Microsoft to expand business apps lineup in spring 2018 with new Dynamics 365, Power BI, Common Data Service offerings

Microsoft has announced a spring 2018 release wave that includes general availability of Dynamics 365 for Marketing, a new sales app called Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional, and a re-positioned line of Azure-driven BI apps for sales and service (and presumably others in the future) called Power BI Insights apps.

And in another broad range of updates, the Common Data Services (CDS), the company's cloud-based business application data warehouse and integration hub of sorts, will evolve with separate offerings - CDS for Apps, which ships with PowerApps, and CDS for Analytics, which works within Power BI to "help reduce ... complexity with the addition of an extensible business application schema built on the common data model" by helping to "integrate data from multiple sources and empower users with access to business analytics across all data relevant to them."

Microsoft CVP James Phillips announced the spring 2018 release plans in a blog post and at today's Business Forward event in Amsterdam. There is also a virtual event site where others can follow along. And for a deeper dive into the spring 2018 release wave, check out the 200+ page release notes that cover the business solution and platform updates.

The product name Dynamics 365 for Sales Professional may suggest a top tier offering, but it appears to be the name of Microsoft's ...