Featured News

Scheduling the Microsoft Dynamics 365 (online) version 9.0 Update

Here is some information to help customers prepare for updating their existing Dynamics 365 (online) organizations to Dynamics 365 (online) version 9.0:

What you need to know about the customer-driven update process:

Flexible choices: You can schedule your updates to Dynamics 365 (online), version 9.0 on any day, including weekends. Please remember that opportunities to schedule an update is limited to available openings. Update slots will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Scheduling an update: Scheduling an update is available now and the updates will occur from February 20th through August 20th. This will give you up to six months to complete the update to the newest release of Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Flexible testing: Administrators will be able to schedule updates to sandbox instances prior to production instances. You can easily see the Sandbox and Production update schedules in a single view within the Dynamics 365 Administration Center.

Keep your organization informed: Administrators can select recipients to receive notifications about updates in the Dynamics 365 Administration Center. See Send email notifications to multiple recipients for more information. The recipient does not have to be an administrator to receive notifications and no additional licenses are required.

Get yourself ready for the update:

1. Get familiar. Stay up to date with What’s new for the complete list of capabilities and services. Please refer to Read Me for more information about update requirements, known issues and possible workarounds.

2. Get prepared. Read about Managing updates.

3. Get engaged. Your partner and Microsoft are here to help you be successful. See What’s new for developers.

Note: Dynamics 365 Government and Dynamics 365 Germany are not included as part of this announcement. The availability of version 9.0 for these customers will be announced later.

Continued support for Outlook add-in (Dynamics 365 for Outlook)

In June 2017, Microsoft announced the deprecation of Dynamics 365 for Outlook (also known as the “Outlook add-in”) and the plan to replace it with Dynamics 365 App for Outlook. The deprecation announcement meant that Dynamics 365 for Outlook would continue to be supported until it was removed in Dynamics 365 version 10.0.

Since this announcement, Microsoft has received overwhelming feedback from customers, partners, and the Dynamics community around the need for the Outlook add-in. Additionally there are some feature gaps in Dynamics 365 App for Outlook which prevent it from being a viable replacement for the Outlook add-in. As a result, Microsoft is reversing the deprecation of Dynamics 365 for Outlook.

This announcement means that Microsoft will continue to release Dynamics 365 for Outlook with new versions of Dynamics 365. As a result, customers upgrading to a new version of Dynamics 365 will have the same Outlook integration experience as in previous versions.

For more information, view the announcement on the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Team Blog.

Preparing for a new era in privacy regulation

On May 25, 2018, a European privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is due to take effect. The GDPR imposes new rules on companies, government agencies, non-profits, and other organizations that offer goods and services to people in the European Union (EU), or that collect and analyze data tied to EU residents. The GDPR applies no matter where you are located. New GDPR white papers are now available that provide details on how Microsoft Dynamics applications can be an important part of the journey toward GDRP compliance. The currently available white papers are for the Customer engagement applications (Dynamics 365 for Sales, Dynamics 365 for Customer Service, Dynamics 365 for Field Service, and Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation). Go to http://aka.ms/gdprdynamics365 to find the links to the available Dynamics 365 GDPR white papers and check back often to find new GDPR info and updates to existing white papers.

Visit the Microsoft Trust Center to learn more about how Microsoft’s products can help customers comply with the GDPR and to find resources like webinars, videos, white papers, FAQs about the regulation.

Updates & Releases

Updated SDK Tools required for Dynamics 365, version 9.0

As mentioned in a recent Blog and KB article, Dynamics 365 (online) version 9.0 no longer supports TLS 1.0 or 1.1. Customers with older versions of the Dynamics 365 SDK, will need to download the latest versions from NuGet:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customer-engagement/developer/download-tools-nuget

Older versions of SDK tools such as the Plugin Registration Tool, will not connect successfully to Dynamics 365 (online) version 9.0 organizations. Additional information can be found here on the Microsoft Support site.

Connect Dynamics 365 CRM for Outlook Client 8.x to Dynamics 365 9.x instances

With the release of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement version 9.0, older versions of TLS (1.0 and 1.1) connections will be blocked and only connections using TLS 1.2 will be supported. For customers connecting a Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Outlook client on version 8.x to a Dynamics 365 9.x instance, an update will be required for the clients.

Please refer to the following articles for details:

Updates coming to Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement connection security

“There is a problem communicating with the Microsoft Dynamics 365 server" error occurs when configuring Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Outlook

Missing App URL Suffix after importing app via a solution

Below is a documented issue a customer experienced shared to the Dynamics CRM in the Field:

Scenario: A customer created an application in Dynamics 365 8.2 and added an App URL Suffix to access the app directly at "https://<crm instance name>.crm.dynamics.com/Apps/<AppName>". Next, the customer wanted to move the app via a solution file to a higher instance (ie: Dev to Test). They created a solution file and added the App and sitemap to the solution. Then they exported the solution and imported into the higher instance.

Result: The application imported successfully. However, the App URL Suffix was blank and greyed out so the customer couldn’t add it back in the App Designer | Properties area.

This is “by-design” as there isn’t currently a way to detect if an App URL Suffix is already in use in the destination instance. When this is cleared, customers can still access their application by going to the My Apps area, but they can’t access it directly via the URL in the source instance.

A suggested resolution for this issue has been submitted to the Dynamics 365 Ideas site: https://ideas.dynamics.com/ideas/dynamics-crm/ID0003757 Customers can vote on this resolution for higher visibility to the product team.

Workaround: The good news is that there is a workaround that exists in both Dynamics 365 8.2 and v9.0 today. Customers can go to the My Apps area (https://<crm instance name>.crm.dynamics.com/Apps) | Locate your App | Select “Manage Roles” | Expand “App URL Suffix”. From there you can enter the desired URL in the destination instance, save and publish. This will allow access directly to the app from the URL again.

Voice of the Customer Service version 9.0.1027.16

Voice of the Customer for Dynamics 365 version 9.0.1027.16 is live on all Geos. This version of Voice of the Customer is compatible with Dynamics 365 version 8.2 and later.

New and updated features include:

· The reliability and experience of survey delete operation are improved. All the dependent entities of a survey are deleted when the survey is deleted.

· Customers can now repair or restore the Voice of the Customer configuration if it is accidentally deleted or misconfigured.

Resolved issues include:

· The tooltip of a question for a few languages (ex. Chinese, Russian, Farsi, Arabic) was not translated properly.

· The field names in survey response mapping and workflows does not match.

· The survey entity interface is not translated properly in French locale.

For more information, see What’s new in Voice of the Customer version 9.0.1027.16.

Microsoft Social Engagement 2018 Update 1.1

Microsoft Social Engagement 2018 Update 1.1 is now available.

New and updated features include:

· Improved accessibility across all interfaces to include keyboard navigation, screen reader support and overall improvements to the user experience.

· Administrators can now remove recipients from alerts that were configured by other users

· Changes for author information from Facebook pages to support updated API

For more information, see What’s new in Microsoft Social Engagement 2018 Update 1.1.

Field Service and Project Service Automation Update 5

The latest update to the Field Service and Project Service Automation solutions for Dynamics 365 version 8.2 is now available. This update includes improvements to quality, performance, and usability, and is based on customer feedback and requests.

Field Service enhancements (7.2.0.43)

Resolved issues include:

· Users with an administrative license type that own records received an error about privileges when upgrading from Dynamics 365 8.1 to 8.2

· Option to disable Address Suggestions doesn’t work

· Unable to create contact, opportunity, lead, account, or case entities in an updated organization

· When editing any field on a product receipt, the user sees the error message: System status can't be changed manually to products received or billed

· Cannot partially receive a purchase order product

Project Service Automation (v1.2.3.16) Enhancements

Resolved issues include:

· Contract line detail updates only display after refreshing the page

· Time entry date is set to the next day after the user saves or refreshes, if the user's timezone zone is far in the future (UTC+13 or UTC+14)

· Expense_Amounts lose decimal precision when the decimal separator is not a period (.)

Universal Resource Scheduling Enhancements

Note: Improvements and bug fixes for Universal Resource Scheduling apply to Field Service and Project Service Automation as well as to other schedulable entities in the Sales or Service applications.

Resolved issues include:

· Lookup selectors render incorrectly on screens with lower resolutions or when browser zooming is enabled

· Can’t create a booking alert if user is under a child business unit

· Can't book a schedulable entity that has no requirement

For more information, review the Release Notes for Field Service and Project Service Automation Update Release 2 post in the Dynamics 365 Team blog.

Dynamics 365 Digital Assistant Experiences

Microsoft is discontinuing the current Cortana integration preview feature that was made available for Dynamics 365. The focus will be on building a new long term intelligent solution experience, which will include Cortana digital assistant integration. The end result will be a robust and scalable digital assistant experience across all the Dynamics 365 offerings, to include natural language integration for customers and partners across multiple channels.

Training Corner

Features list for Dynamics 365 (online)

To review the list of features that are available for Dynamics 365 (online) and to access the complete list of online vs. on-premises features of Dynamics 365, review the following article on the Dynamics 365 Documents site.

Microsoft AppSource for Dynamics 365 (online)

Dynamics 365 online customers have the ability to add tailored solutions to their instances via AppSource. Customers can find top business solutions for their industry created by Microsoft and select partners. Apps include a try before you buy option and trusted Microsoft partners are standing by to assist with implementation.

For information on how it works, take a look at this tour.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Webinar Series

Join the Microsoft Dynamics team to learn how the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement solutions can revolutionize your customers’ digital transformation. In this webinar series, attendees will learn how to position Microsoft’s business solutions and differentiate their organization from the competition.

Upcoming Topics

· Understanding Dynamics 365 Add-Ons (Relationship Sales, PowerApps, CDS, etc…)

· Delivering a sizzling demo

· Dynamics Partners’ Resources/Pricing & Licensing

· Enhancing Microsoft Dynamics 365 with Azure + Intelligence (Bots, AI capabilities, etc.)
Leveraging Azure IaaS with Dynamics 365

Register now: https://aka.ms/microsoft-dynamics-365-webinar-series

Plan to attend Showcasing Dynamics 365 Demos

Note: This event requires a login to CustomerSource/PartnerSource

As a follow up to the November 2017 Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Blitz, the Showcasing Dynamics 365 Demos will be provided on February 12th at 8am and 8pm PST. We’re excited to share the demo strategy and resources as well as showcase the great innovations in Dynamics 365. Subject matter experts will be on hand to answer questions and on-demand sessions will be made available following the live-streamed event.

The complete agenda will be available soon along with registration information. Follow up with your Microsoft Account Manager for more details.

Featured News

Beginning March 19, 2018, Microsoft will limit the number of API requests made by each user, within an organization in Dynamics 365 (online). This change will affect all versions of Dynamics 365 (online).

Each user will be allowed up to 60,000 API requests within five minutes. This limit will help ensure that users running applications that make extraordinarily large demands on servers will not affect other users.

Some of the typical scenarios where this would happen are:

• A plug-in that is written to pump data in a loop, without a well-defined max termination limit.
• An inefficient client application that queries for status on thousands of records, without any caching or without any interval between successive requests.

For more information and guidance about this limit, please see API Limits.

New Security enhancements have been added to Dynamics 365 (online) version 9.0 to better secure the application. The enhancements are: set session timeout and set inactivity timeout.

User session timeout

By default, Dynamics 365 (online) sets a user session timeout of 24 hours. A user is not required to log in with their credentials for up to 24 hours regardless of whether the user was active or inactive. Administrators can now enforce users to re-authenticate after a pre-determined period by modifying the user session timeout.

Inactivity timeout

By default, Dynamics 365 (online) does not enforce an inactivity session timeout. A user can remain logged in the application until the session timeout expires. System Administrators can modify this behavior.

For more information on how to configure these features in Dynamics 365 (online), view the following article.

NOTE: These security enhancements are also available for:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 (on-premises, version 8.2)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 (on-premises, version 8.1)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 (on-premises)

Details on these versions can be found here.

As announced in September 2017, product support for legacy Adxstudio Portals v7 will end on August 1, 2018. A guide is now available to help customers migrate their portal solutions and configuration data stored in Dynamics 365 organization into the schema and format supported by Portals capabilities for Dynamics 365. The migration guide for customers on Adxstudio version 7.0.0025 and above can be downloaded from here.

Details about Portals capabilities for Dynamics 365 can be found here. For any questions, contact your Microsoft representative, your partner or adxquest@microsoft.com.

Updates & Releases

After upgrading to Dynamics 365 (online), version 9.0, customers will need to upgrade their existing Field Service and Project Service Automation solution to the latest version. To update to the latest solution, visit the Admin Center for Dynamics 365 online, access the solutions page and install the update. For details, refer How to Install, Update a Preferred Solution. Known issues for the application can be found here.

The latest update to the Field Service and Project Service Automation solutions for Dynamics 365 version 8.2 is now available. This update includes improvements to quality, performance, and usability, and is based on customer feedback and requests.

Field Service enhancements (v7.4.0.74)

Resolved issues include:

• Error message received when editing any field on Product Receipt or when changing PO status to Products Received

• End Date on Agreement was incorrectly updated when start date is in DST but end date is not

• “Address Not Found” error when selecting address from suggestion popup

Project Service Automation (v2.4.0.48) Enhancements

Resolved issues include:

• Contract confirmation was not correctly processing unbilled actuals coming from journals

• Estimated cost on project entity page did not include expense estimates

• Resource Requirement created from the Generate Project team with tasks with decimal hours were off-by-one end date

Universal Resource Scheduling Enhancements

Note: Improvements and bug fixes for Universal Resource Scheduling apply to Field Service and Project Service Automation as well as to other schedulable entities in the Sales or Service applications.

Improvements for Universal Resource Scheduling can be viewed at What’s new in Universal Resource Scheduling for Dynamics 365 February 2018 Update.

Resolved issues include:

• Problem when switching between horizontal and vertical hourly schedule boards when a resource name is populated in the schedule board resource search box

• Issue with loading default saved filters on Schedule Board

• In the booking requirements grid, users can now filter to show requirements that do not have a value in the territory field

For more information review the Release Notes for Field Service and Project Service Automation Update Release 4.

The Interactive Service Hub (ISH) was introduced with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2016 Update 1 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016. ISH offered a web-based client to simplify daily tasks for Customer Service Representatives and Managers. It included interactive dashboards, interactive forms, and reference panel control. Though the ISH intuitive interface combined vital information in one place and allowed Customer Service Representatives to prioritize work and be more productive, there were certain limitations in extending it. The new Customer Service Hub (CSH) available in Dynamics 365 (online) version 9.0, offers even greater flexibility and improved controls and extensibility.

New features include:

• An interactive interface that is an App Module featuring a new Custom Control Framework

• Unified Interface that eliminates the prolonged initial metadata download

• Easy to filter forms, dashboards, and other metadata components shown to business users

For more information about the new features and how to upgrade, review this article.

Microsoft Social Engagement 2018 Update 1.2 is now available. With this update, a feedback dialog is included for a sample of users when they sign in. Everyone is encouraged to provide feedback to help shape the service.

Resolved issues include:

• Fixed an issue to enable replies containing special characters on LinkedIn from within Social Engagement.

• Improved the search setup for keyword search rules to explain how to enter keywords, inclusions, and exclusions. Additionally, we list the limitations for keywords, inclusions, and exclusions per search rule.

• Improved the Message Center to explain more clearly that post alerts are sent every few hours, and not immediately after a specific post matches the configured alert.

Visit the Help Center for more information.

Portal capabilities version 8.4.0.275 is now available.

New features include:

• Access to detailed error logs for any issues with the portal

• Administrators are notified about the portal authentication key expiration and can renew it via the Portal Admin Center

• Portal Administrations can configure the General Data Protection Regulations to meet their organization’s needs.

All new features and resolved issues can be viewed here. For a full list of all portal update releases please reference this KB article.

The Unified Service Desk (USD) 3.2.0 release is now available. The latest version of USD has major enhancements on performance diagnostics, faster load times for CRM entity pages and graceful handling and recovery of crashed or unresponsive Internet Processes. For more information review this article on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Unified Service Desk blog.

Additional News

The Dynamics 365-Data Export Service is an add-on service available on Microsoft AppSource that can be used to replicate Dynamics 365 (online) data to an Azure SQL Database store in a customer-owned Azure subscription. The Data Export Service intelligently synchronizes the entire Dynamics 365 data initially and synchronizes it on a continuous basis as changes occur in the Dynamics 365 (online) system. The supported target destinations are Azure SQL Database and SQL Server on Azure virtual machines. For more information on the Data Export Service and its requirements, review this article on the Microsoft Docs site.

Machine learning implementation strategy for a customer service center

With the digitization of almost all industries on the way, advanced technologies like machine learning are revolutionizing the way of work for most industries today. Many customer service centers are thinking about adopting machine learning for their day to day operations. These techniques will soon be a part of industry standard best practices.

Customer service leads can leverage various machine learning capabilities to meet their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Examples include task automation, relevant Knowledge Base article suggestions, similar cases suggestion using text analytics and proactive notifications to engage with customers.

This post describes how traditional call centers can create a strategy for adopting machine learning capabilities.

Microsoft is happy to announce the Dynamics 365 for Marketing is available in public preview for organizations seeking a marketing automation solution to generate more demand and drive more sales.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing is designed as the front end of the sales cycle to help companies nurture more sales-ready leads, align sales and marketing and make smarter decisions. Most importantly, Dynamics 365 for Marketing works together with Dynamics 365 for Sales on the same platform which aligns teams with common data, connected processes and Office 365 collaboration tools. For more information and to sign up, view this announcement.

Microsoft is happy to announce the launch of a new Help + support ticketing experience for admins to contact a Microsoft support representative for Dynamics 365 (online). This feature is in preview so customers can get early access and provide feedback.

For more information, review this article on the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Team Blog.

Featured News

Microsoft is thrilled to announce the plan to deliver the Microsoft Cloud from our first datacenter locations in Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates and expand the cloud options for customers in Germany. The Microsoft Cloud in France is officially open with the general availability of Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Office 365. Dynamics 365 will follow in early 2019. Over the last three years, Microsoft has more than doubled the number of Azure regions available. As of today, Azure has more regions than any other cloud provider. We’ve announced a goal to be in 50 regions across the globe, including plans for 12 new regions.

Office 365 and Dynamics 365 also continue to expand the data residency options for customers with 17 geographies announced. The two products are the only productivity and business application platforms that can offer in-geo data residency across such a broad set of locations. Each datacenter geography, or geo, delivers a consistent experience, backed by robust policies, controls and systems to help keep data safe and help comply with local and regional regulations. Learn more in this announcement from Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Azure, Jason Zander.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Government has been granted a FedRAMP High Level Provisional Authority to Operate (P-ATO) by the Joint Authorization Board (JAB) for its Customer Engagement services. This is the highest level of FedRAMP certification available.

FedRAMP provides a standardized methodology for assessing, authorizing, and monitoring cloud services for US Government agencies. Any agency that hosts federal data in the cloud must do so in a FedRAMP authorized cloud service provider (CSP) per the OMB memorandum on Security Authorization of Information Systems in Cloud Computing Environments. There are two ways to authorize a cloud service through FedRAMP: a Joint Authorization Board (JAB) provisional authorization (P-ATO), and through individual Agencies. The JAB consists of the CIOs from the DOD, DHS, and GSA.

The “high” designation allows agencies to use cloud environments for high-impact data. The high security requirements are used to protect some of the government’s most sensitive, unclassified data in cloud computing environments.

For more information, review this blog post.

Microsoft is excited to announce the Spring 2018 release for Dynamics 365 and the Business Application Platform. Customers can expect a wave of innovation across the entire product line with hundreds of new capabilities and features in three core areas: business applications, intelligent capabilities infused throughout, and transformational application platform capabilities. Learn more in this announcement from Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Business Applications Group, James Phillips.

Watch the Business Applications spring launch event on-demand.

The Spring ‘18 release for Dynamics 365 (Update 9.0.2) is for Dynamics 365 online v9.0 and will be applied starting in April 2018. Key things you need to know can be found here.

A few things to note:

• Any new organization created on or after April 2, 2018 will be provisioned on the updated version. Any updates from version 8.x to version 9.0 that are scheduled on or after April 2 will automatically get this update and no change of schedule is needed. For existing orgs running Dynamics 365 (Online) version 9.0.1 or higher, the update will start deploying on April 7 through the normal deployment process.

• The update is primarily focused on performance and reliability improvements, but it also contains some new features. The new features are opt-in and will not change your default experiences. Download the Release Notes for more information on the new features.

Updates & Releases

The March 2018 Service Updates for Dynamics 365 online versions 9.x and 8.x are now available. Click the hyperlinks below for more details.

Service Update 3 (v 9.0.1.0510) resolved issues include:

• Importing a solution fails due to a BulkOperationLog.createdobjectidname.Length exception
• Navigating through form tabs using Dynamics 365 for Mobile causes a blank page to be displayed in some areas
• Knowledge Articles display HTML tags around content, causing the article to not display properly

Service Update 4 (v 9.0.1.0569) resolved issues include:

• Opportunity Actual Close Date (actualclosedate) is incorrect after closing An Opportunity.
• Unable to revise a Quote if the record is owned by a team
• An Editable Grid appears blank when editing an in-line filtered view
• A Form does not load if the form configured custom control was created in version 8.0, or 8.1, and then updated to version 9.0

Service Update 5 (v 9.0.1.0621) resolved issues include:

• An Unsupported Type Conversion exception occurs when qualifying Lead records
• Delete button doesn't render properly in sub-grids
• Summary tabs on forms do not render expansion and collapsing properly
• Adding a Marketing List to a Campaign Activity that is owned by a Team results in an exception

Service Update 5 (v 8.2.2.1161) resolved issues include:

• An Unexpected Error occurs when using the SharePoint integration on Account entity records with names longer than 200 characters
• An Invalid Parameter exception occurs when linking an Article to a Case record
• Custom icons do not display properly on sub-grids
• A change to a different Business Process Flow stage does not trigger Business Rules in the mobile client

Service Update 6 (v 8.2.2.1259) resolved issues include:

• A Query Build exception occurs when accessing attachments on Appointments
• The incorrect date and timestamp displays on OneNote pages opened via Dynamics
• Date and Time rollup fields cannot be recalculated until the record is refreshed
• Hyperlinks inside iframes are not able to be opened under certain conditions

Service Update 16 (v 8.1.1.1657) resolved issues:

• Settings options are unavailable in the mobile client under certain conditions
• The back button is not visible when searching for records on the Case entity in certain circumstances
• An Unexpected Error occurs when configuring Dynamics for Tablets
• Users are unable to change filter in the Option Set column for Editable Grids

Service Update 17 (v 8.1.1.1707) resolved issues include:

• Workflow messages do not display properly when using the mobile client
• An Unexpected Error occurs when opening or creating Application records in certain circumstances
• Hyperlinks in iFrames are not able to be opened under certain conditions

Service Update 18 (v 8.1.1.1758) resolved issues:

• Changes to increase performance on specific SQL queries
• An Access Denied error occurs when reparenting Account and Contact records under certain conditions

The Dynamics 365 App for Outlook version 9.0 is generally available to all customer organizations on Dynamics 365 (online) version 9.0. Some of the new features in the App for Outlook include:

• View tracked email or appointments in the App
• Quick Create function to create new records without leaving Outlook
• Pin and dock the App in Outlook desktop
• Search in Dynamics 365

For more information on best practices for migrating from Dynamics 365 for Outlook (Outlook Client) to Dynamics 365 App for Outlook and additional links to comparisons and user guides, review this blog post.

Microsoft Social Engagement 2018 Update 1.3 is now available.

New and updated features:

• The author tags filter now lets you exclude specific author tags from your data set.
• Twitter extended its support for longer messages in November. For most languages, the same limits were in place. This update adds support for Korean, Thai, and Simplified Chinese language.
• Social Engagement now supports retroactive deletion of posts that were acquired and deleted on the source afterwards. Posts from Twitter, Tumblr, and WordPress are now removed from Social Engagement when the author removes them from the source.

Visit Social Engagement Help & Training for more information.

Portal capabilities version 8.4.0.277 for Microsoft Dynamics 365 is now available. This release includes an updated portal host only. The portal host will be automatically updated by Microsoft.

This update resolves the issue with the login not working for users who were using a local login and had the Authentication/Registration/LocalLoginByEmail site setting set to true.

The following features are being deprecated from portal capabilities for Dynamics 365:

Web Page Tracking

Web Page Tracking logs a record when a user views a web page in a web browser. The date/time and user's IP Address are logged along with the identity of the user viewing the page. If the user is authenticated, the log is associated with the contact record related to the user, otherwise the anonymous identity is recorded. This functionality has a negative performance impact on portals.

Recommendation: Customers should use analytics technology like Azure Application Insights to capture this information.

Web File Tracking

Web File Tracking logs a record when a user downloads a web file in a web browser. The date/time and user's IP Address are logged along with the identity of the user downloading the file. If the user is authenticated, the log is associated with the contact record related to the user, otherwise the anonymous identity is recorded.

Recommendation: Customers should use analytics technology like Azure Application Insights to capture this information.

Authentication/LoginTrackingEnabled site setting

Enables or disables tracking the user's last sign-in. When set to true, the date and time are displayed in the Last Successful Sign-in field on the contact record. By default, this is set to false.

Recommendation: Customers should use analytics technology like Azure Application Insights to capture this information.

Portals solution versus 8.1.x.x

Solution version deprecation means that Microsoft will not be testing backward compatibility of these solutions with the latest version of portals code in future.

Recommendation: It is recommended to upgrade your 8.1.x.x solution to the latest version.

For more information on the deprecated features of Dynamics 365 portals, see this blog post.

Additional News

The following settings can help improve Microsoft Dynamics 365 application performance and should be configured on the SQL Server 2016 instance where the Microsoft Dynamics 365 organization databases are serviced:

• Install the SQL Server 2016 Cumulative Update 2 (CU2)
  Server & Tools Blog: Cumulative Update #2 for SQL Server 2016 RTM
• Configure the SQL Server instance where the Microsoft Dynamics 365 organization database is maintained with Trace Flag 1224. This setting disables lock escalation based on the number of locks and helps reduce CPU usage on SQL Server 2016. To determine the existing trace flag 1224 setting run the following T-SQL statement. A return value of 0 for status in the output indicates trace flag 1224 is not enabled:

DBCC TRACESTATUS (1224)

To set trace flag 1224 as a startup option, add the SQL Server database engine startup option -T1224. For more information: Database Engine Service Startup Options.

• Configure Microsoft Dynamics 365 organization databases to use compatibility level 110, which is the compatibility level for SQL Server 2012. For more information: View or Change the Compatibility Level of a Database.
• Configure the Microsoft Dynamics 365 organization database to use indirect checkpoints and a target recovery time of 60 seconds. By default, new databases created with SQL Server 2016 use indirect checkpoints and have a default target recover time of 60 seconds. For more information: Change the Target Recovery Time of a Database (SQL Server)

To determine the existing target recovery time, run the following T-SQL statement, where <dbname> is the name of the organization database. A return value of 0 indicates a target recover time has not been set:

SELECT target_recovery_time_in_seconds FROM sys.databases WHERE name = ‘<dbname>’

To set the target recover time of a database to 60 seconds, run the following T-SQL statement:

ALTER DATABASE <dbname> SET TARGET_RECOVERY_TIME = 60 seconds

With the introduction of Common Data Services for Apps, which leverages the same platform as Dynamics 365 for Customer engagement, PowerApp users are able to create Common Data Service instances that can be controlled and managed by the Tenant or Dynamics 365 Administrator. Customers with multiple environments and instances now have the ability to filter the instance list to Production, Sandbox, Trial or other instance types. For more information, review this blog post.

When managing a self-service knowledge base in Dynamics 365, understanding how customers and employees are searching for and consuming self-service knowledge is an important part of ensuring your content remains relevant and useful for end users.

Dynamics 365 includes a number of in-built capabilities to help analyze the usage of the knowledge base, including:

• Tracking of article views by source
• Tracking of article ratings and feedback
• Tracking of case deflections from knowledge
• Tracking of articles associated with, or used in resolving cases

In some instances, you may wish to extend beyond the built in capabilities, to understand usage patterns to a greater depth: what your users are searching for, which searches are not returning any results, and how users are navigating through your Dynamics portal, for example. These metrics can be captured using Azure Application Insights and Power BI.

Take a look at this blog post for more details.

The Product Group released a migration guide to move from Adxstudio v7 Portals to Portal Capabilities for Dynamics 365. Customers also have the option to do an in-place upgrade from ADX 7.x to Dynamics Portals 8.x. The guide goes into great detail on several migration options including reimplementation both self-hosted or Microsoft hosted as well as an in-place upgrade both self-hosted or Microsoft hosted. There are a few things to consider as part of the in-place upgrade such as clean up prior to the upgrade, determining installation order, finding dependencies and CSS class differences.

Review this blog post for more information on these considerations.

The new business model: Relationship Selling

Relationship sales isn’t just for selling—How marketing can make an impact

Announcing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: greater impact with an end-to-end view

Training Corner

The Microsoft Docs site is the home for technical documentation, code examples, quick start guides and tutorials for developers and IT professionals. To learn more about the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement features, applications, solutions and related services, visit the doc’s site here.

Dynamics 365 Portals 101 – Features, Use Cases and Best Practice

If you’re interested in using Dynamics 365 Portals, but don’t know where to start, take a look at this video that reviews the out-of-the-box features and use case scenarios for various portal templates. See capabilities of styling, configuring and customizing Portals via a demo and pick up a few tips, tricks, and best practices along the way to make your Portal projects a success.

Help us improve Microsoft Dynamics 365 and its family of products and solutions by discussing ideas, providing suggestions, and giving feedback. Use the forums listed on the Ideas page to share your thoughts. Search through the existing ideas, before suggesting a new one, and you can vote on them to help increase visibility.

Featured News

Dynamics 365 October '18 Update

The October ’18 wave of business applications released from Microsoft provides customers with significant capabilities to transform their business. These new services and capabilities include:

• New intelligence applications that employ decades of AI work pioneered by Microsoft Research to make Dynamics 365 more intelligent. You can enhance sales performance and planning with the new Dynamics 365 AI for Sales application.
• New Power platform capabilities that combine Power BI, PowerApps, Microsoft Flow and the Common Data Service for Apps into an unmatched palette of tools to extend, customize, and integrate Dynamics 365 and Office 365 into your environment.
• Deeper integrations with other Microsoft products that offer seamless experiences with Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Stream, Azure, and LinkedIn.

For more information, download the October ’18 Release notes here and review the following links:

What’s new in version 9.0

What’s new in version 9.0 for Developers

Online features for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement

On-Premises features for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement

Preview: Dynamics 365 AI for Customer Service

Dynamics 365 AI for Customer Service is a suite of products designed to help provide better customer service experiences through the power of artificial intelligence (AI). Microsoft is excited to announce the availability of Dynamics 365 AI for Customer Service Insights for public preview.

Features include:

• Out-of-the-box dashboards that provide visibility into critical operational and performance metrics.
• Automated grouping of cases by support topics, without the need for manual tagging.
• Visibility into top case volume and resolution time drivers allowing users to focus on areas with highest impact.
• Insights into emerging topics, allowing users to tackle issues before they become a major problem.

For more information on the features, review this blog post and start the preview at Dynamics 365 AI for Customer Service Insights.

Updates & Releases

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Online Release

The November 2018 Service Update for Dynamics 365 online version 9.1.0 is now available.

Service Update 8 (9.1.0000.0829 or higher) resolved issues include:

· When attempting to view records for quote products in advance find, no values appeared when only a base money field was present.

· Optionset columns displayed backend integer values instead of text values.

· The lookup filter was not functioning in on-premises environments.

· The sequence number for products mismatched between Opportunities, Quote, and Order Lines.

· When merging two contacts, the first name and last name fields were not being selected by default.

Unified Interface Lookup Leverages Quick Find View

In response to feedback on the differences in search behavior between the legacy web client interface and the Unified Interface, Microsoft made changes to the Unified Interface's search behavior, so it aligns with the behavior of the legacy web client interface. Before the change, the Unified Interface used the lookup views for both the display view (defines the columns shown in your returned search results) and the search view (defines the columns against which the search is made). With the change, the Unified Interface now uses quick find views for the search view. Customers can now leverage the added performance of indexing in quick find views when specifying the columns for the search results.

If your organization currently uses the legacy web client interface, there is no change. For those upgrading to the Unified Interface, review this blog post for instructions on how to prepare for the change.

Universal Resource Scheduling Updates for Dynamics 365 v9.x

Microsoft is pleased to announce the latest updates to Universal Resource Scheduling, powering the Field Service and Project Service Automation applications for Dynamics 365. These releases include improvements to quality, performance and usability. To update your instance, visit the Admin Center for Dynamics 365 online, and find the solutions page to install the preferred solution.

This release is compatible with Dynamics 365 9.0.x.

Some of the resolved issues include:

• In certain cases, map routes were not being displayed on the schedule board.
• Issue finding availability for an onsite requirement when an approved time-off request overlapped with a booking.
• Double booking a resource on multiday schedule boards now works as expected.
• On the schedule board, zooming out with your browser now keeps rows properly aligned.

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

This release is compatible with Dynamics 365 9.1.x.

Some of the enhancements and resolved issues include:

• When using the pop-out schedule board, the Dynamics border no longer loads, reducing confusion for users and improving performance.
• Users can now search for characteristics and roles in the requirement group control.
• When saving schedule board filters as default filters, a message now confirms the save was successful.
• When deleting a resource, related resource territory records will be deleted as well.
• Added missing hidden labels to schedule board filter panel targeting the accessible experience.
• Schedule assistant no longer suggests times in the past when a resource has a capacity of greater than one.
• The first requirement dragged to multiday schedule boards no longer causes an error message.

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

Field Service and Project Service Automation Updates

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

Field Service enhancements (v7.5.4.51) – This release is compatible with Dynamics 365 9.0.x

Some of the resolved issues:

• HasUserPrivilege and HasTeamPrivilege should always execute using SYSTEM user context.
• Updated the default Lookup View of the Service field on the Work Order Service.
• Improvements to solution deployment and upgrade process.
• Resolved script error on Work Order form in UCI Web.

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

Field Service enhancements (v8.2.0.286) – This release is compatible with Dynamics 365 9.1.x

Some of the enhancements and resolved issues include:

• Enabled the ability to upgrade from previous versions of Field Service to Field Service version 8.
• Enhanced Incident Types to enable the creation of types that require multiple resources by adding an Incident Type Requirement Group record.
• Resolved failing button on Work Order Service Task – ‘Mark Complete’ sub-grid.
• Added back deleted web resource msdyn_/Invoice/Invoice.Library.js.

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

Dynamics 365 for Marketing Updates

The latest update of Dynamics 365 for Marketing is now available. This is the first major update to the product since its release earlier this year. 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.

New and updated features:

• Account-based marketing: business-to-business (B2B) marketers can target each business account as a single unit, thus increasing integration and alignment between the sales and marketing departments.
• Reusable content blocks: define and store reusable blocks of content with dynamic values from Dynamics 365 that are easy to add to email and page designs.
• Social listening for campaign: analyze social-media channels to find relevant posts and evaluate user sentiment related to any topic you choose.
• Marketing calendar for planning: provides a visual overview of any marketing activity that has a start and end date
• Improved deliverability of email marketing messages: provides a way to register your Dynamics 365 for Marketing sending domain as a legitimate sender that does not get flagged for phishing.

For more information on the features included in the update, review this blog post. Review the Dynamics 365 for Marketing: Set up DKIM for your sending domain for more details on how to improve the performance metrics for delivered marketing emails.

Additional News

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Return on Investment (ROI)

Microsoft has continued to expand and develop its portfolio of capabilities under the Dynamics 365 umbrella to support CRM, ERP, and human capital management (HCM) processes by integrating with Office 365, Power BI, PowerApps, and Azure. Nucleus Research conducted an analysis of customer case studies and identified that Dynamics 365 delivers $16.97 for every dollar spent, an ROI significantly higher over the industry average of $7.23 and $8.71 for both ERP and CRM, respectively. For more information, review the report.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Stories

For more Dynamics 365 customer stories, visit this site.

PowerApps Customer Stories and Video Testimonials

The number of organizations adopting PowerApps to support their digital transformation continues to increase. This month Microsoft introduced new customer stories that illustrate how PowerApps apps are impacting customer operations.

Find more PowerApps customer stories here.

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Featured News

Get started with Dynamics 365 Service Scheduling

The new scheduling experience in Customer Service Hub is now live. Powered by Universal Resource Scheduling, this experience provides an efficient way to schedule resources for service activities. It considers the availability of employees, facilities, and equipment to plan schedules accordingly. It also helps customer service organizations improve service quality by preventing over-scheduling.

Review this post on the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Team Blog for more information and instructions on how to install the feature.

Microsoft Ignite | The Tour

Introducing a new global 17-city event designed to bring the best content from Microsoft Ignite directly to technical practitioners worldwide – ensuring they get the most out of Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and the Power platform. With 100+ deep-dive sessions and workshops, attendees will explore the latest developer tools, cloud technologies, and learn how to put their skills to work in new areas.

Upcoming stops on the tour include:

• Toronto: January 10-11, 2019
• Singapore: January 16-17, 2019
• Washington, DC: February 4-5, 2019
• Sydney: February 13-14, 2019
  plus more….

Connect with our community to gain practical insights and best practices on the future of cloud development, data, IT, and business intelligence. Visit the Microsoft Ignite | The Tour website to find a stop in a city near you.

Updates & Releases

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Online Releases

The Service Updates for Dynamics 365 online version 9.1.0 and 8.2 are now available.

Service Update 9 (9.1.0000.0946 or higher) resolved issues include:

• Incremental system-wide performance improvements.
• Selecting "Sales for AI" redirected to another page instead of the "Relationship Insights/Sales for AI" page.
• When attempting to merge two contacts, the 'First Name' and 'Last Name' fields were not selected by default.
• Contacts added to the "Attendees" field did not display until the page was refreshed.
• An error occurred when attempting to open or create account records using the Dynamics 365 Mobile app in offline mode.

Service Update 10 (9.1.0.1064 or higher) resolved issues include:

• The ribbon was grayed out when an opportunity record was opened and then closed.
• Contacts could not be synced to Outlook.
• The Currency field did not populate when an email was converted to a lead.
• Items on the field search list could not be filtered when more than one filter was applied.
• The Activity wall loaded slowly. The page froze/crashed if there were too many recipients in the to/cc fields.

Service Update 12 (9.1.0.1201 or higher) resolved issues include:

• No information displayed in posts generated with a workflow in Unified Interface.
• Stacked bar charts contained two categories with the same color, instead of four unique colors.
• Appointments could not be created through the Quick Create form.
• Opportunities could not be closed in Sales Hub.
• Reports displayed the wrong info on the Modified By field.

Service Update 1 (8.2.3.0114 or higher) resolved issues include:

• Phone calls and task items failed to sync from CRM to Exchange.
• Server-Side Synchronization failed to reopen tasks in Outlook that were reopened in CRM.
• An error occurred when deleting a managed solution.
• An error occurred when editing or exporting apps that were added to a solution.

Service Update 2 (8.2.3.0177 or higher) resolved issues include:

• A read-only field's value was copied twice (i.e. "1234512345 instead of "12345") when copied.
• The "Post configurations contact" workflow, triggered after creating a new contact on the Account entity, failed periodically.
• After case merging, 'regarding' of email and custom activities would not update to the master case.
• The Dynamics 365 add-in in Outlook failed to load pages (accounts, contacts, etc.).
• An error occurred while attempting to open Account records when Social Insights was present on the form.

Dynamics 365 Resource Scheduling Optimization v3.0 Release

Microsoft is excited to announce the general availability of the Resource Scheduling Optimization (RSO) v3.0 release.

New features include:

• Maximized preferred resource assignments
• Best matching skill level
• Improved logic of handling conflicted bookings
• User experience improvements to easily re-rank objectives
• Usability, performance, and quality improvements

For more information on the new features, review this post in the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Team Blog.

Field Service and Project Service Automation Updates

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

Field Service enhancements (v7.5.5.48)

Resolved issues:

• Fixed: Script error on work order quick create
• Fixed: Japanese label localization on work order form
• Updated SDK libraries to 9.0
• Fixed: Linked work order sub-grid does not allow searching existing work orders when the user clicks the + command

For information on how to install, update or remove the solution, review this article.

Project Service Automation (v3.2.0.246) Enhancements

Improvements include:

• Internal performance improvements to upgrade experience.
• Minor reliability improvements to the project schedule grid.

Resolved issues include:

• Fixed: Generic SQL Error when creating contract from quote, if customer has custom field maps for multi selection option sets.
• Fixed: The added or subtracted value results in an un-representable DateTime
• Fixed: Misalignment of field length between BusinessTransaction msdyn_description and QuoteLine.ProductDescription.
• Fixed: Missing price information on estimates view when project calendar and user timezone is set to india timezone.

For more information on the Project Service Automation enhancements, review this blog post.

Portal Capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 v9.0.12.12

Portal capabilities version 9.0.12.12 for Microsoft Dynamics 365 is now available. This release includes an updated portal host as well as solution package updates (v9.0.12.10). New solution packages are only applicable for v9.x Dynamics orgs.

The portal host will automatically be updated by Microsoft, but action must be taken by your organization to upgrade the solution packages. Until the solution packages are updated, some enhancements will not be available to portal administrators and/or users.

Resolved issues with Portal Host includes:

• Editing any component using front side editor on Portal opens a blank page if the component is on a child page which is more than 5 levels down from home page.
• If an auth provider is configured using both SAML2 and OpenId Connect on portal, then OpenId Connect configuration is broken after SAML2 provider is configured.
• Subgrid on entity form does not refresh on record delete.

Resolved issues with Portal Solution includes:

• Source Code Field in Web Template Form doesn't save the content when using Internet Explorer 11.
• Portal Timeline solution is not updated when Solutions are updated to 8.4.6.2 or 9.0.12.10 version.
• View Editor on Entity list form doesn't open properly in Internet Explorer 11.

For a full list of all portal updates released to date and their corresponding KB articles, please reference this KB article.

Additional News

Using Clone Solution to remove Managed Solution components

The ability to clone a solution in Dynamics 365 has been around for a while, but did you know you can use the feature to remove managed components, entities or entity assets? For customers already familiar with Solutions and Customizations, you can use this guided lab that showcases a simple example of managed component removal using Clone Solution and explains the “Stage for Upgrade”.

Dynamics 365 App for Outlook Blog Series

With the release of the new version of Dynamics 365 App for Outlook along with v9.0 and the new unified interface, organizations are transitioning from the legacy Dynamics 365 for Outlook client. There have been many questions about the new features, so to help our customers we’re launching a new Dynamics 365 App for Outlook multi-part blog series. The content will be based on a Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (online) to Exchange Online environment, but much of the information will also be valid for hybrid and on-premise environments.

Part 1 – The Basics:

• What does the Dynamics 365 App for Outlook offer?
• App terminology
• System Requirements

Part 2 – What is supported?:

• Feature support per client
• Outlook on the web (OWA)
• Supported servers

Part 3 – Tracking and Correlation:

• System Settings
• Configure email correlation
• Tracking options

Part 4 – Working with emails:

• Automatic email tracking
• FAQs

Part 5 – Working with appointments:

• Appointment tracking scenarios
• FAQs

The series is posted to the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement in the Field blog so check back often for the latest.

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Training Corner

Business Applications Bootcamps

The Business Applications Bootcamps are 3-5 day, in-person events around the globe focused on improving functional and technical skills for solution architects, functional consultants, industry experts, application consultants, HR analysts, and data professionals.

The bootcamps focus on 5 workloads:

• Dynamics 365 for Customer Service
• Dynamics 365 for Field Service
• Dynamics 365 for Talent
• Power platform: PowerApps and Power BI Integration
• Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

Visit BizApps Bootcamps the learn more and to register for a session near you. A Microsoft login account is required.

Free PowerApps "App-in-a-Day" Workshop

As a business leader, you want to react quickly to the changing market and cannot stay dependent on developing a software solution to do that. You want the ability to build a solution to meet your business needs swiftly. With the Microsoft Power Platform, you can build great business apps without writing code.

• PowerApps: Enable power-users in line of business roles to easily build and deploy custom business apps in both Canvas and Model-driven style of apps.
• Common Data Service for Apps: Easily bring your data together and quickly create powerful apps using a compliant and scalable data service and app platform integrated right into PowerApps.
• Microsoft Flow: Enable your line of business specialists and IT pros can build automated workflows intuitively.

Learn how to use these features with a free App-in-a-Day workshop. Classes are happening now, so visit this link to review the agenda and register for a session near you.

Featured News

Dynamics 365 Spring ’19 Release

Dynamics 365 (online) delivers new capabilities and functionalities through two major updates a year in April and October. Release notes will be published months prior to each major release update to help customers and partners plan for the new capabilities.

The next major update will take place in April 2019. Below are the details from the upcoming Dynamics 365 Release Calendar for Spring ‘19:

Starting February 1, 2019, customers can preview the new features by opting-in to enable them in the Power platform Admin Center of their production, trial and sandbox Dynamics 365 instances. For detailed instructions on opting-in, verifying your release version and how to prepare for the Spring ’19 Release, review Previewing April 2019 release functionalities and updates for Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement.

Stay informed on the major updates for Dynamics 365 by reviewing the Business Applications Release Notes, the Release Schedules and the Dynamics 365 Product Road Maps.

PowerApps Solution Checker

The challenge of increasing the performance of PowerApps customizations and the pressure of ensuring a quality release when faced with new project timelines can be daunting when you’re not sure where to start. To help with this, the PowerApps team has rolled out a new Solution Checker, available now in public preview.

With Solution checker, customers can inspect their code directly in PowerApps against a set of best practice development rules specific to customizing and extending the Common Data Service (CDS) for Apps platform. The outputs are rich detailed reports listing issues, severity, location, with some links to detailed prescriptive guidance on how to fix the problem.

For more details on the Solution Checker and how to enable it, review Make higher quality Apps with Solution checker on the PowerApps Blog.

Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework – Bring your own channel provider

Microsoft is excited to announce the general availability of the Dynamics 365 Channel Integration Framework. Channel Integration Framework is a set of APIs (methods, events, and protocols) that enable developers and partners to build immersive communication experiences such that third party communication widgets running on the channel provider cloud can interact with Dynamics 365.

Before the Channel Integration Framework (CIF), developers were required to create unsupported customizations and manipulations to embed their channel widgets in Dynamics 365. With CIF, customer enjoy some of the following benefits:

• CIF is channel, web browser and operating system agnostic. Customers can build any channel with JavaScript based widgets and integrate any cloud-based channel of their choice.
• Seamlessly integrate several providers by using the Channel Integration Framework administration configuration app.
• The framework is extensible for the configuration of two-communication between the channel and Dynamics 365 Unified Interface Apps.

For more information on the Channel Integration Framework, review this post on the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Team Blog.

Updates & Releases

Dynamics 365 for Blackberry is deprecated

As of December 3, 2018, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Blackberry App is deprecated and will be removed from the iOS App Store on October 31, 2019. Microsoft will continue to provide security and other critical updates to the Dynamics 365 for Blackberry App until October 31, 2019, but will not release any additional features or functionalities within the app. After October 31, 2019, the Dynamics 365 for Blackberry App will be removed from the App Store, and support will end.

For more information, review Important changes (deprecations) coming in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement.

Knowledgebase search powered by Dynamics 365 Relevance Search

The Knowledge base (KB) search control in Dynamics 365 is now powered by Relevance search. This change allows administrators to fine-tune the KB search to meet their business requirements and empowers agents to find the most relevant KB articles quickly.

Additional features include:

• Highlighted search term matches
• Search tuning on any knowledge article field
• Search in notes and attachments of Knowledge Articles

For more details review Improve Knowledge Article search results with Dynamics 365 Relevance Search.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Online Release

The Service Updates for Dynamics 365 online version 9.1.0 are now available.

Service Update 14 (9.1.0.1401 or higher) resolved issues include:

• Tab names intermittently displayed incorrectly as "Tab" instead of displaying the appropriate label.
• When synchronizing contacts from Outlook to Dynamics using the Outlook app, the street portion of the contact's address moved to Address 3. After synchronizing again, the street was deleted from the contact's address.
• Custom filters on the Lookup field did not function in Unified Client Interface.
• The Insert Hyperlink button in the email body of a workflow's Send Email function did not work and gave a null value.

Service Update 16 (9.1.0.1604 or higher) resolved issues include:

• Duplicate appointments were created in Dynamics and Exchange when the "Track Appointments From NonOrganizer" setting was used.
• Documents uploaded to SharePoint online from Dynamics online were not visible in the sub-grid.
• An error occurred when attempting to reactivate and qualify a lead.
• Incorrect values appeared when hovering over the fields of a custom entity.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 (on-premises) Update 2.3

Microsoft Dynamics 365 (on-premises) Update 2.3 is now available.

Resolved issues include:

• The Remaining Terms values failed to update when Entitlements were saved.
• Users could not rename the "Case" button label.
• SLAs created on non-working days (such as weekends and holidays) started immediately rather than obeying the non-working time.
• The ribbon menu was displaying even when appointment were set to "Read-only".

Overview and Release Details: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/crminthefield/2018/12/12/podcast-and-overview-microsoft-dynamics-365-on-premises-update-2-3/

Knowledge Base Article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4467675

Download link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=57523

Field Service Updates

The latest update to the Field Service solutions for Dynamics 365 is now available. This release is compatible with Dynamics 365 9.x.

Field Service enhancements (v8.3.0.255)

Improvements:

• The Field Service module sitemap now includes Connected Field Service entities.

Resolved issues:

• Fixed: Upgrade Bug – Booking is updated with GroupId before the record is created.

Feature updates include:

• The Connected Field Service solution is now available out of the box with Field Service, eliminating the need to install the additional solution package.
• There is a new Field Service Mobile application
• Push notifications can be sent to the Field Service Mobile application using the Field Service Mobile Entity Push Notification workflow action.

For more information, review Release Notes for Field Service Version 8, Update Release 3.

Project Service Automation Updates

The latest updates to the Project Service Automation solutions for Dynamics 365 are now available. These releases are compatible with Dynamics 365 9.x.

Project Service Automation (v2.4.8.47) Enhancements

Improvements include:

• Users can delete products lines from a Project Invoice when the invoice is in draft state.

Resolved issues include:

• Project Approval had overlapping command sequences for "Approve" and "Reject" impacting the Ribbon Work Bench.
• WBS failed to open for empty projects when the project start date and end date was the same.
• Javascript error impacting contract line and quote line filtering when Maplytics was installed.

Project Service Automation (v2.4.8.52) Enhancements

Resolved issues include:

• Requirement Name in the schedule assistant demand panel showed the incorrect name when the name contained apostrophes
• Issue when users tried to create a booking alert when they were assigned to a child business unit
• Issue when launching the schedule assistant with certain time zone combinations, related to daylight savings time.

To update to these releases, visit the Admin Center for Dynamics 365 solutions page to install. For details, refer How to Install, Update a Preferred Solution.

Voice of the Customer Updates

The latest updates to the Voice of the Customer solutions for Dynamics 365 are now available:

Voice of the Customer version 9.0.1371.8 is compatible with Dynamics 365 version 9.0 and above.

Voice of the Customer version 9.0.1371.7 is compatible with Dynamics 365 version 8.2.

New and updated features:

• Customers can now delete a file that is uploaded in response to the question type File upload by clicking the Delete File button in the command bar.

Resolved issues:

• When a respondent selected a smiley face in a rating question, all the preceding smileys were selected.
• The survey scoring values reverted to their default values when saving the question.
• When a respondent clicked on the text of a radio button, the radio button was not selected.
• Survey did not open in the language specified in the survey email.
• Respondent and case information was not associated with the responses if the corresponding invite was in the closed state.

To update to these releases, visit the Admin Center for Dynamics 365 solutions page to install. For details, refer How to Install, Update a Preferred Solution.

Dynamics 365 for Marketing Update

The latest update for Dynamics 365 for Marketing is now available. This update includes several new features, performance and stability improvements.

New and updated features:

• Event Website: The fully functioning sample event website included with Dynamics 365 for Marketing can now be downloaded as an angular JavaScript project that can be customized and published anywhere.
• CAPTCHA: The CAPTCHA can now be removed from the event registration form with a simple configuration setting update.
• Member Count: An accurate member count for live segments is now available to replace the estimated member count.

For more details on all the changes for Dynamics 365 for Marketing and how to get the update, review this announcement on the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Team Blog.

Additional News

Dynamics 365 for Marketing Sender Reputation

One of the fastest ways to lose sender reputation deliverability rates with email marketing is to generate a high number of hard bounces and spam complaints from your email blasts. Internet watchdog organizations keep an eye out for red flags in email content and sending behavior. They assign a sender reputation to each IP address that sends email. The lower the reputation the more difficult it is to land in an Inbox. Some of the key ways to maintain a good sender reputation is to:

• Include an unsubscribe link
• Include your organization's physical address
• Include text-only content that matches HTML content
• Don't send image-only messages

Dynamics 365 for Marketing includes features that help customers meet these requirements. It can also check each message before it is published to make sure it conforms with the requirements. If any hard bounces are detected, Dynamics 365 for Marketing will stop sending to those addresses in the future.

For more information on how Dynamics 365 for Marketing can help implement good data quality for your marketing campaigns, review this post in the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Team Blog.

Dynamics 365 App for Outlook Blog Series

With the release of the new version of Dynamics 365 App for Outlook along with v9.0 and the new unified interface, organizations are transitioning from the legacy Dynamics 365 for Outlook client. There have been many questions about the new features, so to help our customers we’ve created a Dynamics 365 App for Outlook multi-part blog series.

The content will be based on a Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (online) to Exchange Online environment, but much of the information will also be valid for hybrid and on-premise environments.

Part 6 – Working with Contacts:

• Where do I find Contacts in the App for Outlook?
• Modify the Contacts View
• Create, Track and Link Contacts
• Search Contacts

Part 7 – Helpful Tips:

• Set Regarding and Track records
• Access Views
• Modify the App for Outlook Sitemap

Part 8 – Email Governance:

• Options to restrict or filter email information

The series is posted to the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement in the Field blog.

Dynamics 365 Reports: SRS Data Connector Error

Have you ever received this error after attempting to run a report in Dynamics 365?

Maybe you’ve tried removing and reinstalling the Connector, but the error remains. Before submitting a support case, check out this article from one of our Dynamics 365 Premier Field Engineers with guidance on how to troubleshoot and resolve the issue: Dynamics CRM Reports complaining Reporting extension(SRS Data Connector) is not installed.

Training Corner

Better Together: Office 365 + Dynamics 365 + LinkedIn

As part of an ongoing effort to accelerate sales with OneMicrosoft, a video demonstration of Microsoft’s relationship analytics is now available. The Better Together video showcases how Office 365, Dynamics 365 and LinkedIn Sales Navigator are better together and empower customers.

The video showcases how Microsoft business applications give sales teams an advantage to close sales using:

• Office 365
• Dynamics 365 App for Outlook
• Dynamics 365
• Power BI
• Relationship Analytics
• Relationship Health
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Dynamics 365 AI for Sales Demo

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 AI for Sales service includes a user on-boarding video that highlights how Microsoft is democratizing data science and infusing machine learning to improve sales outcomes. Learn more about the features of the Dynamics 365 AI for Sales service and check out the on-boarding video here in the Dynamics 365 Community site.