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Microsoft Update
Dynamics 365
Newsletter - October 2019
Find out about the latest capabilities and enhancements in Dynamics 365 and Power Platform (Power BI, PowerApps, and Microsoft Flow.
October Licensing Changes
Effective October 2019, Dynamics 365 will be moving from multi-application, one-size-fits-all Customer Engagement (CE), Unified Operations (UO), and Dynamics 365 Plans to focus Microsofts efforts on the licensing of individual applications. A la carte licensing allows you to subscribe to the applications that align with your functional roles and scenarios, adding or removing applications as your company grows and changes over time. You can license the Dynamics 365 applications that you need, when you need them.
Dynamics 365 will continue to provide technology solutions that drive measurable results, an industry-leading product roadmap, out-of-the-box interoperability with other Microsoft technology, and the support needed to realize fast time-to-value.
Please note, Dynamics 365 subscribers may continue using PowerApps and Flow to extend and customize their Dynamics 365 applications. However, Dynamics 365 Enterprise licenses will no longer include general purpose PowerApps and Flow use rights. In other words, a Dynamics 365 Enterprise application user can continue to run PowerApps applications within their Dynamics 365 environments but running PowerApps applications in non-Dynamics 365 environments will require an additional PowerApps license. An additional Flow license will also be required to run Flows that do not map to a Dynamics 365 application context.
Fusion5 will be contacting our who have a Dynamics 365 licensing agreement that is scheduled to renew on or after October 1, please reach out to your Fusion5 Account Manager to discuss the transition. They will work with you to find the best solution for your organization.
Effective October 2019:
First, subscribe to a Base license for each Dynamics 365 user within your organization. Then, for users who require more than one application, add one or more Attach licenses to each Base license. For example, if you have an individual user who requires both Sales and Customer Service Enterprise application functionality, you may subscribe to the Sales Enterprise Base license for $95 (USD) and add the Customer Service Attach license for $20 (USD). The total Per User Per Month (PUPM) rate for this user is $115 (USD).
If you would like to subscribe to both a Base and an Attach license for a user, you must subscribe to the higher priced application as the Base license. For example, if you would like to subscribe to a Retail license and a Customer Service license for a user, you must subscribe to the Retail license as the Base license ($180) and the Customer Service license as the Attach license ($20) for that user, for a total of $200 PUPM (USD).
Q: What if a user only needs one application?
A: You may subscribe to one application for that user at the Base license price for that application.
Q: Can I subscribe to a UO Base license and a CE Attach license or a CE Base License and a UO Attach license?
A: Relationship Sales solution, Relationship Sales solution Plus, Talent, Project Service Automation, and Marketing applications may only be subscribed to as Base licenses. You can subscribe to CE or UO Attach licenses in addition to these Base licenses. You may subscribe to all other applications as Base or Attach licenses, provided that the higher priced application is the Base license.
Q: Can Microsoft Relationship Sales solution be purchased as a Base license?
A: Yes. To purchase an Attach license the Microsoft Relationship Sales solution must be the higher priced license.
Q: Can Microsoft Relationship Sales solution be purchased as an Attach license?
A: No.
Q: Will Unified Operations applications continue to have minimum purchase requirements?
A: Supply Chain Management, Finance, and Retail will continue to have a 20-user minimum purchase requirement. Talent has a minimum 5-user minimum purchase requirement.
Q: Will this change affect Finance and Operations, Retail, and Common Data Service capacity add-ons: Storage, Operations - Order Lines, and Sandboxes?
A: No, the capacity add-ons will continue to be offered in their current form and at their current pricing.
Q: Will Team Members, Operations – Activity, Operations – Device, or Customer Engagement Device be impacted by this change?
A: No, these licenses will continue to be offered in their current form and at their current pricing.
Q: Will Business Central be impacted by this change?
A: No, these licenses will continue to be offered in their current form and at their current pricing.
A long-term investment in Dynamics 365 will keep your digital transformation on the cutting edge for years to come. The Dynamics 365 product innovation roadmap is industry-leading, with heavy investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, including:
Dynamics 365 drives measurable results. An independent analysis from Nucleus Research revealed that for every dollar spent on Dynamics 365 solutions, companies realize an average of $16.97 in returns. According to the report summary, “this is significantly higher than the average for both enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM), which deliver, on average, $7.23 and $8.71 respectively.”
Dynamics 365 application extensibility and out-of-the-box interoperability with existing Office 365, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Azure, and other popular Microsoft technologies, improve your efficiency from day one:
Your Fusion5 Account Manager or Service Delivery Manager will contact you if you are affected by the upcoming changes, if you don’t currently license through Fusion5 but have questions please reach out to your account team.
Supercharge - End user adoption and administration training
Are you struggling to achieve the value that you expected when you deployed Microsoft Dynamics 365? This assessment will help your business owners visualise what might be holding you back from realising your optimum return on investment, and why.
Microsoft Dynamics is ever-changing. In fact, major solution updates are being automatically applied twice-annually now with a raft of new features and functions, some which need to be manually applied. Fusion5 likes to adopt the “teach a man to fish and he’ll be fed for a lifetime” approach to our customers’ ongoing management of their CRM solution.
By investing in this Admin training, you can be sure your team is aware of which new features are available which will be relevant to you, and how to administer them as well as having confidence that your System Administrator is not going to run into any nasty surprises by having out of date knowledge.
Dynamics 365 Commerce
‘We are excited to share the latest addition to the Dynamics 365 Retail capabilities, so big that it warrants a name change! Dynamics 365 Retail will transition over the coming months to be known as Dynamics 365 Commerce. Check out these videos for details on the new eCommerce and connected store functionality.
Along with in-store and call centre, the web store front is the next step in providing a fluid shopping experience for customers whilst the connected store uses intelligent data tools to assist retailers in making more informed decisions in their store operations.’
Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement
One of the most important aspects of running a successful business is listening to your customers and adapting to the feedback they are giving. However, that is much easier said than done. With Microsoft Forms pro everyone in your organization can easily collect, quantify and act on feedback from customers and employees.
Microsoft Forms Pro is a simple to use, yet powerful enterprise-survey solution that integrates seamlessly with Dynamics 365. Building on Microsoft Forms for Office 365, Forms Pro introduces advanced survey capabilities, including a simple drag-and-drop survey creator letting you customise each survey to your business needs, business process integration and automation, and AI-assisted reporting allowing you to do a deep dive into your transactional and behavioral data.
With the release of Microsoft Forms Pro, Microsoft are announcing the deprecation of Voice of the Customer within Dynamics 365. Existing Dynamics 365 customers with a Voice of the Customer entitlement will maintain the ability to create and distribute new surveys and collect responses from live surveys for a period of 12 months, ending on July 1, 2020. Access to Voice of the Customer – including the ability to create new surveys and collect responses from live surveys – will be unavailable after July 1, 2020. Moving forward, Forms Pro will provide seamless integration for surveys within Microsoft Business Applications, including Dynamics 365 and Office 365.
If you are already a Dynamics 365 user than congratulations, Microsoft Forms Pro is already available for you to use right now! It is baked right into your existing Dynamics 365 tenant ready for to unlock the benefits it can bring to your organisation. Contact your Fusion5 account team today so we can enable you to use Forms Pro in a way that will truly work for your business.
Join Linda as she covers the integration between Forms and Office 365, Flow & Dynamics 365 CE. Discover how to use Forms as an alternative to SurveyMonkey/Voice of the Customer.
Meet the team!
Warren could you tell us about your career background?
I bring more than 24 years’ experience in growing and managing a Microsoft Dynamics Practice; I was part of the executive and leadership team in building out the business back in South Africa; I enjoy working closely with all stakeholders, transforming their requirements into practical solutions. I typically get involved in an advisory capacity throughout the whole customer engagement lifecycle and I am very passionate about digital transformation with Microsoft’ technologies.
What are some of your career highlights?
During my career I was part of a team that were globally recognised by Customers and Microsoft as one of the leading Dynamics practices in the Africa territory; I was also privileged to be part of a team where we led one of the first Microsoft AX 2012 on Azure deployments in Africa hosted via the Netherland and Ireland datacentres. I can also mention that we were the first to deliver a 750 user Microsoft Dynamics Finance and Operations solution on premise. I carry a long history with Microsoft CRM as far back as 2004 (CRM 1.2) and have delivered various xRM solution on the Microsoft CRM platform.
What interested you in the role?
What attracted me to Fusion5 was the similarities, the business value and principles, the leadership energy it is just an amazing place to be. I am looking forward in meeting the Fusion5 customers and to understand their unique business challenges and to work with the collaborative team to realise true potential.
Finally, tell us what you like to get up to in your spare time?
I also enjoy running and riding mountain biking. I love spending time with my two girls, wife and two four legged kids (dogs). I am very passionate about scuba diving as I instruct this profession outside of work and I carry 60 certifications ranging from Open to Closed circuit, Trimix, technical wreck diving qualifications. I have spent over 600 hours under water (25days+) and have logged over a 1000+ dives. I hope to get colleagues to join me in exploring 71% of the world which is underwater.
Mel could you tell us about your career background?
My career started out in relationship management, which included customer, sales account & global logistics management roles, where I utilised Microsoft dynamics AX 2009 & 2012. This experience proved invaluable for the next step in my career, becoming an inhouse systems specialist for phil&teds and later on Steel&tube
What are some of your career highlights?
Joining the tail-end of the steel&tube AX implementation was the most challenging and rewarding career highlights!
What are you looking to bring to Fusion5?
I bring to fusion5 my customer orientated work ethic, enthusiasm and speed and determination to get stuff done!
What interested you in the role?
The fusion5 aura! And the ability to engage with a variety of customers again!
Finally, tell us what you like to get up to in your spare time?
Spending time with my Husband & 5 year old daughter and training to become a black belt in Karate (only 1 year to go)
Could you tell us about your career background?
I began my career at Fusion5 as a Graduate working with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and have since been here for a year and a half.
Prior to my time at Fusion5 I held many different casual/part-time jobs ranging from soccer coaching, supermarkets, labouring, working in events, truck driving and two separate internships in Digital Marketing and UX design.
The different jobs I’ve held have helped me adapt to different working conditions specifically being able to work with different types of people and understand the ways in which people behave/work is always going to be different from situation to situation.
What are some of your career highlights?
Starting at Fusion5 as a graduate exposed me to several different projects and industries which taught me so much, not just product specific knowledge, but more so how to run successful projects from start to finish. With that foundation I gained I have been able to comfortably work on Projects with their own unique complexities across different industries ensuring no one day is ever the same…. Which I love.
What interested you in the role?
The people and culture at Fusion5 was a strong influence as to why I chose to work here. I felt I could really fit in and feel comfortable working in an environment which I could really thrive in.
The relationships which Fusion5 builds with its clients is an area which I look forward to the most when working on new projects or with existing Fusion5 clients. I believe establishing a positive relationship prior to commencing work can really add a positive dynamics to the Project.
Finally, tell us what you like to get up to in your spare time?
Outside of work I play cricket in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association which takes up the majority of my time during the summer. I also love my music and play the piano and guitar whenever I get the chance to.
Knowledge bites product updates
Omni-Channel Timeline
Omnichannel for Customer Service
Omnichannel for Customer Service offers a suite of capabilities that extend the power of Dynamics 365 for Customer Service to enable organizations to instantly connect and engage with their customers via additional channels like Chat and SMS.
|
Feature |
Enabled for |
Public preview |
General availability |
Early access?* |
|
Integration with Dynamics 365 Virtual Agent for Customer Service |
End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
August 2019 |
October 2019 |
No |
|
End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
August 2019 |
October 2019 |
No |
|
|
End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
|
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End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
|
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End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
|
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End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
|
|
End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
|
|
End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
|
|
End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
|
|
End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
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End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
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End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
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End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
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|
End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
|
|
End users by admins, makers, or analysts |
October 2019 |
January 2020 |
No |
* Some features are available for you to opt-in as part of early access on August 2, 2019, including all mandatory changes that impact end users. Learn more about early access.
Deprecation of the Unified Interface D365CE
On September 10, 2019, we areannouncing the legacy web client will be deprecated. Customers must have transitioned to Unified Interface beforeOctober 1, 2020.This will affect Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Project Service,and Dynamics 365 Marketing customers. Microsoft will continue to provide support, security,and other critical updates to the Dynamics 365 legacy web client until October 1, 2020butwill not release any additional functionality beyond what has already been announced.
Microsoft Inspire Q&A
We sat down with our ANZ Sales Director, Nicholas Glanfield and Senior Sales Executive, John Showell from the Dynamics team to discuss the recent Microsoft Inspire event. Here are their key takeaways.
Most overarching take-away is just how partner-focused Microsoft have been when compared to the large US vendors, and most importantly continue to be – and of course how laser focused on the customer this translates into. While the wider Microsoft business continues to focus on how they are able to develop world leading solutions, in parallel, Microsoft are totally focused on processes to support their partners and in turn how the partner community will support the broader customer base.
From a specific Microsoft strategy perspective – the four key areas highlighted by Judson Althoff – Executive Vice President highlighted were;
Another theme that came through in every presentation was Microsoft’s single minded determination to ensure their solutions (in their words) ‘democratise digital’ – how the benefits of modern technology must be disseminated and must flow down to all levels in society – third world countries, the underprivileged, minorities etc. Having never heard Satya speak before it was inspiring to hear his philosophy on this – not just at the Core Note but at the executive partner event also (more on that shortly)
With over 1200 sessions on offer (not including the break out sessions, round-tables, one-on-one meetings or networking sessions) fair to say it was an incredibly busy time. Saying that one session that I found fascinating and really resonated was on the future of the automotive industry and the transformational process this industry is experiencing. By way of example – some brief statistics that blew me away include that by 2030;
Additionally this revolution will spurn an entirely new automotive echo system including elements such as demand responsive transport (taxi’s and bus rapid transport), connected vehicles, mobility as a service (MaaS), dynamic pricing and tolling, pay how you drive (PHYD) insurance, concierge services, ride sharing, IoT and micro mobility services – wow! Suffice to say this was a fascinating session.
There were two. As alluded to above seeing Satya present at the open core note was an eye-opener – so incredibly polished with such passion for what the Microsoft business is achieving. While that was amazing it did pail into insignificance as later that day I was lucky enough to attend an exclusive 45 minutes executive session I has between invited to. This session involved 30 people (representing 25 partners) who got to attend an executive meeting with Satya At the meeting further updates on a number of aspects of the Microsoft business were discussed as well as candidly answering questions from some of the largest and most admired partners globally – including Fusion5 . A real honour.
The second truly ‘inspiring’ moment of the conference was hearing Simon Sinek speak. Simon is a hugely talented and inspirational speaker and in his address titled ‘The Infinite Game vs. The Finite Game’ Simon challenged our thinking across a number of areas. One of the most interesting was what he believes todays organisations must do to not only foster exponential growth but to also live with a mindset of abundance. Five of the key take-aways were;
1. Organisations must have a ‘Just Cause’ – i.e. a single focused goal for which they are willing to sacrifice everything else. We must offer our people not only a purpose, but they must feel like their work matters.
2. Foster Trusting Teams – Do our staff know we support them and have their best interests at heart
3. Worthy Rivals – the knowledge that in the end it is not about our rivals, it is about us and their strengths reveal our weaknesses. Remember our only true competition is ourselves.
4. Capacity for Existential Flexibility – our ability and willingness as a business to make significant (180 degree if required) shifts in order to achieve our vision. This reinforces the need for (1) and (2) above to ensure the team commits to change as needed.
5. Courage to Lead – this is long-term management (vs. quarter by quarter, year-to-year leadership). Are we prepared to sacrifice short-term goals for long-term successes.
We have been talking about AI for a couple of years but it always seemed like a solution looking for a problem.
Having seen the new Virtual Agent solution and AI Builder solution I can really understand how AI can be used to address real world issues in a pragmatic fashion
The Corenote session was amazing.
Satya was of course inspiring and he placed a really heavy emphasis on Teams and the Power Platform which I believe will provide massive opportunities for Fusion5 customers in the years to come.
Microsoft Teams
“The one product that has had an absolute breakout year is Teams. Teams is the hub for teamwork. It’s really four things in one, right? It has chat, it has meetings, it brings together collaboration using all the richness of Office tools within that same scaffolding. It’s the business process workflow. That’s what Teams is about. It defies, even the category definitions that are there out in the marketplace. And that’s what’s driving this tremendous momentum” - Satya Nadella
This creates two challenges. Today, the world processes exponentially more data than ever before. But, increasingly, we’re struggling to find the resources and capabilities to effectively analyse it. It’s this conundrum that inspired the development of ‘the power platform’ and Dynamics 365 – as the world’s connected business cloud. Satya Nadella
The Power Platform includes three Microsoft applications being PowerBI for Data analytics and visualization, PowerApps for custom app builder and MS Flow for Business workflow automation. These applications empower non-developers to achieve more with their technology. Satya calls these people ‘Citizen developers’, giving individual users and businesses the ability to power their own digital transformation - a vital part of Microsoft’s future strategy and a topic that presents a massive opportunity for Fusion5 and our customers.
Customers aren’t allowed to attend Inspire – which is a great shame as it presents Microsofts vision of the future. A future where technology is going to make a real difference for every business and every individual. Inspire clearly showcases that Microsoft is not about a range of clever apps and technology, its about empowering users many of which are our customers.
Microsoft Inner Circle
We sat down with our FnO Consulting Manager, AU Monica Romano to discuss her recent attendance at the Microsoft Inner Circle awards for 2019. Monica attended the event with Nz’s CRM General Manager, Kristy Brown in Miami, Florida during October.
The Microsoft Business Applications Inner Circle Summit is an invitation-only event. It provides partners with an opportunity to network and share strategies with senior leaders of Microsoft and other partners in the ecosystem. This year the event was held in Miami, Florida. The event is dubbed as ‘an elite group of the most strategic Microsoft Dynamics partners around the world’. Selection is made based on growth, innovation, trust and a strong commitment to businesses and customers.
The typical daily agenda of the summit consisted of a networking breakfast where Microsoft Senior Leaders and Partners came together for a casual chat. The first session of the morning comprised of a Business Session where Microsoft leaders such as Cecilia Flombaum, Hayden Stafford, Alysa Taylor, Charles Lamanna, and Muhammad Alam provided presentations. This was then followed by a networking lunch. After lunch the roundtable sessions were held where a number of topics were being presented in various rooms. Partners were then granted the opportunity to have 1on1 time with Senior Microsoft Leaders to discuss various topics on business strategies. A second session of roundtables were then held to allow partners to attend 2 different topics each day. The days ended with networking cocktails and dinner.
The Microsoft Senior Leaders presented topics of Accelerating Business Applications Growth Together, Business Applications Momentum, Fall Release and Continuous innovation, Microsoft Power Platform, Customer Engagement, Operations Applications,
Accelerating PowerApps growth, On-premise to Online Migration for Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations, Grow Customer Success with Microsoft FastTrack Through Partners, Accelerating Co-Selling in Corp Accounts, Unlocking the Opportunity Around Connected Field Service, Capturing the Dynamics 365 Opportunity for Intelligent Sales & Marketing, Onboarding and Succeeding with the Business Applications ISV Connect Program, Monetization Evolution and Implications in Customer Conversations, New Modernize Finance & Operations Plays and the New Opportunities to Grow, Growing Customer Acquisition in SMB, Accelerating the ISV Co-sell Motion, Acquiring New Customers with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Partnering Around Microsoft Catalyst-BVM, Creating Momentum Around Dynamics 365 for Commerce
This was an opportunity to come armed with specific questions surrounding the topics given and have direct feedback/answers provided. They were invaluable sessions that helped us not only to connect with the business leaders but have confidence to bring back home and steer our clients/customers in the right direction.
Upcoming Events
INSIGHT - Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement
You’ve probably heard the term Power Platform mentioned, but do you understand what it is and how it will make your life easier? Join us in this session to understand how PowerApps, Flow, Power BI and Dynamics 365 are converging and why it’s a game changer
Wednesaday 30 October | 30-45 min
9:00am AEST | 11:00pm NZST
TRAINING - Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement
Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) for Dataflows in Power BI enables business analysts to build machine learning models with clicks, not code, using just their Power BI skills. Discover how to use AutoML to leverage your data prep effort for building machine learning models directly in Power BI. .
Tuesday 5 November | 30-45 min
1:00pm AEST | 3:00pm NZST
TRAINING - Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement
Technology projects can be fraught with risk. This training session covers how to ensure success in your projects, including long-term business alignment, commitment to delivering results, team work, adaptations, design and methodologies
Tuesday 12 November | 1-2 hours
1:00pm AEST | 3:00pm NZST
TRAINING - Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement
Join Linda as she covers the integration between Forms and Office 365, Flow & Dynamics 365 CE. Discover how to use Forms as an alternative to SurveyMonkey/Voice of the Customer.
Tuesday 12 November | 1-2 hours 1:00pm AEDT | 3:00pm NZDT
Contact
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