Skip to main content

Update Policies for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement

Customers of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement have been notified in recent weeks of new policies for updates.  Customer Engagement refers to the traditional core components of what was formerly Dynamics CRM (sales, marketing, and customer service) as well as newer apps for Project Service and Field Service which have been added to the Customer Engagement subscription bundle.

The updates only apply to customers hosted in the Microsoft commercial cloud and not for on premises deployments which are managed by customer organizations. So far, the Microsoft government clouds for the United States and Germany are also operating on their own update schedules in order to maintain compliance with government security and privacy regulations.

I will not restate all the details which you can review at FAQ for Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement apps Update Policies as well as Previewing April 2019 release functionalities and updates for Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement.

Here are some highlights and thoughts on the update policies of cloud services.

  1. Cloud vendors are pushing updates more frequently.  They are under competitive pressure to release new features and versions, and this trend is unlikely to end.
  2. Cloud vendors prefer not to allow customers to choose update dates. This is especially true for bug fixes and security patches, which need to be applied as soon as possible.   
  3. Customers must test new versions. Innovation will lead to new features, and some will replace features which will be eliminated (deprecated) while others will offer new ways of doing the same thing.  The Unified Interface, for instance, provides a new menu system to navigate Dynamics, but for now can live side-by-side with the "classic" menus.  Before long, the Unified Interface will become "classic" and be replaced as well. Microsoft is not responsible for testing customer solutions and ensuring that they will function after major updates.  All they can do is provide notification and access to the new versions
  4. You need sandboxes more than ever. One of the most important features of a Dynamics sandbox (a non-production instance of Dynamics) is to allow testing before introducing a system to production.  You may need more sandbox environments to test your customizations on forthcoming versions of Dynamics.  
  5. Customers who deploy on premises will fall further behind. You can avoid the effort of continuous improvement and testing by sticking with on premises deployment, an option that Microsoft provides for now but which is not offered by cloud-only plays like Salesforce.  The tradeoff is falling behind on product features and potentially exposure to risks from not applying patches and other fixes.
Microsoft has been rewarded by the stock market for its commitment to cloud-first products.  I  predict that this trend will end and on premises software will be de-emphasized.  Microsoft will continue to offer benefits to cloud customers such as faster access to new versions and lower cost of ownership to encourage cloud adoption.



Popular posts from this blog

Key Concepts for Microsoft Dynamics 365: Tenant, Instance, App and Solution

Updated 8/15/2022 To understand Microsoft Dynamics 365 (formerly Dynamics CRM) and Power Apps, you need to learn some new terms and concepts that may be a bit different from what you know from databases and solutions that are hosted on premises.  These concepts also apply to Power Apps.  The main difference is that with Power Apps you are not starting with a Microsoft app but more of a blank canvas for your custom apps.  This post introduces some key terms and how these concepts are important for planning your implementation. While Dynamics 365 is still available on premises, it is most commonly deployed on the Microsoft cloud.  This blog post discusses only cloud implementations. Microsoft has multiple clouds such as commercial and government community clouds in several countries. We start with a Microsoft tenant .  A tenant is the account you create in the Microsoft Online Services environment (such as Office 365) when you sign up for a subscription. A tenant contains uni

Understanding Dynamics 365 and Office 365 Admin Roles

Managing Dynamics 365 instances If you run Microsoft Dynamics 365 (formerly Dynamics CRM) in the Microsoft cloud, you need to understand how your Dynamics instances relate to Office 365 and choose which of your administrators receives which roles and permissions to manage Dynamics 365. In on premises deployments, your network administrator would create and delete user accounts.  The Dynamics 365 admin would then assign permissions to users in Dynamics 365. This post explains three administrator roles: Office 365 Global Administrator Dynamics 365 System Administrator Dynamics 365 Service Administrator You may think that the Dynamics 365 system administrator would have power to do all the actions needed to manage Dynamics 365, but this is not the case. What's different in Microsoft cloud deployments is that licenses and user accounts are managed in Office 365 by an Office 365 Global Administrator.  This role is analogous to a network administrator for an on premises

My Favorite Microsoft Power Apps Bloggers and their Blogs

  by James Townsend Updated 7/5/2022 Microsoft Power Apps is one of my favorite subjects, and I enjoy reading blog posts from members of this thriving technical community.  Here are some of my favorite bloggers and their blogs: The Official Microsoft Power Apps Blog   I have to start with the official Microsoft Power Apps blog.  It has many contributors, largely Microsoft program manager, including frequent posters Denise Moran ,  Greg Lindhorst , Kartik Kanakasabesan , and  Adrian Orth .  This is the place to go for product announcements, updates and technical how-to for a broad range of Power Apps topics.  April Dunnam April Dunnam was formerly focused on SharePoint and now devoting herself to Power Platform.  April offers highly understandable explanations of Power Platform, Dataverse and other top Power Apps topics. She joined Microsoft in late 2019 and has a thriving YouTube channel .  Carl De Souza Power Apps Blog and eBook This is one of the most extensive and best organized blo