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Release Wave 2: 2024 – D365 Business Central

What is a release wave? Do you need to do anything about it and how will it affect you? All very good questions but don’t worry, you don’t need to do much more than read this!

What is a Release Wave?

Release Waves were originally Microsoft’s way of automatically updating everyone’s Dynamics 365 environments to the latest version but they’ve become more in the last few years.

To start with they don’t just cover D365 anymore, Release waves also include the Power Platform.

But they’ve also become a bit of an event, with Microsoft showcasing what’s coming up in a series of planned automatic releases over a six-month period covering new capabilities, performance enhancements and other updates.

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 sunsetting of previous software, where certain features or entire products are removed from the platform. 

Do I Need To Do Anything?

In short…no. (although reading this will always be time well spent).

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 (which you can see here if you want) 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 Business Central… An Overview

If you’re reading an article about Microsoft’s Release Wave for Business Central, we’re going to go ahead and assume you know what D365 BC is… an incredibly feature rich business management application for SMBs and SMEs that automates and streamlines your business processes.

It’s always been highly scalable, allowing organizations to manage their finances, supply chain, manufacturing, distribution, logistics, projects, services and much more.

It’s also incredibly easy to customise Business Central to your organization’s individual needs with a Microsoft partner like ourselves.

You’ll notice that 2024’s Business Central release Wave 2 will heavily feature Microsoft’s commitment to Copilot, as they continue to focus on building out Copilot to help organizations optimize their business processes.

Some of their plans include enabling Copilot to help with creating sales orders directly from Chat, speeding up the time it takes to create product info with Business Central by using Copilot to create information like Variant, Unit of Measure and more, and making sure Chat can learn from 3rd party content.

It’s not all Copilot focussed though:

  • Application: D365 BC’s e-document feature provides businesses with a wide range of capabilities for sending out documents. The last Wave saw integration added between projects in D365 BC and Field Service and Wave 2 will see that trend continue, expanding to include integrations for service orders in Business Central. There’ll also be a lot more reporting capabilities for sustainability goals to help organizations keep track of their greenhouse gas emissions. The last few releases have also seen a lot of investment in multicompany capabilities as an increasing number of organizations use D365 Business Central across borders and regions to manage multiple companies. You should expect Wave 2 to continue this focus, with additional investment throughout the application, improving the overall experience in inventory management, service and project management and other integrations with the rest of Dynamics 365.
  • Country & Regional: Business Central’s global availability has been expanded to a point where it’s now available in over 170 countries and regions worldwide.
  • Development: Microsoft have announced that they’ll continue to invest in areas that enhance productivity for developers working with GitHub, Visual Studio Code and the AppSource marketplace. They’ll also be adding new code refactoring capabilities and easier paths to functional and performance testing.
  • Governance & Administration: Governance and Auditing is no one’s favourite task, but this Wave will see it become easier with a set of additional self-service features designed to help admins manage the access to environments at a much more granular level, letting them audit critical admin operations using the M365 audit log. Users will now also be able to link Business Central and Power Platform environments to create integrations consistently and apply Power Platform environment settings to their Business Central.
  • Legislation: Keeping Business Central compliant with all local and regional accounting laws is a huge task that Microsoft always prioritises, which is why Wave 2 will see several improvements to localized versions.
  • Reporting & Data Analytics: Wave 2 will see over seventy Power BI reports added as well as a commitment to continuing investment in BC’s overall reporting capabilities.
  • Service & Platform: Microsoft have announced that Wave 2 will see them continue to invest in the fundamentals of the service, focusing on high availability, performance, stability, resource governance, security and compliance.

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 organization.

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Speak To An Expert

To find out about how we create systems around the Microsoft D365 platform or to ask us about the specific industry focused digital management systems we create, get in touch. Tel: +1 (727) 231 6096 A quick call might be all you need, but just in case it isn’t, we’re happy to go a step further by popping by to see you. Just ask.
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