Microsoft published its release plans for Dynamics 365 Wave 1 a while back and updated to Wave 2 on July 12, 2022. These new capabilities will be available between October 2022 and March 2023. This article will dive into some of Wave 2’s general updates and then discuss what’s changed across applications.

General Updates:

Microsoft continues to show its commitment to digital transformation with these new updates. Some of these will be available for public preview so that administrators can test these in a non-production environment. Moreover, users will be able to try these features from August 2022 before they are set as the default setting in October. So, let’s dive right into what some of the generic features are:

Form Layout:

You’ll quickly catch some display changes upon installing the early access features for 2022 Release Wave 2. For example, the sections on the form are now of a lighter color as compared to the background. Moreover, they come with a shadow and now appear more prominent in form.  

Additionally, they’ve removed the lines surrounding the form sections, and lines no longer separate the form fields. This new layout is in sync with some of Microsoft’s other apps, so it makes sense that they would want to upgrade the main forms to have a more cohesive look.

Blocked Asterisk:

With the new update, the asterisk cannot be the first character in the Quick find search bar. From the Microsoft docs, you can find out that when you’ve enabled DataVerse, searches that begin with an asterisk will be blocked as invalid queries. As a result, you won’t be able to perform the search. However, you can turn this filtering option off, as it is only available when Dataverse is enabled.

Default Settings:

Some features (previously enabled or disabled by the administrator) have now become the default features across Microsoft dynamics 365 apps. One example is the Modern Advance Find functionality. Once the release wave 2 gets enabled, the previous legacy find will no longer be in use. Similarly, for companies using Dynamics 365 Field Service, the default schedule board for all deployments will be the new schedule board.

Other Changes for Model Driven Apps:

A few of the other new and exciting features available for model-driven apps include:  

• Share button that allows employees to copy and send record links quickly  
• Microsoft Teams’ chats embedded into Dynamics 365  
• Power BI quick reports are available for model-driven app users so they can easily create interactive reports to explore data on grids
• User profiles will now be displayed along with usernames and in record owner’s fields to make colleague presence known
• Multi-entry forms allow users to work on different form components without moving away from the main form

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Release Wave 2 Updates Across Applications

Now that we’ve gone over the generic updates, let’s see what the new updates mean for the D365 applications.

Supply Chain Management

After Covid, organizations have had to reset strategies and curtail disruptions. Microsoft Dynamics 365 supply chain management strives to make the supply chain more agile and resilient so that business processes continue to run smoothly.  

In the new release, Microsoft has added analytics for supply risk to help businesses minimize the risk associated with their sourcing plans. Moreover, it offers support for supply forecasts and multiple vendors so that companies can diversify their sourcing strategies.  

Updates also include planning optimization and prospect-to-cash enhancements. Additionally, with the new release, enterprises can also reduce language barriers as wave 2 comes with the option to make product information available in the user’s language.

Human Resource

Dynamics 365 Human Resources aims to reduce the number of manual processes and streamline employee experience. In addition, it seeks to bring the systems together, so data is not in silos.  

In the new release, Microsoft focused on enhancing operational efficiency in HR by limiting manual decisions. Moreover, it plans to expand the HCM ecosystem to integrate learning management systems through public APIS with the help of Dataverse.

Finance and operations

D365’s Finance and operations focus on providing customers with key enhancements that can reflect customer needs. Expanding on updates from wave 1, wave two also includes updates based on:

• Strengthening subscription billing solutions with split billing, quotes, and project accounting integration.  
• Automating reading and recognition of vendor invoice through OCR (optical character recognition) technology.
• Increasing the scope of tax calculation services to eliminate the need for expensive customizations for complicated tax scenarios
• Improving electronic reporting that enhances import experience by uploading parent configurations automatically.  

The new updates aim to strengthen Globalization Studio to offer more scalability and depth.

Sales

As a market leader, the Dynamics 365 sales application helps empower enterprises so they can sell more by better understanding their customer needs. The 2022 release wave 2 updates, makes the sales application more effective by:

• Optimizing seller experience
• Helping sellers prioritize work with the help of data and AI

• Providing an In-context collaboration experience to boost seller engagement
• Integrating business and productivity tools to increase efficiency

Conclusion

The 2022 release wave 2 has brought significant updates to D365 applications like Finance, Human Resources, Supply Chain Management, sales, and more. One thing to note is that these updates are subject to change. To know more about release wave 2, you can access this document.

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