Microsoft is continually developing and improving its applications to stay current with the latest technology advances and customer needs. These new or updated features are announced twice a year and then released over the next several months. The easiest way to review and track individual feature plans is the infinitely helpful Release Wave Planner tool or the full release wave documentation. We encourage you to use the release wave planner, where you can sign in, save features you’re interested in, and keep track of general availability. 

The Microsoft business application ecosystem provides a comprehensive array of applications that integrate seamlessly to support businesses of any size. Microsoft boasts a unified business and productivity application platform that is scalable, reliable, and integrated, enabling organizations to work smarter, not harder. This ecosystem optimizes operations while remaining current with technology. So, let’s talk about a couple of the big benefits to joining (or further engaging with) the Microsoft ecosystem--from built-in AI capabilities to automation features to advanced security.

Copilot combines personalized content creation, intelligent automation, and data driven insights to facilitate more meaningful interactions between businesses and their customers while simplifying and streamlining marketing processes. This will allow your team the opportunity to spend more time on other tasks, increasing your efficiency and the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Let’s dive into some key Copilot tools that enhance Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Journeys.

As you’re likely aware, Microsoft will be removing the Outbound Marketing Module from Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys app on June 30th, 2025. To prevent the interruption of your marketing efforts, you’ll want to work on getting your organization transitioned over to the Real-Time Journeys module within the next few months. This checklist can help to organize your thoughts and plan for the transition. There’s a simplified version with just the checklist items at the bottom. 

Both Gmail and Yahoo have recently implemented measures to ensure that bulk email senders provide an easy, visible one-click option to unsubscribe within all promotional emails. For businesses using Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys (formerly Dynamics 365 Marketing), ensuring compliance is super simple. In addition to the normal subscription center links with which you are probably familiar, Microsoft has added a new one-click unsubscribe feature.

Depending on where you’re located and where your clients or contacts are located, there are data protection laws you must adhere to. You may have heard of GDPR (or General Data Protection Regulation) that went into effect in 2018 within the EU. Other data protection laws include CAN-SPAM for email marketing in the US, and CASL in Canada. The details of these regulations are readily available online, so if you haven’t already, be sure to familiarize yourself and your marketing team with the laws you must follow depending on your and your clients’ locations. Consent management in D365 will help you adhere to whichever laws you must follow.

The general best practice is that all contacts must opt-in to receive marketing communications from you, but that they also have the ability to easily opt-out and revoke this consent at any time. So, how is marketing consent established, and how does Dynamics store it?

Microsoft has announced that on September 1, 2023, Dynamics 365 Marketing and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights will be combined into a single product offering called Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. The new unified application will help users continue to deliver excellent customer experiences and harness customer data in ways that further brand loyalty and growth.

Although this sounds like a major change, there’s no need to panic. We’ve broken down everything you need to know about the unified app and how you can benefit from it.