Key Takeaways

Summit 2018 Recap 7,000 Users and Partners, 879 sessions, 584 presenters, 7,217 gallons of coffee consumed during Summit October 1, 2018, Microsoft released Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, version 8.1 October 2018 Release Notes All customers on 8.1 and later will be scheduled for updates monthly with a combined application and platform update starting November 2018. Customers will be required to have an update that's no older than 3 months. Power Platform debuts Power BI, Power Apps and Microsoft Flow

Key 2019 Engineering Initiatives “One Version” – automatic updates in the Dynamics space Common Data Model – writing all Dynamics activities to the CRM database as the common platform across F&O, Business Central, the Customer Engagement solutions and the Microsoft Power Platform New disclosure schedule – roughly six months ahead with webinars, release info, sandboxes, etc. Additional AI and Mixed Reality capabilities

Dynamics 365 Releases v 7.x Initial release of Dynamics 365 Several iterations since then Overlay customizations are still allowed Customers need to plan to upgrade by April 2019 Unless they specifically request an extension due to an incompatible ISV solution v 8.x Released in Spring 2018 Requires the Extension model for modifications No longer able to do overlays Monthly updates to versions Recommended move to v8.1 by December 2018 Scheduled monthly updates (evergreen) going forward v 10 Skipping v9.0 for F&O Unifying the version numbers with Customer Engagement (CRM) on version 10 Moving to more frequent releases and an evergreen application with ongoing, automatic releases 2 major updates in April and October where new experiences will be enabled New features will be turned off by default and can be enabled via configuration

Release Cycle – One Version Customer Engagement & Finance/Operations will both move to version 10.0 in April 2019 Finance & Operations will do monthly releases that will be pushed to the client – these will include new functionality as well as hotfixes and will cover app/platform. The bigger features will be targeted for Apr/Oct Automated Testing Capability - Resources will be needed to support Dynamics 365 releases – automated regression testing required for application updates VSTS/Azure DevOps – Requirements mgmt and testing mgmt Customer Engagement will do releases every six months (Apr/Oct) The products are not coming together Integration will be done through Common Data Service, which is the CRM Database – F&O data will do “dual write” to the CRM DB One Version service updates FAQ

Finance & Operations release cycle The product team is taking this incredibly seriously - it's their number 1 priority Today platform updates happen mostly monthly and app updates are periodic and at least every six months In the future there will be one binary package that includes both app and platform updates starting on April 1, 2019 - this is called "one version" but it means one version of Dynamics 365 F&O Customers can sign up for the partner early access timing if they want additional testing time There is a "safe deployment process" which allows them to go through the release cycle in one week if they need to get a hotfix out - that hotfix would go out to all clients There is a "slow train" option where clients can be up to 3 months behind in taking updates; however, if they need a fix, they will have to move to the latest update to get it There should be zero downtime for any of these updates - there may be slowness for up to 20 minutes if there's database syncing that needs to be done but the system will notify the users of that There's the ability to roll back to the last known good release All new features will be turned off by default and will need to be activated by a configuration setting When engineering is complete, the product team tests against 100 customer databases they have in house using automated testing through their testing tool (relies on Task Recorder) They will have a group called partner early access where they will upgrade the partner Internal Use Rights clients Then they move to the first release program (they call CAB) which includes select clients where they install the update in the sandbox and move it to production after one work Then they start the rollouts in production in three waves 1/3 of clients get it in the sandbox then production 1 week later Next 1/3 Final 1/3 - the process will take one month The entire process will take 8-10 weeks to get fully rolled out so there will be multiple versions going through the process at the same time

Microsoft Product acquisitions Enterprise Asset Management / Equipment Maintenance from Dynaway Advanced Warehouse and Transportation Management from Blue Horseshoe Catchweight Public Sector Revenue Recognition Enterprise Credit Management These will be added to Dynamics 365 over the next few releases

Other Summit 2018 Notes Flow and PowerApps – Being used to extend Dynamics 365 applications Security & Compliance Center – can be used for ISO compliance, GDPR, and segregation of duties for Audits New features coming with Dynamics 365 for Talent

PowerApps Stole the Show A free version of PowerApps now available for download You need Office 365 in order to use PowerApps 265 Data Sources are currently available with PowerApps, with no coding needed PowerApp Types include the Basic Model and Enhanced Canvas You can embed PowerApps inside of your Dynamics Platform PowerApps are currently for internal use only, due to needing Office 365 to use it Microsoft is working on the external utilization of PowerApps so that customers can also use the apps PowerApps work on multiple devices, including desktop App Ideas that stood out included: Using your mobile location to display an account while onsite so that sales just needs to add notes rather than look up the account Apps displaying SharePoint files were shared

Dynamics Specific conferences Business Forward – invite only event for BDMs Business Applications Summit – every summer, next year is in Atlanta June 10-11: https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/BusinessApplicationsSummit

North Central Chapter Leader Sally Prinsen North Central Chapter Leader

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