What’s New in Dynamics 365 CRM V 9.0 ?

What’s New in V 9.0 and what has changed?

1. Platform Separation :
   When Dynamics 365 launched, Microsoft signaled a move towards an app-centric platform to escape a bloated, monolithic model. This will be increasingly evident with the v9 release which sees Dynamics 365 break into modular apps that shift away from one platform with multiple modules hardwired in such as sales, marketing and service. By redefining the platform layer and breaking modules into role-based solutions for sales, finance & operations, customer service, talent, field service, to name just a few, it will remove the need to test all at once and upgrade everything in one big bang project. This will quicken release cycles and enable more rapid changes by allowing these to work independently of each other, but crucially these are connected with a common data service.  With apps frequently changing and able to upgrade independently of each other, several insiders have predicted that Dynamics 365 users will see a continuous flow of improvements in a similar way that apps on a tablet or mobile device are updated.

1. Multi-Select Option Set
   Drop down selection lists have been available since CRM v4 but until now the native functionality of Dynamics 365 / CRM didn’t support multi-select option sets. In this post, we’ll focus on the new field type to share an example of how this works and highlight some limitations in the current v9.0 release. Upon configuring a new field type this is shown as a ‘MultiSelect Option Set’. Previous versions of Dynamics only enabled a single selection from an option set field but using this new control, users have greater flexibility to make multiple selection. If you already have a global option set defined in Dynamics this can now be published in the format of multi-select field type.
   Limit is 150 value selected
   Values are shown as semi-colon separated.
   No Sorting and Group by is available for MultiSelect values in sub grid/Editable grid.
   In the v9.0 release that we have used for this post it doesn’t currently enable multi-select options as part of a Dynamics 365 business process flow, does not work in a business rule, or within an automated workflow which would prevents a default option(s) from being set.

3. Refreshed Web Client User Interface/Unified User Interface (UUI)
   As outlined below, Microsoft has previewed its new Unified User Interface (UUI) that adapts to the device or screen in use to provide a consistent experience across web, Outlook, mobile and tablet.
   Existing Dynamics 365 users on what is currently called ‘Enterprise Edition’ will have a choice to either use an updated version of the traditional web user interface or apply the new UUI. Using the Dynamics 365 app designer, admins can give Enterprise users an app with the UUI experience or the regular web UI. At this point some functionality such as campaigns and goals won’t be available for UUI will not be available from the app so in instances the regular UI will be the way to go.
   This revamped interface is designed to address a series of customer feedback requests to:

• Remove excess white space
• Text wrapping for field labels and values
• Improve form tab formatting
• Standardize fonts
• Extend theme capabilities
  Over time, Dynamics CRM / 365 has been rendered through various interfaces, the regular web browser, and mobile app (MoCA), Interactive Service Hub as well as Outlook.
  This provided wide coverage but it ultimately created in inconsistent experiences due to gaps in functionality across these interfaces. This also meant additional work for admins in customizing forms to juggle the needs of web and mobile users.
  The Unified Interface promises to end design conflicts between web and mobile by introducing a responsive UI that adapts to browsers, screen-sizes and devices. The design principles of the UUI (text wrapping, uniformity, styling, white space reduction and theming) sees content presented in a way that will flow into different states as the available space changes.
  With the same code for both web and mobile, UUI customizations need only to be deployed once.
  From numerous grids that previously existed in Dynamics CRM, Microsoft has distilled these into to a single control that can be used across multiple applications that contains all of the same features.
  Further enhancements as part of the UUI include:

• Skype for Business presence indicator across all supported web browsers
• OneNote create functionality will be available in mobile
• Improved dashboard chart filtering and drill-down – similar to controls previously only seen in the Interactive Service Hub

4. New Activity Timeline
   An important component within the rollout of the Unified User Interface is a new timeline control that will replace the social pane in the legacy web client.
   Currently, this control requires users to click between tabs for Activities, Notes and Posts and it lacks a chronological view.
   Similar to the display previously seen in the Interactive Service Hub, Microsoft is combining these items into a single Activity Timeline that tracks the complete record history.

• Visual and text filtersto drill down lengthy timelines and quickly find information – and hopefully avoid the need to revert to the activities screen
• Inline actionsfor activity records in the timeline – aside from ‘Mark Complete’ this will be expanded to include other controls e.g. ‘Add to Queue’, ‘Assign Activity’ without needing to open these records
• View attachmentsand download these inline without opening the email record
• ‘What You Missed’ displayto see what events have happened on the record since the user last looked at the record
• Attach camera images, audio and videos, using the mobile app – this activity timeline will include also activity feeds which now work in mobile (previously only available in the web client).
  Does every action need to appear in the timeline? Probably not, so admins will be able to configure what activity types will be presented in the timeline.
  Further controls will include:
  Configuring which fields display for each activity type using a new Card Form entity
  What fields will determine sorting – this should prove handy if you want to set sorting by last updated, last modified etc.
  A version of the timeline control can also be applied to a Dynamics 365 dashboard that will replace the legacy activity wall component that won’t be available in the UUI. When placed in a dashboard the timeline control won’t include notes.

5. Improved Business Process Flows
   With the Unified User Interface, the stages in a business process flow can now be displayed in floating, or docked mode.
   Stages can now be aligned in a vertical layout, instead of horizontal, which makes it easier to see which steps are required to be completed before moving forward.
   Business process flow as Action steps
   Business process flows in sitemap, views, and grids
   Business process flow as an entity now supported in Interactive Experience Dashboard

6. Text wrapping
   For field values, there was always a solution to use a ‘Multiple Lines of Text’ data field type to wrap text across several lines but an associated field label would not flow into a second line.
   Where field values were set to a ‘Single Line of Text’, longer entries would only partially be displayed if there was insufficient form space.
   Using a web browser interface, users can mouse over a field label, or a field value, to see the full detail in a pop-up but this is a limited solution and isn’t viable for mobile users.
   That’s why it is great to see an improvement in Dynamics 365 – Version 9.0, whereby administrators can enable a new control in the system settings to optimize displays for longer field labels and values by enabling text wrapping.

7. Mobile Experiences
   In addition to the activity timeline and new docked / floating process flows featured above this will include:
   • Right to left language support on mobile across all clients
   • Pinch and zoom charts in mobile dashboards
   • Enable chart and list views in one screen
   • A raft new chart types to visualize data in a mobile app
   • Consistent form capabilities on mobile as other experiences, e.g. form switching
   • Navigate between tabbed elements and sections, or get a birds eye view of a form layout to quickly jump a tab / section
   • Interactive dashboards and filters (another piece of IP taken from the Interactive Service Hub)
   • Enhanced custom controls for all form factors
   • Relevance search and advanced filtering on mobile
8. Security Enhancements
   Dynamics 365 system settings will now include a configurable maximum session length and an option to enable session timeout due to a predefined period of inactivity. In both instances, a warning prompt can be configured that will alert users enabling them to re-authenticate and make sure their work is saved. When a session expires the screen contents are blanked out.
9. Improved Advanced Find Rules
   D365 v9 features more flexible rules to query related entities that do not contain data. For example, find lead records that do not have any activities scheduled, or account records that do not have any opportunities scheduled

10. Virtual Entities
    Virtual Entities are an easy to deploy solution for viewing data in D365 that resides in an external system.
    You have data in another system that only needs to be viewed in Dynamics 365.
    Or, maybe you have highly sensitive data in an external system that you don’t want to be stored in D365.
    Removing the need for custom coding and data replication, Virtual Entities are an alternative to client-side and server-side approaches for connecting external data with D365 with a solution that is significantly easier to configure and manage.
    Virtual entities are defined in D365 with an internal metadata flag to mark them as virtual which distinguishes them from traditional database held entity types.
    As such, these are not stored with the associated physical tables specific to records of ‘full’ entities.
    Each Virtual Entity will be associated with a virtual entity data provider that offers an OData v4 endpoint, or using a custom connector. During run-time, when an entity instance is referenced, this will be dynamically retrieved from the associated external system.
    There is no support for Dynamics 365 business processes around Virtual Entity data.
    As result, business process flows or workflows cannot be utilized that reference this data because it is not held the Dynamics 365 instance or reside on your tenant.
    This is an important point and will likely be a defining factor in determining which integration approach is needed.
    For businesses that need external data to flow into Dynamics 365 and be a trigger for a process, or to update one of more fields, a traditional client / server-side sync would still be the route to follow.
    However, in instances where users want to be able to view everything in one place, including data held in external data sources, Virtual Entities will be a simpler solution that is easier to deploy.
    All virtual entity data is ‘read only’.
    There isn’t any role level security for virtual entities as these are owned by the organization.
    As a result, users will have permissions to see virtual entities, or not, there isn’t any middle ground and these entities do not support field level security.
    Once enabled, virtual entities give users visibility to view this data in fields, grids, search results, Fetch XML-based reports and D365 dashboards.
    An excellent and low cost alternative to data replication for D365 users who just need greater visibility of data!
    Example: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/lystavlen/2017/09/08/virtual-entities/

11. LinkedIn Updates
    A new connector for LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms automatically syncs campaigns and leads with Dynamics 365, with configurable matching rules
    To aid social selling, new LinkedIn Sales Navigator embedded widgets for Dynamics 365 include account connections promoting the best contacts to connect with, recommended potential leads, account news, mutual connections to facilitate new introductions and summary detail from LinkedIn

12. Continued support for Outlook add-in
    In June 2017, MS announced the deprecation of Dynamics 365 for Outlook(otherwise known as the “Outlook add-in”) and the plan to replace it with Dynamics 365 App for Outlook. The deprecation announcement meant that although Dynamics 365 for Outlook would continue to be supported, it would be removed in Dynamics 365 version 10.0.
    Since this announcement, MS have received overwhelming feedback from customers, partners, and the Dynamics community around the need for the Outlook add-in. additionally, MS understand that some feature gaps in Dynamics 365 App for Outlook prevent it from being a viable replacement for the Outlook add-in. As a result, MS are reversing the deprecation of Dynamics 365 for Outlook.
    MS want to enable customers who are on older versions of Dynamics 365 to be able to upgrade and not lose core functionalities that their business has come to rely on.

13. Business Process Flow dashboards, grids, and charts
    This feature allows System Administrators and Customizers to create Business Process Flow dashboards, grids, and charts. It is sometimes much more natural for users to think in terms of the processes they follow to get work done rather than the records they would have to find to access those processes. This is what we call a “process-centric” as opposed to a “data-centric” workflow.
    To illustrate this point, consider Contoso Finance, a fictitious company in the Financial Services industry. Suppose that Contoso has two processes set up, one for selling mortgages and another for selling student loans. It’s arguably more natural for sales people and sales managers, when trying to determine how close their company is to meeting their sales goals, to search for active mortgage and student loan sales processes than for generic opportunity records. They can then easily find opportunities for quickly closing open deals that may represent quick wins for the team A System Administrator or Customizer can use complex filters in custom views on the process entities that include attributes of the process entity itself (such as active stage, status, and start date), as well as attributes of the supporting data entities (such as, in the case of Opportunity, deal size, account, region, estimated close date, and so on). As with any other data entity in Dynamics 365, these views created for the process entities can be applied to charts and grids that can be placed on dashboards or forms.
    Additionally, the Dynamics 365 sitemap can be customized to include a link to the Business Process Flow entities to make it easy for users to see all process instances on different views from the record grid. One cool aspect is that when the user clicks on a record for this grid, they go to the form of the corresponding entity associated with the active stage, even for cross-entity processes. That way, users always land on the right place to resume their work and continue driving the process forward.
    Business process Flow can be added in Navigation site map, using sitemap designer.
14. Business Process Flow automation with Action Steps
    One of the most powerful improvements to the Business Process Flow infrastructure introduced in the December 2016 update for Dynamics 365 is the ability to leverage Dynamics 365 Workflows to automate Business Process Flows, making it possible to run even very complex business scenarios with the help of some best practices.
    Action Steps take the automation story even further by enabling on-demand automation scenarios. Business Process Flows are composed of stages, which can have one or more data steps. Data steps define information that users are supposed to input or consume to successfully complete the process. Action Steps are buttons on the Business Process stages that users can click to trigger an on-demand Dynamics 365 workflow or action.
    To illustrate Action Steps, let’s go back to Contoso Finance. Suppose that when running the Mortgage Sales Process, financial analysts have the option of setting parameters such as the interest rate, number of months before payments begin, or number of payments. If these parameters are set to values beyond certain business-approved boundaries, the System Administrator or Customizer can customize the Business Process to be locked until managerial approval is given. The process could also be customized to include a button on the Approval stage so that when a user triggers a server-side Workflow or Action it also creates a task activity on a manager’s calendar. The task activity then serves as a reminder for the manager to review and unlock the mortgage opportunity.
    While Workflows can be called triggered on-demand from the user interface, Action Steps add an additional trigger point for calling them. For Actions, this is the first time that they are made available on-demand from the user interface. To enable this mode, the Available to run as a Business Process Flow Action Step check box must be enabled inside the Action designer
    The stages in a business process flow can now be displayed in floating mode, along with docked mode. Stages can now be aligned in a vertical layout, instead of horizontal, which makes it easier to see which steps are required to be completed before moving forward. You can also choose to include an optional step in the business process flow and define criteria to trigger it. Business Process flow is now an entity and you can create custom views. Business Process entities can now be made available on the site map

15. Interactive Service Hub improvements
    These are the changes to the Interactive Service Hub:

• Interactive Service Hub is now called Customer Service Hub, and is available as a Unified Interface app.
• The Customer Service Hub app uses the Mainform type instead of the Main – Interactive experience form type. If you upgrade from an earlier version of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, all your Main – Interactive experience type of forms will be converted to the Main form type. Any of your customizable Main – Interactive experience type of forms will be set to inactive during the upgrade, and you must enable the converted forms after upgrade to use them. Also, all the Main – Interactive experience type of forms converted to the Main type of form will be ranked lower than the existing Main type of forms to prevent any form order conflicts. This ensures that the correct form is displayed to the users in web client post upgrade.
• All entities are now enabled for the interactive experience in the new Customer Service Hub app. This implies that the EntityMetadata.IsInteractionCentricEnabled property, which indicates whether an entity can be enabled for interactive experience, is no longer relevant. The corresponding setting for this property in the Customization tool, Enable for interactive experience, is removed in the current release, and theEntityMetadata.IsInteractionCentricEnabled property will be removed from the future version of Dynamics 365 SDK for Customer Engagement.

16. Override the default open behavior of data rows in an entity-bound grid
    Currently, performing any of the following actions in a data row in an entity-bound grid opens the entity record by default:

• Double-clicking the data row or clicking the primary attribute link in the row.
• Selecting a data row, and pressing ENTER.
• On a touch-enabled device, selecting a data row.
  There might be situations where you do not want the entity record to open, such as, for document management records, you might want to open a SharePoint site instead of displaying the record. You can now override the default behavior to define your own custom behavior.
  You can now create a command definition for an entity with Mscrm.OpenRecordItem as the value of the Id attribute (<CommandDefinition> (RibbonDiffXml)), and define custom action for the command <Actions> (RibbonDiffXml). Customer Engagement will look for this command Id for an entity when you try to open a record from the entity-bound grid, and if present, will execute the custom action instead of opening the entity record (default behavior).

17. User interface refresh (applies to all the Enterprise edition web apps)

• Removal of unneeded whitespaceon forms and dashboards. Containers for content now have defined borders. There is consistent spacing between sections. Empty containers have a helpful message and icon.
• Improved visual hierarchyby means of a new clipboard structure for the content shown on all pages, such as forms, dashboards, and grids. The page and panel header colors used for the clipboard are customizable.
• Use of standardized fontsfor a more consistent look and feel.
• More intuitive user experiencefor elements such as tabs, buttons, and input fields on forms to help users be more productive.
• On forms, long text labels and values are wrapped.Admins can control word wrap through system level settings.
• The color of a sub-grid header can be customized at the form level.
• Advanced find now has the option to build a NOT IN For example, users can query for all cases that do not have a related task.

18. Dynamics 365 for Marketing 

• Create graphical email messages and online content to support marketing initiatives.
• Design interactive customer journeys to nurture leads with personalized experiences

19. Power BI enhancements
    You can now embed Power BI dashboards and tiles in Dynamics 365 (online) selected from group-based Power BI App Workspaces. Previously, dashboards and tiles could only be embedded from My Workspace
20. Entity Form types
    Before V 9.0 We had 6 Form types
    Main Form
    Mobile – Express
    Quick View Form
    Quick Create Form
    Card Form
    Main Form – Interactive Experience
    In D365 v 9.0.
    We have only Four forms types
    Main Form
    Quick View Form
    Quick Create Form
    Card Form
    Find here more 
21. Reference Panel
    New Section option for Form.
    More Details