Thread by @KhanAli

#Thread on new features and updates announced in release notes of #MSDyn365 Oct'18: docs.microsoft.com/en-au/business…. This is an excellent longread. Thread is just #TLDR for #CE specific/related features

#PowerApps #CDS #Flow #USD #Sales #FieldService #USD #Portals #AzureML

Starting with #MSDyn365 #Sales updates:
1. Playbooks: Think of it as Barney Stinson's playbook. Basically set of "automated repeatable sales activities" that help in winning opportunities. Looks like it'll be a set of activities which could be assigned to users

2. #MSDyn365 #Sales will feature deeper integration with LinkedIn, including capability to send InMail and adding LinkedIn related step in Business Process Flows

3. Out of the box @MicrosoftTeams integration

4. Curious new feature: Who knows whom. Sounds promising. Have to see how does it work. Should help in utilizing network across sales function

5. "Talking Points" - another curious feature, will help salespeople to talk about relevant topic (sports, movies, books, weather) that prospect customer is interesting in, based on historical conversation #MSDyn365

6. Leveraging @AzureML #MSDyn365 will automatically suggest next 'Quick Actions' to close sales

7. Predictive lead scoring - thanks to #Azure #MachineLearning again

8. Mobile App updates: natural language queries, AI based widgets etc. #Awesome #MSDyn365 #Oct18ReleaseNotes

Next, lets have a look at new features announced in #MSDyn365 #CustomerService module:
1. Service management will be part of CSHub app (will not be in Settings anymore). And yes, it is unified interface!

2. Similar cases and Knowledgebase articles will be 'auto-suggested' based on #Azure #MachineLearning

3. This is a big one: Unified Service Desk will be part of 'Omni-channel Engagement Hub'

What is #MSDyn356 Omni-channel Engagement Hub? Well it is defined as: a cloud-based service that extends the power of Dynamics 365 for Customer Service to enable customers to instantly connect and engage with their customers via newly introduced channels: live chat and SMS.

That's right: live chat and SMS!

Moving on...

4. Bots will be part of Omni channel hub too.

5. Unified Service Desk will be embrace unified interface too! #MSDyn365

#MSDyn365 #Portals will see some major updates too: embedded PowerBI widgets, IP based restrictions to improve security, @SharePoint integration and simplified customizations editor

Alright, next is my favorite: #MSDyn365CE #FieldService updates announced in #Oct18ReleaseNotes:
1. Finally out of the box tight integration with #MSDyn365FO for entities like: Accounts, Products, Pricelists, Purchase Orders

2. Remember Entitlements in Case. They're now integrated with Work Orders to ensure service delivery to customers based on contract. This is huge and is a usual requirement of field service clients #MSDyn365CE #FieldService

3. Can we assign multiple resources to a work order?

YES! Again this was one of the most common requirements of #fieldservice clients and this is now possible out of the box!

4. SLAs in Work Orders? Yep! you got it

5. Field service app: lot of updates here including live location tracking, bot integration and push notifications!

6. Multi-resource scheduling is now possible!

7. #MSDyn365CE also features 'Resources Pools' now. This was very important for #fieldservice focused service organizations and is now supported out of the box.

8. Facility and capacity scheduling based on capacity, e.g. booking a truck based on how many people can ride in it
#MSDyn365CE #FieldService

9. How about scheduling preferences: like booking appointments every 15 minutes, or slots of 4 x2-hours each day. Yep, that is supported out of the box now too.

#FieldService #MSDyn365CE

10. Checkout Schedule Board's split view! really helpful for crews and resource pools

#MSDyn365CE #FieldService

11. In-form scheduling is another major update which will allow users to book an appointment without going to schedule board. Really helpful for customer service scenarios

#MSDyn365CE #FieldService

12, 13 and 14: #MSDyn365CE is featuring a @PowerApps based app for #FieldService, releasing a scheduling API and enhacing #ConnectedFieldService.

15. Last but not the least - Resource Scheduling Optimization (RSO) will feature new enhancements like capabilities to optimize calendar of selected resource(s) and what-if analysis scenarios

#MSDyn365CE #FieldService #RSO

No discussion on #MSDyn365CE is complete without mentions of @PowerApps @MicrosoftFlow and #DataIntegration. Following is a quick rundown of updates in these areas

Updates announced in @PowerApps in #October18ReleaseNotes:
Accessibility checker
New solution explorer
Canvas app can be opened within model-driven app
Permission enhancements
Auto-number sequences updates
Deeper @PowerBI and @SharePoint integration
New Forms designer (contd..)

Support of SSRS based reports
Integration with @MSIntune
Organization level ON/OFF switches for Advanced Find, Merge Records, Share Records, Bulk Edits and On-demand workflows (sysadmins can make these changes on org levels)

Updates announced in @MicrosoftFlow in #October18ReleaseNotes:
Integration with @MicrosoftTeams
Create flows in @msvisio
Custom control in business process flow

Updates announced in #CommonDataModel #October18ReleaseNotes:
Support for #PowerQuery
Data integration dashboard

Phew! This was one long #thread. Disclaimers: image credits to @Microsoft. Note: Listed features are not released yet.

If you'd like to play with these features before release in Oct'18: enroll in #MSDyn365CE Insider program here: experience.dynamics.com (click on Insider Program)