” (from Related dropdown)

Click on Attach File from command bar

You can drag and drop files in Attachment grid


When we export to Excel, it provides a detailed list of all the attachments, including file names and sizes in a structured format. This feature is particularly useful when dealing with a large number of attachments, allowing users to easily manage and view the file details.


These are just a few of the exciting features coming in the 2024 Dynamics 365 Release Wave 2. 



Power Platform: Wave 2 2024 

Firstly,  Microsoft Power Platform today comprises five products: Power BI, Power Apps, Power Pages, Power Automate, and Microsoft Copilot Studio. It also includes the AI Builder add-in. 


Reference - 2024 release wave 2 features available for early access | Microsoft Learn



6. Canvas Apps Co Authoring

Canvas app development has traditionally been restricted to a single user. When one user begins developing an app, it becomes locked for that specific user, preventing others from making edits. For example, when a user is editing, their icon appears on the screen, while other users can only view the app in read-only mode. They must wait for the initial user to close or release the app before they can begin their work.

With the 2024 Wave 2 release, a long-awaited feature is being introduced that allows for co-authoring. Now, multiple users can edit the app simultaneously, even on different screens or components. This feature, currently in preview mode, can be enabled through the settings by turning on the co-authoring option. After a short refresh period, all users will have editing permissions. You can even see which screens other users are working on, allowing the entire development team to collaborate on a single app, especially for complex or large projects.

The goal of the co-authoring feature is to make app development more collaborative, similar to how multiple people can work on a PowerPoint presentation or a Word document simultaneously. With co-authoring, any changes made by team members will be visible in real-time. This will greatly enhance the app-building experience, allowing team members to work on different parts of the app without waiting for one person to finish.

Demo - 

To enable the Co-authoring  experience in canvas app

  • you first need to ensure that the 2024 Release Wave 2 is activated in your instance

  • then open any canvas app, go to Setting->Updates->Preview

  •  You’ll see options: Co Authoring, just toggle it on and Save.


Reference - Work together in real time to create canvas apps | Microsoft Learn

7. Restore Deleted Records

Earlier, restoring deleted records in Dataverse required manual intervention, often needing help from Microsoft Support. This process was time-consuming and inefficient, especially for accidental deletions.
Now Microsoft has introduced a recycle bin for Dataverse. The new recycle bin feature will allow you to easily restore deleted records, saving you the effort of the current recovery process in case of accidental deletions.

To enable the feature, log in to

Power Platform Admin Center https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/environments

Environment >> Settings >> Features and enable it


Delete some of the contact and lead records.


To restore the deleted record->

Navigate to Environment >> Settings >> Data Management >> View Deleted Records to view the deleted records.

It will navigate to another page (model driven app)

We can select the records and click on Restore to get the deleted records back

Deleted records might not appear when the recycle bin feature is turned on. Verify that the Enable RecycleBin for Organization system job is turned on. Go to the Power Platform admin center, select the environment where this issue is happening, and select Settings > Audit and logs > System jobs. On the System Jobs page, search for Enable RecycleBin. Confirm that the Status Reason is Succeeded.

If the Status Reason isn't Succeeded, or despite the success state appearing correct, and you're not seeing the Restore option for deleted records, contact a Microsoft support representative and create a support request.

Some tables won't support a recycle bin. These tables include:

Reference - Microsoft Learn

We will cover more features in next blog, thank you for reading.

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