Next, in my blog series, I discuss the updates we can expect for Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, and Field Service. In today's post, I discuss some of the new features and functionality that we can expect to see in Release Wave 1 of 2025 for Dynamics 365 Field Service.
New features coming to Dynamics 365 for Field Service focus primarily on the continuing improvement and adoption of Microsoft Copilot for Sales. Sales Engagement again plays a prominent role throughout the updates with improved Sales sequences for guided selling and additional lead qualification and opportunity analysis functionality. I have taken the main headline updates below and chosen a handful of key updates from each.
The Dynamics 365 Release Wave 1 for 2025 outlines all the new features that will be released between October 2024 through March 2025. You can either browse the release plan online or download the document as a PDF file. The PDF file also includes information about Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Pages, Power Virtual Agents, Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft Power Platform governance and administration, and data integration.
The Microsoft Power Platform features coming in the 2025 release wave 1 have been summarised in a separate release plan as well as a downloadable PDF
Access online data with your offline-first application
Optimise schedules with the Scheduling Operations Agent
Dispatchers often spend a considerable amount of time and energy reviewing and adjusting each technician's schedule as conditions change throughout the workday.
For example, if a technician has one or more cancellations in the afternoon, the dispatcher must determine the most optimal requirements to fill the open slots. This involves ensuring that promise windows are kept, high-priority work is preferred, and the new assignments are located in the same neighbourhoods the technician is already scheduled to travel to.
Similarly, if a technician is running over the planned time for a current booking, they may be late for their next appointment, causing a cascading delay for subsequent bookings. The dispatcher must decide how best to adjust the schedule for the remainder of the day to minimize disruptions.
In cases where a technician recovers from illness sooner than expected and becomes available earlier than planned, the dispatcher needs to find the best way to schedule work for them upon their return.
Another common scenario occurs when a technician’s schedule is filled with low-priority work that isn't due for weeks. The dispatcher must evaluate how to improve the schedule by incorporating work that better aligns with business goals.
Additionally, if a technician's schedule has been manually built or generated using a scheduling assistant, the dispatcher may need to rearrange it to reduce the resource’s travel time.
Hope you all enjoyed this post on the release wave 2 updates for 2024 in D365 Field Service. I will continue this series with some additional content specifically related to the updates in Power Platform. Take Care, and Speak Soon!
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