Release 2023 Wave 2 Summary

As I described in one of my previous posts (Explaining “One Version” – Dynamics MDA) Microsoft is releasing two “Waves” of new functionalities and improvements per year. Today, 2023-07-18, Microsoft has published the Release Notes for the Release 2023 Wave 2. Like the last time, it is overall a quite huge “document”. This blog post is a “curated” summary of the Release 2023 Wave 2 release notes. You can find them under the following links:

• Power Platform
• Dynamics 365

In this blog post, I try to summarize the Release Notes and highlight the features I find most interesting or impactful.

As always I will focus on the areas I usually work with. There are a lot more features that I don’t cover in this article. I highly recommend you to read the Release notes yourself, to get a better overview of what is important for your solution.

Legend

For every mentioned feature I will provide 3 “dates” if possible:

• Public Preview (PP)
• Early access (EA)
• General availability (GA)

Another piece of information I share per described feature is the “Feature type” (FT)(read more). This could either be:

• “Users, automatically” 
• “Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically”  
• “Users by admins, makers, or analysts”

Power Platform

In this paragraph of the Release 2023 Wave 2 summary, I will start with the Power Platform part of the Release Notes. Microsoft is investing a lot in this area. The list of changes/improvements is long. I will only mention a few of those in every sub-area.

Power Apps & Power Automate

Enjoy the new look and feel for model-driven Power Apps

The Model-driven apps get a new makeover. The new style is more aligned with the newest Microsoft fluent design system. It includes layouts themes and colors. Read more.

PP: Aug. 2023
EA: –
GA: Oct. 2023

FT: Users by admins, makers, or analysts

Write formulas from natural language or examples using Copilot

Writing PowerFx formulas can take time. With the new Copilot, an AI will help us with it. Read more.

PP: Oct. 2023
EA: –
GA: –

FT: Users by admins, makers, or analysts

Set the solution context for customizations

It will now be possible to define a default Solution which the maker portal should use. This should mitigate some problems we had earlier with components being created (and edited) in the default solution only. Read more.

PP: Oct. 2023
EA: –
GA: –

FT: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically

Debug canvas apps more quickly and efficiently with Monitor tool improvements

This update to the existing Monitor tool will improve our ability to debug Canvas Apps. Read more.

PP: Mar. 2024
EA: –
GA: –

FT: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically

Resize and reposition the Power Fx editor within Power Apps Studio

Until now the size an position of the Power Fx editor in the Power Apps Studio was not optimal. With this new feature, it should get a lot better and more customizable. Read more.

PP: Mar. 2024
EA: –
GA: –

FT: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically

Manage bulk abandoned cloud flows

With this feature admins and makers will have easier ways of controlling and reassigning abandoned cloud flows. Until now we had to do it manually per run. Read more.

PP: Nov. 2023
EA: –
GA: Mar. 2024

FT: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically

Misc

In the following chapter, you will find features from different parts of the release plan, which couldn’t fit in somewhere else within this blog post. Those are features from for example Dataverse in general or Governance.

Build your own business logic using Dataverse low-code plugins

This feature allows us to create low-code plugins using Power Fx. Read more.

PP: May. 2023
EA: –
GA: Dec. 2023

FT: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically

Experience enhancements to formula columns

The rather new formula columns (which are using Power Fx) will get new features to bring them nearer in parity with the older calculated columns. Read more.

PP: Sep. 2023
EA: –
GA: Dec. 2023

FT: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically

Use Power Fx to define column level rollup logic

We will be able to define rollup logic using Power Fx within formula columns. Read more.

PP: Jan. 2024
EA: –
GA: Mar. 2024

FT: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically

Govern developer environments

This will make it easier for Admins to govern the creation of development environments. Read more.

PP: Oct. 2023
EA: –
GA: –

FT: Users by admins, makers, or analysts

Dynamics 365

The second part of this Release 2023 Wave 2 summary is around Dynamics 365. I found that there isn’t as much interesting stuff when it comes to Dynamics 365 in this Wave. Therefore this second part will be a bit shorter than it used to be.

Dynamics 365 Sales

This chapter will include changes and new features to Dynamics 365 Sales.

Guide sellers to work simultaneously using multiple sequences

This feature will allow us to assign different sellers to different sequences. Which will improve the collaboration of multiple sellers on one Account or Opportunity. Read more.

PP: Dec. 2023
EA: –
GA: –

FT: Users by admins, makers, or analysts

Empower seller to proactively pick next prioritized record based on business rule.

Sellers will be able to assign a certain amount of Leads or Opportunity to themselves. The system will select the top priority rows as defined in Business Rules. Read more.

PP: –
EA: –
GA: Nov. 2023

FT: Users by admins, makers, or analysts

Notify sellers and sales managers after assignment rule execution.

After a run of an Assignment Rule, the seller and sales manager will be notified. This should make the process smoother and minimize the need for customization. Read more.

PP: –
EA: –
GA: Jan. 20234

FT: Users by admins, makers, or analysts

Dynamics 365 Marketing

In this chapter, we will talk about all the new stuff coming to Dynamics 365 Marketing.

Rewrite and change tone of content quickly using Copilot in Marketing

This feature sounds promising. It should make it easier for makers and marketers to create more appealing texts. Read more.

PP: Sep. 2023
EA: –
GA: Oct. 2023

FT: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically

Prevent messages from sending during unwanted times by setting up quiet times using Copilot

With this feature, it should get easier to setup the right timeframes to send your Marketing emails. Read more.

PP: Oct. 2023
EA: –
GA: Nov. 2023

FT: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically

Accelerate your pipeline with integrated analytics

Integrated analytics dashboards will combine information from Sales and Marketing and bring those teams nearer together. Read more.

PP: Oct. 2023
EA: –
GA: Dec. 2023

FT: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically

Dynamics 365 Customer Service

In this chapter, we will talk about all the new stuff coming to Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

Use overflow to handle lengthy wait times for queues

This feature will allow us to configure rules to transfer work items to other queues when the current queue has an overflow (due to a spike in requests). Read more.

PP: Oct. 2023
EA: –
GA: –

FT: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically

Show agents their live chats and voice calls in the inbox

Showing all of the agent’s work in the inbox should improve productivity. With this feature, all chats an voice calls will be shown in the inbox. Read more.

PP: –
EA: –
GA: Oct. 2023

FT: Users by admins, makers, marketers, or analysts

Summarize support cases with Copilot

As the name suggests will this feature summarize a support case with the help of Copilot/AI. This will improve the quality of customer service since it is easier for the agent to create a good summary. Read more.

PP: May 19, 2023
EA: –
GA: Oct. 2023

FT: Users by admins, makers, marketers, or analysts

Summary

Microsoft will again release a lot of new functions and improvements to already existing functionality. Most of them are quite good (at least they sound good) and will bring the Platform, we like to work with, further. We can see two main areas of investment at the moment. Those are Governance and AI (of course).

There are a lot more improvements that were not covered in this summary of the Release 2023 Wave 2. I am sure that the list will even grow over the next weeks.

Important to notice: The Early-Access period will start soon. Make sure to opt-in to it (read how to do it) and test all the new functionality in your own environment.