A preview of Microsoft Dynamics 365 2023 release wave 2
Microsoft has unveiled the latest insights regarding its 2023 release wave 2 for the Dynamics 365 suite, slated for rollout between October 2023 and March 2024. This upcoming release introduces a range of new features and enhancements, including notable additions in AI capabilities. The focus remains on facilitating digital transformation, both for users and partners.
In this post we will highlight new features and updates that users can expect for the following Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement applications:
Dynamics 365 Sales
AI-powered Copilot
The upcoming 2023 release wave 2 for Dynamics 365 Sales introduces a series of AI-driven enhancements aimed at refining sales processes and fostering more efficient customer interactions. These updates are designed to assist sales professionals in managing their tasks and engagements effectively. Here’s a breakdown of the notable features set to be included in this release:
- AI-generated account summary: Obtain a comprehensive view of customer data, including buying behavior and news updates, enabling personalized interactions.
- AI-recommended content: Access pertinent documents and resources for improved customer interactions.
- AI-generated preparation notes: Enhance meeting preparedness with AI-suggested talking points from various sources.
- AI-generated opportunity summaries: Quickly access insights about customer preferences and history for tailored sales strategies.
- AI-generated lead summary: Personalize approaches with AI-enriched lead information for more effective engagements.
- Contextual news integration: Stay informed with real-time news within the Copilot chat interface.
- Follow-up recommendations: Simplify task tracking by identifying action items from email conversations.
Proactive prioritization for sellers
The 2023 release wave 2 of Dynamics 365 Sales introduces a new feature designed to enhance lead and opportunity management for sales teams. This update empowers sellers by allowing them to proactively select the next prioritized lead or opportunity, based on predefined business rules. For sales managers overseeing teams with revenue targets, this enhancement streamlines the assignment process, relieving them of manual tasks and ensuring efficient allocation of resources. Automated prioritization ensures that crucial leads and opportunities are assigned to sellers when they are ready to engage, contributing to increased seller productivity and more focused customer interactions.
- Automated assignment: Sellers gain the ability to independently choose the next important lead or opportunity.
- Rule-based allocation: Business rules set by managers guide the assignment process.
- Queue management: Sellers can prioritize items within the queue for self-assignment.
Enhanced team collaboration with multiple sequences
In the 2023 release wave 2, Dynamics 365 Sales introduces a collaborative enhancement designed to facilitate concurrent workflows for multiple sellers on a single record. This feature empowers sales teams to assign distinct sequences to various team members simultaneously, streamlining teamwork and optimizing deal pursuit. By enabling sellers to work in tandem while following personalized sequences, this update aims to foster a more cohesive approach to account management and opportunity pursuit. Additionally, the capability allows for enhanced visibility into team activities and sequence details, contributing to improved planning and execution within sales workflows.
- Simultaneous sequence assignment: Sellers can assign different sequences to team members working on the same record
- Coordinated efforts: Collaborative work on a shared account or opportunity is streamlined through tailored sequences
- Expanded visibility: Sellers gain insights into team activities, sequence progress, and account changes
- Flexible attachment: Team members can attach sequences to records, regardless of ownership
- Detailed sequence tracking: View completed and upcoming activities within sequences for better planning
Other top features from the Dynamics 365 Sales 2023 release wave 2
For a full list of new features and updates, you can review the official Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales 2023 release wave 2 documents. In addition to the features listed above, here are a few other noteworthy updates:
- Navigate to new records faster with sales accelerator form load updates
- Engage with your customers by invoking SMS chat pane from Activities
- Modern and refreshed user experiences
- Enhanced assignment management and harmonized pipeline monitoring
Dynamics 365 Marketing
Copilot
Dynamics 365 Marketing introduces a range of updates in its 2023 release wave 2, aimed at improving marketing workflows and customer interactions. One of the new features, Copilot, offers users a variety of tools to simplify domain authentication, message creation, and scheduling. This update streamlines the process of authenticating domains, ensuring effective email delivery, and maintaining brand credibility. Additionally, Copilot enables users to generate journeys by describing them in plain language, leveraging AI to assemble campaigns. Furthermore, the tool assists in refining message content through editing and rewriting suggestions, enhancing the overall customer experience.
- Guided domain authentication: Copilot facilitates domain authentication for improved email deliverability
- Simplified journey creation: Users can describe campaigns in everyday language, with Copilot constructing journeys using AI
- Efficient content editing: Copilot aids in optimizing messaging for various communication channels
- Precise quiet times: Ensure messages are sent during preferred time intervals with quiet time settings
Integrated analytics to accelerate your pipeline
Dynamics 365 Marketing introduces an impactful update in its 2023 release wave 2, focusing on accelerating pipeline growth through integrated analytics. By utilizing pre-built dashboards, users gain the ability to monitor pipeline progress and assess the influence of marketing endeavors on various stages of the business process. This enhancement also allows for the alignment of marketing and sales teams, facilitating a synchronized approach to optimizing pipeline velocity through shared insights.
- Streamlined integration: Integrated analytics with Dynamics 365 Sales offers a comprehensive view of account progression within the pipeline, from leads to successful opportunities.
- Lead generation insights: Understand the key drivers behind lead generation and qualification.
- Effective source identification: Identify the most successful sources that consistently generate high-quality leads.
Enhanced lead qualification and routing
Dynamics 365 Marketing introduces a notable advancement in its 2023 release wave 2, enhancing the process of lead qualification and routing. In addition to existing scoring models, this update offers marketers the ability to utilize a wider range of indicators for lead qualification, including “fit,” “intent,” “recency,” and “engagement.” This comprehensive approach ensures that leads are assessed based on various signals that indicate their likelihood to convert. Furthermore, the introduction of lead disqualification criteria allows for seamless transitioning of prospects between sales and marketing stages. This enhancement empowers marketing and sales teams to effectively identify prime opportunities for conversion, thereby enhancing pipeline potential and collaborative success.
- Expanded qualification criteria: Define lead qualification using signals such as “fit,” “intent,” “recency,” and “engagement”
- Accurate intent assessment: Utilize multiple first-party signals, such as browsing history and form completions, to gauge prospect intent
- Harmonized interaction: Establish criteria for disqualifying or requalifying leads, facilitating seamless coordination between Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Marketing
- Automated response: Trigger automated actions when leads meet specific qualification criteria
Other top features from the Dynamics 365 Marketing 2023 release wave 2
For a full list of new features and updates, you can review the official Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing 2023 release wave 2 documents. In addition to the features listed above, here are a few other noteworthy updates:
- Increased maximum monthly interactions to 300 million
- Build custom reports using Microsoft Fabric integration
- Create journeys quickly with inspiring templates
- Easily reference copies of previously sent emails in the interaction timeline
Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
Build segments with Copilot
Dynamics 365 Customer Insights introduces an impactful update in its 2023 release wave 2, enhancing segment creation through the integration of Copilot. This feature streamlines the process of building and refining segments by employing natural language, removing the complexity often associated with segmentation. With AI-driven capabilities, users can easily formulate and optimize segment rules while fostering collaborative efforts and adhering to best practices. Additionally, Copilot offers intelligent summaries, aids in campaign planning, and eliminates redundant conditions, ultimately democratizing data-driven targeting and enhancing segment efficiency.
- Simplified segmentation: Copilot facilitates segment rule creation using natural language, eliminating technical barriers
- User-friendly rule description: Users can interact with Copilot to add or modify segment criteria effortlessly
- Complex rule handling: Build intricate rules across diverse data types without specialized knowledge
- Tailored prompts: Copilot provides personalized prompts for seamless segment initiation
- Collaborative benefits: Intelligent summaries aid teamwork, fostering collaborative decision-making
- Optimization assistance: Copilot suggests redundant condition removal for efficient segment performance
- Data-driven insights: Utilize Copilot for insightful campaign planning and budgeting queries
Real-time segments for moments-based experiences
Dynamics 365 Customer Insights introduces a powerful capability in its 2023 release wave 2, enabling the creation of real-time segments for moment-based experiences. By utilizing these dynamic segments, marketing and customer experience teams can target or re-target customers in real time, ensuring engagement at critical junctures. This enhancement unlocks a multitude of possibilities, allowing for instant offers, cross-selling, and tailored engagement when customers qualify for specific segments. With this feature, users can confidently foster engagement through customer journeys that align with real-time segment updates.
- Real-time segments are continuously updated based on profile changes or customer activities
- Utilize real-time segments to welcome customers with timely offers, cross-sell relevant products, or advance their buyer journey
- Leverage real-time segments within customer journeys for assured customer engagement aligned with the most up-to-date data
Leverage customer insights in other business applications
In its 2023 release wave 2, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights introduces a significant enhancement that facilitates the integration of customer insights across diverse business applications. This integration empowers business users to access valuable insights directly within their Dynamics 365 applications, fostering personalized experiences and informed decision-making. From marketing to sales and customer service, this feature supports scenarios such as tailored content delivery, enriched sales interactions, and enhanced customer support engagements. By consolidating data sources, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights creates unified customer profiles that link directly to corresponding contact and lead records in Microsoft Dataverse, enabling comprehensive and well-informed engagements.
- Personalized marketing: Utilize insights for tailored content and dynamic messaging based on customer attributes
- Informed sales interactions: Empower sales teams with comprehensive insights for more effective deal management and relationship-building
- Enhanced customer support: Enable service representatives to offer tailored assistance based on customer information
Other top features from the Dynamics 365 Customer Insights 2023 release wave 2
For a full list of new features and updates, you can review the official Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights 2023 release wave 2 documents. In addition to the features listed above, here are a few other noteworthy updates:
- Use calculated metrics to personalize customer experiences
- Elevate customer experiences in real time
- Delta lake integration improvements
- Increase control and flexibility of customer data from Microsoft Dataverse
Dynamics 365 Customer Service
Copilot and AI innovation
In the 2023 release wave 2 of Dynamics 365 Customer Service, the integration of Copilot introduces a range of impactful features to streamline agent workflows and improve customer interactions. Copilot leverages generative AI to enhance tasks like drafting email replies, troubleshooting customer issues, and providing knowledge-based responses. By harnessing AI-driven assistance, agents can boost productivity and enhance customer satisfaction. Let’s explore the key enhancements:
- Analytics insight: Copilot’s influence on tasks like customer conversations, case management, and email correspondence is illuminated through historical analytics. Supervisors and managers gain visibility into the impact Copilot has across the customer service operation.
- Efficient knowledge discovery: Copilot aids agents in swiftly troubleshooting customer issues by offering solutions derived from internal knowledge and external trusted sources. This accelerates query resolution, improves efficiency, and enriches the customer experience.
- Contextual email replies: Agents can effortlessly compose personalized, contextually relevant email responses with a single click. Copilot generates tailored replies, freeing agents from repetitive drafting and enabling them to provide timely and meaningful support.
- Streamlined messaging: Copilot’s AI-powered suggestions expedite agent responses over chat and messaging channels. By parsing and contextualizing information from conversations, Copilot recommends tailored, helpful responses, optimizing agent productivity and customer satisfaction.
Agent-specific capacity profiles
In the latest 2023 release wave 2 for Dynamics 365 Customer Service, the introduction of agent-specific capacity profiles empowers administrators and supervisors to fine-tune agent workloads based on expertise and experience. This enhancement offers the flexibility to allocate varying quotas or concurrent conversation limits to agents, ensuring efficient resource utilization. Seasoned agents can manage more cases and conversations compared to junior counterparts, optimizing task distribution, and enhancing overall efficiency. Here’s a closer look at the key features:
- Customized work allocation: Admins and supervisors can tailor agent capacity profiles by assigning distinct quotas or concurrent conversation limits based on agent expertise
- Experience-driven distribution: Senior agents can handle higher concurrent workloads compared to junior agents for the same type of tasks, optimizing resource utilization
- Administrative control: Admins can define custom limits for agents through the user management hub within the Customer Service admin center
- Programmatic management: This feature is also accessible through OData API calls, providing administrators the flexibility to manage user profiles programmatically
Overflow management for lengthy wait times
In the 2023 release wave 2, Dynamics 365 Customer Service introduces a solution to handle prolonged customer wait times in queues. When queues experience sudden surges in customer inquiries and agents’ response times are delayed, an automated overflow management strategy becomes essential to maintain customer satisfaction. Overflow management enables contact center administrators to implement efficient contingency plans to address these challenges. Here are the key aspects of this enhancement:
- Strategic wait time threshold: Admins can establish a defined and reasonable wait time threshold for work items within queues
- Automated contingency plans: When work items exceed the wait time threshold, the system triggers automated actions. Admins can define these actions, such as transferring items to more available agent queues, directing customers to voicemail, or arranging a direct callback
- Enhanced customer experience: Overflow management ensures that customers are attended to promptly, even during peak times, bolstering customer satisfaction
- Queue optimization: Admins can strategically distribute workload across queues, preventing undue strain on specific agent teams and ensuring efficient resource allocation
Other top features from the Dynamics 365 Customer Service 2023 release wave 2
For a full list of new features and updates, you can review the official Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service 2023 release wave 2 documents. In addition to the features listed above, here are a few other noteworthy updates:
Dynamics 365 Field Service
Copilot in D365 Field Service
The latest release wave 2 of Dynamics 365 Field Service introduces a suite of AI-powered enhancements aimed at streamlining operations, boosting productivity, and elevating customer satisfaction. These advancements leverage the capabilities of Copilot to assist service managers, frontline workers, and dispatchers in various critical aspects of work order management. Let’s delve into the key features that enhance the field service experience:
- AI-powered work order recap: Copilot generates concise recaps for work orders, providing service managers and workers with a quick summary of essential details, including notes, products, services, tasks, and activities. This streamlines catch-up without delving into extensive work order information
- Efficient Work Order creation in Outlook: Copilot expedites work order creation within Microsoft Outlook by utilizing generative AI to extract information from emails and auto-populate work order forms, saving time and effort for frontline managers
- Streamlined Work Order creation in Teams: Similar to Outlook, Copilot assists with work order creation in Microsoft Teams, automatically filling in required fields based on conversation content and context, enhancing the work order creation process
- AI-generated responses and summaries in Outlook: Copilot aids frontline managers and dispatchers in composing AI-generated responses and summaries to share with customers in Microsoft Teams and Outlook, fostering productivity gains
- AI-enhanced resource scheduling: The AI assistant recommends suitable frontline workers and time slots for job assignments, simplifying the scheduling process for frontline managers and dispatchers in Microsoft Teams and Outlook
- Mobile-friendly Work Order recap: Field Service Mobile users benefit from Copilot-generated work order recaps, offering consolidated information, contextual insights, and key work order events within the mobile app
Enhanced resource visibility
In the 2023 release wave 2, Dynamics 365 Field Service introduces an enhancement that transforms how bookings are displayed on multiday views. The updated multiday view ensures that bookings are now showcased proportionally to their duration. This adjustment brings an immediate and accurate understanding of resource availability and utilization, streamlining the assessment process for bookable resources on the daily, weekly, and monthly schedule board views.
In the multiday views, bookings are now displayed in proportion to their duration, replacing the conventional stacked display. This change ensures a clearer representation of resource availability and utilization, making it effortless to assess a resource’s status across different time frames.
Multiple recurrences available in work hours calendar
The 2023 release wave 2 of Dynamics 365 Field Service introduces a significant enhancement to its Work Hours Calendar feature, offering greater flexibility in resource scheduling. The new capability of multiple recurrences empowers organizations to adapt their workforce scheduling to align with diverse business needs and employee preferences, ultimately leading to improved job satisfaction and employee retention. This enhancement marks the first phase of a broader initiative to provide more flexible resource location management, catering to various scenarios and demands.
- Multiple recurrences: The updated Work Hours Calendar allows for the addition of multiple recurrences within a single day, enabling distinct instances of recurring shifts, such as morning, afternoon, and evening shifts. Dispatchers can now accommodate various work patterns and preferences seamlessly.
- Overlapping recurrences: Unlike the previous setup that would delete overlapping recurrences, the new feature permits coexistence of overlapping recurrences within a week. Dispatchers can set different recurrences for different days, enhancing scheduling versatility.
- Time zone flexibility: The calendar now supports inputting work-hour events in different time zones, catering to workers who travel or operate across various regions
- Flexible resource locations: This enhancement is the initial step in a broader initiative to introduce flexible resource locations. In subsequent phases, Dynamics 365 Field Service will include support for setting start/end locations for resources, allowing for ad-hoc or recurring location-based scheduling adjustments. This addresses scenarios where resources work in diverse locations on different days, responding to variable demands.
Other top features from the Dynamics 365 Field Service 2023 release wave 2
For a full list of new features and updates, you can review the official Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service 2023 release wave 2 documents. In addition to the features listed above, here are a few other noteworthy updates:
Dynamics 365 Project Operations
Support historical tracking using project sales budget
In the 2023 release wave 2, Dynamics 365 Project Operations introduces the ability to support historical tracking using project sales budgets to the lite deployment type of D365 Project Operations. This feature enhances control over billed sales status and enables accurate revenue forecasting for project managers. By providing versioned snapshots of estimated revenue at different stages of a project’s lifecycle, project managers can create a comprehensive historical record of revenue projections. This capability enables them to adapt to changes in project scope and work estimates, ensuring that revenue analysis remains accurate and up-to-date.
The project sales budget snapshots offer project managers a benchmark to track billed sales against projected revenue targets. This holistic view empowers project managers, accountants, and stakeholders to gain insights into revenue performance, aiding decision-making processes. Moreover, the feature’s ability to revise project sales budgets when faced with scope changes ensures ongoing alignment between actual performance and revenue projections, ultimately contributing to more informed and effective project management.
Enhanced invoicing experiences
The 2023 release wave 2 of Dynamics 365 Project Operations introduces notable enhancements in the realm of invoicing, addressing key needs for project-based businesses. Notably, improved project invoicing usability and performance streamline the billing process for project managers, supporting the efficient creation of customer-facing invoices. Additionally, the update extends support for intercompany vendor invoices in resource and non-stocked scenarios, bolstering the accounts payable team’s ability to manage invoices seamlessly.
- Usability enhancement: Project managers can efficiently review billing backlogs and make corrections for the next invoice cycle, ensuring a smooth and accurate invoicing process
- Streamlined edits and additions: Project managers can easily edit billable hours, chargeable aspects, and add transactions to invoices while reviewing, with a clear evaluation of the impact on invoiced amounts
- Proforma invoice improvement: Enhanced control and selection options for including billing backlog transactions on proforma invoices, increasing control over invoicing
- Performance boost: Leveraging xMultiple paradigms and parallelized CRUD options in invoicing operations to improve operational scale and throughput
- Intercompany efficiency: Support for intercompany vendor invoices allows efficient documentation and management of invoices received from suppliers in resource and non-stocked scenarios
Derive cost-based bill rates
The upcoming 2023 release wave 2 of Dynamics 365 Project Operations introduces a significant enhancement aimed at refining billing strategies for professional services organizations. With this feature, organizations can seamlessly calculate bill rates based on associated cost rates, streamlining processes, saving time, and fostering greater financial accuracy. In many professional services scenarios, the relationship between bill rates and cost rates is paramount. This feature empowers organizations to directly derive these bill rates within Project Operations, eliminating the need for external tracking sheets and offering heightened flexibility in pricing strategies.
While Dynamics 365 Project Operations currently supports the configuration of bill rates across various dimensions, the ability to directly incorporate cost rates in these calculations has been missing. With this enhancement, organizations gain the capability to define line items in a sales price rate by considering the associated cost rate, bridging the gap between billing and cost structures. This development brings flexibility to contracting models like cost plus, catering to organizations looking for less risk-averse strategies. By seamlessly integrating cost-based bill rate derivation, Dynamics 365 Project Operations enhances precision and efficiency in billing processes, enabling professional services organizations to optimize their financial operations with ease.
Other top features from the Dynamics 365 Project Operations 2023 release wave 2
For a full list of new features and updates, you can review the official Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations 2023 release wave 2 documents. In addition to the features listed above, here are a few other noteworthy updates:
Want to learn more?
The new features and enhancement listed above are only a few highlights of what Microsoft has planned in the 2023 release wave 2 of Dynamics 365. As users prepare to engage with these new features, the assistance of a trusted Microsoft partner can prove invaluable. Many D365 users rely on a Microsoft partner for assistance reviewing the most impactful updates. The right Dynamics 365 partner helps users identify the features most beneficial to their organization and provides training for users to maintain peak performance.
