Microsoft publishes 2020 wave 1 release notes for Dynamics 365, Power Platform

The Microsoft Business Applications team has published its wave 1 2020 release plans, which cover new and updated capabilities that they will release from April 2020 through September 2020.

Following today's reveal of the release notes, customers can get early access to new features starting on February 3, 2020. The first regional deployments of new capabilities in production begin on April 3.

"The new features and enhancements demonstrate our continued investment to power digital transformation for our customers and partners," wrote corporate vice president and chief operating officer for Business Applications Engineering Mo Osborne in a blog post announcing the release notes.

Dynamics 365 Sales is adding enforcement of its Team Member license. This license class has a reputation for being mis-used, partners say, and the new enforcement features could ensure that users on these licenses can only use the appropriate sales, service, and Project Resource Hub modules. Microsoft MVP Jukka Niiranen has explored the evolving license enforcement elements of Dynamics 365 apps in detail and concluded that, while they will create some added work for custom module developers, "having the rules specified in software rather than just paper should serve to bring more clarity into what services are available with which licenses."

Sales will also get new customized forecast modules for pipeline management and a range of user experience updates.

Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is also updating its license enforcement to prevent access to menu items for which users are not licensed. Licenses are now defined for D365 Finance, Supply Chain, and Commerce (Retail). Microsoft will control these tools but will not turn them on by default.