Microsoft announces Spring 2018 Dynamics 365 updates

At the center of the Digital Transformation revolution is data

This data from customers, products and people is fuel for intelligence to power transformed experiences, with those experiences further providing data to further refine interactions. We call this the digital feedback loop. Dynamics 365 is built around this data and intelligence - unlocking these powerful insights and efficiencies for organizations everywhere. Our spring 2018 release for Microsoft Business Applications represents continued innovation that is the result of that focus.

The 2018 update will offer customers and partners a wave of innovation with hundreds of new capabilities and features in three core areas:

-Business process applications

-Intelligence infused throughout

-Application platform capabilities

Microsoft is the only provider of a modern, unified and intelligence-infused business applications platform, built atop a common data model, on a global-scale public cloud, connected to Office 365 and the world's largest professional network, LinkedIn.

Key highlights of the update include:

Dynamics 365 for Marketing : The new application complements the relationship and partnership Microsoft has with Adobe. It will allow users to connect sales and marketing, work seamlessly with Dynamics 365 for Sales and Office 365, utilize built-in business intelligence, nurture more sales-ready leads, and manage multi-channel campaigns.

Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional: Another SKU of Dynamics 365 for Sales is being introduced, to streamline Sales Force Automation (SFA) for sales teams of any size. From opportunity management to sales planning and performance management, the solution enables to optimize sales processes and maximize sales productivity for enterprises.

Intelligence continues to be a core focus area for applications. Features in Dynamics 365 for Sales such as:

-Relationship Assistant helps sellers see alerts and reminders to move relationships forward

-Auto capture with Outlook helps sellers save time by analyzing email to find messages relevant to specific accounts and then track in Dynamics 365 for Sales with just one click

-Email engagement - delivers insights from email with customers, so sellers can prioritize the most receptive contacts

Microsoft Power BI Insights apps, are also delivering out-of-the-box insights tailored to specific business scenarios, like across marketing, sales, service, operations, finance and talent

A significant update to the Common Data Service for Apps is also being announced with PowerApps that will enable a broad set of capabilities for modeling sophisticated business solutions. Combining these new capabilities with PowerApps existing high productivity point-and-click app development approach unlocks new potential for customers to customize existing apps across Dynamics 365 and Office 365 and quickly build new ones

IDC recently estimated global data creation will exceed 160 zettabytes by 2025, with more than 60 percent of this data being created by businesses. Microsoft announced a new capability in Power BI: the Common Data Service (CDS) for Analytics to help reduce the complexity of integrating and analyzing data siloed across business apps and services. Organizations will now be able to integrate data from multiple sources and empower users with access to business analytics across all data relevant to them.