"Invest in the future because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life." Habeeb Akande
Capgemini Microsoft Dynamics 365 UK team attended Extreme 365 hosted in Lisbon, it's important to understand where Microsoft Dynamics 365 is heading to make sure we understand and use the latest features.
Extreme
Extreme 365 is a conference with a mix of technical demos, business presentations and the tagline "learn + connect = grow"
Over 700 people attended the conference held in Lisbon, allowing people to attend sessions and meet people from the Microsoft Dynamics 365 community.
Extreme 365 features the road map of Microsoft Dynamics 365, great sessions and the chance to meet passionate people. It was an opportunity for various Microsoft Dynamics 365 teams of Capgemini from around the world to meet and socialise.
Global Dynamics team
The Capgemini Microsoft Dynamics 365 UK team is part of a bigger multinational Capgemini Dynamics team covering 10 countries who already meet regularly with Skype. The Extreme 365 conference offered an ideal opportunity for some of the Capgemini team to meet in person. It’s helpful to meet in person and put names to faces so when we are collaborating and sharing information on calls for projects and bids the interactions are more personal and meaningful. This year at Extreme 365 Capgemini had individuals from Norway, Holland, UK and Portugal attending the event.
Presentation proposal
The Capgemini Microsoft Dynamics 365 team proposed session “DevOps for Enterprise Scale Microsoft Dynamics 365 projects” was rejected because of the lack of Enterprise scale partners attending Extreme 365.
This was disappointing to the team because DevOps has benefits for all Microsoft Dynamics 365 projects and Microsoft is trying to push enterprise Microsoft Dynamics 365 projects. Enterprise Microsoft Dynamics 365 projects is a growing area and there was nothing like it at Extreme 365.
The future is an opportunity
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is evolving rapidly, teams need to understand what is coming up and areas they should focus their learning. New functionality and services offers an opportunity to learn and lead for those who are prepared and ready.
Overall
Extreme 365 is a five-day event, the first 3 days are for Microsoft Dynamics 365 partners and the last 2 days are for customers.
Capgemini Microsoft Dynamics 365 team attended the first three days with the plan of learning new features, products and services in and around Microsoft Dynamics 365. A key motivator for many attending is to build up their knowledge, profile and network.
The format of the partner event is to have a full day training session from the sponsors. The ClickDimensions advanced partner session was insightful and it was great to meet 11 time MVP Matt Wittmann.
Extreme 365 – Hosk notes on ClickDimension advanced partner training.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 – Is Adobe Marketing the end of ClickDimensions?.
An exciting enhancement from ClickDimensions is the Enterprise Statistics warehouse
The Roadmap
The Microsoft Dynamics 365 roadmap was highly anticipated, delivered by Param Kahlon - General Manager, Product Management, Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The highlights of roadmap were:
What is Microsoft Dynamics 365?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 comprises of many different products under its umbrella and comes in two editions:
Enterprise edition
- Operations – Dynamics AX
- Financial – Dynamics AX
- Sales, Customer Service
- Marketing – Adobe Marketing
- Field services and project services
Business edition
- Sales – Dynamics CRM
- Financials – Microsoft Dynamics NAV
- Marketing – New marketing functionality coming soon
Dynamics Business edition
A cut down version of sales and marketing aimed at smaller companies. Microsoft is planning to bring some marketing campaign automation.
The target market is companies who want out of the box of functionality with no complex customizations and quick setup.
Sales Intelligence with LinkedIn Data
Microsoft purchased LinkedIn last year and the Dynamics community has been waiting to see how Microsoft will integrate LinkedIn with Microsoft Dynamics 365.
LinkedIn will have embedded widgets and activities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 but there was no date when these enhancements will be available.
Microsoft will continue to enhance the existing Sales Navigator in 2017.
Customer insights
Microsoft continues to build functionality around Microsoft Dynamics 365, extending it with related services, functionality and intelligence. This allows Microsoft to create services which can be used by any of its products and take off the load from Microsoft Dynamics 365 but make functionality available to Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Customer insights uses a powerful mix of Microsoft most successful and feature rich services.
Summary
The road map contained the most interesting information but disappointingly it highlighted existing functionality not new functionality. The real value of attending Extreme 365 comes from the discussions between talented and passionate people that are triggered by the planned sessions and presentations.
It's important to know where Microsoft Dynamics 365 is heading as those who prepare today will be successful tomorrow.
More details can be found at Extreme 2017.