Applies to Universal Resource Scheduling solution (version 3.8.0.xx), Field Service application (version 8.8.0.xx), and Project Service Automation application (version 3.8.0.xx) on Dynamics 365 version 9.1.x)

Were pleased to announce the latest update to Universal Resource Scheduling (URS), powering the Customer Service, Field Service, and Project Service Automation applications for Microsoft Dynamics 365. This update includes improvements to quality, performance, and usability and is based on your feedback and requests. This update is compatible with Dynamics 365 version 9.1.x. To update, visit the Dynamics 365 admin center online solutions page. See how to update a preferred solution.

Enhancements

• Performance improvements to schedule board refresh times when multiple Crew type resources are present on the schedule board.
• Performance improvements to searching for resource availability for Requirement Groups.
• Reduced unnecessary calls to retrieve the Resource Requirements name and booking setup metadata. Other duplicated calls are also reduced when searching for availability.
• Self-service scheduling API is now available to schedule the single resource requirement, with a corrected process name
  Resource Scheduling – Search Resource Availabilityand unique name msdyn_searchresourceavailability.
• From and To date fields on the Resource Requirement entity are restricted to have only the User Local behavior to avoid Time Zone functionality loss on the schedule assistant and loss of the Time Zone data on resource requirements.
• Added a suggestion to Service Health Diagnostics to show the suggestion/fix with manual steps when Resource Booking Sync job is disabled but the feature Synchronize resource bookings with Outlook is enabled.
• When using URS on Unified Service Desk, the schedule board can be loaded without having to pass the full UCI context.
• Quick Scheduling now supports scheduling of onsite requirements.

Bug fixes

• Fixed: The date selector on the schedule assistant list view is dimmed because it has no effect on the resources displayed when searching for availability of a requirement or a work order.
• Fixed: When booking a schedulable entity record, only the Booking Status that is mapped to the Booking Status Field Logical Nameof the Booking Setup Metadata record of the schedulable entity will be on the schedule assistant. For example, when scheduling a work order, only the optionset values of the field msdyn_fieldservicestatus will be displayed in the Booking Status drop-down on the schedule assistant,
• Fixed: When searching for availability of resources on a requirement, the number of matching Resources returned in the search on the schedule assistant is limited to the value set on the field Resource Availability Retrieval Limiton the Default Metadata Settings of the Booking Setup Metadata record. The default value of Resource Availability Retrieval Limit is 100.
• Fixed: Only one Booking Setup Metadata for an Entity can be created.
• Fixed: For German locale, on the schedule assistant, Remaining Duration does not overlap with the pie chart visual next to it.
• Fixed: Only Active Resources can be added to a Resource Pool or Resource Crew’s children.
• Fixed: A few accessibility issues on the schedule board are fixed.
• Fixed: The Resource Requirement form can be customized to remove optional fields like Resource Type from the form.
• Fixed: Selected Sort on the schedule board is determined by the Sort result by filter on Filters.
• Fixed: The Booking Alerts Template field on the default Schedule Board Settingsshows the default HTML template value.
• Fixed: Book and Book & Exitbuttons on the schedule assistant are enabled only when at least one eligible resource is returned on the schedule assistant.
• Fixed: Multiple characteristics can be selected on the filters on the schedule board.
• Fixed: A Booking cannot be deleted when it has an associated Booking Alert.
• Fixed: When booking a requirement in the weekly view or monthly view of the schedule assistant, if the availability search Start date is today and is not the first day of the week or month, the Start date will correctly default to today, so that the Book button is enabled.
• Fixed: The Work Location filter on the schedule assistant will show all three possible values: Onsite, Facility, and Location Agnostic.
• Fixed: The filters on the schedule board will show the right values in the drop-down even when the user manually types in the filter.
• Fixed: When Auto Update Booking Travel is enabled in the scheduling parameters, Travel Time of the adjacent bookings is updated when a booking is created in the List view of the schedule assistant.
• Fixed: Correct search results are displayed on the Quick Scheduling panel for all Time Zone values set on the Resource Requirement form.
• Fixed: A multiresource work order, that is, a work order associated with a Requirement group, can be booked via Quick Scheduling.
• Fixed: Requirement Group bookings can be viewed in split view.
• Fixed: The Timeline header on the schedule board will be shown even after exiting the schedule assistant by selecting Exit Search.
• Fixed: The rating values on the Rating Model form are ordered by rating values, not the names.
• Fixed: The Resource card can be opened by right-clicking the Resource, even when the Resource has characteristics with no rating values.
• Fixed: When booking a Requirement Group via the schedule assistant, selecting a timeslot on the list view opens up the Create Resource Booking Panelon all browsers.
• Fixed: When booking a Requirement Group or the requirements under that Requirement Group, the same results are displayed on the schedule assistant.
• Fixed: Facility requirements can be booked via Quick Scheduling with the correct duration of the booking.
• Fixed: You can book work orders on the Days view of the schedule assistant.
• Fixed: Multiple issues preventing upgrade.

Vinay Nalam
Program Manager, Dynamics 365 Engineering

The post Enhancements and bug fixes in Universal Resource Scheduling (URS) version 3.8.0.105 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Have you ever wondered, when you are using Universal Resource Scheduling to schedule your requirements or work orders and are searching for a requirement, which view the Schedule Assistant displays in?

Well, it is determined by either the point of entry into the Schedule Assistant (Find Availability on the Schedule Board or Book on the entity form) or the duration of the requirement:

• Find Availability: If you use Find Availability, you will land in a view based on the current view on the Schedule Board. For example, if you are in List view on the Schedule Board, doing Find Availability on a requirement will land you in List view. Otherwise, based on the duration on the requirement, your view mode will be determined to be Hourly/Daily/Weekly/Monthly views on the Schedule Assistant. If the duration of the requirement is less than 24 hours, view mode will be Hourly; if the duration of the requirement is less than 7 days, then the view mode will be Daily, and so on.

• Book button on a requirement: If you use the Book button on a requirement or a schedulable entity, the landing view is configurable. You can access the tab settings on the Schedule Board and then open the default tab settings as shown below. Under Schedule Types, None for a requirement, you can see the Default Availability View. If a grid is selected, whenever Schedule Assistant is invoked via the Book button, it will land the user on List View, and if Boardis selected, as explained above, based on the duration of the requirement, the landing view will be the Hourly/Daily/Weekly/Monthly views on Schedule Assistant.

Vinay Nalam

Program Manager, Dynamics 365 Engineering

The post Understanding how views work on Schedule Assistant appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

A recent survey of over 200 B2B sales leaders conducted by Heinz Marketing and Microsoft, sheds light on the accelerating shift to relationship selling models across a wide variety of organizations. The results are clear: the highest-performing teams are abandoning boilerplate sales funnels to nurture genuine relationships at scale, enabled by technology that provides sales teams with data-based insights that drive pipeline.

The statistics tell a compelling story (read the blog recap and full report to learn more), but the impact doesnt fully come to life until you can hear stories from sales teams using modern, intelligent sales tools to drive more meaningful, personalized engagement with prospects and convert opportunities faster.

In a new customer story, Crane Worldwide Logistics shared how the fast-growing global transport and logistics company is overcoming the challenges many sales leaders voiced in the survey, with help from the Microsoft Relationship Sales solution, which brings together LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales. Their experience closely mirrors trends from the reportincluding these top insights:

1. Comprehensive intelligence is paramount to relationship selling

The survey found that in high-performing sales departments, theres no room for siloed sales data. When asked which capabilities were most crucial in building account relationships, the top answer was the ability to manage and synchronize lead, account, and opportunity data.

John Jergens, Vice President of Global Sales at Crane Worldwide Logistics, shared the pain many sales leaders in the survey voiced. We werent all working on a common platform, so we were lacking in visibility, he said. We knew we had a vast sales pipeline out there, but there wasnt much data available on it, so we couldnt see how robust it was.

With Microsoft Relationship Sales, the team has one place to synchronize customer engagement, sales, and productivity data across LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Dynamics 365 for Sales, and Office 365. We created a very simple weekly routine where our sellers spend about 30 minutes adding new data into Dynamics 365 for Sales. Thats just six minutes a day to keep everything up to date.

2. Sellers need real-time insights into the sales pipeline

In the report, the surveyed sales leaders pinpointed the need for up-to-the-minute insights into the sales pipeline, and ways to use that data to help determine the next best steps to take in the sales process.

With Microsoft Relationship Sales, we can generate KPIs that tell us what a healthy pipeline should look like. We look at the number of prospects and targets, how long the sales cycle takes, and the time from when we close an account to the time it generates revenue, explained Jergens. And if the pipeline isnt where it should be, we can support the sellers with the resources that they needits more productive all around.

3. The right tools unlock engagement at scale

Nothing is more effective for engaging prospects at scale than providing access to the right tools, such as CRM software, according to more than a third of the survey respondents. Teams also rely on a defined sales process or playbook to advance leads through the funnel.

When Crane Worldwide Logistics made the move to Microsoft Relationship Sales, engagement quickly increased. Once the salesperson finds a prospect using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, they use Dynamics 365 for Sales to easily track those conversations,” said Jergens. “Its had a direct impact on the time it takes to develop customer relationships, because we have true visibility into those opportunities now.

4. Sales and marketing need to be aligned

Three-quarters of surveyed sales leaders in the report said that having sales and marketing teams in synch was critical to achieving revenue goals, and they needed seamless tools to share feedback, reports, and insights in a coordinated way.

Crane Worldwide Logistics is adopting Microsoft Relationship Sales solutions capabilities to help sales and marketing stay on the same path. The marketing teams are able to work in tandem with the sales team to help them understand how marketing activities can help nurture their prospects, says Jergens. Theyre really starting to get up and running, using Microsoft Relationship Sales to communicate with the customer base and help convert contacts into leads and then into opportunities.

The takeaway

Crane Worldwide Logistics is proving that combining insights and account intelligence correlates to increased sales productivity and the likelihood of achieving predictable results. The team is just getting started in its new sales journey, but the 300 Microsoft Relationship Sales users (including 150 direct sellers and marketing and account management teams) are making big strides. Just by getting the team using the platform, weve seen an uplift in activity in all areas, said Jergens. Weve had record growth since implementing Microsoft Relationship Salesthe last quarter was excellent for us.

Read the relationship selling report for the full picture

Find more details about whats driving success for todays B2B sales organizations inside the report, including strategic recommendations and insights based on the findings.

The post How a leading logistics company navigated the shift to relationship selling appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Applies to: Field Service version 7.5.10.235 on Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement version 9.x

Visit the Admin Center for Dynamics 365 solutions page to install the update. For details, refer to how to install or update a preferred solution.

Please visit Field Service Docs for Field Service updates and related content.

Field Service enhancements

Bug Fixes

• Fixed: Unable to add products to Work Orders in CRM when Estimate Quantity field has been removed from the form.
• Fixed: Agreement duration and end date moves backward when related start and end date spans across DST.

The post Release Notes for Field Service Version 7.5.10.235 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Applies to: Field Service version 8.8.8.88 on Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement version 9.x

Visit the Admin Center for Dynamics 365 solutions page to install the update. For details, refer to how to install or update a preferred solution.

Please visit Field Service Docs for Field Service updates and related content.

Field Service enhancements

Enhancements

• Added new Solution Health Rules.
• Improvements to the upgrade process.
• Improved Requirement and Requirement Group naming when the Requirement Group is related to a Work Order.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed: WorkOrderProductOperation Plugin error: Nullable object must have a value.
• Fixed: Requirement characteristics are not copied to Work Order Requirements when requirement group is created from Incident.
• Fixed: Quantity on Hand is incorrectly incremented to 2 when Warehouse is associated back to PO Receipt Product.
• Fixed: If no Agreement Incidents defined, the Duration manually set on Agreement Booking Setup is not passed to the Work Order or Resource Requirement when generated.
• Fixed: Unable to delete Work Order.
• Fixed: Unable to add products to Work Orders in CRM when Estimate Quantity field has been removed from the form.
• Fixed: Agreement duration and end date moves backward when related start and end dates span across DST.
• Fixed: Estimate Unit Amount and Unit Amount fields not getting populated automatically.
• Fixed: GenerateWOdaysInAdvance on Agreement Booking Setup to be driven from FieldServiceSettings if it is not set in Agreement booking setup.

Connected Field Service (CFS) enhancements

Enhancements

• Simulator for IoTHub now uses device twin capability in IoTHub to closely model real-world HVAC systems. The simulator updates Device Reported Properties in CFS with current values. It also uptakes changes to Device Settings in CFS, which mimics a setpoint change in HVAC systems.
• Improved icons for IoT related entities.
• New flow template for sending commands from CFS to Azure IoT Central: When command is sent from CFS, run the command on IoT Central

Bug Fixes

• Fixed: Command Buttons from CFS (such as Create IoT Flows or Send Command) are shown in Workorder and Case forms, even if CFS not in use.
• Fixed: IoT Alert field is shown in Work Order and Customer Asset entity forms, even if CFS is not in use.

The post Release Notes for Field Service Version 8.8.8.88 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Applies to: Field Service version 8.8.0.88 on Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement version 9.x

Visit the Admin Center for Dynamics 365 solutions page to install the update. For details, refer to how to install or update a preferred solution.

Please visit Field Service Docs for Field Service updates and related content.

Field Service enhancements

Enhancements

• Added new Solution Health Rules.
• Improvements to the upgrade process.
• Improved Requirement and Requirement Group naming when the Requirement Group is related to a Work Order.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed: WorkOrderProductOperation Plugin error: Nullable object must have a value.
• Fixed: Requirement characteristics are not copied to Work Order Requirements when requirement group is created from Incident.
• Fixed: Quantity on Hand is incorrectly incremented to 2 when Warehouse is associated back to PO Receipt Product.
• Fixed: If no Agreement Incidents defined, the Duration manually set on Agreement Booking Setup is not passed to the Work Order or Resource Requirement when generated.
• Fixed: Unable to delete Work Order.
• Fixed: Unable to add products to Work Orders in CRM when Estimate Quantity field has been removed from the form.
• Fixed: Agreement duration and end date moves backward when related start and end dates span across DST.
• Fixed: Estimate Unit Amount and Unit Amount fields not getting populated automatically.
• Fixed: GenerateWOdaysInAdvance on Agreement Booking Setup to be driven from FieldServiceSettings if it is not set in Agreement booking setup.

Connected Field Service (CFS) enhancements

Enhancements

• Simulator for IoTHub now uses device twin capability in IoTHub to closely model real-world HVAC systems. The simulator updates Device Reported Properties in CFS with current values. It also uptakes changes to Device Settings in CFS, which mimics a setpoint change in HVAC systems.
• Improved icons for IoT related entities.
• New flow template for sending commands from CFS to Azure IoT Central: When command is sent from CFS, run the command on IoT Central

Bug Fixes

• Fixed: Command Buttons from CFS (such as Create IoT Flows or Send Command) are shown in Workorder and Case forms, even if CFS not in use.
• Fixed: IoT Alert field is shown in Work Order and Customer Asset entity forms, even if CFS is not in use.

The post Release Notes for Field Service Version 8.8.0.88 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The June 2019 update of Dynamics 365 for Marketing is released and available for customers to install or update to starting now! This update includes several new complete features, previews of a few upcoming AI features, plus plenty of performance and stability improvements. Keep reading to learn how to get this update and which new features it includes.

This update installs version 1.35.4744.0 of the Dynamics 365 for Marketing solution.

For more information about recently released and planned new features, please see the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Release Plan. For more information about this product version, including known and recently fixed issues, see the Dynamics 365 for Marketing readme page.

How to get the update

Starting now, all new installations and trials will provide the June 2019 version. For existing installations, you must update each of your Dynamics 365 for Marketing instances manually as described in Keep Marketing up to date.

Dynamics 365 for Marketing receives regular incremental updates (released every month or so) and major updates (released about twice a year). The most recent major update was released in April 2019.

• Incremental updates (including this release) must be applied manually between major releases. Each update includes all previous updates, so you will always move up to the current version when you update manually.
• Major updates can be applied manually any time after they are released, but Microsoft will eventually apply the most recent major update for you to make sure all of our customers are running the minimum supported version. Updates applied by Microsoft provide the oldest supported major release only, which includes all previously release updates, but not subsequently released updates (even if they are already available at the time of the update).

Customize the color of any calendar item

The marketing calendar can now show a custom background color for each item you add to it. You can still have a default color for each entity shown on the calendar (such as events, sessions, or appointments), but now you can also save a color with each individual record to override the entity default. For example, you could use red as your default color for events, but override this with green for the summer event and red for the winter event.

More information: Set up record-level custom colors

Better control over leads generated from LinkedIn

Dynamics 365 for Marketing is able to use leads generated using LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms to create lead records in Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement. In the June 2019 release, we added a few more options to control whether and how incoming LinkedIn leads are matched against existing leads in Customer Engagement, and whether to generate new contacts for leads created based on LinkedIn leads. You can even disable lead matching to create new Customer Engagement leads for all incoming LinkedIn leads.

More information: Configure a strategy to match incoming LinkedIn leads to existing leads

Easily generate segments based on customer journey progress and results

It was already possible to generate dynamic segments of contacts that were stopped, failed, or processed by a specific tile in a customer journey. Now you can also generate segments based on KPIs, such as to find contacts that opened or clicked a specific email message from a specific journey. All you have to do to generate the segment is select a tile from a live (or formerly live) customer journey, go to its Data panel, and then select the floppy-disk icon for the result or KPI you’d like to use as a basis for the new segment.

More information: Generate dynamic interaction segments from customer journey results

In-line editing of text-based content blocks

Content blocks let you establish blocks of common content that you can reuse in multiple emails, forms, and/or pages. You can use them to establish common headers, footers, and other blocks of content that you would like to standardize across your communications.

In the June 2019 release, you can now edit text placed using a content block directly in the email or page designer (in-line). You could already do in-line editing of image properties for content blocks that place images, but now you can also do this for text-based content blocks. A content block must be published with Protected turned off to enable in-line editing (or turn protection on to prevent in-line editing for a block).

More information: Create content blocks that you can reuse in multiple designs

Simulate payment on the event website

The event website enables people to read about and register for the events you manage using Dynamics 365 for Marketing. Most of the required functionality is provided out of the box, but to implement online payment, you must work together with a third-party payment provider and customize the event website to interact with that provider.

Now we’ve made it easy for you to enable simulated payment processing before engaging with a third-party provider, which can be useful when giving a demo of how the event website will work. However, you must always be sure to disable simulated payment processing before going live because it can introduce a security vulnerability if enabled in a production environment.

More information: Event administration

Preview: New artificial intelligence features (spam score, smart scheduler, and segment boost)

Starting this month, you’ll be able to start experimenting with a few upcoming AI-driven features that we’re now releasing as previews. They are:

• Spam score, which analyzes the content of each marketing email message and generates a score that predicts how likely it is to be flagged by content-based spam filters. By crafting messages that generate a low spam score, you should be able to improve email deliverability while also improving credibility with recipients. More information: Check the spam score of your email content
• Smart scheduler, which analyzes your email results to identify the days and times when each contact is most likely to be actively reading his or her email. It combines specific results for each contact with general results that apply to similar contacts identified by the AI. You can use this information to schedule your email deliveries manually or allow the system to schedule deliveries to match each individual recipient. A well-timed delivery can significantly increase the chance that the recipient will open and react to the message. More information: Use smart scheduler to help improve email engagement
• Segment booster, which helps you find prospects who resemble and behave like the best contacts from a current segment and automatically adds those contacts to a running customer journey. For example, if you want to get more subscribers for your newsletter, this technology can analyze your entire contact database to find people who resemble the most engaged subscribers and then automatically add them to the segment for a customer journey that sends emails that promote joining the mailing list. More information: Use segment boost to find and add promising contacts to a journey

All of the AI preview features are disabled by default. An admin must enable and configure each AI feature that you want to use on your site. Where relevant, the AI features include privacy controls that are integrated with the data-protection mechanism built into Dynamics 365 for Marketing (which also helps organizations to comply with the GDPR). More information: Enable and configure artificial intelligence features

The post The Dynamics 365 for Marketing June 2019 update is now available appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Since our announcement of the General Availability of Customer Service Insightson April 30, 2019, we’ve continued to work hard throughout the month of May to add even more capabilities to the service. Today, we are excited to share a couple of new features we think you’ll be excited about.

Also, with Microsoft Business Applications Summit just wrapping up, do check out the sessions on demand available on the site to learn more about what’s coming next.

Now, on to the new features.

Share your workspaces with users in your organization

Up until now, workspaces created by you in Customer Service Insights could only be accessed by you (the owner). We understand that for enterprise users, having the ability to share your work is crucial for collaboration within your teams, so we’ve added a new role viewer to enable owners to share the workspaces they create with others in the organization.

As an owner of a workspace, you launch sharing of a workspace by going to the My workspaces panel, hovering your mouse over the workspace name, and then selecting the share icon to open a dialog. From there, you add any users from your company’s Azure Active Directory. Any viewers will receive an email notifying them with a link to the workspace.

My workspaces panel

Owners manage access to their shared workspaces via the Access tab in the sharing dialog. All viewers will be listed, with the owner having the ability to revoke access for the listed viewers.

Sharing dialog – Access tab

As a viewer of a workspace, a user sees the workspace in the same view as the owner, which includes:

• Case data imported
• Topics generated
• Customization settings
• Feedback to AI

Note: Viewers do not have the ability to change any settings. When owners edit a workspace, any updates will be reflected automatically for the viewers of that workspace.

Rename a topic to enhance how topics are generated by AI

Previously, customer service managers renamed topics generated by AI to make them easier to read, or more descriptive of the underlying issue. However, the renamed topic text was only used for display purposes, which didn’t actually affect future topic clustering results.

Now, we are happy to introduce a new ability to enhance the quality of the AI-generated topics, by taking the renamed topic text as an additional signal to train our AI models to better understand the needs of your organization.

Topics are renamed either on the topics list page or the cases list page. The UI is largely the same, but now highlights the fact that the renamed topic will be used as a feedback signal in the next workspace refresh.

Edit topic nameRename topic dialog

As a quick recap, here are other user signals that you can provide to our AI models to improve topic generation to meet your business needs:

• Give feedback to cases in topic.
• Move cases to a different topic.
• Set topic granularity.

Check out our April blog post for more details about these capabilities.

As always, feel free to drop us line in the comments or on the community forum to share your thoughts or feedback.

The post New in Dynamics 365 Customer Service Insights: Share workspaces, train AI model with renamed topics appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The 2019 Microsoft Business Applications Summit is over, but your learning and discovery is just getting started. Event content is now available on demand in the Dynamics 365 Community, giving you the opportunity to explore 200+ session recordings, download presentations, ask questions, and collaborate with the speakers and experts.

Get started by selecting one of four communitiesDynamics 365, PowerApps, Power BI, and Microsoft Flowand then browse or search for content that interests you. As a supplement to the event content, be sure to browse the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform product roadmap.

Jumpstart whats next for your business

Watch the visionary opening keynote for a first look at the new features and capabilities coming next for Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform. James Phillips, Corporate Vice President, Business Applications Group, and business leaders from across industries give you a preview of whats next in the 2019 release wave 2 for Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform.

Build your skills at your own pace

Learn directly from the engineers behind Dynamics 365, Power BI, Excel, PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, mixed reality, and more. Download presentations to review in-depth and connect with experts in community forums.

Get fresh ideas to solve your toughest challenges

Dig into game-changing technology like AI and mixed reality to amplify the impact of the tools you use every day. Collaborate with the community and share hints and hacks.

Heres a sample of just some of the sessions available on demand, and be sure to check out the Dynamics 365 Community for the full rundown:

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central roadmap and overview
  Learn how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central helps you connect your business, make smarter decisions, and start and grow easily.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service: What’s new and roadmap
  From recent releases in the Field Service solution to evolution in universal resource scheduling, learn firsthand about new scheduling scenarios, enhanced productivity for onsite workers, better data integration for inventory, and easier connections to Connected Field Service for Azure IoT Central.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations: What’s new in financial management
  Get the tips, tricks, and tools to plan whats next for your organization, from streamlined periodic processes to improved usability features and more.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing: Connect marketing and sales
  Discover new capabilities and pricing offers that can help you cultivate more sales-ready leads than ever before.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales: Get the most out of the Microsoft ecosystem with new capabilities and integrations
  Pick up best practices to get the most out of Dynamics 365 for Sales, including new forecasting capabilities, integrations with Microsoft Teams and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and in-app solution discovery for configure price quote (CPQ) and data augmentation partners.

Get inspired, boost your skills, and power major digital transformation at your organization. Its just a click away watch the on demand sessions now.

The post Watch on-demand sessions from Microsoft Business Applications Summit 2019 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Continuing toward our goal of having all customers on the latest version of Dynamics 365, today we are announcing the retirement of all legacy versions of Dynamics 365 for Project Service by the end of February, 2020. All customers must update to Project Service version 3.x by February 2020.

This change aims to provide all users access to the latest capabilities and improvements and offer a better support experience.

The following versions are impacted:

• Project Service versions 2.x and 1.x

We will continue to release regular updates on these versions until October 2019, and we will continue to provide support until December 2019.

Recent improvements are only available in Project Service version 3.x, so organizations using earlier versions are missing out on new capabilities, including:

• Improved scheduling experiences
• Configurable dimensions for resource pricing and costing
• Booking reconciliation views
• Modern WBS experiences
• Fluid and easy task assignment experiences
• Configurable and customizable time and expense entry
• Recalling or cancelling approval on an Approved time entry
• Multi-currency cost price lists and currency agnostic global price list for costs
• And much more.

Details on all these new features and more can be found on the Project Service documentation site.

Youll find details explaining the new capabilities available with each major release in the release notes for Spring 18, October 18, and April 19.

For steps to update, see Project Service upgrade considerations.

Were excited for all our customers, who still are on the legacy versions of Project Service, to be able to take advantage of all the recent and future improvements as we continue to head toward new and exciting places.

The post Announcing end-of-life for Project Service legacy versions by February 2020 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

In today’s world, the job of salespeople is challenging. They are under more pressure than ever to deliver value to sophisticated customers who have a plethora of information at their disposal. On the flip slide, although customers today may be better informed, with the wealth of information and options available, they are increasingly overwhelmed. They seek relevant, personalized, and engaging experiences, where they can be skillfully guided through the purchasing process. This is driving a major shift in how businesses operate today.

Playbooks in Dynamics 365 for Sales can automate sales best practices and repeatable tasks, or respond to sales or external events. Combined with business process flows, playbooks can be used to efficiently implement an organization’s guided selling strategy. Let’s look at how to launch a playbook automatically from a stage in a business process flow.

Consider a lead qualification scenario as an example. Lead qualification is an important process in the sales cycle, where the seller needs to judiciously evaluate various aspects, such as the buyers need and budget, product/service relevance, and competition, before qualifying the opportunity. We would like a playbook to be launched automatically every time a new lead is created, to guide the seller through the lead qualification process.

Create a playbook template

To get started, first create and publish a playbook template containing a checklist of tasks for the seller when a new lead is created.

To learn how to create playbook templates, and to understand how playbooks can be useful, see the blogpost Use playbooks for guided selling in Dynamics 365 for Sales.

Once the playbook template is in place, we can trigger an automatic launch of this playbook from the “Stage Entry” or “Stage Exit” event of the business process flow.

Automate the process of creating a playbook record

A workflow or an action can be used to automate the process of creating a playbook record. In this illustration, a workflow has been created that can be run as an on-demand process when the business-process-flow stage changes.

In the Create Process dialog box, specify Process name, select Workflow as the category, and select Lead as the entity, before proceeding to define properties.

Under Available to Run, select As an on-demand process, and for Scope, select Organization. We want a playbook record to be created when this workflow runs. To do so, select Add Step, select Create Record, and then select Playbook.

Now let’s set the properties. Select View properties. The Set Regarding property is configured as the current lead, and the playbook template is selected. Note that this playbook template was created with Track Progress set to No. As a result, once the playbook is launched, the activities created are linked directly with the lead record. If Track Progress is set to Yes, the activities created roll up to the playbook record, which, in turn, roll up to the lead.

Once the workflow is activated, it can be added to a business process flow to execute and launch the playbook when the stage of the business process flow changes.

Trigger launch of a playbook via a business process flow

A business process flow can be edited to add a workflow. The following screen shows changes made to the out-of-the-box business process flow Lead to Opportunity Sales Process to add the workflow in the Qualify stage, which is the first stage of the business process flow. Enter a Display Name, select a Workflow, and set the Trigger to Stage Entry before saving and validating the business process flow.

When a lead is created and enters the first stage of the Lead to Opportunity business process flow, a playbook is automatically launched, and activities are created for the seller to work on before progressing to the next stage. Appropriate playbooks can be launched from various stages in the business process flow, providing a guided experience for the seller.

Conclusion

While a business process flow sequentially structures the set of checklists or things that need to be done at various stages, playbooks can be used to summarize the detailed set of activities that need to be accomplished at a particular stage in the business process flow, providing guidance to the seller working on a deal.

The post Automate playbook launch via a business process flow appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Activity Logging was introduced in Dynamics 365 version 8 and still exists today within Common Data Service. It’s in addition to the existing auditing capability that has been available in Dynamics 365 since CRM 2011.

How Activity Logging differs from existing Dynamics 365 auditing

Existing audit logging covers enabling and viewing logging for specific entities and attributes that you select. What is logged is largely based on the context of the activity. When a record is opened, activities such as who created the record, what values were entered and changed, who updated it, and so on are logged for that particular record.

Whereas Activity Logging:

1. Logs user and admin activities across Office and Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement apps.
2. Occurs at the SDK layer of Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement apps, meaning that more data is logged than just activities.

For more information about Activity Logging, review Enable and use Activity Logging

Scenario description

Activity Logging is stored in Office 365, whereas traditional audits are stored in the Dynamics 365 database. Customers might want to move the activity logs to an external source for the following reasons:

• Activity logs are retained in Office 365 for 90 days. Most companies require audit data to be stored for longer periods of time for compliance reasons. The Office Security Compliance Center provides an option to download the logs as CSV files; however, this might not be a scalable or reliable solution.
• Customers might want to move these logs out to an external data source for reporting purposes in addition to the out-of-the-box (OOB) reports available in the Office Security Compliance Center.
• Office Security Compliance Center provides the Unified Audit log to search audit logs. Users can search audit records related to SharePoint, Exchange, Azure AD and Dynamics 365 Activity Logging. There is no option to restrict the searching to Dynamics 365 activity logs. This might be a problem for some customers.
• Adding to the previous point, permissions and role requirements for using Office Security Compliance Center can be a potential problem as well.
  The Office 365 global administrator role or one or more Security & Compliance Center role groups is required to search the logs.

Solution overview (proof of concept)

The Office 365 Management Activity APIs can be used to copy the activity logs to an external data source. These APIs provide information on the user, admin, system, policy actions, and events from Office 365 and Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) activity logs.

For this blog, only Activity Logging for Dynamics 365 will be taken into account. The following diagram shows the high-level architecture for the solution.

• The sole purpose of the client application is to subscribe to the Office 365 Management Activity APIs events. It makes a call to the APIs and provides the address of the webhook to receive notifications. The client application can be a postman, an Azure web app, or a Microsoft Flow. Office 365 Management Activity APIs allow subscriptions to the logs of multiple Microsoft services and if we were to subscribe to the Office 365 Management Activity API for Dynamics 365 Activity Logging, we would need to ensure that we set the ContentType to General.

https://manage.office.com/API/v1.0/{TenantId}/activity/feed/subscriptions/start?contentType=Audit.General&PublisherIdentifier={TenantId}

The {TenantId} in the above URL represents your Office 365 tenant ID.
For more information about Office 365 Management Activity API subscriptions, see Start a subscription.

• Office 365 Management Activity APIs send notifications to the webhook when new content is available. The webhook performs the following steps:

The webhook can be implemented as a function app, a web API or a flow, and so on.

I have built a proof of concept (PoC) using Microsoft Flow as the client application and the webhook, and Azure Cosmos DB as an external storage.

I have chosen Microsoft Flow because it is a no-code option and does not require hosting as some of the other options, like Azure Functions or Azure web APIs.

Activity Logging records are retrieved as JSON objects, and Azure Cosmos DB can store them as documents without any changes. There is no schema or index management in Azure Cosmos DB and it is relatively cheaper than Azure SQL. These are some of the reasons for choosing Azure Cosmos DB as a data store.

Results

The design approach will copy the Activity Logging to Azure Cosmos DB. Users are then able to use the Azure portal to check the audit records. The following screenshot shows the audit records in the Data Explorer tab of Azure Cosmos DB. You can also use Cosmos DB explorer to manage and query the data.

Since the data is now within Azure Cosmos DB, we can then use SQL query language to retrieve data and develop reporting.

Tip: Activity Logging uses an array of name-value pair for storing field changes. To query the audit records based on the field value, use collection[Value] in the SQL query instead of collection.Value because Value is the keyword in Azure Cosmos DB. The query in the above screenshot demonstrates the same.

Building a proof of concept (PoC)

These are the steps I went through to construct a proof of concept to store Activity Logging within Azure Cosmos DB:

1. Download the flows used in the solution.
2. Register an app in Azure AD to access Office 365 Management Activity APIs. The client ID and the secret key of this app will be used for OAuth authentication. OAuth authentication is used in the webhook and client application flows to connect to Office 365 Management Activity APIs.
3. Create an Azure Cosmos DB to store the activity logs.
4. Import the webhook flow.
5. Import the client application flow.

1. Download the flows

Download the following two Microsoft Flows used in the solution:

• Activity Logging blog – Subscribe: This flow is used as a client application that subscribes to the Office 365 Management Activity APIs.
• Activity Logging blog – Webhook: This flow is used as a webhook that processes the notification.

2. Register an app to access the Office 365 Management Activity APIs

The first step is to register an app to permit access to the Office 365 Management Activity API.

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.
2. In the left-hand navigation pane, select the Azure Active Directory service, and then select App registrations > New registration.
3. Enter the information as shown in the following screen and select Register.
4. Copy the Application (client) ID. This is required to make API calls.
5. In the left-hand navigation pane, select the API permissions, and then select Add a permission.
6. Select Office 365 Management APIs.
7. Select Delegated permissions, select the check box Read, and then select Add permissions.
8. Select Grant admin consent for ..
9. In the left-hand navigation pane, select Certificates & secrets, and then select New client secret.
10. Copy the key because it is required for authentication. The key will be hidden permanently once you navigate away from this tile.

3. Create an Azure Cosmos DB

Check the following link for instructions on how to create the Azure Cosmos DB:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/create-sql-api-dotnet#create-account

We have created a database named Audit and a container named Audits with UserId as the partition key.

4. Import the webhook flow

1. The proof of concept is using Microsoft Flow as a webhook to receive notifications in this solution. Import the flow from the zip file downloaded in step 1. Check the link for instructions: https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/import-export-bap-packages/.
2. Open the flow in Edit mode.
   
3. Open step 1 – When a HTTP request is received and copy the HTTP POST URL. The URL will be used as a webhook address to subscribe to the notifications in the client application Microsoft Flow.
   
4. Replace the values for TenantId, ClientId, and Secret variables in steps 2, 3, and 4. The TenantId is your Azure Tenant ID and ClientId and Secret come from the Register an app to access Office 365 Management Activity APIs heading above.
5. Open step 6 and Add new connection for your Azure Cosmos DB database.
   
6. Save the Flow.

Note: This flow is using a Response action before step 6 (processing of audit records). There are two reasons behind it:

• When you subscribe for notifications, the Office 365 Management Activity APIs expect an HTTP 200 response back. Because this flow is written to retrieve the blob URI contents and process them, it will fail. So, I have pushed the response step before processing in step 6.
• The webhook notification can have multiple content URIs, and those content URIs have a collection of audit records. It is possible that the Office 365 API connection will close before the webhook processes all the records and this will cause the flow to fail.

5. Import the client application flow

The PoC uses Microsoft Flow as a client application that calls Office 365 Management Activity APIs to subscribe to the Activity Logging notification.

1. Import the flow from the zip file downloaded in step 1. https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/import-export-bap-packages/.
2. Open the flow in Edit mode.
   
3. Replace the values for variables TenantId, ClientId, and Secret in steps 2, 3, and 4. The TenantId is your Azure Tenant ID and ClientId and Secret come from the Register an app to access Office 365 Management Activity APIs heading above.
4. Replace the value of variable WebhookAddress with the HTTP URL POST copied from the webhook flow.
5. Save and run the flow. If the subscription is successful, you will receive the following response for step 6.

Taking it further

This PoC should be used as a template. Its not a production-ready solution.

1. Some customers might want to consider the webhook just as a notification receiver and run the processing in a separate flow.
2. Extending on point 1, customers might want to push the audit collection into an Azure Service Bus queue and then process the records for scalability and reliability. The following diagram has been taken from the work that my colleague Simon Matthews is doing on Activity Logging.
   
3. There is one step missing in the above solution. In step 6 of the webhook flow, when the flow makes an HTTP request to retrieve the audit collection from the content URI, if the number of records in the blob is too many, then the response might not send all the records and send a URL for the next page in the response header (NextPageUri). If this is the case, customers might want to implement paging. My test environment does not have that many activity log records to implement this. Please check the pagination section on the Activity APIs page:
   https://docs.microsoft.com/office/office-365-management-api/office-365-management-activity-api-reference

We hope you find this approach a useful scenario to show how you can copy activity logs out of Office 365.

Thank you for your interest in the topic and feel free to comment and provide your feedback.

Amreek Singh

FastTrack Solution Architect

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement

The post Storing Common Data Service activity logs outside of Office 365 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

A new study by Forrester Consulting calculates the potential return on investment (ROI) for implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service can help organizations realize benefits of $1.8M over three years, adding up toa net present value (NPV) of $1.4M and an ROI of 363 percent.

The Microsoft-commissioned Total Economic Impact (TEI) is based on interviews with three long-term telecom, construction, and manufacturing customers usingMicrosoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service. Prior to deploying Dynamics 365 for Field Service, these organizations were evolving from a bare-bones approach to field service operations. As they grew, it became evident that a more proactive approach was needed that could extend existing resources further.

Key findings

• Through increased transparency and efficiencies into field operations, field teams reduced hours billed for repair and maintenance work orders by up to 60 percent. Over three years, the associated cost savings reached a present value (PV) of $1.4M.
• By enabling IoT and remote device access, organizations eliminated field dispatch for over 10 percent of total work orders with subsequent labor cost savings, totaling a three-year PV of $360K.
• Efficiencies from optimizing or eliminating travel were not limited to fewer labor hours billed. Field workers slashed time driving to work sites by 50 percent. The fuel savings over three years amounted to a PV of $28K.
• By leveraging automation, call center agents reduced service calls by a minimum of 20 percent with a three-year PV of $13K.

But thats not all. There were many unquantified benefits such as heightened customer experience and satisfaction. These companies also reduced overtime and avoided regulatory penalties while improving hardware quality.

The bottom line

Forrester took a deep dive into the customer journey of these organizations, sharing their challenges, their vendor selection process, and the results of their investments. All three customers agreed that Dynamics 365 for Field Service provided:

• A modern and customizable field service management solutionright out of the box.
• Increased field utilization and improved visibility across the entire field service landscape.
• Greater operational efficiency including reducing the number of repeat visits, service reminder and survey calls, and technician transportation costs.

Learn how Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service can modernize, optimize, and energize your field service organization.

The post How Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service impacts the bottom line appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The monthly Retail webinar held on June 6 was filled with some great content and attended by over 80 participants from around the globe.

We started with a demo of extensibility enhancements during which the new application programming interface (API) triggers were used with the point of sale (POS). After that, we discussed details of the Regression Suite Automation Tool (RSAT) for POS, which enables retailers to perform regression testing on POS to ensure new enhancements don’t break existing business processes. We then covered the statement posting enhancements, which were added to improve posting performance and provide new validation rules for transactions. This was followed by the product search and discoverability enhancements, where we showcased faster product searches and new refinement capabilities. The last part of the webinar provided insights into the upcoming task management capabilities, which will ensure efficient store execution. We also showcased our vision for simplifying the management of the button grids displayed on POS.

Weve posted a recording and the presentation materials from this last webinar, as well as information about the upcoming webinar on theRetail Interest GroupYammer group. This Yammer group is quite activeused by implementation partners, support, customers, and product group members to post questions and commentsallowing members to take advantage of the collective knowledge of the Retail community. To join this group, go to the Yammer site to send a request –http://aka.ms/retailinterestgroup.

The next webinar will be during the second week of July. Were looking forward to seeing you all there!

The post Retail webinar for June appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

This week, Microsoft will be at the SHRM 2019 Annual Conference and Exposition to share best practices on how to unlock talent success, connect to collaborate, and drive culture change. The event theme, creating better workplaces, aligns with our focus on creating a modern workplace where people thrive.

In recent years, weve seen an exponential growth of digital connectivity, devices, technology, and data. And yet, our workplaces and workforces still operate according to the early 20th-century assembly line models of repetition, efficiency, and scale.

Modern workplaces are more than just exceptional places to workthey are cultures where people are inspired and empowered to innovate, create, and collaborate. Achieving this vision requires human resources to build a modern workforce, bringing people together to pursue their passions and realize their purpose. A modern workforce is made up of connected people.

Microsoft is helping HR leaders to digitally transform the employee experience to create a workplace where people can thrive. As SHRM 2019 attendees will learn, organizations can break down barriers that prevent talent success with the tools needed to connect and engage with employeesnot only in the office, but all over the globe.

Microsoft is helping human resources professionals to accelerate success with three solutions showcased at SHRM 2019:

Connect to collaborate with Microsoft 365

Boost productivity and empower employees by giving them the modern tools to create and innovate, enabling them to deliver amazing results and do their best work together. Microsoft Teams is the hub for teamwork in Office 365; a shared workspace where you can chat, meet, share files, and work with business applications.

Explore Microsoft 365

Drive cultural transformation with Workplace Analytics

Cultivate success with an engaged and efficient workforce using insights from everyday work in Office 365. Empower teams to collaborate effectively, free up time to work on their most important work, and create a healthy work-life balance. Identify and promote the right skills and behaviors to meet organizational goals, develop careers, and grow new leaders.

Get intelligent insights with Workplace Analytics

Unlock talent success with Dynamics 365 for Talent

Hire, develop, and retain people who can deliver impactful results. Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Talent empowers you with tools to land top candidates and accelerate their success. Meanwhile, your employer brand will stand out thanks to a fast, seamless experience thats optimized for mobile and integrated with LinkedIn, the worlds largest talent marketplace. With Dynamics 365 for Talent, you will develop a nuanced understanding of your employees and capture data to improve their experience.

Learn more about Dynamics 365 for Talent

Attending SHRM 2019? Connect with Microsoft!

If youre attending SHRM, we invite you to stop by our booth to speak with experts from Microsoft 365, Workplace Analytics, and Dynamics 365 teams, get a free professional headshot, and learn how were digitally transforming the employee experience.

We also invite you to attend two sessions hosted by our team:

Test your Microsoft for HR Tech IQ
Sunday, June 23 | 5:45 6:15pm | Exhibitor Solutions Theater
Speaker: Michele Ballinger, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Dynamics 365

Enjoy a fun game and test your knowledge of how Microsoft is helping to transform the HR function. Show your Modern HR smarts and learn along the way. There will be lots of fun and prizes at this session – dont miss it!

Cultural Transformation at Microsoft
Monday, June 24 | 4:15 5:15pm | LVCC N109-114
Speaker: Joe Whittinghill, CVP, Talent, Learnings and Insights

In this session, we will share what Microsoft has learned throughout its ongoing cultural transformation. Over the last three years, Microsoft has been on a journey to rediscover its soul, transforming its culture from one of know-it-alls to one of learn-it-alls grounded in a growth mindset. Hear from Microsoft HR key leader and learner Joe Whittinghill, about this ongoing process.

We look forward to meeting you!

The post Essential tools to create a better workplace – Microsoft at SHRM 2019 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Applies to: Dynamics 365 Remote Assist (version 2.02)

In the June release, we updated our User Interface framework to make it faster to make updates and release new features. You may notice some small UI differences, but all the features are the same. Among the updates, the contacts list has a new look and feel, and OneDrive is built right into the call window.

We also added support for contact names containing Japanese characters.

For information on using Remote Assist, see the Remote Assist user guide.

The post June release of Dynamics 365 Remote Assist adds small UI and other improvements appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS) team is happy to announce the immediate availability of the release notes for LCS (June 2019, release 2).

Prevent overlapping service requests against the Production environment

Under certain conditions, allowing overlap of service requests against the Production environment can prevent rollback support. Specifically, any time a deployable package is scheduled for the Production environment, a backup of the environment is taken. This backup would not be consistent if a golden database refresh or a point in time restore of the Production database was performed.

To help ensure that rollback support is always available for the Production environment, overlap of service requests on the Production environment will no longer be supported.

This means that scheduling a deployable package, Sandbox to Production database refresh, or a Production Point-in-time Restore service request cannot be requested while another service request is pending.

Overlap is not a common occurrence but will be important to note for customers planning execution times for a Mock Go Live or a full Go Live. We recommend that you apply the deployable package first, and after this is completed then request a copy of the Sandbox to Production refresh in preparation for the launch.

Self-service upgrade support for 10.0.3 with Platform update 27

The available upgrade versions for customers running application versions 7.0 thru 7.3 has been updated to include application release 10.0.3 with Platform update 27. For more details about which version to select, see Self-service Upgrade to the latest version https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/unified-operations/dev-itpro/migration-upgrade/self-service-upgrade#understand-which-version-to-select-for-upgrade.

Update to the pause policy for One Version

We recently announced a flexible service updates policy for One Version. A customer will now have the option to pause up to 3 continuous updates if they are unable to take updates due to industry regulations or valid business reasons. With this release of LCS, we have enabled customers to participate in this policy, so they will now be able to pause up to 3 continuous updates via the Update settings page in LCS. To learn more about how to pause updates, see Pause service updates.

Cancel a customer scheduled update on a production environment deployed using self-service deployment

With this release of LCS, customers will now be able to cancel a scheduled deployment of an update of their production environment. This only applies to the updates scheduled by the customer on environments deployed using self-service deployment.

The post Lifecycle Services – June 2019 (Release 2) release notes appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The post Upcoming changes to the update tiles in Lifecycle Services (LCS) appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

When a customer is ready for a formal proposal that contains the most current pricing information and product quantities, they are generally presented with a quote. Until now, a salesperson using Dynamics 365 for Sales could generate quote documents only in Word format using Microsoft Office templates. They then had to convert the Word docs to PDF manually and then share them with customers. With PDF generation from quotes generally available, salespeople can now quickly create PDF quote documents based on standard templates to share with customers. With PDF generation from quotes, salespeople can: Create and download PDF documents from quote records based on standardized templates. Quickly send emails to customers with PDF quotes attached. PDF generation from quotes simplifies the effort and reduces the time it takes to complete one of the most frequently performed actions in a sales process. Before we get into how to generate a PDF document from quote records, let’s review some prerequisites for accessing the feature. You need to: Be using Dynamics 365 for Sales (app) version 9.0.1905.2010 or later or Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional (app) version 9.1.1904.1025 or later. Enable PDF generation from quotes. Have uploaded Word templates for quotes that can be used to generate the quote documents. Check your version of Dynamics 365 for Sales To check what version of Dynamics 365 for Sales you are using, select the Settings icon on the navigation bar, go to Advanced Settings > Settings> Customization> Solutions, and check the version of the Dynamics 365 for Sales application or Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional solution, as applicable. You need to be using Dynamics 365 for Sales (app) version 9.0.1905.2010 or later, or Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional (app) version 9.1.1904.1025 or later. Enable PDF generation from quotes If you are using Dynamics 365 for Sales, you can enable the feature by going to Sales Hub>App Settings>Sales Administration>PDF generation.   If you are using Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional, you can enable the feature by going to Sales Professional>Setup>Sales settings>Advanced settings>PDF generation. Upload standardized templates To be able to create PDF documents from quote records, you must have uploaded templates for the quote entity, which provides the format of the document to be created. To learn more about how to create standardized Word templates and how to upload them, see Use Word templates to create standardized documents. You can also use the two templates that come with sample data available for the application: Print quote for customer and Quote summary. Create quote PDF When the feature is turned on, quote records will start showing two buttons in the main form: Create PDF and Email as PDF. To download a quote as a PDF document in conformance with an uploaded standardized template, open the quote record. Then select Create PDF, and select the template you want to use.

The application starts downloading the quote as a PDF document. You can save and use the quote document.

To share a quote with a customer, select Email as PDF in the quote form, and select the template. The application creates a draft email with the quote PDF document attached. You can complete the email and send it to your customer with just a few clicks.

You can find documentation of the feature here: Generate a PDF document from a quote record. Check out the feature today, and share feedback on what more you would like to see on our ideas portal.

The post Generate PDF quote documents based on standardized templates appeared first on Dynamics 365 Blog.

Applies to: Dynamics 365 Import Tool (build 111.1906.20006.0)

We’re pleased to announce that with the latest update of Dynamics 365 Import Tool (Preview), in addition to GLB files, you can now import FBX, OBJ, STL, PLY, and GLTF files.

This update makes it easier to import your CAD files for use with Dynamics 365 Layout, Dynamics 365 Guides, or Dynamics 365 Product Visualize.

If you use the Send to Microsoft option, you can now also specify what’s most important to you. For example, you can specify whether visual fidelity or performance is most important.

Learn more about using Dynamics 365 Import Tool (Preview).

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