As usual, Microsoft updates us twice a year with their plans for upcoming releases. Yesterday, this day has come for the 2024 Release Wave 2.
The Release Wave 2 covers all investments that are planned from October till March of the next year. In our case now, October 2024 till March 2025.
Each segment and product receives its own Release Plan, all the details and links can be found in the Microsoft Documentation.
Also, have an eye on other community contributions focusing on their preferred Business Applications or Technology to gain valuable insights and hidden gems.
As Project Operations is my personal center of gravity, we will have a closer look at what happens there 😇
2024 Release Wave 2 Overview
First of all - here are all the necessary links as published today. Please be aware that Roadmaps and Timelines are always subject to change.
Power Platform: Link to Microsoft Learn
Microsoft Dynamics: Link to Microsoft Learn
Sales: Link to Microsoft Learn
Project Operations: Link to Microsoft Learn
Copilot Studio: Link to Microsoft Learn
AI Builder: Link to Microsoft Learn
Power Apps: Link to Microsoft Learn
Power Automate: Link to Microsoft Learn
Power Pages: Link to Microsoft Learn
Dataverse: Link to Microsoft Learn
Copilot for Sales: Link to Microsoft Learn
Copilot for Finance: Link to Microsoft Learn
My Highlights of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations 2024 Release Wave 2
As mentioned - I will focus here on Dynamics 365 Project Operations - so let's dive right into it 😊
General Investments
Here we don't see any further details, but the overall topics and investments of the Product group to improve the Application further:
Support for larger Projects with increased tasks and dependencies This is good to see, often we receive requests to handle Projects outside the current limitations and have to build structures around it. As there is no further information, I can only assume that the maximum of Tasks will be bumped to 2000 per Project. I hope the number of links (dependencies) will be further increased.
Investments in generative AI for Project Proposals and improvements to Time, Expense, and Material usage entry, submission, and approval process using Copilot We've already seen the first capabilities to use Copilot for Time Entry creation (I will link my blog post reg. that below). It only makes sense to support the user within the process with the help of AI further. I pray for more automated suggestions to no longer spend my time on these recurring tasks. 🤞🏼
Mobile experiences for Time entries Just sounds as logical as the next step to support mobile users for time entries after the release of the Mobile Expense experience. Especially for consultants and front-line workers this hopefully will provide more flexibility and support with their daily time recording.
Enable stocked and resource/non-stocked deployments in the same Legal Entity In order to explain the difference first: the stocked deployment type sits fully on the Finance side. There is no attached Customer Engagement / CRM. With the resource/non-stocked approach, you receive an integrated version via dual write. The customer uses the best of both worlds. At the beginning of each project, a decision is made, about which kind of deployment covers the customer scenario best. Opening up the legal entity to participate in a Finance based and integrated scenario at the same time, allows much quicker and more efficient strategies to answer customer requirements. Also perhaps easier to maintain for the product team 😅
Copy quotes and contracts across legal entities
Already in preview and basically the highlight of the shared release plans. It enables the definition of the desired legal entity while copying a quote or contract (salesorder). As for now the legal entity was always applied automatically and there is little to no chance to change it.
Handling quotes and contracts might become much more easier in the future.
Public preview: February 2024
General availability: October 2024
Support cost plus pricing for resource time
Another feature in preview is the cost plus pricing. Project Operations will allow organizations to define Sales prices based on the given costs of the resources.
This reduces the risk for contracts and increases flexibility in pricing - big fan of this extension.
Public preview: February 2024
General availability: October 2024
Use one grid for material and expense estimates
The Expense and Material grids are now combined in one general Estimates grid. With different views, it's possible to switch in between.
The overall experience not only improves performance and ensures extensibility but also supports the Quick create experience for the end user. The feature can be also already enabled in preview.
Public preview: February 2024
General availability: October 2024
Enable milestone date to be time zone independent
Time zones have been a returning topic in most of my implementations as soon as the client operates globally. Given that the milestone dates in the project contract line milestone table are set according to user local time, while the invoice date is time zone independent, this could potentially lead to discrepancies and inaccuracies throughout the invoice.
With the implementation of time zone independent support for milestone dates, the goal is to streamline administrative tasks and enhance the efficiency of our invoicing process.
Public preview: No Information
General availability: March 2025
Enable progress-based billing in Billing Hub
ICYMI - the Billing Hub feature enables users to validate and access invoice-related data more easily upfront and during their proforma process creation.
It basically adds to my often-quoted principle: "All the data you need is available - it just waits to be revealed in the right context"
Now, progress-based billing will be added to the hub - billing based on progress or percentage completion of milestones.
So no more navigating to a different form, less invoice correction, and overall a more efficient invoicing process - sounds like a good addition to me.
Public preview: No Information
General availability: March 2025
Conclusion
Overall, of course, a lot of time investment is covered by Microsoft Copilot and AI. Still, the shared updates look promising and focus on the parts to improve the product.
I hoped for a bit more "out-of-the-blue" announcements, while a lot of the features are already in preview and can be enabled today - please just don't do it on production (as always 😇)
Because some of the new, upcoming features are ready to be enabled today, please let me know if we should shed more light on one or the other in a stand-alone blog post.
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