Dynamics CRM 2015 Online Update 1

Dynamics CRM Update 2 coming soon.

 

It?s almost time again for the next Dynamics CRM Update. Technically called the CRM 2015 Fall Release, it?s more formally called Update 2 and is due probably in November. No official release date yet but it will be here before you know it. This will also be the formal rollup for on premise customers as well. So all the goodness from the CRM Online Spring Release will also be rolled into the Fall Release and made available for on premise customers. The NDA has not been lifted yet on what?s coming. IN the meantime, below are the major highlights from the Spring Release (Update 1).

 

 

Themes

You can now formally brand CRM!

Themes offer the option of changing the default colors and adding your logo to the top navigation bar. Match you corporate colors and even change the name to whatever you want.

 

New Form Rendering Engine ? Faster Page Loads!

  • A new form renderer was built to provide better performance.
  • Forms will load significantly faster and more efficiently.

What will end users notice?

  • End users will not notice anything different, other than forms loading faster.

 

New Form Navigation

If you’re working in a complex form with lots of fields, the new form navigation drop-down list makes it easy to get to just the data you need.

Choose the drop-down list next to the form title, and then select the section of the form you want to go to.

 

Improved Menu Navigation

  • Faster and easier!
  • No more scrolling right/left.
  • The home icon has been replaced with a main menu option (hamburger icon)

 

Recently Viewed

  • Quick access to recently reviewed Records and Views.
  • Pin your favorite or most used records and views

 

OneNote Integration

  • Users can now easily capture meeting details using OneNote from within CRM Online.
  • This functionality allows the information to be available to other CRM Online users in the Social Pane.
  • Share your OneNote?s with non-CRM users as well.

 

Advanced Find ? Older Than X

  • Advanced Find Adds Older Than option
  • The use cases for this option are many and empowers users to access the information they need more efficiently.
  • g. contacts with an activity Older Than 4 Weeks; All Open Cases Created Older Than 3 Hours (to meet SLA?s), etc.

 

Export to Excel Redesign

In addition to replacing the wizard with a single click to download feature (as if that was not fabulous enough), the record limitation for both import and export has been increased to 100,000 records or 32MB! Yes you read that correctly, this increased from 10,000 to 100,000 records!

 

Immersive Excel

Users on the go will love this functionality. When starting from a view, selecting Export to Excel and then Open in Excel Online you can quickly analyze or edit data in Excel Online.

That?s right, edit it online and you can even save changes back to CRM!

 

Folder-level Email Tracking

Exchange email users can establish a tracking folder so incoming emails can simply be dropped into the folder (manually or by leveraging Exchange Inbox rules) and automatically tracked in CRM.

Works with Outlook Web Access and Outlook client.

Works on phones too!

Note this requires server-side synchronization.

 

Mobile on Smartphones

The phone app has been enhanced to provide the same mobile experience as CRM for Tablets.

Available in respective phone app stores.

 

System Administrator and Customizer Platform Improvements

New functions on calculated fields: Now() and DateDiff are available

Rollup fields now support AVG operator, aggregating across related records (e.g. phone calls, emails, etc.)

Business rules: can now be set to null or removed

A date only field is now available

Create system rules that will automatically create or update a record based upon an incoming activity (such as an email)