Microsoft made the following three announcements concerning their Dynamics 365 retail solutions:

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce, generally available on February 3, 2020, is a modern omnichannel commerce solution that unifies back office, e-commerce, in-store, and call center and simplifies the integration of new emerging channels.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection, featuring two new capabilities to reduce fraud and related costs while improving the buying experience: loss prevention and account protection, available for preview on March 2, 2020.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Connected Store is an application that combines AI-driven insights and IoT-connected sensors and cameras to empower retailers with real-time observational data to improve in-store performance, coming to preview later this calendar year.

The official announcement with further information is available here: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2020/01/09/expanding-our-vision-for-retail-with-dynamics-365-at-nrf-2020/.

Effective January 2020, Microsoft announced the availability of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Virtual Agent for Customer Service. This offering combines Power Virtual Agents and Dynamics 365 Customer Service Insights enabling organizations to create no-code chatbots having identified the most common support issues facing their customers.

For further information on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Virtual Agent for Customer Service, please find the official announcement here: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2020/01/06/how-virtual-agents-transform-the-customer-experience/  or visit the product page: https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/virtual-agent-for-customer-service/.

Effective December 2019, Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft Power Virtual Agents as part of the Dynamics 365 family business applications portfolio. This offering allows the creation of chatbots using a guided, no-code graphical interface, which can be further enhanced by building custom workflows with Power Automate, or by using the Microsoft Bot Framework for more complex scenarios.

For further information on Microsoft Power Virtual Agents, please visit: https://powervirtualagents.microsoft.com/en-us/.

With the 2019 Release Wave 2, Microsoft announced innovations in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform starting October 2019. The 2019 Release Wave 2 includes the release of new products and the expanding of the availability of Dynamics 365 products, as well as announcing new offerings for November 1, 2019. For more information and a release overview with guides and videos, please visit: https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/business-applications/product-updates/#overview-guides-and-videos.

Microsoft announced the following changes to the licensing of Dynamics 365, effective October 2019:

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations will be split into two single apps:

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Supply Chain Management.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is moving from “Plan” to “à la carte” sales motion. Microsoft will remove the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Plans (Dynamics 365 Plan, Customer Engagement Plan and Unified Operations Plan). From October, customers will only buy licenses for the apps that they need. If a user needs to be licensed for multiple apps, then they will buy a Base license for the first app and an Attach license for the additional apps at a significantly discounted price. The functionality of the Base and Attach licenses is identical.

For further information on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 licensing changes, please visit the following Microsoft Inspire site, where you can download the Slide Decks with more information: https://myinspire.microsoft.com/sessions/f28c5f81-51b7-4c8b-9783-872f81439a03 and https://myinspire.microsoft.com/sessions/4fd8babb-edb3-4485-b012-ff6f78253562.

With the release of Microsoft Forms Pro, Microsoft announced the discontinuation of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Voice of the Customer product. Existing customers will be able to create new surveys up until 1st July 2020, and after that date, survey data will be available and stored in Dynamics 365. For further information, please visit:  https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/bdm/2019/07/01/voice-of-the-customer-deprecation/.