Microsoft Plans Dynamics CRM 2016 Release With Range of Productivity Updates

Microsoft today announced its plans for the release of Dynamics CRM 2016 later in 2015, continuing the product team’s ambitious development cadence. 

CRM 2016 will focus in large part on improving interoperability with other Microsoft products, including Office 365, OneDrive for Business, and Azure machine learning; acquisitions like FieldOne and FantasySalesTeam; as well as new mobility enhancements.

CRM 2016 will showcase its uptake of the latest Microsoft productivity tools. The goal, explained senior director of product marketing for Dynamics CRM Angela Bandlow, is to create an immersive experience with Office 365 and other products.

"The design principle is to allow customer facing employees to use a single, immersive experience that removes distractions and reduces the time to get things done," Bandlow told MSDynamicsWorld.com.

There will be improvements to the recently Excel integration (introduced in the Spring 2015 CRM Online update), a next generation Outlook app, the use of Office Graph and Delve, better Cortana interaction, and more content management options via SharePoint, Office Groups, and OneDrive for Business.

Excel Online integration that Microsoft will be expanded in CRM 2016 with new templates available for scenarios in sales, service, and marketing. And on tablet and phone interfaces, CRM will support "outbound mobile deeplinking," which will essentially make it easier to do things like view and edit PowerPoint document from CRM on a mobile device without being forced to switch between apps.