Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Release Notes – April '19

The April ’19 release notes describe all new features releasing from April 2019 through September 2019 for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Previews for some features will start in February 2019. You can either browse the release notes below or download the document as a PDF file here.

April ’19 Release Overview

The April ’19 wave of releases for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform provides you with significant capabilities to transform your business.

These release notes describe functionality that may not have been released yet. Delivery timelines and projected functionality may change or may not ship (see Microsoft policy).

Dynamics 365

The enhancements to Dynamics 365 applications in the April ’19 release include hundreds of new capabilities across Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Portal, Field Service, Project Service Automation, Finance and Operations, Talent, Retail, and Business Central. Microsoft is adding a new set of mixed reality experiences using Microsoft Layout and Microsoft Remote Assist.

Microsoft Forms Pro is a brand new enterprise survey app built on top of Microsoft Forms and integrated with Dynamics 365 and Common Data Service for Apps.

The April '19 release delivers continued investments in artificial intelligence capabilities that leverage the power of Microsoft AI research, tools, data, and the Power Platform to help organizations transform customer service, sales, and marketing functions. Dynamics 365 Sales Insights provides actionable insights to drive personalized engagement and proactive decision-making. Dynamics 365 Market Insights enables business users to gather actionable insights based on what consumers say, seek, and feel about their brands and products. Dynamics 365 Customer Service Insights optimizes the customer experience through AI enhanced analysis.

The April '19 release introduces three brand new AI apps:

• Dynamics 365 Virtual Agent for Customer Service provides AI-powered chatbots to optimize the customer experience.
• Dynamics 365 Customer Insights enables every organization to unify and understand their customer data to harness it for intelligent insights and actions.
• Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection enables the e-commerce merchants to drive down fraud loss, increase bank acceptance rates to yield higher revenue, and improve the online shopping experience.

The April ’19 release signifies a key milestone for Dynamics 365. It is the first major update where all of Microsoft's customers across Dynamics 365 will be on the latest version and on a consistent update schedule. It is also a template of how major updates will be done going forward in April and October every year.

Click here to learn about the key dates for the April ’19 release from Microsoft.

Power Platform

New Power Platform capabilities combine Power BI, PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, and Common Data Service for Apps into an unmatched palette of tools to extend, customize, and integrate Dynamics 365 and Office 365 into your environment. The April '19 release provides major improvements to enable business analysts and makers to build higher-quality reports, apps, and workflows more easily, while still supporting more advanced enterprise and administrator requirements.

Data Integration

Data Integration provides built-in connectivity to the Power Platform and more, with data across hundreds of business systems, enabling rich and intelligent experiences. The Common Data Model provides semantic consistency for canonical business entities across Dynamics 365 and Common Data Service for Apps, increasing value and saving time for application developers, ISV partners, and integrators.

Japanese era update

On May 1, 2019, a new Japanese era and associated calendar will begin. Microsoft is making its April '19 wave of business applications ready to support the new Japan era in May. This includes Dynamics 365 applications, solutions, and Power Platform components, as well as regulatory features in these products and services for the Japanese market. Updates for new era support will be deployed in a similar way to other critical Dynamics 365 updates.

You can find additional details and how-to in the following articles for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement applications and Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.

Drive the digital transformation of your business on your terms. We look forward to engaging with you as you put these new services and capabilities to work and are eager to hear your feedback as you dig into the April ’19 release.

Download the document as a PDF file here. Or reach out to us at 844-369-4594 or marketing@fmtconsultants.com.