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Microsoft Dynamics 365– 2020 October Release

Thursday, October 1, 2020

Each April and October, Microsoft releases upgrades to Dynamics 365 to boost functionality and meet the demands of a growing customer base. The next major update, scheduled for 1st October 2020, offers innovations that add significant capabilities to help you transform your business. It includes hundreds of new features and enhancements across the full range of Dynamics 365 applications to deliver improved service quality, supportability, end-user productivity, as well as improved experiences for customers and partners.

Below are some of the highlights that we know will be of interest to international organizations. These features will be deployed between October 2020 and March 2021. You can download the complete October 2020 release plan here.

  • New countries/regions: Due to high demand, Microsoft is increasing the global availability of Dynamics 365 Business Central to cover more countries/regions allowing small and mid-sized businesses across the world to achieve even more. Customers can choose the localization for their country/region, so they can enable market-specific business processes and ensure they comply with local legislation. With this release Business Central will be available in four new countries/ regions: Brazil, Ireland, Lithuania, and India (Note that India is for public preview only.)Additionally, Dynamics 365 Finance continues to focus on automating common tasks and reduce the number of manual processes. As well as the introduction of Asset leasing, Microsoft is also expanding global coverage with localizations for five additional countries/regions (Bahrain, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar).
  • Licensing updates: In response to the Coronavirus global pandemic, Microsoft has updated plans for changes to Dynamics 365 product and licensing. Designed to facilitate a smooth transition, existing customers who purchased the Team Members license before October 2018 have been granted an extension. These subscriptions can now be renewed until 31st December 2020. From 1st January 2021, all renewing agreements will need to transition to the new Team Member license.
  • AL code and extensions only: This release sees the D365 move entirely to Visual Studio Code and includes numerous productivity enhancements for developers. C/AL code, the traditional programming language used in Microsoft Dynamics NAV has been completely replaced by AL or extension only modifications. All custom functionality must be moved from C/AL to Extensions in AL and moving forward VS Code and AL will be the only way to modify the application. App developers can now develop code for their own use and make it easier for reselling partners to troubleshoot potential issues.
  • Full-blown extensions: This release includes two new generic, string-based inventory dimensions (InventDimension11 and InventDimension12). This increases the number of generic inventory dimensions from 10 to 12 to give even more flexibility for partners and ISVs to enhance the standard application capabilities through extensions.
    D365 2020 wave 2 release also includes a new Delete Extension Data option making it’s possible to delete extension data in production or sandboxes. This is often needed when an application is no longer in use or when a customer wants to reinstall it from scratch without data. Furthermore, if needed customers can choose to purchase an unlimited number of additional production environments. This can be very useful if you want to create more business branches, move into new countries/ regions, or just expand within your current country/ region.

Dynamics 365 2020 release wave 2 is packed with exciting innovations, including better integration with Office 365. For instance, it’s now possible to bring BC data directly into Microsoft Teams for better team collaboration and faster, smarter decision-making. And, with enhancements to telemetry visibility, partners can work more efficiently and continuously fine-tune performance and detect performance issues.

If you’d like to discuss any of these new features and the impact they have on your organizations, get in touch with Pipol today.

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