Ignite 2021: Collaboration takes center stage for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Platform pitch

Microsoft product managers foresee a future for business applications with the twin priorities of collaboration and data-driven automation. At the Ignite virtual conference today, the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform managers showed off scenarios and capabilities that they say will lead to the future of their offerings by incorporating Teams in nearly every business app, pre-built AI models for various use cases, and access to data analysis and Microsoft Graph relationships in multiple scenarios.

We are entering a new generation of business applications that start with data, use AI, and are built for collaboration, Microsoft corporate vice president Charles Lamanna, told the Ignite audience. Lamanna's role now extends to all of the Business Applications family, including both Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.

Lamanna said Microsoft aims to tackle silos, not just for data but for people who need to collaborate both within an organization and outside it. In a "new era of data-first collaborative applications," he said, Microsoft envisions "multi-player business applications".

Lamanna also stated that Microsoft's push for greater access to application data will not lead to exploding costs for their customers. For cases where the team is making Dynamics 365 data available through Teams or Office 365, presumably through context-based cards or Loop, he stated: