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What's new in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plan for wave 2 2021?

Patric Timmermans
Sep 1, 2021
Patric Timmermans
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Microsoft power platform release plans and Dynamics 365 release plans introduce news features. Numerous new features have been added to the Dynamics 365 applications in this edition. These enhancements include user experience upgrades that will be enabled automatically for users in production environments beginning in October 2021.

Let's look at Dynamics 365 wave 2 2021 features:

1. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance integrates data from Dynamics 365 and Office 365 to provide a centralized source of financial data that saves time and allows for faster, more informed decisions. In this Dynamics 365 wave 2 release plan, it gives users the ability to conduct business anywhere, at any time, thanks to an intuitive user interface that is tailored to their role and preferences. Dynamics 365 Finance's capabilities are only strengthened by this update.
This Dynamics 365 release plan includes the following enhancements to Dynamics 365 Finance:

  • Insights and Automation
    2021 Dynamics 365 release plan, Finance continues to lead in providing intelligence and automation to our users in a trusted way. There is a lot of room for innovation in finance by facilitating new business models and integrating automation.
    Here are Dynamics 365 Finance updates for wave 2 2021:
    • Cash flow forecasts
    • Customer payment predictions
    • Bank balance forecasts
    • Intelligent budget proposals
    • Treasurer workspace
  • Enhanced Usability
    This Dynamics 365 release plan for Finance enables customers to increase productivity, ensuring on-time closure of financial activities. It improves usability and performance by automating and modernising the services that customers use daily.
  • Globalization
    By improving two areas, Dynamics 365 Finance is focusing on globalisation. Their first goal is to make 365 finance easier to use. Second, they'll keep working to improve their no-code and low-code capabilities.
    Here are Dynamics 365 Finance updates wave 2 2021 for globalization:
    • Electronic invoicing system
    • Tax consultation service
    • Tax reporting
    • Configurable business documents
    • Electronic Reporting

2. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

To ensure safe and cost-effective business continuity, in this Dynamics 365 release plan, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management provides enhanced supply chain visibility, business platform support, optimised workforce, agile planning and distribution processes, and maximised asset uptime. The following are the key components of this update:

  • Supply chain resiliency and visibility
    As organizations emerge from the current crisis and restart operations to predict and minimize disruptions, increasing resiliency remains a top priority. Organizations will strive to strike a balance between cost and investment to create a supply chain that is both resilient and visible. Dynamics 365 SCM will enable businesses to optimize their use of available material and capacity to avoid shortage of inventory and keep the business flowing by investing in resource planning.
  • Inventory Management
    You can gain visibility, and efficiency in your supply chain with several new inventory and logistics features in this release. Wave 1 improved the user experience of the warehouse management mobile application; the following are the updates for Wave 2:
    • Global inventory accounting
    • Inventory allocation
    • Rebate management
    • Landed costs
    • Pricing
    • Warehouse management mobile app
    • GS1 barcodes
  • Manufacturing
    You'll be able to run scalable and resilient mission-critical manufacturing processes without interruption thanks to new manufacturing features in the new Dynamics 365 release plan. Manufacturers now have access to the following features:
    • Integration with execution systems
    • Material traceability
    • Warehouse management mobile app
    • Face recognition
  • Planning
    Planning Optimization support for production scheduling that respects finite resource capacity has been added in this release. Manufacturers can now do the following:
    • Scheduling to predict delays
    • Support for process manufacturers- now supports batch orders, co-products, by-products, and items with limited shelf life
  • Product Management
    For all Dynamics 365 applications, the product information management and sales configuration service provide a single source of product truth.
    • Navigation to BOM version
    • Hazardous materials information
    • Validation on order quantities
    • Country of origin management feature

3. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

New features in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central make it easier and more efficient for partners to manage tenants and administrators to manage licenses and permissions. Application enhancements broaden the interface with Microsoft 365 and include country and regional expansions, with over ten new markets. New features also include:

  • Application
    Microsoft has fulfilled some of the most requested updates in the latest Dynamics 365 release plan:
    • Personalization to gain more insights
    • Addition of non-inventory items to planning sheets
    • Bank and payments reconciliation
    • Bulk records between Business Central and Multiverse
    • Job queue entries
    • Default line type in sales and purchase docs
    • Sync of Business Central and Multiverse records
    • Better UI
    • Removal of obsolete reports
    • Trusted partner apps
    • Demand forecasts item code variants
  • Globalization
    Due to the high demand of Business Central online, in this Dynamics 365 release plan, Microsoft is expanding their global reach to include more countries and regions so that small and medium-sized businesses around the world can achieve more. The following are the list of countries now included in the Business Central globalization plan:
    • Argentina
    • Bulgaria
    • Chile
    • Myanmar
    • Puerto Rico
    • Slovakia
    • Ukraine
  • AL Development
    Microsoft continues to invest in a broad range of extensibility tooling capabilities for developers with this edition, including strengthening the AL language and providing a great developer experience. The following are the new updates for wave 2:
    • Documentation generation for AL language
    • Profiling performance with snapshot debugger
    • Extensions sync with on-premises
    • Improved access control
    • URL inclusion in diagnostic messages
  • Governance and Regulations
    Wave 2 of the 2021 release provides a set of admin and governance capabilities to assist administrators and IT professionals in setting up, securing, managing, governing, and monitoring customer environments. Users can now:
    • Manage environments using Azure
    • Handling schedules tasks
    • Copying different environments
    • Operations log enhancements
    • Restarting environments

4. Highlights from Microsoft Power Platform

  • Power BI, Pro & Premium
    • In this Microsoft power platform release plan, Power BI is continuing to invest in three key areas that drive a data culture:
      • Empowering every individual with AI-infused insights
      • Empowering every team with BI woven into the fabric of their work,
      • Empowering every organization to meet the most demanding enterprise needs
    • With new report authoring tools in the 2021 Microsoft power platform release plan, Power BI Pro continues to invest in creator experiences. Consumer experiences in both the Power BI service and the Power BI mobile applications are constantly evolving. This includes enhancements to:
      • Excel export from table and matrix visuals
      • Easy creation from Microsoft Dataverse and Dynamics 365
      • Improved Power BI integration in Microsoft Teams
    • Power BI Premium continues to invest in the following areas:
      • Auto-scale
      • Pay-as-you-go model
      • Azure Synapse Analytics
  • Power Apps
    • Microsoft power platform release plan helps Power Apps improve the sophistication and usability of apps created for the web and mobile devices, bringing significant improvements to developers of all skill levels. We're releasing the unified, modern Power Apps designer to help you get started quickly.
    • With topic suggestions from bot sessions, Power Apps Portals integration, data loss prevention options, proactive bot update messaging in Microsoft Teams, and more, Power Virtual Agents improves the authoring experience.
    • AI Builder will concentrate on delivering new features centered on intelligent document processing. New features in the Document Automation solution include the ability to extract a broader set of content types from documents, such as checkboxes, signatures, and typed fields like date and currency, as well as support for more prebuilt models.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform updates 2021 wave 2 has something for everyone, regardless of the size or industry of your company.

Make sure you're getting the most out of these new features to boost your company's growth and productivity for more questions; get in touch!


Learn more about how integrating Power Platforms with Microsoft Dynamics 365 can help you get more out of your solutions and run your business more efficiently.

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Patric Timmermans

Patric Timmermans

Patric Timmermans is the head of marketing for Columbus US, and is responsible for Columbus’ marketing strategy and execution in North America. Prior to joining Columbus Global, Patric built and managed high-performing marketing teams at Enavate, KPA and Microsoft. At Microsoft, Patric led the global Product Marketing function for Dynamics 365 Marketing solutions, providing leadership for the go-to-market marketing of Dynamics 365 in addition to the launch of the Adobe Marketing Cloud partnership. Patric holds a Doctorate in Industrial Engineering and a Master of Science in Computer Science.

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