Customer journey, industry clouds in focus at Dynamics 365, Power Platform 2021 release wave 1 launch

Example of Dynamics 365 Marketing's new engagement journeys | Source

Microsoft officially introduces a new wave of product updates in its business applications lineup today with a virtual launch event. The event will offer details on new features, most of which have been revealed to some degree either at Ignite 2021 in March or in the planning documents for both Dynamics 365 and Power Platform from January.

While not a big reveal, the event does provide greater clarity on where Microsoft has focused its business applications priorities for the next release wave or two. James Phillips, in his new role as president of the Digital Transformation Platform Group, reviewed some of the headline updates and marquee customer stories planned for the virtual event and the release wave overall in a new blog post.

New customer journey orchestration is coming to Dynamics 365 Marketing in release wave 1 in preview. The more advanced features use new and improved integration with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Microsoft's customer data platform (CDP) solution, and Customer Voice. Using Dynamics 365 Marketing with other apps, Phillips writes, "brings together the worlds of customer experience and marketing automation."