Dynamics 365 Field Service is an industry-leading solution that allows organizations to empower their front-line workers to deliver exceptional customer service. It does this by connecting people, places, and commodities to provide a seamless experience for workers on the ground. It combines multiple technologies including, IoT, mixed reality, and AI to generate an integrated solution tailored to transforming field service management. It includes the following capabilities:
- Resource scheduling
- Work order management
- Asset management.
Dynamics 365 Field service plays a pivotal role in enabling organizations to move from the slow conventional coordination of customer service to delivering a fast, efficient, world-class customer-centric experience. This is important for an organization’s reputation and CRM.
The 2021 release wave entails activities intended to revamp Dynamics 365 Field Service between October 2021 and March 2022. For this release wave, Microsoft will deliver rich scenarios including the following:
- Simplified and unified onboarding processes,
- Redesigned UI for the work order to increase productivity,
- Incorporation of mixed-reality supported calls using HoloLens 2,
- And more.
The Dynamics 365 Field Service release wave during this period aims to improve the individual components of this service and all of it as a whole. Let’s look at how Microsoft plans to do this.
Empowering frontline workers
The 2021 Field Service release wave for Dynamics 365 includes features to enable frontline workers to deliver better customer service. These additions include:
- Windows 10 support for Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile app
Built on Microsoft’s own Power Platform, the Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile app is an extensive solution with an interactive UI. Users will be able to use it on Windows devices (such as Surface Tablets) to perform inspections, manage work orders, and see their bookings. This feature is available for public preview from 1st October 2021. The date for general availability is yet to be determined.
- Usability enhancements in the mobile app
Some adjustments have been made to the mobile app to reduce the time users spend on time to increase efficiency. For example, a user can now add up to 3 custom fields on the mobile booking calendar control. This feature has been generally available since 1st October 2021.
- Functional location and asset tree improvements
Dynamics 365 Field Service search capabilities have been upgraded. Users can now easily find locations and assets when they search for them. This feature has been generally available since 1st October 2021.
- Embedded Microsoft Teams
Microsoft teams is embedded in Dynamics 365 to ensure teams can collaborate efficiently to deliver better service to customers. It is generally available.
Engaging end-customers
- Self-scheduling for customers
This feature allows customers to schedule appointments for their visits themselves on their devices. This reduces scheduling errors and frees up backroom staff from the workload of organizing customer visits. This feature has been generally available since 1st October 2021 as an update of a feature released during the first wave.
- New customer experiences page
This feature enables customers to interact with the service manager instead of going to the support page. It is only available for public preview from 1st October 2021.
Optimizing service operations
- Spotlight feature on the Get Started hub
To complement the Get Started Hub feature released during the first wave, a spotlight feature has been added. This feature is generally available and it informs admins about new features in the service.
- Modular work order pricing
This feature makes it easy to disable pricing for Field Service implementation that does not require pricing.
- Work order form simplified
This includes a series of features to simplify the work order form.
- Default location sharing by new organizations
Managers can arrange service appointments based on workers available in particular regions.
Scheduling resources
- Resource work hours extensibility
This feature enables users to programmatically schedule work hours and integrate with other Dynamics 365 applications while maintaining the same work hours for their resources.
- Schedule board enhancements
The scheduled board feature has also been revamped to enhance productivity and user experience. This addition is generally available from January 2022. The delivery timelines functionalities within this release plan that have are not generally available may be subject to change in the future.