Microsoft shows off Dynamics 365/CRM interface refresh, mobile updates, and a slew of app enhancements

 The next generation Dynamics 365/CRM interface, as shown to partners.

Microsoft began a preview of the July 2017 release of Dynamics 365's customer experience app suite today to partners today via an online briefing. The broadcast was limited to partners, but it was presented without an NDA, meaning outsiders got a slide by slide simu-live rebroadcast of the event as the updates flowed on Twitter.

The series of partner briefings continues tomorrow, so more details should be forthcoming, but Tuesday spanned a range of areas including a new unified interface framework, connected field service, a replacement for the Interactive Service Hub, mobile app improvements, and business intelligence.

Partners who had been voicing their desire to see Microsoft re-focus the product roadmap may be heartened by some of the announcements today. But all is not safe bets; Microsoft appears to remain committed to rolling out new capabilities in areas like bots, integrated services, and field service-related IoT.

The "unified interface" appears to include improvements like a new activity timeline for mobile with inline actions and new custom controls. And the team promises expanded offline mobile capabilities, including for the micro apps that administrators can build for specific roles.

Dynamics 365 will also press forward with Virtual Entities, which will allow integrated data residing in outside systems to be integrated into the interface via web services. The Virtual Entities model also has the potential to impact the Common Data Service story some partners have, partner sources have predicted. In other "platform" ...