What is a Release Wave?

First off, let’s answer the big question… what is a Release Wave?

Release Waves are Microsoft’s way of updating Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform with lots of new features and functions.

It’ called a Release Wave because  they’ll announce all the new features and automatic releases coming out over the next six month period.

However, alongside the new ‘generally available’ features that get rolled out, there’s normally a slew of capabilities still in development for evaluation in sandbox environments, allowing end-users and partners like FormusPro to have a play, provide feedback and help shape and guide these features as they turn to general availability.

Some releases also include the retiring of previous software, where certain features or entire products are removed from the platform. 

Do I Need To Do Anything?

In short…no.

These Release waves come in six-month cycles, from April to September, and then October to March of the following year.

The updates mentioned in the Release Wave documents from Microsoft slowly get automatically pushed out across the Power Platform and D365 during their release period, meaning you don’t need to do anything.

But if you are worried you may be affected (or want more information on specific features you’ve read about) reach out to a Microsoft partner like ourselves who’ll be happy to help.

Release Wave 2: 2024 Customer Insights – Data… An Overview

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data, was designed to unify customer profiles from all the disparate data sources an organisation may hold on them, enriching them with Microsoft’s data assets to create powerful, AI driven predictions, segmentations and measures.

It gives users a deeper understanding of every single customer by providing a holistic, real-time view.

Microsoft’s Release Wave, over the next six months for Customer Insights Data, will focus on:

• Generative AI & Copilot: This was expected, as Copilot is being pushed out to all of Microsoft’s products.
• Efficiency in Updating Customer Profiles: Keep your customer profiles up to date with their latest interactions so you can deliver the most relevant experience in the moments that matter.
• Unifying Sales & Marketing: Microsoft’s focus here will be on streamlining data ingestion and transforming data from disparate data sources into actionable insights swiftly, creating an enriched, comprehensive view of every customer to empower sellers and marketers to be more successful.

Their mission for the next six months will be to allow teams to focus less on data integration and more on creating value and predicting what customers will need next.

The full release schedule for Customer Insights – Data can be viewed here >>

Still not sure how this might affect you, or want to learn more on how you can benefit from the rollout of these new features?

Reach out to us below and we’ll be happy to talk over how Wave 2 could benefit your organisation.